Harmony

Quickly said Harmony is a pretty boring movie about a person traveling around the world, being infodumped by every character she meets while trying to solve a case she's working on.
There's lots of philosophical themes in the movie, many of which go nowhere and aren't really explored beyond talking about them.
It's great material if you're an over thinker and actual like sitting on your ass for two hours while boring characters read textbooks to you.
Note that the rest of the review can contain spoilers.

-Presentation (Visuals & Sound).
I was actually kind of surprised at how they seamlessly connect the CGI and the hand drawn characters at ... some points.
It was good to see some CGI that didn't just appear awkward.
Of course the CGI still sticks out at points, but at other times I found myself questioning if the character in front of me was hand drawn or a model.
It can look a bit cheap the way they just spin the camera around the characters when nothing other visually interesting is happening on screen, but when it want's to look good it looks really good.

I heard that EGOIST is the theme song performer, which makes sense because there is only one memorable song in the entire movie, the others would fit into any generic Science fiction story, or any generic action scene.
I didn't actually notice that much music in the Movie.

-Story & Characters.
Harmony is a movie that tries way too hard too seem deep and meaningful by essentially quoting philosophy textbooks and telling some of the story through flashbacks and heavy internal monologues.

Every character in the movie exist either to infodump the MC and the viewer or to be infodumped to by other characters, which immediately after they either disappear from the movie and aren't brought back again or die.
The story itself is nothing new, a "utopian future", in which everyone is in strict control of the government, this seems to be a rising trend in current settings.
And you're supposed to question if it is right to control people if they're happy and such.
The plot is almost exclusively told through dull infodumps in dialogue scenes, flashbacks and internal monologues.

There is a little attempted symbolism but it's mostly so blatant that I question why its even there.
Despite the constant infodumping and terminology, very little actually happens on screen in this movie, and everything is resolved quite hastily at the very end.
The movie tried very hard to be deep, but was scared that if they didn't tell the viewer absolutely everything they might not understand the movie.
If you have seen a movie in forever you already know all the possible "twists" it could throw your way already.

There were no interesting characters in the entire movie, the closest we get to that is our main character's friend Miach, appears throughout the movie in flashbacks, her character is that she is 15, very edgy and has a lesbian relationship with Tuan, the main character.

Speaking of Tuan, she has very little personality and mostly works as the eyes, or rather the ears for the viewer.
The most interesting thing about her character is that she's kind of good at fighting with guns.
She almost seems to be stuck in some kind of a video game dialogue tree, where if a character presents a plot point or an unconnected philosophical theme she can only say
"tell me more" "tell me more".

Every single other character exists to either infodump or die.
Forget character development, even establishing basic quirks was too much for this movie.
And I wouldn't complain so much about the characters if the story was halfway decent, or even interestingly told, but it's not.

-Final thoughts.
I don't hate the movie despite the way this review might sound like, it was just extremely boring and told almost only though exposition.
Especially the characters were dull.
The visuals were actually pretty good and there's one song that I actually liked, but that isn't even close to redeeming this movie.
I can't really even recommend Harmony as a popcorn flick, it has far too few action scenes for that.
You honestly miss nothing by skipping this one.

Update: Post-review thoughts.
After making this review I noticed it was directed by Michael Arias, a non-Japanese person working in the anime industry.
This made me interested the other movie he directed, Tekkon Kinkreet which is a much better movie and I would recommend it over this one.
I do like this Arias as a director, but he was clearly held back by the source material here.

Speaking of the source material, something I forgot to mention is that some things in this movie can actually be explained by just saying "because it looks cool".
Why is everything pink?
Why is there a random sunflower farm in the middle of the desert?
why do people dress weirdly in the future?
It's not a bad thing to include cool stuff in your movie of course, but here it also doesn't really add to the themes or the story either.

Okay, here we go. Hmm, there will be minor spoilers, but I think it won't hurt anyone who haven't watched it (most of it are already in the synopsis).

