Belle

[COB]

The new anime movie by Mamoru Hosoda:

A high school student becomes a globally beloved singer after entering a fantastic virtual world. She soon embarks on an emotional and epic quest to uncover the identity of a mysterious beast who's on the run from ruthless vigilantes.

It's essentially Beauty and the Beast with a cyber twist, and also some properly stunning music. I saw it last night and highly recommend!

 

[Madison]

I shall inform the Arbiter of the Bell.

 

[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA]

I'm excited to see this! It sounds a bit like Summer Wars meets Disney. I may rewatch Mirai in anticipation ACTUALLY.

Wolf Children is the film of his I didn't really get on with, I feel some of the context may have gotten a little LOST IN TRANSLATION!

 

[Diddy]

I’m going to get on this soon.

I think I can handle it alongside Club Ghibli (FAO: @AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA )

 

[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA]

Loved this! It's sort of like if you put Final Fantasy X-2//Summer Wars//Perfect Blue and a dash of Paprika into a blender via a Disney lens

The animation is BEAUTIFUL. And the film as a whole felt a touch above a lot of Japanese animation I've seen released over here in the past few years, certainly the best since Your Name. I got the same sort of TINGLES I got when watching Spirited Away for the first time MANY MOONS AGO.

And that massive final song towards the end at the film really played upon every emotional trope an animated film can have didn't it Even a COLD HEARTED SNAKE like myself was close to welling up.

My only sticking point was <MAJOR PLOT SPOILER>

Spoiler

the slightly unnecessary CHILD ABUSE storyline that gets shoe-horned in during the final third. It's not unusual for Hosoda's films to go a bit OFF THE RAILS in the final section so I was expecting a curve ball. It could have easily been resolved with the big reveal being somebody a bit closer to home (the friend, or her Dad for example). And I know it's an ANIMATED FILM, but finding a random tower block in Tokyo via the smallest glimpse of two towers, then sending a teenage girl alone across Japan was just RIDICULOUS and stupid

Anyway loved it, highly recommend. It's VERY GAY!

 

[COB]

I've been so obsessed with the music since I saw it! I saw the film in Japanese (I believe UK cinemas are showing both the subbed and dubbed versions), but to my surprise the English versions of the songs are also fantastic

This is possibly a bit spoilery but here's a hot medley:

 

[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaAAaaaA]

I saw it in English, and it didn't even occur to me at the time that it wasn't in Japanese. Can confirm the English dub is totally fine!

 

[Phoenix]

I thought it was ok, the virtual stuff get half baked (why did she turn into the most basic anime girl ever while everyone got exciting creatures?).

The real world stuff was a lot more enjoyable but this is not something I would usually go for and I always struggle with the tone of these movies. It looked very pretty in certain places.

 

[Phoenix]

The little vignette with the strategy/war game was the most inventive bit. The bus stop sequence was also cute.

 

[rhythmbandit]

Liked it. Really enjoyed the songs and the silly romance humour was fun too. I'm glad I watched it with subtitles because it may not have translated as well with dubbing.

Having said that, the song translation was fairly questionable at times.