Since his final breakthrough with “The girl who jumped through time” (2006), the Oscar -nominated blockbuster audendur Mamoru Hosoda has been providing a new film every three to four years. For anime fans, this is every time an event that is being cheered for months in advance. Therefore, it is understandable that at the world premiere of “Scarlet” at the Filmfest in Venice, more than with all other films, attention was paid to the fact that nobody filmed the canvas. If you only got your cell phone out for a second to look at the clock, you were immediately illuminated with a green laser pointer until you put it away again.
So the pre-hype is real! But how enthusiastic the fans will really be in the end remains to be seen. The fantasy epic, which is mainly located in one world, named Otherworld, provides spectacular pictures, for example when thousands of people try to tear down the gates to the stairs of eternity or in the sky a gigantic electrified dragon creature full of swimming in his flaky skin. At the same time, the anti-war message in comparison to previous, more subtle films by the director is spelled out in such a way that quite a few “scaret” will certainly also perceive as a fantasy fairy tale for naive.
Scarlet wakes up in the Otherworld as a furious revenge angel!
“Scarlet” begins like a medieval Shakespeare drama in a European castle: the kind king Amulet (voice in the original: Masachika ichimura) wants to peace at all costs and is therefore also ready to compromise with his neighbors. His brother Claudius (Kôji Yakusho), on the other hand, wants to do at all costs – and therefore lets the king execute from four executioners because of high treason. At the last second, the person who was sentenced to death speaks a few more words, but they go under in the shouting of the crowd, which is why his daughter cannot understand her. When the Princess Scarlet (Mana Ashida) confronts her uncle with his machinations, she too is cleared with poison.
However, the majority of “Scarlet” then plays after the protagonist's death when she wakes up in the Otherworld: Here the dead meet for many centuries before they dissolve in nothing or reach eternity. However, Scarlet has no interest in this, she is aiming alone after revenge on her father's tormentors – at least until she meets the paramedic Hijiri (Masaki Okada) from today, the Scarlet increasingly makes it impossible with his always helpful, strictly pacifist way …
Cynics are definitely in the wrong film here
After a few typical Dark fantasy skirmishes, in which the petite Scaret is facing one of the giant executioners of the king in the fist fight, it is becoming increasingly clear that this Otherworld is not only home to the usual staff of fairy tales. Instead, the deceased of all time and places meet in this beyond. So a Hawaiian Hula dancer is also the most tough fighters with their rhythmic movements …
… and after about half of the term there is even a kind of dance flash mob that develops merciless earwigs “Tell Me About Love”. At least very distant memories of the room and time resolving jazz sequence from “Blood & Sinners” are awake. After the dark start with a Rache drama, which extends into the hereafter, Mamoru Hosoda increasingly opposes his ideas of love and cohesion. Of course, he has been pursuing this since the beginning of his career, but this time the implementation is – especially in the figure of the nurse Hijiri – is a bit of plumper than usual.
The paramedic hijiri, who comes from our time, developed into a mediating opposite pole for the vengeful protagonist.
The fight of Scarlet is to get rid of their apparently unilitable revenge at the heart as “Summer Wars” or “Mirai”, so this time not. But also apart from the again outstanding animations, which, with their mix of hand-drawn figures and almost even after photo-realism, give the Otherworld a fascinating difference, there are also enough ideas: a mysterious old woman (Kayoko Shiraishi) turns out to be a kind of Year's Yeast Hand grenades can use.
Conclusion: A mandatory and catchy Pacific plea, which is more motivated in well-known fairy tale and Dark-Fantasy-realms and therefore does not access the best films by “Summer Wars” Mamoru Hosoda, but has an absolute banger song than the centuries overcoming catchy-up center.
We saw “Scarlet” at the Venice Film Festival 2025, where he celebrated its world premiere out of competition.