Story (8/10)
I have to admit that Harmony give us an interesting concept of a futuristic world. In Harmony, humans has advanced to the level that they have defeated disease and aging. A system called 'Watch Me' also guide humans to have a perfect healthy life and follow the social ethics (well, you'll see more feature of this system by watching the movie). The only minus of this 'Watch Me' is your life can be watched by the ... government.

Life with no disease and death is amazing right? It's heaven. Well, for most peole that is. Being watched and trapped by system made Miach, a friend of Tuan Kirie(our protagnist), felt that she lost her identity and freedom. Finally, Miach along with Kirie and one of her friend decided to commit suicide. Tuan was saved, but Miach was reported dead.

13 years later, Tuan becomes Inspector of Spiral (watched from Indonesian subtitle, don't really know the name in English, well, some kind of top world organization that manage world order or something). While being off duty and once again back in Japan, a sudden mass suicide incident that robbed thousands of humans life happened. How could this incident happen in a supposedly perfect society? Is there a connection between this incident and Miach's suicide incident? Once again, Tuan will have to face her buried past and put an end to it.

I have to remind the watcher that this movie has many complex dialogues and the pace is rather slow. That aside, this movie brings us an interesting world and questions what does it mean to be human and explores a complex mind of a human in an interesting way. The movie also managed to serve a mysterious atmosphere that might please people who loves a mystery sci-fi films.

Characters (8/10)
Harmony mostly explore the character of Tuan Kirie, our main protagonist. The movie is seen from Tuan's perspective, and there are a lot of monologues. We rarely get a clear picture of other characters except for one. Tuan's way of thinking and mental conflict is presented well as we can see from her monologues and flashback.

Something that could be praised from Harmony is that the movie managed to give a complex and interesting characterization of Miach from Tuan's flashback and monologues. We see how complex Miach's logic is from her old conversation with Tuan. The movie also built the background of Miach rather well and we can see why Miach developed that strange logic.

Art & Sound (8/10 & 7/10)
I usually don't pay much attention to the animation/art and sound so I'll keep this short. I like the characters design and the shape of the futuristic world. Eventhough sometimes the people on the anime sometimes replaced with CG animation, the movie still looks very good. The BGM managed to build a mysterious atmosphere along the film, but unfortunately there are almost no music that builds an intense situation. Oh, and if you're a fan of Sawashiro Miyuki you're very welcome to watch this show.

Enjoyment (7.5/10)
Seeing the score of Harmony movie is 6.96 on MAL made me doubt the quality of the movie. Even so I tried to watch it and before I knew it I was glued in front of the screen. I'd say my enjoyment is 7.5/10. Could be higher but I'm not really fond of the ending haha.

Overall, 8/10. This movie has flaws and people have different opinions. Still, I hope my review would be helpful to you.

"Day by day the world becomes a healthier, safer, more beautiful and wholesome place"

I honestly don’t know how to even start this. Harmony is the second in a series of [unrelated] films based on the works of Japanese science-fiction writer, Satoshi Itoh (Also known as Project Itoh). This particular piece hones in on the life of Tuan Kirie several years after she attempts suicide alongside two of her friends, Miach and Cian. Harmony is set in a world ruled by technology — where nanomachines are implanted in children at birth in order to “preserve” their lives under the pretenses of health and safety. Miach is ... one of the very few who detests this world. So much so that she manages to coerce Tuan and Cian into taking their lives alongside her in an effort to demonstrate true free-will. However, Tuan and Cian ultimately fail the attempt and time continues to tick forward without Miach.

But not for long.

After being dismissed from active duty as a peacekeeper/investigator for the new government, Tuan returns home to Japan — a nation she has grown to despise since the passing of her best friend. Upon her arrival back at home, she meets up with Cian, who seems to have made a pretty decent life for herself. She has a job, does volunteer work, and she’s staying happy (Though that last part is a given considering the new, augmented world basically forces you into happiness). This is where things take off. Tuan and Cian go out to dinner at a restaurant near Cian’s place, where she brutally stabs herself to death in front of Tuan and the rest of the restaurant. It is then revealed that Cian is not the only civilian to abruptly commit suicide, but that the death toll has climbed high into the thousands. Now, keep in mind, this is all set in a world taking every possible precaution to limit death. In fact, death is so seldom in this utopia that most people go their entire lives without witnessing it. After investigating the issue further, Tuan starts to uncover a trail of shadows that all wind up tying back to Miach. Eventually, Tuan begins to question whether or not her old friend is actually dead.

