Anime / Belle (2021)

Belle ^note (known in Japan as Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime, literally "The Dragon and the Freckled Princess") is a 2021 anime film written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Mirai of the Future). The film was produced by Studio Chizu, with collaboration from Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon for the backgrounds of U. The score for the film was made by frequent Hideo Kojima collaborator Ludvig Forssell (Metal Gear Solid V, Death Stranding, Silent Hills).

Suzu Naito (Kaho Nakamura) is a teenager living with her father (Koji Yakusho) in a small town in the mountains. Struggling with the loss of her mother (Sumi Shimamoto) when she was a child and her inability to sing that came from it, she enters the virtual world called "U" and becomes Belle, able to sing to her heart's content and becoming a musical icon. When one of her live concerts is interrupted by a mysterious user known as The Dragon (Takeru Satoh), she becomes intrigued with the figure and slowly befriends him.

The film also stars Ryo Narita as Shinobu Hisatake, Shota Sometani as Shinjiro Chikami, Tina Tamashiro as Ruka Watanabe and Lilas Ikuta as Hiroka Betsuyaku.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on July 15, 2021 to a 14 minute standing ovation. It was theatrically released in Japan on July 16, 2021, with GKIDS gaining the North American rights and screening it subbed and dubbed from January 14, 2022.

There is even a novelization and several books you can read here: https://ryuutosobakasuhime.wordpress.com/

Not to be confused with the 2013 live-action movie with the same name.

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Belle provides examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: A given since most of Japan and the world looks like the 2010s or 2020s sans the U simulation and the earbuds needed to connect to it.
  • In a Freeze-Frame Bonus Hiro's world map shows Somaliland as an independent country separate from the rest of Somalia, which was not the case in 2021 when the movie came out.
• Aborted Arc: Suzu apparently does not find out who started the rumor about her and Shinobu. Downplayed in that the incident which started it happened in front of over a dozen witnesses, meaning it probably didn't have a single source in the first place, and the conflict is ultimately resolved fairly quickly and without any lasting grudges.
• The Ace:
  • In-universe: Belle is not only a wildly popular singer, she's a model, icon, fashionista, and U spokeswoman all in one! Too bad she's nothing like the real her.
  • Ruka is seen as this by much of the school; she's a funny, kindhearted girl who can play a mean saxophone and leads the music club with unerring proficiency while juggling school assignments effortlessly. Just like Belle, she DOES have a weakness: she's painfully shy about talking to the boy she has a crush on.
• Acquired Situational Narcissism: Downplayed and subverted; whereas most people would bask in the attention, Suzu actually struggles with her unwanted new status as Belle throughout the film.
• Act of True Love: In order to convince Kei to trust her after so many have stood by while he and his brother were abused, Suzu deliberately Unveils herself in front of all of U to prove how far she's willing to go to help him. It works.
• Aesop Enforcer: Justin and his posse have taken on this role for themselves in U, acting as guardians to preserve order. Justin claims the Voices have granted him special privileges to help him carry out his duty, most notably his ability to Unveil other users and reveal their true identity. When he abuses these privileges against Belle in his quest to take out the Dragon, he ultimately loses the support of his sponsors, and presumably of the Voices as well.
• Against the Grain: Kei defies his father’s expectations by following his heart and becoming the Beast of U where he can do and go as he pleases.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Played with. The members of Suzu's singing club guess that the reason she quieter than normal is because she's crushing on a "bad boy". She tries to reason it's less to do with crushing (and more to do with help the Dragon work through his problems). One of the club members regales everyone with a high school anecdote of studying abroad and growing interested in a student who was a moody lone wolf.
• All There in the Manual: The novelization explores the characters’ thoughts and feelings. It even reveals small details like Hiroka’s parents’ job. To be specific, they’re bankers.
• Alpha Bastard: Justin behaves as the virtual world equivalent, viewing himself as the top dog of U whose word is law despite not even being part of U's staff. He even has his own posse.
• Ambiguous Time Period: The anime does not give an exact time period beyond basic 20 Minutes into the Future though it cannot be earlier than the 2020s judging by the tech needed for the U simulation.
• Amplifier Artifact: The U app performs this function for its users' avatars by identifying and enhancing their natural characteristics. Though it's usually portrayed aesthetically, it also seems to apply to the Dragon functionally - his determination and defiance of pain resulted in a nearly unbeatable Juggernaut that even thrashes the local peacekeepers, who are no slouches themselves.
• Artists Are Attractive: Jelinek is pretty handsome, in a Punk Goth sort of way.
• Attention Whore:
  • Peggy Sue is this by some degree. She is considered a showoff, and she even goes as far as to make negative comments on Belle. This is later downplayed when she joins in on Belle’s final song in the climax.
  • One of the leads on the Beast claims to be a doting wife with a perfect life. It turns out her kids and husband are completely fake, and she's a womanchild - literally, in her avatar's case (a crying, spoiled baby).
• Bait-and-Switch: When Suzu and Hiroka try to deduce who Dragon is, the clues lead them to a kid named Tomo who is humming a song only the Dragon should know. At first, it looks like this mild-mannered, unassuming boy really is the giant, violent Beast, as unlikely as it seems. But as the scene goes on (and reveals Tomo's abusive father), it turns out that appropriately, the Dragon is really the slightly older and brooding Kei.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: While physically abusing his sons yet again, Tomo and Kei's father also verbally abuses them by wishing they would "disappear". By the climax, Suzu takes the two boys from his clutches, the same sons he took for granted.
• Beautiful Singing Voice: Suzu has a beautiful singing voice, but she's unable to sing at the beginning of the film since doing so reminds her of her mother's death. She realizes that she's able to sing in U as Belle, and while she's initially criticized by the other users for her unusual rhythm and her freckles, her singing quickly becomes a hit in the online world.
• Better as Friends: Presumably, but Hosoda deliberately leaves the denouement of Suzu and Shinobu’s relationship up to the audience to provide their own interpretations.
• Be Yourself: At the end of the film, it is hinted that Suzu will sing outside of the "U" to her friends and family instead of being "Belle".
• Big Bad Ensemble: Justin is mostly the Big Bad for most of the U segment, but the real world segment has Kei's Abusive Dad who also doubles as a Greater-Scope Villain for most of the early parts of the film.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • A non-familial variation. Shinobu has been protecting Suzu from the time they were small children, keeping the bullies at bay from picking on her. He does so, up until she grows strong and independent after the climax, determined to keep an eye out for her in her late mother's place.
