Summer Wars Director Mamoru Hosoda Believes Anime “Doesn’t Take Women Seriously”

If the translation for a recent interview is factually correct, Japanese film director and animator Mamoru Hosoda has claimed that certain other directors portray women in a way that is “inexcusable”, the atrocious reach of modern day feminism sadly now infecting even Japan.

Mamoru Hosoda worked as director for such movies as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, Mirai, and Belle.

Hosoda talked to outlet AFP at the Cannes Film Festival, where his latest movie “Belle” was premiering, and there, he asserted that “the dystopian tropes about the net that run through so many movies, including Spielberg’s “Ready Player One”, are not doing anyone any favours, particularly women”.

Hosoda seeks to “empower the generation” of young girls such as his young daughter so they can fully “control their digital destinies” as opposed to fearing it, saying “They have grown up with the net… yet are constantly told how malevolent and dangerous it is”.

The director’s latest work, “Belle”, explores the life of a budding girl named Suzu who becomes an idol of sorts under the name “Belle” in the virtual universe of an app called “U”, and she makes use of this avatar to “overcome the haters and her own hang-ups” after acquiring billions of followers.

Hosoda is said to describe “Belle” as a “21st century take on ‘Beauty and the Beast'”.

According to Hosoda, “Human relations can be complex and extremely painful for young people. I wanted to show that this virtual world, which can be hard and horrible, can also be positive.”

It is said that Suzu and her “geek” comrade are nothing at all similar to “most women that appear in anime”, and this is an issue Hosoda has with other directors, saying “You only have to watch Japanese animation to see how young women are underestimated and not taken seriously in Japanese society”.

Hosoda continued:

“It really annoys me to see how young women are often seen in Japanese animation — treated as sacred — which has nothing to do with the reality of who they are.”

“I will not name him, but there is a great master of animation who always takes a young woman as his heroine. And to be frank I think he does it because he does not have confidence in himself as a man. This veneration of young women really disturbs me and I do not want to be part of it.”

It is surmised that Hosoda was criticizing Hayao Miyazaki (the man behind such popular films as “Spirited Away”), and Hosoda claims he wants to “free his heroines from being paragons of virtue and innocence and ‘this oppression of having to be like everyone else'”.

The director prefers scenarios that “show the good and the bad in people” and elaborated saying “this tension is what being human is all about”:

Which is why he was also drawn to bringing “Beauty and the Beast” up to date. “In the original story the Beast is the most interesting character. He is ugly and has this violence but he is sensitive and vulnerable inside too. Beauty is just a cipher. It is all about her looks. I wanted to make her as complex and rich.”

That duality is also there in his fascination with the digital world that began with his first hit, “Digimon: The Movie”. “I keep returning to the internet. First with ‘Digimon’ and then with ‘Summer Wars’ in 2009 and now again.” And he is more convinced than ever that we cannot keep dismissing it as the source of all evil. “Young people can never separate themselves from it. They grew up with it. We have to accept it and learn to use it better.”