Suzu is a 17-year-old high-school student living in a rural town with her father. Wounded by the loss of her mother at a young age, Suzu one day discovers the massive online world "U" and dives into this alternate reality as her avatar, Belle. Before long, all of U's eyes are fixed on Belle, when, suddenly, a mysterious, dragon-like figure appears before her.
- Released: 2021-07-16
- Runtime: 122 minutes
- Genre: Animation, Drama
- Stars: Kaho Nakamura, Takeru Satoh, Tina Tamashiro, Shota Sometani, Lilas Ikuta, Ryo Narita, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Kenjiro Tsuda, Mami Koyama, Mamoru Miyano, Sachiyo Nakao, Fuyumi Sakamoto, Ryoko Moriyama, Yoshimi Iwasaki, Michiko Shimizu, Kōji Yakusho, ermhoi, Ken Ishiguro, Sumi Shimamoto, HANA, Mitsuru Miyamoto, Asami Miura, Taichi Masu
- Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Comments
- khaktus - 28 December 2022
In the world of anime - an average hodge-podge, emotionally derailed
I don't feel like reviewing everything, but as this was an apparent hit, it appears often at the top "new anime to watch" lists and has undeservedly high rating here - I feel like I need to rectify the deluded enthusiasm.
Perhaps, for someone it was one of their first Japanese animated movies - that are made for kids as much as grown ups. Well, welcome to the genre, that is a cinematography of its own. Often far ahead of the Hollywood production, that it tends to inspire. It has its masterpieces - from Akira and Metropolis to Only Yesterday and Spirited Away. Anything from the wise grandpas of old Ghibli. You will never want to play Disney's shallow good-vs-evil plots to your kids, after dealing with the complexities of Nausicaa or Princess Mononoke. You will never praise Nolan's Inception once you see its predecessor: Paprika. Etc., etc.
On the positive side - "warm fuzzy feelings" - of the Ghibli-esque 2D animation ... the house in the terraced village, walking through the bridge over the river that constantly reminds the heroine of the childhood trauma, cute slightly vintage local trains, the usual constellations of the local school. All one wants from "classical anime".
But then ... I'd imagine a different anime about running away into the anonymous safety and illusory opportunities of the virtual world. There is so much sci-fi and high-tech anime out there, that I start to miss those tales that actually take one back to reality, back to nature, back to family. Especially if it pretends to be one of those animations that try to educate youngster about something. "About something." About something?
The 3D world looks cheap and ugly in a way. No rules, just random things happening, random characters claiming random roles, doing random feats - no inner consistency of the vision. It feels so generic, as a copy of a copy of a copy of something that we have seen somewhere in the Hollywood feature films. Yes, since its inception anime holds this odd characteristic - of resembling or even imitating well known stories - with a bit of cheapness to it. Imitating superhero poses, generic replicas, over-dramatized emotions - often without understanding the context that they came from. Copying superficial "cool" without the content.
The musical part sounds like "ok, our heroine has to become the greatest start of the 5 billion users of this VR world", so they try to develop "5 pounds of wonder", mechanically, in the workshop. And the songs sound like that - hypnotic pathos, instant wow. Covering it up with tons of glittery particles running around in arranged flocks.
The worst part, as mentioned by the other reviewers, is the emotional dimension of the movie. After dozens of pieces, I am used to certain childishness in the Japanese animation. Cringiness, embarrassing exaggeration, unbearable pathos. I love their emotional minimalism at times, I dislike the prevailing maximalism. The endless blushing because of the tiniest triggers - followed by unmeasured outbursts. Yelling. One would expect that over the years, this will get tamed down progressively. Unfortunately, in Belle it goes over the top and then further more. All the time, everywhere. Belle+Beast initial interactions remind me of seme+uke dynamics in yaoi. Awfully contrived.
Then, the most annoying part - the plot twists - that are so forced and unanchored, that it did hurt watching. The rules of VR. The inexplicable self-serving destructiveness of the Dragon. The self-proclaimed Justice league. The creepy first assisted talk between Ruka and Kamishin at the station is drawn way beyond parody and farce, it's almost idiotic. Then they try to play on serious note - the domestic violence. Well, they have 4-5 women from the choir who know about it and do nothing? The teenager Suzu then goes to Tokyo alone, to fix it herself, in another creepy unrealistic stand off with the boys' father, that beats any even fairy-tale logic?
Compared to Spirited Away, Girl Who Leapt Through Time, From Up On Poppy Hill, Your Name and whatever else... the scenes are so derivative, "let's say something like when you had the usual generic scene in the other movie". Anything that happens in the movie lack some sort of inner logic, justification, gradual uncovering or believable mystery. - Carbone144 - 13 September 2022
Not extraordinary
(sorry for my english, i'm french) A new Japanese animated film in line with those that deal with relationship stories between adolescents. Here, we are treated to a rather subtle story concerning the impact of virtual reality on real life through a game of search and unveiling of identity. Despite everything, and although I appreciated the quality of the sound and the images, I found it difficult to immerse myself with implication in this work which seemed to me to be a mixture of The Beauty and the Beast, Ready Player One, and Frozen. For me, it does not stand out among the best of its kind. A must see for fans of the genre only.