I’m going to cut myself off from detailing any more of the plot here. Harmony is able to pack so much into it that I would probably be able to write a twenty-page thesis paper on the damn thing. But, the thing is, that is exactly what makes the film so alluring. Even though so much expository information is constantly being thrown at you, the pacing of the film is somehow able to take that and wind it down, never moving too fast for the audience to comprehend. The exposition (Which is extremely prevalent in a series of flashbacks and monologues that slowly zoom in on Tuan’s face) goes on to take up the vast majority of the film. There is not one point in Harmony where you stop learning about the characters or the world they live in. It’s a sort of snowball effect. Initially, all of the background information is simply just character-detailing of Miach and how she was the sole, beautiful mind in a sea of robotized humans. Miach becomes a sort of a philosopher and figurehead for revolution to Tuan and Cian. Each and every flashback illustrates this almost flawlessly.

There is not a single moment of joy in Harmony. Each and every scene is packed to the brim with an encroaching darkness that consumes the tone of the film and directly opposes the idea of the displayed “Utopia”. This new world, which is supposed to be the complete vision of perfection, never seems even relatively close to that.

On a thematic level, Harmony surpasses almost everything else I’ve seen. This is one of the most philosophic movies of the last several decades. Flashback after flashback — Harmony literally bombards you with ideas that make you question the progression of society, science, the human subconscious, sexuality, and everything else from every side of every spectrum. In fact, Harmony makes you question so much that even the idea of happiness becomes clouded. Halfway through, I found myself asking, “What does it even mean to actually be happy?” Almost all of this stems from the mind of Miach, who goes on to be a tragic symbol of diminishing free-will in a world that has forgotten what it means to be alive.

Another interesting thing about harmony is that even though the story is one of the most descriptive, developed ones in animated film, it remains entirely composed and organized the whole time. The plot moves in a straight line and never even thinks about deviating from its path. The EVEN MORE interesting part is how the art of the film directly contradicts the linearity of the story and moves in an unpredictable, sporadic pattern. Bouncing back and forth between 2D and 3D, Harmony’s spontaneity keeps our minds active and focused on how truly twisted the world we’re seeing is. It’s less of a visual experience and more of an aid to storytelling. Don’t get me wrong, the animation is absolutely stunning, but that isn’t what’s important. We’re supposed to be questioning reality in this film. The art just serves as another means of making us do that.

While the visuals remain enchanting, the true allure of Harmony lies in the relationship between Tuan and Miach. Starting off as just friends to the viewer, it quickly becomes apparent that the two are so much more than that. And that isn’t me just saying, “Oh, they’re totally in love and stuff too” It’s me saying that these two characters only exist because of one another. For Tuan, Miach is the rock that keeps her grounded and questioning the world around her. She is a symbol of freedom and beauty that can’t be paralleled by anything else. For Miach, Tuan is a sort of “saving grace” in a world that has forsaken her. She is the first person to listen to her innermost thoughts and actually understand them. The two work off of each other to the point where, without their connection, there wouldn’t be any movie in the first place. The great thing is, this is all enforced through phenomenal chemistry between Monica Rial and Jamie Marchi (Yes, I watched the dub. Bite me.)

