Once upon a time, Mamoru Hosoda was supposed to direct Howl's Moving Castle before Hayao Miyazaki took it over. On a certain level, Scarlet could now be called Hosoda's Howl, inasmuch as it's an attempt to work his righteous anger at a war in the Middle East into an unrelated piece of English literature and ends up the director's weakest film to date. The difference is Miyazaki's worst film is still better than 95% of anime, while Hosoda's worst is mediocre enough to kill whatever residual “the next Miyazaki” hype he used to receive.

It's clear that screenwriter Satoko Okudera was vital to the success of Hosoda's classic streak of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Wolf Children. The films Hosoda has written by himself since then — The Boy and The Beast, Mirai, and BELLE — have been messier on the script level, but carried by exceptional animation and by Hosoda's respective passions for furries, his own children, and his reliable Digimon/Summer Wars formula.

Scarlet is both Hosoda's worst-written and worst-animated movie, though its weaknesses aren't apparent immediately. The hand-drawn opening sequence in Elsinore looks as great as any of his past films, and its twists on Hamlet are intriguing (though the movie will forget about some of them — you'd think this version of Gertrude would be a more significant villain than she ends up being). The first glimpses of the CGI Otherworld are beautiful in their own right, with the degree of detail in the settings seeming to justify the change in medium and Scarlet's design translating well between styles.

Our first sign of trouble arrives with the introduction of the deuteragonist, Hijiri. Hijiri's pacifism makes a natural source of conflict with Scarlet's revenge-seeking. The issue is that this conflict is poorly developed with ham-fisted, repetitive conversations about war and peace. Do-gooder characters don't have to be boring — the new Superman proved kindness is punk rock! — but Hijiri himself is just completely flat. His personal story arc of gradually coming to accept his own death doesn't add much interest and feels largely extraneous.

Scarlet and Hijiri's journey through the Otherworld has some striking vistas and a few well-choreographed fights, but it is lacking as anime quests go. In lieu of any distinctive supporting characters, they mostly interact with nondescript crowds. The crowd scenes only contribute to the increasing inconsistency of the animation quality. Sometimes we're looking at awkward blends of 2D and 3D characters. Other times, Hosoda fills the screen with so many background figures it's hard to tell what we're looking at.

The worst moments animation-wise are the two dance sequences. A hula dance with two characters doing the same movements looks like a low-framerate Fortnite animation. Then there's the most audacious sequence that should make the movie, but instead breaks it: a La La Land-inspired fantasy sequence sparked by Scarlet hearing Hijiri sing a modern pop song. The song itself is nothing special — underwhelming, especially compared to the BELLE soundtrack—but what really ruins the moment are the hundreds of badly animated extras overwhelming every shot, turning the already busy 3D camerawork into a headache. Let it be said that Panty and Stocking did anime La La Land way better than Hosoda.

My frustration with Scarlet reached a peak with the film's ending. Understand, I have a high tolerance for well-meaning, idealistic liberal cheese. I still love Hamilton! The ending of Carole & Tuesday makes me cry even though I know it's naive! So it means something when the ending of Scarlet just had me thinking, “Oh, COME ON!” I doubt Hosoda actually has the conviction that an extremely basic Hamlet deconstruction equals a solution to the problem of ALL WAR IN THE FUTURE. This stupid ending might have at least been more entertaining if he believed it.

Elsewhere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Satoko Okudera had a new film screening: Japan's official Academy Award submission Kokuho. Kokuho isn't a great film in my estimation (it's way too long), but it has complex, interesting characters and drama that doesn't need to overtly moralize — things Scarlet is seriously missing. I don't know the odds of Okudera and Hosoda running into each other at TIFF, but a reunion needs to happen.