  • Played straight with Kei, who often shields Tomo's body whenever their father is in a rotten mood to beat up his own sons.
• Big Good: The Voices of U, who maintain the system, though they have no apparent physical presence. They finally act in the climax to restore Suzu's Belle form and give her their approval, dethroning Justin.
• Bilingual Bonus: Suzu's name means "bell" in Japanese, and she initially signs up for U under the name Bell to reflect this. As she gets more popular in the U world as a singer, other users refer to her as Belle instead, which is French for "beautiful".
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Justin presents himself and his group as enforcers of security and order in U. In reality, they're bullies singling out and doxxing those they deem as "other" in order to control U however they wish. Justin also has no problems threatening Belle with doxxing just because she didn't want to help him find The Dragon.
  • Kei's father may come across as a friendly business man and an affable family man who loves his sons and (if suspiciously) insists they're a happy family. But later, it's revealed he's a violent man who loses his temper if either of his son's step out of line. And he has no qualms about beating either Kei or Tomo.
• Book Ends:
  • Belle's first and last appearance in the movie has her wearing the red dress made up of flowers, all whilst riding on the whale of U.
  • Suzu's first and last scene has her walking somewhere while the movie plays the first notes of "Gales of Song".
• Both Sides Have a Point: While taking the train to Tokyo, Suzu's text conversation with her father has shades of this. On Suzu's side, she acknowledges that she's been acting 'selfish' lately, pushing him away when all he wanted was to reach out to his daughter. On her father's side, he's also understanding to say he doesn't blame her emotional distance, as she has been coping with the grief of losing her mother.
• Bright Is Not Good: Justin has bright blond hair and wears a white outfit, but he's also a fanatical self-appointed enforcer of order in U willing to dox anyone he thinks disagrees with his vision.
• Broken Pedestal: Averted, even after Suzu is ousted of her Belle appearance, the shocked audience still supports her. After all, it’s her talent that counts, not her beauty, and said singing moves her audience to tears.
• Broken Tears: Suzu experiences these often, due to the trauma of losing her mother at a very young age in a manner that triggers a deep sense of abandonment. Most notably at the climax, where they nearly cause her to falter while singing her final song in U as herself.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center: The Dragon in a nutshell. He is violently confrontational to just about everyone except children, though this is due to the fact that his online persona is his only means of venting the pain and grief he experiences from an abusive home life. Belle sees through his defenses very quickly when she finally reaches his hidden Castle and sees him interact with the Angel, treating him gently despite how he yelled at Belle to leave earlier.
• Bystander Syndrome: Deconstructed. According to Kei, the reason he doesn't trust Suzu to help him and Tomo escape their father is because he's heard many people on U claim they would "help" as well. But when they're not mocking him, they're just standing by and allowing it to happen.
• Cannot Spit It Out:
  • Suzu crushes on her childhood friend Shinobu, but fails to tell him how she feels.
  • Ruka and Kamishin are unable to reveal their feelings for each other until Suzu drags Kamishin back to Ruka to talk to her.
• Captain Ersatz: "Justin" bears more than a passing resemblance to Gaston from the Disney version of the story, and he fits the archetype like a glove; handsome, arrogant, cruel, and relentless in his hunt for Dragon. The only thing missings his lust for Belle and his plans to marry her. His name even sounds suspiciously enough the same as Gaston's name.
• Cast of Snowflakes: The real-world cast is varied, yes, but the denizens of U take the cake. Just among the main cast, there's a Digimon-esque snarker, a glowing jellyfish-angel, a bear in a kayak, a sorceress playing saxophone, and a chimeric Beast. The variety of designs and personalities on display in crowd scenes is staggering.
• Central Theme: Everybody has secrets, and things aren't always what they seem, especially on the internet. Suzu herself is an example; as Belle, she's a beautiful and beloved singer whom almost no one suspects is really a plain, mousy high school girl who struggles with a lot of trauma. The people Suzu and Hiroka suspect of being the Dragon each have something to hide. The woman who is secretive about how she doesn't have a husband or children turns out to simply hide an immature streak. The Artist who claims he created his tattoos to honor his dead girlfriend is simply a poser whose ex-girlfriend is still well and alive. And the Baseball player everyone suspected of hiding scars from a violent life was a former Littlest Cancer Patient who became an athlete to make the most of his life. And as for Dragon, his and Angel's secret is the most shocking of all in the story: they are but two young brothers who battle with a violent home life.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • U has the ability to synchronize whatever injury, scar or personal marking the user has with their avatar, as exemplified when Belle gains a temporary marking on her forehead where Suzu accidentally hurt herself. Suzu uses this to figure out the unsavory nature of the bruises on the Dragon's back.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Suzu's first follower on U is revealed to be the Dragon's younger brother, Tomo.
• Club Stub: Kamishin is the only member of the school's kayaking club. His Establishing Character Moment shows him enthusiastically trying to recruit other people to join, only for everyone else to be put off and run away from him.
• Cool Teacher: The music ladies who side with Suzu.
• Costume Porn: Belle's outfits. Hiro scanned volumes and volumes of costume and fashion design books to give Belle a wardrobe worthy of the gods.
• Cringe Comedy:
  • The reveal that the elegant-looking woman (who mysteriously lies about having a family) is actually a baby on U is ludicrously cringe-worthy, as it's a testament of how emotionally stunted she is. One can hardly believe she ever claimed she was a family woman.
  • Far less mean-spirited is Suzu accidentally revealing Kamishin's (mutual) crush on Ruka, which results in Kamishin freaking out and running away screaming while Ruka simply buries her hands in her face and does her best statue impression for minutes as Kamishin freaks out.
• Crush Blush:
  • Suzu gets one of these pretty much every time she interacts with Shinobu. To say she's not great at concealing her feelings for him is an understatement.
  • Kamoshin and Ruka have a mutual one while (at Suzu's prodding) confessing their feelings for each other at the bus station. Kamoshin's extends across his entire body.
• Dark Is Not Evil: The Dragon may look like a dark and menacing beast, but is actually kind to children and has a heart of gold, in contrast to the more light-themed antagonist.
• Darkest Hour: For Team Suzu after Kei and Tomo's father realizes his abuse was just live-streamed and he retaliates. The two kids are in even greater danger, but thanks to their Father cutting the feed when he did, Suzu and company didn't get their address. So without knowing where in Japan Kei and Tomo are located, Suzu and friends can't alert the authorities or take action themselves — at least until Ruka deduces the first clue.
