In a brand new commercial which was released to the Internet on Friday, May 14th, Studio Chizu and Mamoru Hosoda revealed that their latest movie, Belle (Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime, literally “The Dragon and the Freckled Princess”), will be released to theaters in Japan on July 16th.
https://twitter.com/studio_chizu/status/1393202784535650307
The movie will tell the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in rural Japan. One day, she joins the online community “U”, where literally billions of people around the world gather. She soon finds herself becoming one of the most popular singers in the virtual world. In a statement to Variety made back when the first promotional video was released in February 2021, 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.”
What’s weird about this announcement, is that along with the premiere date we also learned who will play the supporting roles throughout the movie, but don’t know who will play the lead roles. That’s a bit backward! In terms of what we do know, here are the cast members who were newly announced (character names first):
Shinobu Hisatake: Ryo Narita — the childhood best friend of the main character Suzu
Shinjiro Chikami: Shota Sometani — the only member of the school’s canoeing team
Ruka Watanabe: Tina Tamashiro — A seemingly perfect girl who attracts attention
Hiroka Betsuyaku: Rira Ikuta — Belle’s “producer” and the one who introduces Suzu to the online world “U”
This movie marks the 10th anniversary of Studio Chizu and is truly a worldwide affair as Hosoda himself scouted and recruited talent from all over the world. International talent includes Eric Wong, a London-based architect and designer, who created the concept art for the online world “U” and artist Jin Kim who created the designs for the title character.
With this much talent and hype behind the movie, it already makes me wonder if this movie will be able to get director Hosoda that elusive Oscar that has eluded him his entire career (despite the fact that he got close in 2018 with his movie Mirai).
Source: Anime News Network
