Over the weekend I watched Belle (2021), directed by Mamoru Hosoda. It is a Japanese animated film that looks at digital identities and the power they hold in escaping the problems of life. It follows a teenager with anxiety around singing in front of others in person due to past family traumas. She is however able to amass an unprecedented level of popularity by singing through her virtual avatar into the “U”(-niverse), a virtual reality that creates one’s avatar based on their “true” self.

The expansiveness of the “U” digital landscape reminded me of “World of Tomorrow”, specifically with the “outernet” and how one can get lost in that setting as well.

There are interesting taglines from the film’s digital universe, like “Live Your Other Life”. It made me wonder how many of us right now are living online personas that are completely different from how we present in face-to-face interactions. We already have the technology to enter virtual reality, but it’d be interesting to imagine if we’d ever get to the point where we could have a total sensory experience within the digital landscape as is presented in Belle.

It is a heartfelt exploration of the different identities we take on around others, and whether we’re strong enough to reveal our “real” self to the ones we cherish most. Belle investigates the line between virtual and physical reality, and definitely is something I would recommend to watch in your spare time! The animation is breathtaking and the soundtrack is spectacular!

Here is the trailer for the movie if you’re interested!

I thought the cover was really fascinating and the title was endearing to me. I instantly had an inkling on what the story would entail before having read that, and I think that works in its favor. I haven’t had any experience going through bookstores so it was a bit of an overwhelming search, but there was a whimsical nature to the cover of Thrice Upon A Time so I just had to learn more about it.

In the barest of bones, it’s a story about time travel and exploring its potential limitations and consequences. Time travel is done through sending messages to the past, which then affect the present reality. There are also themes of this mechanism of time travel being controlled by the government and higher forms of power, and how these scientists stumble upon a machine they don’t understand the potential it holds until later in the story.

I would categorize this story as Hard SF, as it primarily uses theoretical mathematics and quantum physics to explain the mechanisms behind the technology used. There were a lot of pages dedicated strictly to theorizing how time travel would even work, and touched on the multiverse as it relates to infinite branching timelines. It also goes without saying that the story is about time travel, and looking at all the different ways things can be altered in these different timelines. I’m not usually a fan of Hard SF, but I could appreciate the amount of thought and care that went into developing this world and the technology. There are also subplots revolving around free will. This primarily relates to the relationships between the characters and whether they’d still come to fruition or end if the timelines weren’t altered by the messages.

I think there was way too much exposition, it was very hard to get through because a lot of the pages were going over the setting and the geography of each location which took me out of the story often. Most of the plot could honestly be taken out, I think the main draw of the story was how it explores relationships affected by timelines. The politics and the overarching bureaucracy, along with the vaccine & virus stuff wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t think it added to the story either, because the science behind it didn’t feel realistic to me. There also seemed to be significantly less effort put towards fleshing out the other sciences in this story unrelated to time travel. However, this point towards the plot might be biased because of my affinity towards soft SF and fantasy genres. This isn’t to say that the way James P. Hogan wrote this was necessarily bad, but the stakes felt higher for the relationships in the story, rather than the world succumbing to the deadly illness. I think the message it has about love is surprisingly optimistic, as it seems to validate fate as a force in the universe. Certain characters always find a way back to each other regardless of the timeline alterations. This personally aligns with my view of the world so it’s cool to see it affirmed in text that was written decades ago.

I’d recommend it to anyone interested in time travel as a genre, it’s a really interesting thought experiment the way it deals with timeline manipulation, as well as separate timelines. If you’re a hopeless romantic I would also recommend this story because it handles love in a really cute way!

Works Cited:

Hogan, James. Thrice Upon A Time. New York: Ballantine Books, 1980.

(Tyrese Duncan-Moore)