• Date My Avatar: Suzu's tracking of the Beast blossoms into a full-blown crush when she enters his castle, mirroring the various adaptations of Beauty and the Beast having the romance blossom when the heroine is in the Beast's domain. She even tries to kiss him, only stopped when he cringes away. Good thing, too. He's just a kid.
• Death Glare: Towards the end of the film, Suzu gives a somber glare at Kei's father to make him stop hurting his children.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Suzu doesn't really talk about her mom’s flaws, and from what the flashbacks show, she was a nurturing parent who encouraged Suzu to follow her passion. The other denizens of the town, however, were quick to judge her mother for saving some little girl’s life over staying alive for her own daughter's sake. Meanwhile, you have Tomo and Kei's late mother, who they miss so much that her photo is displayed as a portrait in the Dragon's castle, as well as on Kei's phone.
• Department of Child Disservices: Played With. Japanese social services have to wait for 48 hours when getting an outside report to take action and actually investigate to verify if the report is true, but not allowed to act prior. This seems like they are useless... except it's the result of a reform from just two years prior to the anime's production, improving far worse regulations and once those 48 hours have passed, police and child care services are given free hand to act. It's the wait period that makes them powerless when urgent reaction is needed.
• Determinator: The Dragon has the mindset to believe that he can take whatever beating Justin and his men can dish out as long as he holds out. In the real world, this attitude was born from how Kei is willing to protect Tomo, despite that there seems to be no end in sight to the abusive treatment their father gives them.
• Devil in Plain Sight: A non-evil version. The broody Beast is, in fact, the broody kid with the same far-away look that's a potential lead on the Beast during Suzu's original search.
• Did They or Didn't They?: Suzu and Kei don't do anything after the climax, but fans of this film could interpret this differently.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Part of what establishes the true nature Kei and Tomo's dad as an abusive father is that he enacts this on his sons. Although it's every parent's right to be annoyed when their children disrupt their work, the father's response to Tomo mildly singing is to violently wreck the room and then try to beat him up. And when Kei defends his brother, the father responds with unadulterated verbal abuse.
• Distinguishing Mark: Suzu/Belle's freckles and the Dragon's bruises. Everyone uses the latter's mark in an effort to dox him, resulting in the fingers being pointed at a professional baseball player who refuses to show his body because of his surgery scars and a famous eccentric artist with similar tattoos. Suzu and her friends find out that the bruises are actually there because The Dragon is a middle schooler being abused by his father.
• Dramatic Irony: The scene with Suzu contacting Kei and Tomo comes across as this. She offers them to help, and the audience knows she's genuine enough to make good on her promise. But Kei thinks it's but a cruel trick from one more bystander who won't follow through. Suzu and her friends are the only ones who really want to help, and it's by sheer distrust that he and Tomo (nearly) lose out on their only salvation from their abusive home life.
• Dramatic Unmask: The act of Unveiling is framed as this, the ability to publicly destroy someone's virtual image by exposing who they are in the real world.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When Hiroka confronts the large woman on why the large woman has a baby for a U Avatar, she claims that it's because she must have "the innocent and pure heart of a child". Not only does Hiroka call the woman out on how being a virtual baby is no excuse to act like a baby, but the woman fails to grasp that her Avatar has less to do with her "innocence" or "purity" and more to do with her imaturity.
• Ear Worm: Belle's songs, despite their initial cold reception, quickly become this, as even people criticising her can't shake out the melodies from their heads.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Kei hasn't had an easy life. As himself, his mother died for some reason and it has (presumably) turned his father into a bitter person. As the Dragon, he is on the run. By that extent, his brother Tomo shares the same hardships under the same brutish father's roof. All the same, Kei maintains the ideology of this trope, that if he only holds out long enough, it will pay off. Sure off, his iron will pays off in the form of Suzu coming to their rescue and ensuring they'll never go back to their father.
• Empathic Environment: During the climax, when Suzu arrives in Tokyo to find Kei and Tomo, there's a rainstorm, as though reflecting how lost and hopeless she feels finding two boys in the largest city ever. The rain picks up when she finds the boys, but has to contend with their desperate father. When she ultimately wards him off, the weather clears up, as though telling all three focus characters everything's going to be all right now.
• Enhance Button: Hiroka is able to enhance a still from a webcam to filter out sunlight glare coming through a window and get a clear picture of the buildings visible through it.
• Epiphany Therapy: In the climax, when Suzu wants to reach out to Kei with her singing, she realizes why her mother was willing to die saving a child she didn't even know: Because life is precious. Through this realization, Suzu finally gains courage and closure.
• Establishing Character Moment: The prologue acts as this for both Suzu and her U persona Belle. The first half is about how Belle is a singer on U whose beauty is only matched by her singing voice and appreciation for life. The second half focuses on Suzu as she quietly prepares herself some tea and morosely stares out into space. This is meant to tell the audience that without her Belle persona, Suzu is but a timid girl who, when alone with her thoughts, still grieves over her mother's death.
• Even Evil Has Standards: During the climax, as Suzu protects Kei and Tomo, their father hurts her enough to draw blood, which shocks him enough to have something of a momentary Heel Realization regarding his violent nature. It becomes something of an Ignored Epiphany when he still threatens to punch her, but Suzu ruins it for him by giving him a Death Glare and leaving him with no recourse left.
• Everybody Cries: In the climax, Suzu's song has literally everyone in U crying along with her. Possibly extends to the movie audience as well.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Justin is astounded that Unveiling Belle had the opposite effect he was hoping for. Instead of shaming her, doxing her or forgetting her, everybody lends their voice to her and returns her to her Belle form.
• Facial Horror: Suzu gets a nasty gouge on the cheek from Kei and Tomo's father while trying to protect them. The ending leaves it unclear whether she gained a permanent scar from the attack.
• Famed In-Story: Despite an initial frosty reception, Belle quickly amasses a fanbase in the billions because of her beautiful singing.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Moments before Suzu and Hiroka piece together who the Dragon is, Suzu recalls how the Dragon flinched from her touch during the dance like a frightened child, setting up how he's a few years younger than her.
• Flower Motifs: Roses appear frequently throughout the story around Belle and in the Dragon's Castle. Becomes a plot point in the second act, when Belle leaves behind a single rose petal during her escape from Justin, allowing him to locate and raid the Castle.
