The latest film by visionary anime director Mamoru Hosoda, Belle offers a retelling of Beauty and the Beast set in 21st-century cyberspace. The story follows Suzu Naito, a depressed high schooler who copes by adopting the popstar persona Belle on the virtual reality app ''U''. Naito, as Belle, forms a bond with the mysterious user Dragon after the bestial avatar wreaks havoc on one of her concerts, and vows to discover his true identity.
Belle has received critical acclaim for its lush visual representation of the internet, as well the unique way it adapts its source material. For fans eager for more films in a similar vein, here are some recommendations, both in Hosoda's repertoire and out of it.
Belle isn't Hosoda's first work to visually depict cyberspace -- it also happened in his 2006 film Summer Wars. This movie sees young computer wiz Kenji Koiso roped in as a reluctant guest to his crush Natsuki's grandmother's 90th birthday party, where he meets their eccentric extended family. During the festivities, however, the global virtual reality program ''OZ'' is compromised by the rogue AI Love Machine, and when its machinations threaten the entire world, it's up to Kenji, along with Natsuki and her entire family, to thwart Love Machine's plans.
Fans of Belle will immediately recognize the visual similarities between ''U'' and Summer Wars' ''OZ''. Both represent cyberspace as an abstract void in which users' avatars float, with pop-ups and hyperlinks represented as physical objects that the avatars interact with -- sometimes as tools, other times as obstacles. It's an incredibly compelling way to represent a concept as metaphysical as the internet, which is likely why Hosoda has utilized it multiple times.
Summer Wars is available to stream on FunimationNow, as well as to purchase on DVD and Blu-ray.
Summer Wars wasn't Hosoda's first foray into depicting the internet in such a fashion either: that honor goes to Digimon: Our War Game. English-speaking fans of Digimon will be familiar with it as the middle portion of Digimon: The Movie, but in Japan it was released as a standalone feature. Set after the events of the original Digimon Adventure, Our War Game sees Taichi and Izumi struggle to assemble the rest of the Chosen Children when a Virus Digimon, Diablomon, wreaks havoc on the internet.
Digimon: Our War Game is often cited as a test run for Summer Wars, given their similar premises and high-octane action. The two films, alongside Belle, form an impromptu trilogy of films by Hosoda on the evolving nature of the internet. The three were released roughly a decade apart from each other, and when viewed together, provide a fascinating collage of the ways in which perceptions of the world wide web have changed over the years.
Sadly, Digimon: Our War Game is hardest of the features on this list to obtain, currently only officially available on DVD as part of Digimon: The Movie. This version of Our War Game has around ten minutes of runtime chopped off compared to the Japanese cut, making it a less ideal way of viewing the film, but most of the gorgeous animation and show-stopping action is still intact. Here's hoping Toei Animation and Bandai make the original version available legally in the West.
Paprika isn't directly about the internet in quite the same way as Belle, but Satoshi Kon's 2006 masterpiece hits on similar themes of identity. As Paprika herself puts it, ''the Internet and dreams are similar. They're areas where the repressed conscious mind escapes." Paprika follows psychiatrist Doctor Atsuko Chiba, who uses a device called a ''DC Mini'' to explore the dreams of her patients as her alter ego, Paprika.
Like Hosoda's internet trilogy, Paprika represents a metaphysical plane -- in this case, dreams -- through vibrant and surreal animation, and Chiba uses Paprika as a means of self-expression in a similar manner to Suzu's use of Belle. For Hosoda fans eager to explore other iconic anime directors' works, Paprika offers a crash course on the late Satoshi Kon, one of the industry's most unique and creative voices, taken far too soon.
Paprika is available on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as to rent or buy on Amazon, iTunes and the Google Play store.
Finally, for fans interested in another anime take on a classic European fairy tale, there's Studio Ghibli's Ponyo -- Hayao Miyazaki's adaptation of The Little Mermaid. Ponyo follows the titular fish and her efforts to become human as she forms a friendship with a boy named Sosuke, much to her father's chagrin.
Ponyo's strengths are self-apparent, boasting the same lush direction and boundless imagination as most of its fellow Studio Ghibli compatriots. Both Belle and Ponyo play fast and loose with their source material, becoming whole new stories unto themselves. They also share adaptational counterparts in the Walt Disney Animation catalog, which makes for a fascinating case study for anyone interested in comparing and contrasting the sensibilities of American and Japanese animation.
Ponyo is available on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as to buy on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, and the Play Store.
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