Belle (2021 film)

Suzu Naito is a seventeen-year-old high school student who lives in a rural Kōchi Prefecture. When she was young, she was close with her mother, who supported her love for singing and writing songs. However, one day, Suzu witnessed her mother attempted save a child from flooding river at the cost of her own life. The traumatic experience caused Suzu to resent her mother for "abandoning" her for a stranger's child and unable to sing. She is alienated from most of her classmates, with the exception of her childhood friend Shinobu Hisatake (whom she has a crush on); popular girl Ruka Watanabe; her sportsman classmate Shinjiro Chikami (nicknamed Kamishin); and her computer genius best friend Hiroka Betsuyaku. Under Hiro's suggestion, Suzu signs into the popular virtual world known as "U", and creates a beautiful avatar with freckles she names "Bell", the English translation of her own name's meaning. Upon logging into U, Suzu finds herself capable of singing like she used to. Bell's appearance is at first criticized due to her freckles, but after making several appearances while singing, Bell soon became a big hit. Following her popularity, people start to refer her as "Belle", which means "beautiful" in French.

During one of Belle's concerts, a dragon avatar, simply called "The Dragon", makes his appearance and ruins the concert. This prompts a vigilante group led by the self-righteous Justin to attack the Dragon with the accusation for ruining the peace of U. Suzu feels intrigued by the Dragon and begins to gather information about him. She discovers that he is popular amongst children, who considers him as their hero. Suzu enters U as Belle to search for the Dragon while evading Justin. She is led into the Dragon's castle by an angel avatar and finally meets the Dragon. Despite their rocky start, Belle grows closer with the Dragon. Meanwhile, in the real world, Ruka confides to Suzu that she has someone she likes. Since both Ruka and Shinobu are the most popular students at school, Suzu mistakenly believes that Shinobu was the one Ruka likes until Ruka later clarifies that the one she likes is Kamishin. With Suzu's help, Ruka and Kamishin begin to date.

Back at U, Justin and his group locate the Dragon's castle and destroys it, but fails to capture the Dragon. Since Belle is close with the Dragon, Justin interrogates Belle, threatening to unveil her identity to the whole world if she refuses to cooperate. The Dragon rescues Belle at the last second, saving her from being unveiled before leaving once more. Suzu and Hiro immediately try to find out the Dragon's real identity before Justin can. Suzu is able to find the Dragon's identity, Kei, after hearing his younger brother sing the song that should be known only between her and the Dragon. From the live video, it is revealed that Kei and his brother are being abused by their father. Suzu contacts Kei to help, but Kei does not believe that she is Belle. To earn Kei's trust, Shinobu urges Suzu to sing as herself in U. Following Shinobu's urging, Suzu unveils herself to the whole world in U and begins to sing, gaining support from everyone listening. Watching Belle as Suzu, Kei decides to trust Suzu and tries to contact her again. Unfortunately, Kei's father sees the recorded video of his abuse posted online and immediately cuts off the internet connection before Kei could tell his address to Suzu.

From the recording of the room, Kamishin recognizes the buildings near Kei's hometown in Kawasaki, Kanagawa nearby Tokyo. Since the authorities cannot act until 48 hours passed, Suzu quickly rushes to the city by herself to find Kei. Arriving at Kei's hometown, Suzu protects Kei and his brother from their father. Once the situation is settled, Suzu and Kei thank each other for giving them courage. The next day, Suzu returns home with her father welcoming her at the station. Shinobu praises Suzu for her bravery and decides to stop being her guardian in her mother's place. Finally understanding her mother's actions, Suzu comes into terms with her death and is ready to sing with her friends.

While Studio Chizu worked on the project, it had help from veteran Disney animator and character designer Jin Kim and Michael Camacho on the design of Belle and studio Cartoon Saloon for the background work of the world of U.[11][12]

The film holds a 94% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 17 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.80/10.[13] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 89 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[14]

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Belle at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Belle at IMDb