A brand new promotional video has debuted which shows just a small snippet of the upcoming movie from famed director Mamoru Hosoda titled Belle (Ryu to Soba Kasumi no Hime), which is scheduled to be released in summer 2021. The movie was first announced back in December 2020.
The movie will tell the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in rural Japan. One day, she decides to join the online community U, where literally billions of people around the world gather, and finds herself becoming one of the most popular singers in the virtual world. In a statement to Variety, Hosoda stated that this is the movie that he’s always wanted to make and he’s only able to make this movie because of the “culmination of my past works.”
Still no word on who will star in the movie, but stay tuned to the J-List Blog for more information as the summer season approaches.
Hosoda is an Academy Award-nominated director (Mirai in 2018) who has built a career out of making people feel things. Starting his career at Toei Animation, he bounced around a little working at Studio Ghibli and Madhouse before launching his own studio, Studio Chizu, in 2011. Since then, Hosoda has been on fire, producing hit movie after hit movie, including Wolf Children in 2012, The Boy and the Beast in 2015, and the previously mentioned Mirai in 2018.
It’s impossible to understate just how high Hosoda has set the bar, along with a certain other anime movie director from this past decade in terms of animation and storytelling quality. He’s done an amazing job with his career, and one can only hope that he’s able to continue making movies for as long as he desires.
What’s your favorite Hosoda movie? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
Sources: Comic Natalie, Crunchyroll News
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