Mamoru Hosoda's Scarlet blends Dante and Shakespeare in animated fantasy

Mamoru Hosoda's anime fantasy Scarlet, premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, will be released in Italian cinemas on February 9, 2026, distributed by Sony Pictures and Eagle Pictures. The film, produced by Studio Chizu, took four years to develop a unique visual style combining hand-drawn animation with 3D digital environments and motion capture for dance sequences. Hosoda, known for Belle, Mirai, Wolf Children, and One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, draws inspiration from Dante's Inferno and Shakespeare's Hamlet, reimagining the afterlife as a suspended time for personal growth rather than a place of judgment. The story follows Princess Scarlet, who seeks vengeance for her father's death but is offered an alternative path by a young nurse from the present. Hosoda emphasizes forgiveness as an antidote to war, contrasting Hamlet's cycle of revenge. The film's stylistic research was influenced by Western works like Arcane and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, pushing beyond traditional anime and CG animation. The director describes the creative process as open-ended, embracing the unfinished.