This anime is like an explosion of tropes: living a new life in an online virtual world, a magical girl who can stop the world in its tracks through the power of song, even freaking Beauty and the Beast. All presented in the form of fantastically dense and beautiful art, this is almost overwhelming to the senses but more or less does work. I think there’s some mixed messaging in its treatment of online spaces and I’m not fond of high school romance stories. Still this is a worthy update of the familiar tale and as my wife notes, one far more suited to the current era than the Disney version.
In real life, schoolgirl Suzu Naito lives in a rural area of Japan and is withdrawn from other students as she has never gotten over the death of her mother some years prior. In the online virtual world of U however with the help of her friend Hiro who provides technical support, she is Belle, a glamorous singer who instantly attracts legions of fans from across the world. During one of her concerts, a fight between a warrior with a Beast-like avatar and a group of vigilantes spills over into the venue. She learns that the warrior, known as the Dragon, is one of the top fighters in U and is accused of causing trouble and chaos. With Hiro’s help, she tries to discover the Dragon’s true identity in the real world. She is led to the castle where he lives and there sings to the Dragon and grows close to him. The vigilantes soon realize this however and tries to threaten her to find the Dragon’s castle.
This film certainly has wow factor in spades. The U metaverse looks amazing with dense, amazing sights to look at in seemingly every direction. The character designs and art direction are all great and the pop ballads Belle sings are just the right kind of music for her diva character. The implementation of U looks slick too but as usual, there’s no real world-building. We have no idea who runs the metaverse and why a group of self-appointed vigilantes with the power to effectively dox anyone is allowed to run around freely. In general the story is solid with a little twist on the identity of the Dragon to mark it as a more modern take on Beauty and the Beast. I like that it teases romantic love and does show some bashful puppy love between the students. But then actually expands it to include more types of love. Notably the people around Suzu love her and care for her including the choir singing aunties who seem to have been her mother’s friends, even if it takes her and us a while to realize it. I’ve noticed that this is a trend that Disney is going for as well to take these kinds of stories in a healthier direction and I’m all for it.
One concern that I have is with regards to the film’s mixed messaging when it comes to safely interacting in online spaces. It seems downright contradictory that the worst the villain threatens the protagonists with is publicly doxing them, yet Suzu is fine with tapping all of the resources at her disposal to discover the Dragon’s identity because she wants to help him in real life. It feels powerful for the main character to declare that she has nothing to hide and is proud to reveal herself but it seems like bad advice for teenagers and children in the context of the very real dangers of cyberspace. Like other films that want to emphasize the agency and power of youth to effect change, it also makes adults effectively useless. Its so silly that in an actual emergency situation, the adults simply stand by and let Suzu set off by herself to do her thing. I consider that more bad advice that shouldn’t be taken seriously.
Overall this is a strikingly beautiful animation and it proves that there is always something new and interesting to add to even something as classic and familiar as Beauty and the Beast. Its flaws are the habitual ones for Japanese anime in that it is verboten for youths to interact with adults on an equal basis, thereby forcing the story to have both sides keep one another at arm’s length. It’s good to update the story to fit modern sensibilities but being forced to exclude adults as part of the discussion constrains what the film is able to achieve.