I’m going to be frank here — this is the best performance of Monica Rial’s career. And considering she’s been in a good six million different shows by now, that’s saying a lot. To put it in Hollywood terms, this would be her Oscar role. I’ve loved Rial as an actress for a long time, but her performance as Miach literally brought the character to life. Miach felt real. She wasn’t just some cute, overly-intellectual girl dancing across the screen anymore — she was human. Rial wasn’t the only one showing off her acting chops, though. Both Marchi and Brittney Karbowski got a chance to shine in this as well. I haven’t [yet] heard the Japanese-dubbed version of this film, but Jamie Marchi fit the image of Tuan perfectly. I honestly couldn’t imagine the character being voiced by anyone else after having watched the film. Karbowski, on the other hand…well I just have a crush on her so I’m going to rave about her performance no matter what she does. No, but really, Cian’s voice was spot-on as well. Her suicide scene contained some of the most immersive, jaw-dropping acting I’ve heard in quite a while. That being said, all three main actors combined to form a cast that was nothing short of phenomenal. I have to give props to Christopher Bevins as well for his excellent ADR direction of the film. Bevins was really able to bring out the best of each actress.

Harmony isn’t like other animated movies. It’s sporadic, terrifying, and filled with a burning sense of dread. At the same time, though, it’s thought-provoking, meticulous, and important. There is just so much that can be taken from this film. It’s a textbook example of Shakespeare’s image of tragedy. Miach and Tuan’s relationship is one of the most endearing ones I have ever encountered. The only thing that could distract viewers from the near perfection of Harmony is the film’s tendency to become overly-wordy at parts. But even that can be overlooked when you take into account just how much of an impact the film makes as a whole.

In Summary:
Immensely philosophical and beautifully animated, Harmony dives into a plethora of societal themes that deeply parallel and satirize every day human life. Focusing just as much on setting the stage of its thought-provoking utopia as exploring the story of a young girl’s twisted image of the world, Harmony raises many questions on the ideas of free will, morality, and much more. The film’s pitch darkness is laced with a silence that goes on to create a truly unsettling, yet overall astonishing experience backed by powerful acting from Monica Rial and Jamie Marchi.

I'll be honest: The things which drew me straight away to this show were the Music (Egoist), the crystal-clear Art, and the outstanding Characters.

|Some shallow spoilers, not for the light-of-light-hearted|

As a spiritual person, I delighted in the fact that the story revolved around consciousness. On one end was the vigorous yet timid Tuan Kirie, and on the other was the beautiful, smart Miach Mihie. It wasn't clear who the bad guys were, and who the good guys were until the very end. The only plot that we could hang onto, was the time when both Tuan and Miach were together. Miach would sing and dance, ... without the slightest trace of imperfection, while Kirie would watch, fascinated, by the 15-year-old who seemed to transcend the very essence of being human.

The setting takes place in a utopian society, where everyone is mutually co-operative with one another. No one is left out; everyone cares for each other even when there is no logical reason to do so. The color of the architecture - pink - resembles and mirrors this. However, not everyone can comfortably agree with the relinquishment of their individuality. Especially Miach.

When Tuan and Miach were still together, she would often jokingly mention that she could with the slightest of intention, kill over 50,000 people with the tampering of the WatchMe lifesystem. Miach would continually express ideas of solitude and isolation as though it was ideal and perfect. But because of her innocence while doing so, Tuan simply would listen without reacting. Miach at one point decided to reveal her plan, the one way she believed could change and wake up society - suicide.

As you can probably figure out, Tuan is centered as the protoganist, with no sight of Miach around. With so much of Miach's idealism and friendship influencing her from her past, and the hardships of modern-day Japan overwhelming her in the present, Kirie escapes from her 'duties' to figure out who she is and where she stands. Eventually, she is discovered not doing her job, and is recalled back to her home, Japan. As she steps back into the utopian, pleasing society she tried to escape, events take a downward turn into not just a possibly unfavourable scenario, but way into her past as well.

The plot is unmasked, bit by bit, in a well-timed manner; always keeping you on your toes. You never find yourself bored. Sound is executed almost flawlessly in every scene. But probably the most inspiritational point of the movie is the personalities of each character, which are just oozing with atmosphere and rich stories. Cons do exist however, such as the ending, which lets just say wasn't what I expected. Also, even though the music was absolutely amazing, it wasn't perectly timed to fit the scene.

All in all, I would say, watch it. If you have even the slightest interest in it, Project Itoh would probably be worth your time.

TLDR; In it's eagerness to explore psychological themes and present it's world, it forgot to do the most important thing: Making you give a shit. If you like this movie (all the more power to you), what you liked was the psychological aspect. Unfortunately, what you like is a case study, not a movie.

