Hal

What constitutes true love? The answer is simple. Working towards understanding one another and growing closer to each other through the process. Hal is not your typical romance show, but instead, strays from the norm by bringing touching on the post-romance theme, which seems to be taboo in anime nowadays. [POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW: I have refrained from spoilers as much as possible. Read at your own risk.] Story & Setting The setting of the story is slightly into the future, where robots and other more advanced electronics are common place. In a mere hour, HAL demonstrates the cycle of what was a regular relationship turned bad through thedeath of one of the two young love birds. The story centers around the main character, a robot who now takes on the face and role of Haru, as he tries to reach out to Kurumi, the latter whom has given up the will to live upon the passing of the original Haru. A touching story, astonishingly full of emotions despite its short length. Animation The animation is relatively detailed, creating beautiful environments and bringing out the various emotions belonging to each scene. In particular, water appears to be a main focus of the show with it being used in various ways throughout. Sound The background music acts as a great way to pull the audience deeper into the story, creating gripping scenes which do nothing but cause you to gasp in shock or smile along with the characters. The generally gentle music in addition fits very well with the theme of comfort and trying to regain the will to live. Characters In this short span of time, a great deal of focus has been successfully put into showing the relationship between the characters. Haru, the robot desperate to learn more about Kurumi to cheer her up and Kurumi, the grief stricken ex-girlfriend who wants nothing more than to go back to the time when she and Haru were together. I had expected the characters to be rather shallow due to the time constraints of the movie but was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case, but rather, the opposite of what the anime managed to convey. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this movie as though rather short and could possibly be considered rushed, it still manages to very effectively make me feel along with the character and associate with their feelings. Though some things were left unexplained, in particular some parts from the start, it became apparent later on through self deduction as other truths were revealed throughout the anime. Definitely a good watch and all in all, a rather spectacular piece of work. [AFTERWORD: Thank you for taking time to read this review. Please do give any comments of which I could learn from and improve on for any reviews I might do in the future!]

HAL review This movie was a total disappointment in both characters and story aspects .The concept and idea was good but the execution and rushed pace made it worse. The story is about losing a person who is dear to you and the movie portrays the human drama behind that loss. The only problem is the execution of the plot and character interaction. The rushed pace that the movie uses , instead of making the viewer accommodate with the story and characters , all of the emotions and drama is lost on the way leaving no impact or message. The characters are poorly written , wecan’t get to know them and understand their sufferings because the movie doesn’t tell us nothing about them. They are thrown into our faces and used as plot devices for the progression of the story. For example the relation between HAL and Kurumi who is the main focus in the movie , the execution and the way it’s delivered as a human drama aspect for the viewer, fails it’s expectations and potential.This happens because the movie doesn’t explore the characters background story enough, we are shown only pieces of the puzzle but those pieces are not entirely connected to the story or serve a purpose for the human drama theme. The transition between different aspects of the human drama is rushed and all of the emotions is lost . For example when HAL tries to help Kurumi and cheers her up , the anime doesn’t take a natural pace to form a bond between those two instead all happens in a instant and we are left with a lot of questions and a sour taste of disappointment. In conclusion I was disappointed in the execution of the story and plot because of the rushed pace, the poorly written characters who I couldn’t get to know them well both on story and emotional state , a lot of unexplained plot holes and finally the focus on the human drama aspect that lacked a strong impact and message to me as a viewer. Overall 4/10

Hal is a love story between a robot and a human. Kurumi had lost her lover, Hal, in a plane explosion. Since then, she had shut herself in due to depression. A doctor (and friend of Kurumi's), along with Hal's grandfather, get a robot to help Kurumi. The robot takes Hal's place, in appearance and name, and goes to reach out to Kurumi and hope to reforge a relationship between Hal and Kurumi. The art, done at Wit Studio (known now for Attack on Titan) is phenomenal in this movie (as you can see in the image). The scenery, the character design, and pretty much everything(especially the water) is beautiful in art and design. Kudos to you Wit Studio. Next up is characters. The characters in this were so lovable and genuine that you can't help but get attached. I don't know I mean there's not much else to say other than I loved the characters. Just to make a longer segment I'll put music here too. The music was fantastic and really sets a mood (as music should) that engulfs you into the story. Again... not much else to say there. Themes and Messages. The overall themes were really driven and important here. Things like "can you teach a robot to love" and "can you ever understand someone else's emotions" come into play and are really driven home hard. Along with a recurring motif of Rubiks Cube Wishes (what those are is that you write a wish on a Rubiks cube and if you solve it that wish will come true). You'll walk out of this movie asking a lot of questions like this, and maybe even have an existential crisis, like I did (even more than with Evangelion). The dub quality (I watched it dubbed) was amazing. Funimation does it again with a fantastic dub. That's all there is to say here. And lastly, the story. What could easily be the best part of the movie. Having only 60 minutes to deliver a story so powerful, so amazing, and so thought-provoking is truly a feat to be amazed at. I'm still in awe about everything in the movie, and the ending will have you thinking about this movie for quite some time (seriously, I'm even going to have to rewatch it). Now for the scores... Art: A Characters: A Music: A Themes: A Dub Quality: A Story: A++ Overall: 10/10 All I can say is that Hal is nothing short of a masterpiece, and all in the course of 60 minutes.

(1:30mins QUICK AND SPOILER FREE REVIEW! - Because your time matters to me) I really enjoyed the synopsis when I read it for the first time: a girl called Kurumi loses her boyfriend on a plane crash but thanks to incredible robotic technology, she gets a robot identical to her boyfriend. The goal here is to Kurumi to find the confort and love that she once felt. Knowing this, the question that you're probably thinking is: How can both Kurumi and the robot (Hal) grow their relationship? How can they find love when one is a robot and the other had gone through such a tragicexperience as losing her boyfriend in a terrible accident? Now that's what makes you want to watch this movie. Only that it wasn't something like that. I consider myself a romantic guy but I didn't "aww" even once in this movie. Almost no time was given between Hal and Kurumi to develop feelings for one another. The movie was mainly Hal doing random stuff with people from the village. Such a disaster. Oh, what a great word to describe this movie: a disaster. I didn't give a lower score because the Sound was good enough and the Art was on point, kinda like a better version of Ao haru Ride's art for those that know that anime. That's what saved this movie. There was a good twist at the nearly end of the movie that really got my attention. Here again, I saw some potential. And then it faded away. They did nothing significant with this twist. If you tolerate lackness of story and just wish to watch something quick (1h), go for it. But if you're expecting something good from this movie, don't be. I find it very difficult to agree with other reviewers on this. This is just lost potential at it's best.