Kadokawa Bunko announced that they are going to publish an original novel this summer based on Belle, the yet unreleased film by Mamoru Hosoda. The book will be available in Japan starting on 15 June 2021.
Belle, also known in Japan as The Dragon and the Freckled Princess (竜とそばかすの姫), tells the story of Suzu, a 17-year-old high school student who lives with her father in a depopulated rural town in Kochi. Her mother died in an accident when she was a child, and she has been closed off from the real world because of the trauma she suffered. One day, she joins ‘U’, a huge virtual space on the Internet called ‘Another Reality’, as an avatar named ‘Belle’. With her incomparable singing voice, which she has kept hidden for a long time, Suzu quickly becomes a diva who attracts attention from all over the world. Then she meets a mysterious being who is feared as a ‘dragon’ in ‘U’.
The Belle novel will be hitting Japanese store shelves on 15 June 2021 and will retail for ¥726. As of the time of this writing, there is no announcement of an English release, but if the movie proves a success, I feel an English translation might be on its way.