Simply exploring psychological themes can't carry a movie. Whatever psychological theme you're trying to explore, it's been done before. To be a movie, you need a story with three acts and a solid cast of characters. This fails in both regards.

CHARACTERS AND STORY:

There is only one scene in the entire movie that ... utterly captivated me. It shows, through their point of view, one person being controlled to kill himself. It was so cool to watch him try to stop himself from hanging himself, only to be forced to follow through in the end. You know why it was such a good scene? Because it showed us how terrible this incident was instead of telling us about it. This is the only scene in the movie that followed that golden rule.

This show falls into the exact same issue that plagues most of its kin: talking about things instead of showing and forgetting to actually present characters in the process. They're too scared that you don't understand, so they insult our intelligence by filling every scene with dialogue to explain everything, not letting us work things out ourselves.

You know a movie's fucked up when you're 40 minutes in and you suddenly realize that you can't remember what the main character's name is. She's not a character. She's a plot device. An excuse the writers use to keep other characters dropping exposition.

She travels around the world, meeting multiple characters who fill their screentime with history and psychological lessons, often with quotes from real psychological textbooks, with very little relevant information to the plot. This is the entire middle act. And since almost all of their dialogue is pointless, the middle act is effectively missing in terms of plot progression.

A majority of Tuan's dialogue (that's the main character's name, by the way) are questions that serve as excuses for more speeches. The only time she has anything resembling emotions is during her final confrontation with Miach, but unfortunately, this climactic moment didn't affect me at all because I had zero commitment to any of them. Forget character development, this movie failed to establish basic traits. That is the only thing worse than cliches.

Her driving force is to find out what's causing the suicides, but the biggest joke here is that most of the information she gathers from the people she interview have absolutely nothing related to her investigation. The plot is nothing more than an excuse for more world building and psychological 'debates'.

Miach is the only remotely interesting character due to her views, but how are her views expressed? Through multiple flashbacks and speeches detailing exactly what her views are in excruciating detail, while she's doing some random shit in the background, of course. Look! She's on a swing! Now she's playing a piano! Now she's lighting and putting out a match! Now she's twirling around!

She doesn't stop with the random shit or speeches when she pops up in the present, either. Why is she just doing random shit? I guess because they figured that sitting still would make the scene boring, but they couldn't figure out what the hell would makes sense in context. I'm sure someone out there will tell me it has meaning, and I want to tell them here, bollocks to that.

Here's the kicker. Miach's psychological condition is rather easily explained. Trauma from her childhood led her to develop a hatred towards anything she deems is trying to control her. That's it. And since she's the driving force behind the entire plot, every single psychological talk about other conditions the characters have is utterly pointless to the story. 60% of this movie could have been cut out.

The most baffling thing about thing about this movie is that it dedicates flashbacks exclusively to exposition, yet it decides to forego flashbacks for anything that actually seems interesting. People talk a lot about the Maelstrom, a terrible thing that happened 50 years ago that apparently led to the society today, but we don't get to actually see exactly what it was. We just get told that "Yes, it was pretty bad. Take us on our word."

Spouting psychology does not make a character. A character makes a character. I dare you to remember any personality traits of anybody other than Miach after you're done with this movie. You won't.

I didn't give a crap when the plot 'picked up' either. There was nothing to care about. A running theme in this movie.

ART AND SOUND:

These are the only undeniably good things about this movie. 'nuff said. However, there are way too many pretentious scenes that are useless, but solely exist to make the movie seem deeper than it actually is. I didn't know whether to dock points from story or art for that, so naturally, I deducted from both. Seems fair.

I don't mind CGI. I grew up on CGI. When it's done well, it's on par with drawn animation, and sometimes surpasses it in some areas, like having fluid, choreographed fights while drawn animation is stuck with spamming big impact attacks. This is done alright.

Why on Earth is every city unicolor, though? Is there a reason? A "symbol" of something? A distracting way to conserve budget? I think it's the third one.