• Foil: Suzu and Kei. One is a Country Mouse in a rather small town, the other is a city boy from Tokyo. One has an angel for a dad, the other is stuck with a devil of a father. One became a beauty on U to reflect her inner-beauty, the other became a dragon on U to work through the ugliness of his violent home life.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Kamishin tries to encourage people to join in the kayaking club, Ruka notably turns away from his general direction. It turns out she was turning away, not out of embarrassment, but shyness for her crush.
  • During the scene introducing the Dragon, one of the commenters expositions how the Dragon "plays dirty" in fighting matches by doing overkills on his opponents. One comment theorizes he's using the fights to work through some issues. Sure enough, the movie later reveals those "issues" in the form of Kei and Tomo being abused by their father.
  • During a walk home, Suzu gets a nasty bruise on her forehead, which also appears on her avatar Belle's forehead too. Later, we learn that there's a connection between this and the Dragon's bruises, as they indicate a darker reason he got those specifically on his back in the first place.
  • While looking for who the Dragon could be, Suzu happens upon a clip of a business father mentioning how his sons lost their mother some time ago. Meanwhile, you have Dragon who keeps a mysterious portrait of a motherly-looking woman in his castle, who we can assume passed on. As it turns out, this is not a coincidence.
  • While Suzu and Hiroka investigate who the Dragon is, they happen upon a clip of a young boy saying the Dragon is his hero. It turns out, this isn't just prattle or figure of speech: the boy (Tomo) is actually talking about his brother, who protects him from their abusive father. In the same clip, said brother is seen with his face away from the camera.
  • In the clip of the businessman boasting about his family's happy home life, neither one of his two sons appears the slightest bit happy, and both are studiously avoiding all eye contact. They are later revealed to be the Dragon and the Angel, and their father turns out to be physically and emotionally abusive.
  • When they first meet proper, the Dragon doesn't want Belle to touch him. Later, he flinches at Belle's touch during the dance. On top of his bruises, these are common signs of physical abuse.
  • Towards the end of their dance together, the Dragon suddenly curls up on the ground while the markings on his back start to mysteriously glow, new ones forming in the process. Belle later learns they glow because Kei was being physically abused by his father at the moment.
    • What's more, what prompted Dragon to break away from the dance was the distant sound of glass breaking. After seeing the aggressive tendencies of Tomo and Kei's father, it's no surprise that the sound was what alerted the Dragon that his father was in another one of his violent moods again.
  • Belle tries to reach Dragon with a song called "Lend Me Your Voice". Later, as Suzu, she tries to reach Kei and Tomo with the song "A Million Miles Away". When her voice falters, the audience begins to sing back to her, lending her their voices so she can finish the song.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • On the surface, the Dragon is an enigma, fighting hard in combat games, yet trying his hardest to either keep a low profile or drive others away. As it turns out, the reason he's the way he is because he's a 14-year-old boy dealing with an abusive home life, and his wish for anonymity was born from a deep-rooted cynicism that nobody cares to help him or his brother.
  • It's implied that Kei's father’s brutish attitude towards his sons could be a negative reaction to losing his wife.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: The Lonely woman who lied about her home life eventually comes forward as having a baby-looking avatar, the same one who first hated on Belle's singing. She tries to justify she chose a baby as her avatar so she could have attention. Hiroka (as her own avatar) points out that having a baby avatar is no excuse to act immature or hate upon people. Not that the woman listens anyway.
• Friend to All Children: Kids on U absolutely adore the Dragon, to the point that they hop on social media and try to defend him when the rest of U is actively trying to dox him. Turns out the Dragon is only a few years older than most of them.
• Go Through Me: At the climax, Suzu physically shields Kei and Tomo from their abusive father. When he finally manages to pull her away, Suzu stands before him, refusing to move or flinch even while he threatens her. It shocks him enough that he backs off.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Kei and Tomo's father has a bad case of this. Every little annoyance or perceived transgression the brothers make is enough to drive him to viciously beat them.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Suzu’s appearance as Belle is a big part of becoming a virtual pop star, which is a harsh truth for any public figure. Her original look was fine for a high school student, but being expected to be in the virtual world would require her to look more 'professional'. When she decides to reveal her true appearance to the people of U, this trope kicks in to everyone who assumed her to be as beautiful as a regular supermodel.
• Hates Being Touched: The Dragon which turns out to be for a VERY frightening reason....
• Hate Sink: Justin, his posse, and Tomo and Kei’s father (depending on your interpretation as to how much of a three dimensional character he is) are given little redeeming qualities in the film and only exist to be self-righteous assholes to Belle and the Dragon. Yep, Hosoda really wanted viewers to hate them.
• Headbutt of Love: Suzu and Kei share one of these after she successfully defends him and his brother from the abuses of their father.
• Heel Realization: For a while, Suzu has been living under a Never My Fault belief that her father hasn't talked to her, despite that he's made efforts to reach out to her. After witnessing what kind of monster Tomo and Kei's father is, it dawns on Suzu how good she's had it, living with a kind and understanding father who would never dream of hurting her. As a gesture of apology, while riding the train to Tokyo, she texts him how sorry she is for her emotional selfishness.
• Heroic Sacrifice: A flashback reveals Suzu's mother died in one. When a little girl was trapped on a small rise in a flooding river, Mrs. Naito swam out to rescue her. She gave the girl her lifejacket and got her to shore, drowning in the process.
• Hidden Depths:
  • In contrast to some of the Internet Jerks U occasionally brings out hidden sides to people. Suzu becomes a beautiful singer in contrast to her gloomy wallflower self, the Beast is hiding beautiful roses and a genuine love for children, and the baseball player that people suspected of being the Beast is hiding surgical scars.
  • Who would have guessed that someone as meek as Suzu would actually be an online superstar?
  • The climax heavily implies that Kei and Tomo's dad does feel guilty for his actions. He just does everything he can to bury it and ignore it.
• Hidden Eyes: Suzu's eyes are frequently hidden, to emphasize her grief and isolation.
• History Repeats: Just like her mother helped a complete stranger child who was in danger while no one ever bothered to rescue them, Suzu saves two teenager brothers from their abusive father, when everyone else didn't intervene or mocked them. The difference is that Suzu comes out from this experience still alive. This actually helps Suzu to understand her mother' motives, coming to terms with her mother's death.
