Belle

I am not a huge fan of Japanese anime, mostly because I haven't seen very much of it, but I found the trailer for Belle to be absolutely beautiful so I went to see it last night.  It is a modern retelling of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast and I loved it!  Suzu (Kaho Nakamura) is a quiet and mousy high school student who is still mourning the loss of her mother who died saving the life of a drowning child.  She used to enjoy singing and writing songs with her mother but, since her death, she has lost her love of music.  Her friend Hiro (Lilas Ikuta) encourages her to join a virtual world known as "U" because she can be completely anonymous there.  She is able to channel all of her emotions into writing songs and performing them as her avatar Belle and she becomes very popular until an avatar known as Dragon (Takeru Satoh) interrupts her performance.  A vigilante group, let by Justin (Toshiyuki Morikawa), wants to unveil him (reveal his identity) but Belle is drawn to the pain she sees in him and wants to protect him.  When she and Hiro locate Dragon in the analog world, she realizes that she must reveal her true identity to him in the digital world in order to reach him.  There are so many themes explored in this movie but the one I especially enjoyed is that it is better to be your true self than to hide behind a persona.  This is a theme that really resonates with me (go here, here, and here) and it is portrayed so beautifully when Suzu sings a song in U as herself and Belle's millions of fans support her by singing along with her.  This moment literally took my breath away!  I also enjoyed it when Suzu uses her newly acquired confidence to stand up to some cyberbullies who are harassing her for her friendship with Shinobu (Ryo Narita), the most popular boy at school, and to approach Ruka (Tina Tamashiro), the most popular girl at school.  This suggests that the online world is not necessarily such a bad place because being Belle has helped Suzu find her voice in more ways than one.  Finally, I loved that Suzu's decision to find Kei (the boy using the Dragon avatar) helps her to understand her mother's actions and make peace with her death.  The animation is dazzling (I especially loved all of the fantastical creatures in the virtual world and the ballroom in Dragon's castle where he and Belle have their iconic dance) and the music is incredible (especially "Lend Me Your Voice").  I loved this movie so much and I highly recommend it!

Note:  I saw the subtitled version (which I tend to enjoy more) but there is also an English dubbed version.