ENJOYMENT: The most entertaining thing about this movie is how hard the camera tries to make every scene interesting. Seriously, it's doing everything it can. It uses wide angle rotating shots, perspective changes to spice things up, and numerous dramatic zoom-ins during tense moments. Camera is the real MVP.

The word I've been hearing regarding Harmony has been very mixed, but the general consensus is that if you enjoyed Empire of Corpses, you'll most likely hate it. And if you didn't like the latter, you'd be more open to Harmony's more dialogue-driven narrative. Of course, the people who hate both are pretty numerous in of itself, but the point is that these movies are splitting people which makes them interesting to talk about, so I couldn't help but jump on watching these for review when I got the chance to. Although I am jealous that Bobduh gets to see them even earlier, and incidentally, ... yes I do know he already reviewed these films before I did and if he can't get more people to watch them, I sure can't. But whatever, I want to write about these movies, so let's get to it.

Harmony is a movie set in a futuristic time period where a healing program called MediCare (although I think it was called something else in the dub, but I can't verify that right now) is installed in all citizens of the world in order to regulate their health in order to let them live to be over ninety as a solution to all the wars and disease that caused the United States to go under. However, this does not go over well with three girls: Miach, Tuan, and Cian, who think that by regulating their right to eat fast food whenever they want or live like a gangster or whatever goes on in a young girl's head, they're destroying their right to be human. The three form a suicide pact, although only Miach goes through with it and Tuan ends up working as an officer for the government she hates for restricting her free will, taking jobs in third-world countries where the government's monitoring through MediCare isn't as restrictive and thus she can perform actions however she chooses. However, when Cian and a bunch of other people around the world end up committing suicide thanks to an unknown terrorist manipulating the system, it launches an investigation where Tuan must confront both sides in order to get to the truth of the matter.

One thing that's very noticeable before going into the movie is how much the summary reminds you of both Ghost in the Shell and Psycho-Pass in regards to its take on high-concept sci-fi combined with our protagonist being a futuristic female investigator who's against the system, and you'll notice watching the film that it's as dialogue-heavy as those franchises as well. Now I know a lot of people prefer the former, but I could care less about sitting through any more of that over-milked brand name. The problem I've always had with Ghost in the Shell, even back in the days when I was more positive towards it, was how none of the characters had any personal stakes or flaws that were important to executing its high-concept themes/story, causing everything I see of it to feel like a lecture that I can't digest because it's taking place in another classroom and the door is locked. It's the same problem I have with movies like Good Night and Good Luck, where they pretty much assume you're already familiar with Edward R. Murrow and thus are supposed to automatically care about his well-crafted attacks on the McCarthy era without establishing a reason for why he's doing it other than the broad reason that what the government was doing in that time period is wrong. And of course, do I even need to mention the new Ghost in the Shell movie? Seriously, what the fuck was that?

So I was worried that Tuan was just going to be another Motoko-like plot device that would prevent me from getting into the film, but I quickly found Harmony to be an absorbing experience before too long. Amidst all the dialogue regarding how healthcare is destroy freewill, it manages to actually tell me who the fuck these characters are and why these high-level concepts are so important to them to the point that they'd actually get emotional if it hurts them really personally. Sure it probably didn't need so much background to the point that the plot doesn't really start until a quarter of the way through the film, but Tuan's internal battle with working for the man is engaging enough to hold you out until then, and it continues to help amidst all the conversations that drive the plot after it starts as well.

What's a bit less of a plus is the direction. This is a Michael Arias film, so whilst the direction is visually dynamic like it was in Tekkonkinkreet, it's also incredibly excessive like that film as well. Actually, that's a bit of a lie, because the direction is more plain here in its attempts to be lively. There are several scenes where the camera just spins around the characters whilst they're talking or pans to a random shot of the city in an effort to make the dialogue more visually interesting, when just looking at the characters moving their mouths whilst doing some random character animation would have sufficed. Also, the visuals switch between traditionally 2-D and noticeably CG quite a bit to the point I thought the entire movie was some sort of Sky Crawlers-like 3D film that they masked really well at points. I think the most animated thing is the blood, and whilst there aren't too many scenes with it, when it shows up, there's alot of it.