• Hope Spot: Suzu manages to reach Kei and Tomo as herself by singing one last time in U after being Unveiled, proving to them that she is who she says she is. Kei has accepted her offer of help and is ready to send their address, and then their father comes back, tossing both boys aside and cutting the feed before they can even name the district.
• The Horseshoe Effect: Justin pursues an insanely harsh and fundamentalist interpretation of justice. Despite his self-proclaimed virtue, he is incredibly guilty of at least a few sins while trying to do "good deeds", including pride. By the end of the movie he goes so far as burn the very castle where the Dragon lives, becoming the villain he claimed to oppose.
• How We Got Here: The film opens with an introduction to the world of U while Belle is performing a concert. It then switches to scenes of Suzu going about her daily life just before she first creates her U avatar.
• Humans Are Good: While U has its bad apples, Suzu manages to move everybody on U (minus Justin and his men) to tears when she sings as herself. In turn, when she's too emotionally drained to sing, everybody sings along with her as a gesture of encouragement. Even those who were previously jealous of her join in the song.
• Humble Hero: Suzu never lets Belle's success get to her head. Also, rather than use the revenue she gets from her performances for herself, she anonymously donates her earnings to charity.
• Hypocrite:
  • Justin's preaching of order and justice really falls flat when he commits blatantly unlawful actions like invading and ransacking The Dragon's castle and rather gleefully threatening Belle with Unveiling when she refuses to comply with his interrogation. As she puts it during said interrogation, he isn't being a vigilante for justice, but instead simply wants to control people..
  • Depending on how you look at it, the townsfolk who claimed Suzu's mother abandoned her daughter for a stranger kind of fall under this trope. They speak ill of her memory for being foolhardy about saving a stranded girl all by her lonesome. And yet, they didn't do anything to help. They could've worked together as a team to help Suzu's mother save the girl, but they just stood by. Even if her death was pretty much her own doing, these people are just as much to blame for her death.
  • While trying to pry Suzu away from Kei and Tomo, their father accuses Suzu of trying to tear his family apart. To repeat: a man who physically and emotionally abuses his children is accusing someone else of trying to destroy his family.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Belle's light blue eyes dominate her face, ringed by long lashes and elegant freckles. Played With, (not only because Suzu's real eyes are brown), because though she may have a pure heart, Suzu's innocence is long gone.
• Instant Web Hit: When Suzu first sings as Belle, she is initially viewed as annoying for just randomly bursting into song and only one person seems to genuinely appreciate it. By the next day, however, she has millions of subscribers and everyone is talking about her.
• Internet Jerk: With five billion people using U, there are definitely a lot of people like this. Most prominent of them are Justin and his posse of self-righteous vigilantes who are willing to expose other people to doxxing just to exert their control over U and the users who mocked Kei and Tomo after footage of them being abused by their father showed up online.
• Irony: The last lyric of "Swarms of Song" is "Let the melody lift me, I'll be me." All the while, Belle has been glorified by everyone on U as a virtual angel, driving home that the public's view of her is nothing like the real Suzu.
• Jerkass:
  • Justin and his posse are insufferably self-righteous bullies willing to leave users vulnerable to doxxing just for not fitting their personal vision of U.
  • Kei and Tomo’s dad is an abusive prick who viciously berates and beats his children while insisting to the public that he's a good family man.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • The Beast is considered a likely hacker with a temper as big as his ego with a penchant of targeting any player vaguely near his top ranks in U's PVP modes and absolutely destroying them way more than is necessary. When the self-appointed peace keepers demanded he stop, his response was to not only fight them but deliberately drag their attempts to ban him into U's public events to crash them. Deep down, he's the eldest brother trying to defend his younger sibling from their real beast of a father. The self-appointed peace keepers went after him without due cause and his crashing of events was only a result of attempting to flee. While he's definitely gruff and cynical he cares about others that manage to get close as well as respecting personal strength. He's got a small but significant history of willingly ending a fight early in PVP if he decides the person he's fighting doesn't deserve his ire.
  • Hiroka has moments of being a terrible friend to Suzu by talking over her or peer-pressuring her into things (like bugging her about signing up for U when she's still grieving) and trying to capitalize on Belle's new fame, but she's very supportive of Suzu otherwise, and is instrumental to uncovering the Beast's actual location to rescue him from his abusive father.
  • Peggy Sue is initially jealous and petty about being upstaged by Belle, but when her rival is unmasked as Suzu, she sees this ethereal idol is an average teen just like her. Seeing this, she is the first to encourage Suzu to sing.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Aside from Kei and Tomo’s father getting a Death Glare from Suzu to convince him to stop being an asshole to his sons, we learn beforehand that his abuse was exposed online and that he’ll probably spend the rest of his life in imprisonment if he makes no attempt to redeem himself. However, before we even got to this point, Kei and Tomo's father got away with abusing his boys for months (if not years) while countless bystanders told the brothers they would help, only to not follow through. Karma moves slowly, it seems, but we can safely assume it will happen all the same.
• Keep the Reward: Hiroka remarks that any revenue Suzu earns in U or on other media platforms as a result of Belle's singing is donated anonymously to charities. There is practicality to this, as info like a bank account could be used to find Belle's real identity.
• Kick the Dog:
  • When the children try to speak out against the Dragon ever being doxed, some older members of U snidely point out their votes don't count for much in an ocean of Dragon-Haters.
  • When a couple members of U are witnesses (along with Suzu) to Kei and Tomo being abused by their father, what do these fine people do when they have the power to at least try and help? They just mock the brothers for their misfortune.
  • It's bad enough that Kei and Tomo’s father lost his wife in some unspecified circumstance, but to channel that grief through anger and abuse onto his own sons (who themselves already struggle with having lost a mother) is beyond cruel. It earns him a Death Glare from Suzu.
  • Justin and the enforcers brutalizing the Beast's A.I. companions for protecting him and Belle, simply because they could and because they're AIs.
• Knight Templar: Justin and his men are set on enforcing their vision of order onto U, and they're willing to dox anyone who they think disrupts that order.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Justin rapidly loses sponsors after it comes to light that he attempted to dox Belle.
• Light Is Not Good: Justin and his men wear primarily white and red superhero-esque costumes and are fanatical vigilantes who hunt down and dox those they disagree with. Likewise, Kei and Tomo's abusive father is often seen wearing a bright yellow polo shirt.
