Suzu Naito

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* Suzu Naito
* Belle

**Suzu Naito** is a 17-year-old high school student who lives in the rural Kōchi prefecture of Japan. Shy and introverted, she is known to the online universe as the beloved digital popstar, **Belle**.

She is voiced by Kaho Nakamura in the Japanese version and by Kylie McNeill in the English dub.

## Biography

When Suzu was young, her mother died attempting to save a child in a river. This caused Suzu to hold resentment in the fact that her mother abandoned her for a stranger's child. Her passion for singing dimmed along with this incident.

Reserved at school, she has her childhood friend and crush, Shinobu Hisatake; popular girl Ruka Watanabe; her sportsman classmate Shinjiro "Kamishin" Chikami; and her computer genius best friend Hiroka Betsuyaku for company. Under Hiro's suggestion, Suzu signs into the popular app "U" that introduces her to an online virtual world. She creates the avatar Bell, and gains confidence in singing again. Growing to stardom overnight, she gained the nickname of "Belle," by her fans, meaning "beautiful" in French. During one of her concerts, she has an encounter with the "Dragon", an avatar who is assumed to wreak havoc in the universe. This leads to the vigilante group led by Justin to launch an attack on the Dragon, in the name of restoring peace. However, Suzu feels intrigued by the Dragon and begins to gather information about him. She discovers that he is popular amongst children, who consider him to be their hero. Suzu enters U as Belle to search for the Dragon while evading Justin. She is led into the Dragon's castle by an angel avatar and finally meets the Dragon. Despite their rocky start, Belle grows closer with the Dragon. Meanwhile, in the real world, Ruka confides to Suzu that she has someone she likes. Since both Ruka and Shinobu are the most popular students at school, Suzu mistakenly believes that Shinobu is the one Ruka likes, until Ruka later clarifies that the one she likes is Kamishin. With Suzu's help, Ruka and Kamishin begin to date.

Back at U, Justin and his group locate the Dragon's castle and destroy it, but fail to capture the Dragon. Since Belle is close with the Dragon, Justin interrogates Belle, threatening to unveil her identity to the whole world if she refuses to cooperate. The Dragon rescues Belle at the last second, saving her from being unveiled before leaving once more. Suzu and Hiro immediately try to find out the Dragon's real identity before Justin can. Suzu is able to find the Dragon's identity, Kei, after hearing his younger brother sing the song that should be known only by her and the Dragon. From the live video, it is revealed that Kei and his brother are being abused by their father. Suzu contacts Kei to help, but Kei does not believe that she is Belle. To earn Kei's trust, Shinobu urges Suzu to sing as herself in U. Following Shinobu's urging, Suzu unveils herself to the whole world in U and begins to sing, gaining support from everyone listening. Watching Belle as Suzu, Kei decides to trust Suzu and tries to contact her again. Unfortunately, Kei's father sees the recorded video of his abuse posted online and immediately cuts off the internet connection before Kei can tell his address to Suzu.

From the recording of the room, Kamishin recognizes the buildings near Kei's hometown in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, nearby Tokyo. Since the authorities cannot act until 48 hours have passed, Suzu quickly rushes to the city by herself to find Kei. Arriving at Kei's hometown, Suzu protects Kei and his brother from their father. Once the situation is settled, Suzu and Kei thank each other for giving them courage. The next day, Suzu returns home, and her father welcomes her at the station. Shinobu praises Suzu for her bravery and decides to stop being her guardian in her mother's place. Finally understanding her mother's actions, Suzu comes to terms with her mother's death and is ready to sing with her friends.

## Trivia

* In an interview, Mamoru Hosoda said, "Just like the beast having a duality, I wanted Belle to also have two sides and focus on how the two sides come to play, ultimately leading to her self-growth".
	+ Hosoda stated to *The Gamer*, "At the start of the film, [Suzu] isn't the heroine, she's quite dark, she's overwhelmed with the trauma of losing her mother. She doesn't believe in herself, and I believe there's a lot of people like that today, including in the online world [...] We're all multifaceted people, and if there was only one world, we would only get to show one side of ourselves, and then maybe we would be born and we would die without anyone ever seeing that side of who we are. But here and in Belle we have two worlds, and that self that's been suppressed or oppressed by the one world has the opportunity to be free in the other. That's the case with Suzu, who doesn't even realise that Belle is inside her. But online, she discovers this other side of herself that helps her grow stronger, and I think that idea applies to so many people".
	+ Of the relationship between Suzu and her father, Hosoda shared, "The absence of a mother in Kei's family and the absence of a mother in Suzu's family, they really do mirror each other. Suzu has this awkward relationship with her father, while Kei has a very bad relationship with his. As a child or a young person watching [*Belle*] you will think the violence and abuse that Kei suffers is truly evil, and it is. But as a father myself, I can kind of imagine myself being that person as an adult. A lot of people watching that will think that it is purely other people's problem, but you could put a foot wrong and that could change your family completely. There's also the relationship with Suzu and her father which, although it's awkward at the end of the film, it's started to be repaired, and they're starting to grow closer together, and that is also possible".

## References

1. ↑ Whitbrook, James (13 January 2022). "*Belle*'s Mamoru Hosoda Tells Us Why He Keeps Making Stories for the Internet Age". *Gizmodo*.
2. ↑ Lee, Michelle and Inuma, Julia (23 September 2021). "In Japan's anime universe, 'Belle' seeks to rewrite script on female power". *Stripes*.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 King, Jade (4 February 2022). "Mamoru Hosoda On Belle, Grief, Female Heroes, And Finding Hope In The Online World". *The Gamer*.