Hello World

I was going to hold this review back, but upon seeing what made it to the forefront of the reviews, I thought some differing opinions could spark conversation. TL;DR Score: 5 - First half good second half bad. Incidentally, you watch Another World AFTER this movie. Story: Most of the problems stem from the flawed and convoluted story. To put it simply, it's split into 2 parts. The first part is a fairly pleasant romance drama. The second part is mostly an action flick with scifi themes. I also don't mean that there are 2 stories, rather that the 1 story really shifts gears halfway throughfollowing a decent plot twist. The first part is actually reminiscent of Orange, although with the key difference that the future MC time travelled instead of a letter. Basically, the future MC aims to hook up present MC with a girlfriend to avoid later tragedy. This is actually pretty good, because the future MC is a very decent character with fun interactions (I'll get back to this later). The pacing is well done because we're always on the edge of our seat to see how the Naomi (the MC) and his future self manage to pull off this unlikely romance. Part of why I say it's good would be because I'm partial to character drama, but even if it wasn't amazing it was still enjoyable. Unfortunately most of this part is retroactively made worse by the fact that most of the plot here doesn't actually make sense when given information from the second part. In addition, most of the events that future Naomi ended up changing weren't necessary at all because they would've happened anyway. The only reason that the ultimate goal ended up being so difficult was because all the previous unnecessary changes pinged the "antivirus". It was still enjoyable in the moment at least. The second part is mostly cheap action scenes with some scifi themes overlayed on it. When I say cheap, I mean that the amount of action scenes is disproportionate to their relevancy to the plot. It just seemed like an excuse for animations, and in my opinion they went on for far too long. This shift in focus was extremely unwelcome to me, personally. The second part also has another plot twist halfway through, but unlike the first twist, it is barely expounded upon and seems likely to confuse the audience unless they do some mental gymnastics. At the very end of the movie they reference that twist again (and failed to explain it again), and by that point most of the audience forgot about the twist because they didn't understand it so they're confused again. As a result the ending is not very satisfying, even as someone who >mostly< understood the twist (I have some grievances with it but I'll assume it makes sense). I saw some other reviews compare the twists to Steins;Gate, and I disagree here not because the twist wasn’t complicated, but because unlike Steins;Gate it establishes the rules, makes a plot twist by breaking the rules and implying the rules were false, and completely fails to properly establish what the true rules were in the end. So basically, it is extremely unforgiving to those who miss clues or such, which is not a good thing. People who are proud of understanding the plot twist should be proud, but that’s not good for a movie that supposed to have widespread appeal. Perhaps they could’ve spent more time on explanations rather than incessant action scenes. Something that perhaps only I didn't enjoy was that the technology was rooted in reality to the extent that I completely failed to suspend disbelief when they begun to stretch it. To try and explain one example without spoiling, for some reason specific data can only be moved but not copied... for some reason... when the data was originally a copy to begin with... Another stretch was the hilariously impractical visual portrayal of the antivirus. Art: It does fairly well when it sticks to 2D animation and some simple 3D animation (like during the romance drama scenes in the first half). When it tried to do more dynamic 3D animation, although sometimes it looks pretty good, it ends up looking atrociously bad at times. I only have the impressions of when I watched it in cinemas, but I remember thinking that some action scenes look like they could've been made in Counterstrike (edit: on rewatch this holds true, although they're sparser than I remember). The overall variable quality of the animation actually did end up detracting from my enjoyment, which I consider to be very unusual considering the fact that this was a movie. Sound: Unfortunately I did not pay too much attention to sound, but it was pretty good and I don't remember any music being used in inappropriate contexts or such. Character: These were good when they were the spotlight of the movie, rather than 3D fight scenes. Naomi is rather generic, but at least he has some personality. Future Naomi's snarky attitude and overbearing nature was actually pretty great. Ruri's personality was sufficient to understand why Naomi would be attracted to her, and they have cute interactions. One thing that I did find fairly amusing was how Ruri, despite having no knowledge of the scifi shenanigans, just completely rolls with everything when being thrown into the deep end during the second half. One characterization moment that I did appreciate was when they showed how Naomi's passive nature affected his everyday life, and later contrasted it with the personality of Ruri. Although perhaps it was a bit on the nose, it worked and was a nice touch. One characterization moment that I didn't appreciate as much was how they developed future Naomi, because he ends up being a bit of a lone wolf character despite the fact that he didn't really need to be and that nothing in his backstory would suggest such a thing. He seems to have very good relations with his coworkers and such, but does not confide anything to them. This had fairly heavy implications on the plot as well. Enjoyment: Although I enjoyed watching the first half, the incessant action scenes and incredibly convoluted nature of the second half drained all the enjoyment out of me. Overall: I gave it a 5, mostly carried by the first half.

Been invited to watch this-- advanced special screening in PH. Oct 28. It's definitely 100% CG but it's not a bad cg. It's a very well made cg, consistent, trippy -- there's so many "inception-ish" going on and I understand why they made the whole thing in cg. - The characters are likeable like they are straight outta tamako market - The sound design is outstanding 10/10 - Story is interesting, some parts are cliche but the plot twist is a bruh moment - art is.. its ajin on steroids Im gonna rewatch it again when it airs here on the 30th. PS: I enjoyed this morethan Weathering with you.