• Like Goes with Like: Discussed by Suzu and Hiroka. They are sure the only girl suited for Big Man on Campus Shinobu is popular and beautiful Ruka. Ultimately subverted because Ruka is crushing on the school joke, Kamishin, and she manages to confess her feelings with Suzu's help.
• Likes Older Men: Hiroka has a crush on her teacher, and keeps a picture of him on her phone. The thing is, said-teacher is roughly in his forties or fifties!
• Madness Mantra: Downplayed. This example is not born from waning sanity so much as it comes from a place of anger and injustice. When Suzu offers to help Kei at first, Kei lashes out because he's had so many people say they'll help him and his brother only for nothing to change. Livid, he starts mockingly repeating "I'll help you I'll help you I'll help you".
• Match Cut: At the end of the film's opening parade sequence, Belle finishes singing confidently and closes her eyes, and we cut immediately to Suzu under her blanket, clutching a microphone in her hand, drenched in sweat and gasping for air, thus establishing that Belle is Suzu's online Secret Identity and setting up the film's major theme of the mask and the person hiding behind it.
• Maybe Ever After: The movie ends with Suzu having two prospects: Shinobu, who declared that he no longer needed to be her protector and could focus on being her friend, and Kei, who declared his love for her when they met in person. However, since Suzu only ever shows romantic interest towards Shinobu, and her rescue of Kei is clearly supposed to parallel her mother's past actions, it's possible the declaration of love isn't romantic in nature.
• The Maze: The path to the Castle starts in a section of U that has been long abandoned, with the Dragon's AIs preventing access by obscuring the path for anyone who wanders around and leaving them hopelessly lost.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • "Come, it's time to live as another you. Come, it's time to start another life. Come, it's time to change the world." The first couple times this slogan for U is said, it feels like an artificial way of advertising that U is all that and a bag of chips. But towards the end, after Suzu has saved Kei and Tomo, the slogan is repeated one last time, having a more meaningful impact. Because U indeed did as it promised. And each sentence reflects what Suzu did on her journey: she's grown as a person, found closure to her mother's death in order to move on, and helped change the lives of two abused brothers.
  • Both versions of U use "lie" as a scatting lyric. Fittingly, the movie itself focuses on double lives in the internet and the lies we tell to others and ourselves online.
• Meaningful Name: A couple in this movie:
  • Suzu means "bell". Notably this was her initial name in U before other users started connecting it to "belle" as in beauty.
  • Seems rather appropriate that a self-appointed enforcer of justice would name himself Justin. Also counts as an Ironic Name considering he is anything but an impartial do-gooder.
  • Peggy Sue, the celeb Suzu winds up upstaging, is named after a Buddy Holly song. Ironically, Buddy's fame lasted long after his death, while Peggy Sue is forgotten almost immediately after trying to drag Belle and getting lit up for it.
• Medium Blending: The segments based within the real world are traditionally animated while the segments inside "U" are in CGI.
• Missing Mom: Suzu's mother died and is the source behind her trauma in present day. The Dragon/Kei also lost his mother and the picture he has of her is used to identify him in the real world.
• Mistaken Identity: When Suzu first joins U, the avatar it spits out looks almost exactly like her classmate Ruka, leading Suzu to believe the system to mistake her for Ruka.
• Morality Chain: The Dragon is normally angry and abrasive towards anyone (minus children), driving them away with all his fury. But when it comes to Angel, he's surprisingly gentle and kind to him, treating him in such a tender and understanding way. It turns out the reason is Angel is the Dragon's younger brother, who he protects from their father's abuse. Later in the story, Belle becomes this to the Dragon, as the only other person on U he cares about and respects.
• Morphic Resonance:
  • Suzu's avatar Belle has dotted marking under her eyes, reflecting a passing resemblance to her Youthful Freckles.
  • Kei often wears dark clothing (matching the Dragon's dark coloring) while Tomo (Angel) wears lighter clothing.
• Moving Beyond Bereavement: A good part of Suzu's character arc is her coming to terms with her mother's death, which isn't easy since it's deeply affected her to the point that even attempting to sing is a Trauma Button for her at first. Her determination to help Kei and Tomo and protect them from their abusive father gives her a new perspective on the circumstances surrounding her mother's death, which allows her to finally accept it and move on.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Suzu confronts Kei and Tomo's abusive father, this seems to be his reaction when his violent tendencies make him nearly punch a defenseless Suzu, a random teenage girl.
• Mythology Gag:
  • At least a few for the many references to the Disney version of the Beauty and the Beast tale.
    • The scene were the Dragon frightens Belle way, only to save her from Justin and the Justices (in place of wolves).
    • The ballroom scene.
    • When the castle is finally found, the Justices storm it in a manner not unlike Gaston storming the Castle.
  • A non-Disney gag can be found in Belle's rose motif. In a version of the story from Auvergne, in France, titled "Belle Rose", the protagonist and her sisters have floral themed names with our protagonist being named Rose.
• Named by Democracy: Suzu’s avatar is initially called Bell, as the English translation of her name. However, once she gets famous, her fans start to call her Belle (French for “Beautiful”) because of her beauty.
• Never My Fault: When Suzu shields Kei and Tomo in the climax, their Father initially refuses to take any responsibility for his abuse and has the utter gall to blame her for trying to ruin his family.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Played with. Suzu's mother risked her life in order to save a child stranded during a dangerous flood, and of course lost her life in the process. On one hand, instead of making her a martyr in the eyes of witnesses, they gossiped about how inconsiderate it was was to "abandon" her own daughter for a stranger's daughter, and Suzu herself even buys into the grief-stricken belief that her mother didn't love her. On the other hand, later down the line, Suzu is inspired to save Kei and Tomo when she realizes it parallels her mother's self-sacrificing effort to save that little girl when nobody else would. Although she wasn't lauded as a hero for her efforts, one might say her heroic deed was not in vain either.
• Nonstandard Character Design: U's denizens are very diverse, but Belle stands out for being so human and so pretty; she looks like a Disney princess died and ascended to goddesshood. The Dragon's hulking size and blood-and-iron color scheme makes him stand out in a different way.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Belle is Unveiled as mild-mannered Suzu, a former celebrity on U, Peggy Sue, is surprised to learn Belle's but a student no older than herself.