The movie's real strength comes from the storytelling and the constant battle between safety and free will conveyed through the meetings that Tuan has with the film's various characters as she hunts for the terrorist and discover how their actions tie to her own past and beliefs. There are only two action scenes in the entire film and Harmony uses them to great effect (moreso the second one than the first one). They don't just occur in order to have a set piece so that the audience can jolt awake after sitting through another one of Spectre's exposition-heavy board meetings. I've heard some people get down on Tuan and Miach for rejecting a solution that they don't see the downside of, but I don't understand why you have to agree with a character to find them interesting. You wouldn't agree with any of the philosophies in Ichi the Killer, but that's still a good movie unless you're infected with a condition that prevents you from enjoying fun.

Even fans disagree with me on that in regards to the ending, which has been getting a bit of flak because without spoiling anything, it's a bit of a downer. Honestly, I'm not really sure what's wrong with that, because that was the only natural course to take the story after everything the characters went through. I'm sorry if this sounds like common knowledge, but stories don't get you invested in a character without putting them through some kind of hell. Even slice-of-life stuff has the characters trying to overcome something mundane in fiction, but not in reality, like gardening. Do I agree with the results? No, I wouldn't want that to happen in reality. But this is fiction, and fiction has to make sense.

But of course, I don't mind too much as I like a little controversy in regards to anime. If there's anything that's ruining the medium - and the entertainment industry as a whole - at this point, it's the fact that everyone wants to be safe. Personally, I find safety boring. I want something to challenge me, and Harmony definitely did that. Thus, I can't call it bad. It's good. Really good. Probably the best original anime film to come out in years. Not that that's a high bar or anything, but it's nice to occasionally get something that can stand amongst the best of what Hollywood usually offers us, and it's even nicer when the majority of a theater's audience claps with you as soon as the credits roll and the Egoist song plays.

From George Orwell’s “1984” to the more recent and more subtle Spike Jonze’s “Her”, it’s safe to say that, for a while now, the topic of Utopia and future technology has been one that’s ever present in mankind’s thoughts. As a result, it’s not uncommon for a movie or story to cover the dilemmas that may rise in a Utopia, so what makes Harmony so extraordinary? Not much, really, and that’s the problem. Throughout Harmony there is an abundance of deep philosophical themes that do indeed force one to brood over, but other than that, Harmony is so bare-bones in its execution, so invested in ... these philosophies and themes, that it forgets the most important part of telling a good story: to entertain me.

The story follows our red-haired main character, Tuan, as she’s ordered back to the medical Utopia that is Japan in order to reflect on her misbehaviour in Nigeria (trading medical supplies for prohibited alcohol with the Tuareg people). In Japan, she meets with her childhood friend Cian, where they have a 15 minute long expository conversation. This is the start of the countless expository dialogue exchanges between Tuan and a variety of dimensionless characters that can be best described as guiding NPCs. This is how bare-bones this show is, the entire film is told through several conversations that force the viewer to simply read subtitles for 2 hours, and at that point we might as well just read the source material, the book.

The guiding NPCs, or characters, are all either monotonous or lifeless. They’re either insufficiently emotional, extremely dumb, too smart for their own good, or another irritating and unlikeable archetype that disables the viewer from being emotionally invested in anyone or anything in this film. This disconnect makes it REALLY hard for you to care about what happens to these characters, or what happens in this film for that matter. There’s no good “hook” that sucks you in, in fact, I was really close to closing out of this film several times through it. This film, with its characters, simply failed to make me care about them.

Speaking of characters, I must mention that the same-sex relationship between Tuan and Miach is handled very maturely, respecting the viewers who are watching it. They refrain from over sexualizing their relationship or the characters, and not once are they reduced to fan service or walking sex objects throughout the entire film, and in an age where we can’t escape hypersexualization, I commend this film for that.