『HELLO WORLD』Movie Review A Sci-Fi Romance Film themed: What if you had the chance to change one important day? A new day that can save the life of the only girl you loved. Will you take the risk and face the dangers and consequences? Synopsis: A man travels in time from the year 2027 to relive his school years and to correct a bad decisions. ~~~ "I just wanted to see her smile again.""Even if the world is destroyed, I want to see you one more time." ~~~ Movie Review: (Non-Spoiler) Story: 9/10 Great and interesting story. Romance: 10/10. At first it was confusing for me, then I realized "You're lucky if you've already watched Steins;Gate" as it's really the best Sci-Fi anime that ever existed. We go back to the movie, since it's a Sci-Fi anime, you would really be confused at first then until there's the time where you'll finally get the flow of the story. I can give it a 10 overall in the story but there were just some cliche scenes. P.S. That plot twist tho. It made me happy and broken-hearted at the same time. Animation: 10/10 MINDBLOWING!! If you're a fan of art or animation scenes then this movie is a must watch for you. There were some aesthetic and realistic sceneries that you'll love to see. The movie is CGI overall. ROYGBIV animation means a lot of RAINBOW colored animation and effects. I get it why they focused on CGI. I loved the animation overall. Sounds: 10/10 The soundtrack is literally great as well as the sound effects. It really syncs with the animation and the scenes Characters: 9/10 Cute and almost similar to KyoAni (the character designer was from Tamako Market/Love Story so basically that's his reference in my opinion). Best character was Naomi the male lead, his character development throughout the movie was amazing but without Ruri the story would be different. Casts: 9/10 Japanese Actors/Actress voicing an anime character is not new to me since I'm an avid fan of them and JDrama as well but I love the way they perform each of their roles especially Tori Matsuzaka who voiced the older Naomi. The chemistry of Minami Hamabe and Takumi Kitamura never changed since their portrayal of "I Want to Eat Your Pancreas" Live Action (I love these two ❤) Enjoyment: 9/10 The movie was not I've expected after watching the trailer several times. It was totally unexpected for me so I really enjoyed the whole movie. I was like, "Ohh, so this movie is something different." Some cute moments etc,. The story, animation, characters, casts and sounds were great overall. ❤❤ Best Sci-Fi Romance anime movie I've seen and watched so far. Don't tell me I made it overrated. To be honest I just really love Sci-Fi anime and then you add or mix it with romance?? Oh my, it's already a bonus ❤ Must-watch for animation lovers especially those who love Sci-Fi a lot. Congrats 🎉 and Thank You ❤ to all the people who were behind in making this wonderful movie. #HelloWorld #HelloWorldPH #ハローワールド

This review contains minor spoilers, wherein I mainly elaborate on aspects of the story covered by the synopsis. Simply put, Hello World is garbage. I could go into an endless stream of comical hyperbole in order to detail this, but I won't waste any time. If you're already familiar with how bad a Mado Nozaki story can be from Babylon or Seikaisuru Kado, don't be. This is much, much worse. Hello World attempts to be a sci-fi romance flick, but unfortunately fails at the latter, and stumbles all over the former. The romance in this film is supposed to be assumed as true, both because our protagonist,Naomi Katagaki, gets roped into having a girlfriend by his future self, and also because it isn't actually developed in any real way aside from a montage of uninteresting events set to a forgettable J-pop song, sandwiched by scenes of cliched romantic tiptoeing. Right after confessing to his future self's girlfriend, Ruri Ichigyou, all romantic development stops and the rest of the film is fully dedicated to the sci-fi aspects of the story, which are just as bad. I'll avoid spoilers, but basically the worldbuilding is conveyed either through long, awkward, and cumbersome scenes of expository dialogue, or through vague, confusing, and contradictory "no actually" moments. This, I assume, is Nozaki's attempts at writing a clever narrative, but instead comes across as two stoner tabletop game DMs having an imagination battle. None of it is truly creative or original, it's just a collision of tropes established by other stories. The characters are bland, trite, and have characteristics that are in opposition of each other. Naomi is introduced as the quiet, meek bookworm, but these aspects of his personality are quickly thrown away because they would hinder the plot progression, and he becomes able to process and adapt to reality shattering events with the same mental fortitude of an Elder Scrolls protagonist, and it's waved away because he's "familiar with sci-fi books", which should again clue you in on how creative the sci-fi aspects of this movie actually are. Ruri is introduced as the quiet, assertive bookworm. This is the part where I'd talk about her, but she actually doesn't do anything. She's like the flag in a game of Capture the Flag, she's an objective, not really a character. If I were to write out all of the dialogue she's given in the film, it probably wouldn't even fill up two pages. This is the main love interest in a romance movie. Future Naomi is introduced as the reliable chad doing everything for his love, but he spends the entire movie getting cucked, sometimes of his own volition, which is quite unfortunate, but also a little funny, because I don't think Nozaki was intentionally going for that. There's no particular reason to subject him to that, he's written to be a sympathetic character, so I can only assume it turned out that way as a result of incompetence. I should also address the visuals. They're not good. The models are pre-shaded CG, meaning the shadows cast on them in scenes don't change naturally. A character will look out of a window and his face will be illuminated by the light streaming in from outside. Whether or not he is properly illuminated in this initial position is a different story, but the real disaster comes when he turns his head away from the window and his face remains fully illuminated. Only when his head is a full 180° away from the window do the shadows awkwardly pop in. This isn't something everyone will notice on a first watch, but once you do notice it, it becomes impossible to not notice, and remains distracting throughout the whole film. Aside from the shading issues, the CG models sometimes use the emotive faces found in a lot of 2D anime, and it always looks strange when they do. There's also various visual design choices which look absolutely hideous. For example, Naomi gets a glove that's an ultra-shiny teal. It looks absolutely disgusting because it has no visual cohesion with anything else in the entire movie, which mainly employs warm tones and then later an unsaturated aesthetic, and it's distracting in every scene that it's in. There's also lots of things with thin, rainbow colored stripes which look equally awful. In summation, this movie is head-to-toe awful (with the exception of sound direction, which was unremarkable), and is a generally terrible experience, far beyond the acceptable range of bad in the phrase, "so bad it's entertaining". Watch at your own peril.

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