• The Oner: In the first minutes of the movie, Belle’s introduction is represented with a shot of a whale with speakers in its flesh, while the camera slowly zoom at its head, showing her singing.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Kamishin is normally the Plucky Comic Relief of the story who breaks the tension with how outspoken and extroverted he is. Even when he's being urged by Suzu to ask out Ruka, it's Played for Laughs. When he and Ruka (along with Suzu and her friends) are witnesses to how Kei and Tomo have an abusive father, he's stunned silent by the spectacle, reflecting the heavy atmosphere the story has taken. He even puts aside the goofiness to help piece together just where the two brothers may be located, offering up a clue that they may be in Tokyo.
• Opposites Attract: Downplayed. While not outright complete opposites, there's something to be said for how Ruka has a crush on Kamishin. On one hand, she's a socially elegant popular girl with a fair complexion to match her dark hair. On the other hand, Kamishin is a tanned kayaking athlete and a goofball who is outspoken about his passion (even if he's the only one who signed up for it). Yet, when Suzu urges the two to ask each other out, they almost instantly click, especially when they learn they share a liking for Belle's music.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Inverted. Suzu is an ordinary, if good at singing, high school student. Which is what becomes so shocking in-universe when she reveals her true self to the world of U, as there have been countless speculations about who could be behind the mysterious diva Belle.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: When Belle hides in order to keep away from Justin and his men, she fails to use an outfit that covers her signature long, pink hair and freckles.
• Parental Abandonment: How Suzu sees her mother's choice to save a child, losing her own life in the process. Going above and beyond to protect Kei and Tomo from their abusive father gives Suzu a new perspective on her mother's actions, allowing her to finally come to terms with her death.
• Parents as People: One of the major themes in the movie. Suzu's mother went out to save a child in a storm and died because of it, leaving Suzu to believe her mother abandoned her for a stranger. It takes her the whole movie to understand her mother's actions.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Belle’s dresses would count merely as Simple, yet Opulent if not for the intricate designs.
• Police Are Useless: In the climax, the choir ladies attempt to cut the knot and call the cops, but are informed that they have to wait 48 hours before carrying it out due to legal reasons. Realizing that anything could happen in that time, Suzu has to take matters into her own hands and race to Tokyo to save Kei and Tomo.
• Post-Cyberpunk: The film's genre could best be described as "cyberprep", featuring very few punk elements but many concepts that find their origin in Cyberpunk, including a virtual metaverse and commonplace brain-computer interfaces coexisting with more mundane technology like smartphones, motorcars and trains.
• Real-Place Background: Most of the real-life portions take place in Kōchi, a town in the Kōchi prefecture on the island of Shikoku, popular with moviemakers in general for its eye-catching scenery. Many landmarks are clearly recognizable, such as the bridge Suzu crosses each day, the elementary school, the rivers and Ino station.
• Rich Bastard: Kei and Tomo’s father presumably comes from a family of means, and has been able to both become a minor (apparent) success story and use his wealth to cover up the abuse of his kids while living in a swanky high-rise.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Belle gives a brief one to Justin during her interrogation, accusing him of only wanting to control people and not actually caring about justice at all.
  • Later, Kei (too distrustful to believe she's Belle) gives Suzu a misguided tirade questioning what makes her so special from a long line of bystanders who falsely promised the boys that they would help, but never delivered.
  • Much later, Suzu gives a semi-silent one to Kei's father, causing the coward to run off sniveling in horror at what he's done.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Belle has thick, knee-length hair of rosy pink, and Innocent Blue Eyes to go with it. Her manner is always gracious, sweet, and kindly.
• Scenery Porn: No effort is spared to show off Kōchi's pretty scenery, and the U is not any less impressive with its sprawling and colorful virtual landscape filled with quirky avatars.
• Science Fantasy: The Other Wiki identifies the film as this. It is based on a fairytale, after all. However, the fantasy elements are relegated entirely to the virtual world of U, with everything in the real world staying grounded in reality.
• Secret Identity: Everyone in "U" keeps their real identities secret, including Belle herself. It's lampshaded how no one would suspect that a beautiful and glamorous singer like Belle is really a plain, mousy high school girl like Suzu.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: The adult choir knew that Belle was Suzu for some time and they immediately come to her aid when they see she's in trouble.
• Sexier Alter Ego: Belle was created to look more striking and beautiful than Suzu's conventional schoolgirl self, in part because the picture she used included Ruka.
• Shadow Archetype: Kei and Tomo’s father all but exists to show what Suzu’s own dad would have been like if he let his grief and agony from his wife’s death corrupt his head. Likewise, he also acts like a reflection of how his son could've turned out if he gave into his instincts to vent his anger on the innocent, instead of channeling it to protect them.
  • The Dragon (Kei) is not only a version of Suzu who was stuck with an abusive father, but he's also who she would be if she came into U with more destructive (if understandable) intentions.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Ruka is this in spades. Although Hiroka finds her annoying for some reason, it turns out that Ruka is genuinely friendly, even for being the most popular and pretty girl at school. In fact, she's almost as insecure as Suzu about her appearance.
• Shout-Out:
  • The film takes very clear influence from the Disney adaptation of Beauty and the Beast in its main characters and style (with Belle herself being designed by veteran Disney animator and character designer Jin Kim), including a recreation of the ballroom dance. It even includes a scene where the Dragon yells at Belle to get out of his castle before crying and covering his face with one hand, with the camera shot and character body language exactly like the Beast's in the Disney film.
  • Belle's intro features some avatars that look very much like they could be Digimon. Fittingly, Hosoda directed one of the movies.
• Something Only They Would Say: Part of what leads Suzu to the the Dragon's real identity is hearing someone sing a song that was shared only between them. In a twist, however, the one singing it isn't the Dragon, but they are close.
• Space Whale: When first introduced in U, Belle is riding atop a flying whale covered in stereo equipment. In the climax, the whale returns along with several others similarly decked out, implicitly as representatives of the Voices of U, if not their actual avatars.
• Spiritual Successor: This marks the third film by Mamoru Hosoda set in a digital world, following Digimon: The Movie and Summer Wars.
• Spoiled Sweet: Ruka is not just the most popular and admired girl in school, she's also a genuinely nice and friendly person. She keeps trying to make Suzu welcome in her circle, and is supportive of her efforts to help Kei and Tomo.
• Start of Darkness: Kei becoming the Dragon and all the madness and destruction that followed all started because his mother died and his father was so heartbroken, that he took his anger out on him (probably).
