Scarlet, the latest anime film by Mamoru Hosoda (Belle, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), is playing in theaters now. The film, which reimagines William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, follows a recently deceased princess battling endlessly in limbo to enact revenge on those who murdered her kingly father. Scarlet has an added isekai-adjacent spin when she meets a modern-day medic who’s been spirited away with her, leading the two on a brutal journey where revenge clashes with dreams of living a life filled with peace.
io9 spoke with Hosoda about what inspired him to make such a fantastical chimera of a film, how Scarlet fits into his growing body of work, and what he hopes Studio Chizu‘s movie will inspire audiences to feel in a world trapped in cycles of revenge as relentless as its titular princess.
Isaiah Colbert, io9: What convinced you that Hamlet—a timeless story defined by agency, a brush of romance, and tragedy—could live inside the world of an isekai?
Mamoru Hosoda: At the core of Hamlet lies the question: “How should I live?” What defines the play is the introspection and decision of an individual when confronted with a harsh fate. By placing the protagonist in an otherworldly realm (or isekai), a symbolic space where the ordinary rules of daily life no longer apply, the themes of loneliness and inner conflict become more visible. It was precisely because an isekai blurs the boundary between life and death that I realized it could depict with mythical sense, the important question that young people today carry: “How should I live?”
io9: Was there a single image, scene, or emotional question that unlocked the entire concept of the film for you while developing it?
Hosoda: Soon after the pandemic ended, conflicts around the world began to increase. After this happened, I felt a strong sense of crisis over our inability to halt this cycle of retaliation. In a world full of despair, where does a person forgive the pain they have suffered? How can the chain of retaliation, a chain or revenge, be stopped?
As I have a daughter who is now 10 years old, I found myself wishing that when she grows up, she will live in a world where she will grow up healthy and live freely. This is a story is, in a sense, a wish for the future for my daughter and for the next generation living in this unstable world.
io9: Did any part of the idea feel creatively dangerous to you, or was it an exciting challenge?
Hosoda: To retell such a monumental classic within the framework of an alternate world was an extremely stimulating challenge. It wasn’t just about adaptation, but how to breathe the nuances of the current times within the story. While believing in the universal message of the classic story, the process of deconstructing and reconstructing it carried a constant tension which required a delicate balance.
© Studio Chizu
io9: What element of Hamlet did you refuse to compromise on, even as you reshaped the narrative into something wholly your own? And what did you feel free—maybe even obligated—to disregard in making Scarlet?
Hosoda: Hamlet is often described as “a man who cannot act,” but the aspect I chose to respect the most was precisely that hesitation, that psyche caught between revenge and self-respect. Stemming from my respect for the story, I wanted to portray a second chance at life beyond revenge, to pay homage to the classic work.
The major change I made concerns the role of the father. In Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet tells his son, “Do not forgive.” In Scarlet, however, Amleth tells his daughter Scarlet, “Forgive.” I believe this change is the very answer to the proposition presented in the classic play, a crucial response that is highly relevant in our present time.
© Studio Chizu
io9: One key difference and a stark selling point for Scarlet is the visual of its female heroine in a white dress, wielding a blade and surrounded by red carcasses, giving the film a visual style akin to what video game fans might see in dark fantasy series like Dark Souls. What was your source of inspiration for the warrior aesthetic of Scarlet?
Hosoda: What I visualized depicting [is] a symbol. The color white represents not only purity but also mourning and boundaries. I felt that a white dress was appropriate for someone standing at the boundary where life and death, this world and the afterlife, coexist. The image of red corpses is not only representative of cruelty, but they are a visualization of the chain born from vengeance. Holding a sword is both a declaration of strength and an expression of the pain of trying to sever something that cannot easily be severed by one’s own hand. Instead of making her appear merely as a strong warrior, I wanted to create an image in which contradictory emotions coexist.
© Studio Chizu
io9: You’ve often explored adolescence, identity, and romance in digital or fantastical worlds. What did you learn from your past films that helped you avoid repeating yourself here?
Hosoda: The concept of inescapable loneliness that those of us living in the modern world carry was projected onto Scarlet, one who is placed within the unique environment of royalty. By having audiences feel her circumstances as their own, I wanted to depict the courage to stand on one’s own, to live with loneliness, and to proactively choose one’s own path in life.
io9: Was there a moment where you realized you had to unlearn something from your earlier work to make Scarlet function on its own terms?
Hosoda: I always aim to create a new film. I’m constantly thinking about making something that is interesting and different from my previous works. However, the idea that family bonds play an important role in shaping an individual’s transformation is a theme I continue to explore. That remains true in this film as well.
io9: When you look at Scarlet alongside your past work, what do you think it adds to the ongoing conversation you’ve been having with your audience about identity, choice, and transformation?
Hosoda: What is most important in this film is that it portrays Scarlet’s inner transformation. At the beginning of the story, she sets out on her journey with revenge as her sole purpose in life. She believes that there are no other choices available for her life besides revenge. Yet during her travels, she meets a Japanese nurse named Hijiri, and little by little, without a doubt, that conviction begins to waver. Eventually, she is forced to confront questions such as, “What kind of life do I truly want?” and “Is revenge truly the final goal?” The process of a person who could only see nothing but revenge awakening to the possibility of life beyond it, that is the most crucial part of this film.
© Studio Chizu
io9: What do you hope audiences recognize as uniquely “Hosoda” in Scarlet after watching the film—and what do you hope surprises them?
Hosoda: What I would like people to recognize as “Hosoda-like” is that in the end, what I always depict is the moment when a person chooses their own path in life. No large-scale events, but a small decision made with the heart. That will never change.
io9: If someone unfamiliar with Shakespeare or isekai anime watches Scarlet, what emotional truth do you most want them to walk away with?
Hosoda: In the world we live in today, cycles of retaliation and conflict may seem impossible to break, and many people have resigned themselves to the idea that “this is simply human nature.” Everyone wishes for peace, yet wars do not end. But if there truly is a moment when conflict ceases, it may not come from grand slogans or political messages. It may begin quietly, when each person quietly realizes, “My life matters more than revenge.” How do you want to live? How do I choose my own life? When that small shift in each individual’s consciousness accumulates, perhaps even large conflicts may gradually begin to change form. What Scarlet depicts is precisely that kind of change, “a transformation that occurs on the level of the individuals.”
It is not the story of a hero who saves the world at once but of a single girl who chooses to reclaim a life not defined by revenge. I would be delighted if those watching the film can feel that decisive moment of choice as a choice of their own.
Scarlet is playing in theaters and IMAX.
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