Mamoru Hosoda Discusses His Epic Animated Revenge Tableau ‘Scarlet’ (Exclusive)

[the_ad id=”3280664″]

CG or not CG? That is the question that anime veteran Mamoru Hosoda has been pondering with his film Scarlet — a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet that fuses traditional hand-drawn animation with 3D CG. Animation Magazine had the pleasure of sitting down with Hosoda after Scarlet’s premiere in Venice. It was exciting to pick the director’s brain before critics could shape the conversation around his new film, which is bursting with atypical ideas and daring gambits.

Over the past two decades, Hosoda has become renowned for crafting what he calls “fantasy films grounded in everyday life” — celebrated works such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), Summer Wars (2009) and Belle (2021). This time, however, he wanted revenge. “I wanted to make something intense,” explains Hosoda. “That’s why I decided to pursue a revenge story. It’s a popular genre because everyone can relate to that desire in some respect — it allows them to vent their frustrations.”

The anime veteran says he identified Shakespeare’s Hamlet as the genre’s urtext and worked from there.

“I came to realize that Hamlet is more than a revenge story,” says Hosoda. “It’s about a young person struggling to learn how to live. Revenge can be a trigger for someone to reflect upon the way they live their life and how they can make things better. I think young people today have that same struggle in their everyday lives. Despite the fact that Scarlet is a princess — someone distant from our reality — I think the film encapsulates and empathizes with those feelings.”

Painting in Browns and Reds

The opening moments of Scarlet are startling. The film cuts from black to an intricately detailed landscape that overwhelms the eyes — a photorealistic ocean in the sky overlooking hilly, barren dunes that are cast in earthy browns and reds. Our heroine is under siege, wrestling with bodies that wound her to the point of spilling realistic blood. This is less a family fantasy film and more a scene reminiscent of seinen manga classic Berserk.

“I think everyone will be surprised at first,” says Hosoda. “The sound is very loud too — it might make some people scared. But it represents the beginning of Scarlet’s challenging journey. I wanted to depict how she changes and grows through that journey, and how the perspectives of her and [co-lead] Hijiri change. I gave a lot of thought as to how we should introduce this world.”

The world in question is a purgatory of sorts — a vast expanse that Scarlet finds herself cursed to wander after her premature demise. “I wanted to make these landscapes appear empty, but on closer inspection, rich and colorful,” explains Hosoda. “The characters have to endure a hard journey, but it gradually begins to look more beautiful. It relates to the landscape of our own lives — I wanted to directly express our emotional landscapes in the frame.”

As with Hosoda’s previous films, the “otherworld” is a prism through which to explore our own grounded realities. “Throughout the history of art, there have been so many depictions of the afterlife,” reflects Hosoda. “During production, I asked an art historian why so many artists have been drawn to this otherworld. The answer I received is that they haven’t been depicting a world beyond our own at all; they’re actually exploring the world in which we live. I concur with that idea. I feel that there is always a connection between the art we make and the lives we live. Even if things are tough, they can be beautiful at the same time, so even when these landscapes are almost void-like, I wanted to use a lot of color.”

Characters retain the same fundamental stylistic trappings in this otherworld, but they are instead rendered as three-dimensional CGI models. “To differentiate between the worlds, I used different techniques. In my previous film, Belle, we hand-drew the scenes that took place in an everyday ‘real’ world and used CG for the scenes in the virtual internet world — because it was the world inside the computer. This time, I developed that further and differentiated the living world and the otherworld using different techniques. 3D CG can enhance — for example, when Scarlet is tired or covered in dirt. These are elements that are perhaps too flat to see or not fully expressed by hand-drawing.

“For me, the difference between hand-drawn animation and CG animation is just a difference in art materials,” Hosoda points out. “Some hand-drawn animation fans do not like CG animation, but I believe that it’s just a matter of how you use it. Rather than doing it in an American way like Pixar or Disney do, I’ve been exploring a way to respect the tradition of Japanese hand-drawn art when I use CG. We wanted to make a CG animation that utilizes the beauty of hand-drawn animation.”

The results are fascinating. The film shifts between 2D and 3D action from shot to shot, the effect equal parts beguilingly immersive and disorientingly disjointed. With the film fresh and reviews not yet released, it’s hard not to ask Hosoda if he intends to continue exploring this stylistic fusion if the critics deem Scarlet a misfire. He pauses for a moment faced with the question, his expression turning serious — but brightens and gains confidence as he speaks.

“Just because I use CGI animation [now], it doesn’t mean that I have abandoned traditional forms. I believe we should keep developing both of them by merging them and exploring new expressions, rather than choosing one.”

— Director Mamoru Hosoda

 

“There will always be dissenting opinions when someone challenges the status quo in the pursuit of something new,” he says. “I see myself as someone looking for new challenges rather than upholding tradition. How can we create a new animation style — a new film style? Rather than repeating what we’ve already achieved, I want to take on new challenges with my new films, to find the essence of a cinema that has never been discovered before. It’s not just a matter of style. I believe we also need to find stories, characters and things that have never been depicted in cinema before, to match these new styles.

“I always try to challenge myself to make something fresh. It’s not an easy path, and admittedly, I was dubious throughout production — I didn’t truly know if these decisions were the ‘right’ or ‘best’ choices. But I don’t think that we can further the medium by simply respecting traditional hand-drawing, because I think that — back then — even those artists that had arrived at what we now call a ‘traditional style’ by trying, exploiting and exploring new techniques.”

Making Giant Leaps

Hosoda points out that that the two styles don’t have to be mutually exclusive. “[Historically], you have a traditional hand-drawn animation style and a traditional CG animation style,” he notes. “But that should not be the end, and everyone is exploring new styles in animation. The recent Spider-Verse films and Arcane are examples of this — I think everyone in the world wants to make an animation with a style never used before. I tried to find a new style that equally respects the tradition of Japanese animation. But it was very difficult, because you don’t know the answer to that — in fact, I still haven’t figured it out. What is correct? What constitutes ‘a new style’? And is everyone going to accept it? The process of figuring this out was challenging, but we made an attempt, believing that this would make a step forward.”

Hosoda’s works — and his characters — have been defined by these initial steps that escalate into great leaps forward. Through all of them, the director’s core philosophy has remained consistent. “Nineteen years ago, when I made The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, an American journalist asked me why I made a fully hand-drawn animation film in the heyday of CG animation,” he reflects. “He asked me if it had felt old-fashioned and had made me want to try new technology. I said to him, ‘Those are just different techniques. 3D and CGI are beautiful, but a single line drawn by a wonderful animator is also beautiful.’ And I believe that hasn’t changed at all.”

“Just because I use 3D CGI animation [now], it doesn’t mean that I have abandoned traditional forms,” he continues. “I believe we should keep developing both of them by merging them and exploring new expressions, rather than choosing one — I believe that is the way a creator should be. Therefore, I will keep working with both hand-drawn animation and CG animation. It doesn’t make a difference whether you use a pencil, a pen or oil paint. The important thing is what is depicted there and how we depict it.”

With thanks to Sayaka Yamaguchi and Yuki Fujiwara for translating.

Scarlet is produced by Studio Chizu (co-founded by Hosoda and producer Yuichiro Saito), Nippon Television and Columbia Pictures. Sony Pictures Classics will present an Academy Awards-qualifying run of the film, followed by a wider U.S. theatrical release on February 6, 2026.