• Stress Vomit: Suzu does this when she tries to sing in public, even though there's no one to hear her. She then joins U and finds she can sing as Belle.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Both a variation and played straight. Suzu appears to have inherited her mother’s looks. It's heavily implied that this is one of the reasons why Kei and Tomo’s father doesn’t hit her; he can see his dead wife in Suzu in both the way she looks, and the way she acts.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Suzu is pretty discouraged that her fame as Belle still garners haters like it did with her first song. However, Hiroka points out that no celebrity is 100% free of any critics. No matter how good a celebrity is, there's always going to be detractors. She even takes it as a sign of a healthy fanbase, because it means she's reaching a wide audience rather than an echo-chamber of die-hard fans.
  • Suzu tries reaching out and offering Tomo and Kei she can help the two escape their abusive father for good. But Kei's first response is distrust, because others have made similar offers and his situation has never improved. Sometimes, reaching out to someone is a two-way street; they have to want your help first.
• Symbolism:
  • After the title card, Suzu can be seen walking to school while the audience hears the first notes of "Gales of Song" play. It seems to signify how Suzu has a song in her heart she wants to sing so badly. By the end, "Gales of Song" plays again, but with a warmer, more hopeful inflection, as though singing really did "guide [Suzu] through the storm".
  • Notably, Suzu often drinks from a chipped red mug, as though reflecting that her once perfect family life has been shattered by the loss of her mother. The same applies to the smashed photo of Kei’s mother.
  • Suzu's pet three-legged dog seems to serve two purposes in the few scenes it appears. First, it's meant to signify the metaphorical elephant in the room: that sooner or later, Suzu has to come to terms that her mother's gone. Second, it seems to reflect Suzu's home life; it's not perfect, it's missing something/someone, but like the family, it's still functioning.
  • When she's deeply moved by Ruka's genuine kindness, Suzu starts crying to herself. The scene cuts to Belle, gently crying while a glow spot of light on her chest indicates her strong emotions. This later comes back to indicate of how her singing vulnerably as Suzu is making nearly everyone in U feel deep emotions.
  • When trying to discuss whether or not she's Belle, Shinoba and Suzu are having this conversation from different sides of a crosswalk. The traffic grows heavier and heavier as Suzu grows more and more resolved to stay in her metaphorical shell.
  • In the ending, Suzu and her father exchanging the traditional Japanese greetings of "I'm home" and "Welcome home" at the train station is loaded with significance. She has finally recovered the cheerful and musical person she was before her mother's death.
  • Kei often has a bang over one eye for the better part of the story, as though reflecting how distrustful he is towards the world. After the resolution, the bang no longer covers his eye, as though Suzu has restored his faith in people.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Towards the climax, the reason Suzu goes to Tokyo to save Tomo and Kei is because she insisted to her friends and family that she had to do it herself. Justified since the Japanese social services had just informed her friends that a waiting period of 48 hours is required before they can take action on a report, and the situation was urgent.
• Time Skip: Implied. After Suzu discovers her Instant Web Hit status, there's a montage of Belle in various outfits, interviews with other stars, different songs, and so forth showing how Belle's popularity surged forward after her initial appearance. When she talks to Hiroka about the negative comments she's been getting, Hiroka is already set up as her producer. Belle's popularity and the loyalty of her fans is such that realistically she would have to have been performing in U for a least several months to really cement her status as the new star of the online community.
• Trailers Always Spoil: One of the trailers ends with a shot of Suzu floating above the gigantic crowd in U, giving away Belle’s unveiling later in the film.
• Trauma Button: Singing is this for Suzu at first, despite how much she wants to do it again; since her mother was the one who encouraged her love of music, singing reminds her of her mother's death, and even attempting to do so makes her vomit from stress. She starts to get over it when she joins U, since singing as Belle allows her to distance herself from her trauma.
• Uncanny Valley: Happens in-universe, to further enhance how different the virtual world is. There is something just off about the avatars of U. While the virtual world is deliberately drawn in different art style, the avatars have jerky movements, as if clipping, and for all the lavish details put into their models, they retain the artificial gleam and limitations of a mass-made 3D model.
• The Unreveal: We never find out about Justin’s true identity.
• Vigilante Militia: Justin and his men are self-appointed enforcers of order in U. They do have sponsors but aren't an official part of U's staff.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Justin has sponsors willing to back his and his men's actions despite him essentially being a bully seeking to control the direction of U however he wishes. His support goes down the drain in the end after his private threat to unveil Belle is exposed.
• Virtual Sidekick: The Dragon keeps several AI companions in the Castle, who help him hide its location from other users in U. Once the Angel guides Belle inside, and after the Dragon softens to her presence, they extend their protection to her as well.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: When Suzu vomits from stress, the camera doesn't change its angle view, so we see what comes out from her mouth. In the following scene she still has some dirt around it.
• Weirdly Underpowered Admins: The administration of U is strange. While the Voices of U (the ones running the system) do seem to have absolute powers, they almost never intervene in anything. Actual policing of users is deputized to a vigilante group called the Justices, who have been given a few tools to assist them by the Voices, but not only have no admin commands, they can't even seem to report problematic users, having to physically battle them to kick them off the system.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Downplayed a lot, but it does appear that time flows differently inside U to in the real world. The discovery and subsequent ransacking and burning of the Dragon's castle, for example, seems to take quite a bit of time in U. However, context clues point to it only taking place over a few minutes in the real world: Shinobu, Ruka and Kamishin are still at the train station while it all goes down. The same is also true of Suzu's concert as herself at the film's climax, which goes on for a long time inside U, but very little time seems to pass outside.
• You Are Not Alone: A recurring theme of the film.
  • While Suzu spends much of the movie struggling with the trauma of losing her mother at a young age, at almost every point she has at least one friend or family member nearby offering their support.
  • Suzu herself does this for the Dragon, and later for Kei and Tomo directly, as she learns more about their own traumatic experiences.
  • The entire population of U does this for Suzu after she breaks down in the middle of her final song and almost loses the will to keep going, by adding their own voices in support.
• Younger Than They Look: Kei looks like he’s in his late teens despite being a 9th grader who is a few years younger than Suzu.
• Youthful Freckles: Suzu puts her real-life freckles on her U avatar, giving it a distinguishing look that made it into the movie's original title.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: A more “obedient” variation applies to Kei and Tomo’s father’s mindset, and he unfortunately expresses his disappointment through harsh berating and frequent beatings.
• Would Hurt a Child: Kei and Tomo's father regularly beats them. He also hits Suzu toward the end, which draws blood and manages to shake even him momentarily.

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