Harmony deals with philosophies and topics regarding human identity, human nature, perfectionism, paranoia, as well as the restriction of humanity’s freedom in exchange for Utopia. They’re undeniably though provoking, and from the heartfelt narrative alone you can tell that Project Itoh invested a lot of thought and emotion into this story, so if you’re the type of media consumer who thoroughly enjoys over thinking about what you watch, then I’d recommend this show to you in a heartbeat. Regardless of my enjoyment of the film, I can’t deny these thought provoking themes and I can’t deny that they worked on me. After I watched the film I was forced to really think about the fundamental human nature, which is something I haven’t done since Shinsekai Yori, and for that I compliment Harmony.

Another thing I suppose I can commend this film for is its logical plot progression, but the thing is, it’s TOO logical, so logical in fact, that it’s exceptionally boring. Part of what makes good fiction so engrossing, is knowing when to trade in the mundane reality in exchange for an enchanting fantasy. This isn’t the case with Harmony, as every character that Tuan converses with simply points to the next one she should converse with, allowing the plot to flow in a very logical yet extremely bare-bones and tiring manner.

Harmony’s source material was written by Project Itoh, and for those of you who don’t know, spent the better part of his adult life effectively trapped in a hospital as he was diagnosed with cancer very early on, and Harmony’s story reflects his pains and desires. At Harmony’s core, it tells the story about someone who wants to leave the “perfect” world but is unable to, and that is probably very reminiscent of how Itoh felt being treated and trapped in a hospital.

Enjoyment 5/10:
This film may be deeply philosophical and very thought provoking, but it failed to meet the most most essential part of writing a good story: make it entertaining. This film had the potential to become a masterpiece if only it was written in a more alluring fashion, but the fact of the matter is that it wasn’t, and that’s why I wasn’t able to really enjoy this film.

Overall 7/10:

Regardless of enjoyment, I can’t deny how intellectually challenging it is. Like I’ve mentioned previously, it’s able to handle (mainly) themes about human nature and human identity really well without preaching, and is able to raise intriguing questions in your head once you’ve finished the film; this is something not every story can do and I applaud Harmony for that. There’s a reason this source material was nominated for a Philip K. Dick award and it’s because of it’s ability to force you to rethink what you think you already know about humanity and human nature.

Harmony is one the three movies of Project Itoh, a series of anime films based on the works of Satoshi Itoh. Harmony encompasses a dystopian society in which all health needs are now medically solved, but society is in turn controlled by health and the government.

I'll go ahead and get right into why such an idea I find interesting ended up so poor, given my liking of various dystopian anime and other works. Harmony is very barebones in its approach. A large amount of information is dumped onto viewers through the viewpoint of the main character, Kirie Tuan regarding the society and her experiences. ... Through Tuan and her friends, the movie attempts to imply how this is an example of how poor the society is now. Eventually the girls decide to commit suicide together, but this is an isolated incident and teenagers being frustrated at the world and considering suicide is a fairly normal thing, so this proves to not be a reflection on the underlying issues in this world. Such a thing could happen regardless of whether we're situated in this society, or a normal one. We're never shown how society as a whole receives the system because most other characters are pretty irrelevant. So Harmony gives the viewer a very minimalistic view of the society it creates and this just works against it. In the 2 hour length of the film, Harmony fails to find the time to the sole important factor that it really needs to go into depth about

What this film does dedicate a large amount of time was to exposition on Mihie Miach's character, but it ends up too repetitive. We find out that she's read some books about humanity, thus she's a genius. She neither says nor does anything profound or particularly philosophical. Her strangeness makes her two friends love her, but too much time is spent on so little.

The biggest problem with the story is that in the end no one really rejects the supposed utopia. Nor do they accept it. The movie ends anti-climatically and inconclusively. To compound the oddness of this, the movie also eventually comes down to two choices, produced by Miach in reject of the current state of society. Choice one is to continue with the current dystopia that monitors health, restricts freedom, and homogenizes humanity. The second option that comes up is to force the people to run around and live unconsciously, mindlessly and automatically carrying out their duties. So in the end, we're just replacing one dystopia with another. This is the solution the genius Miach came up with to solve the suffering of the people. Amplify the non-problems of the people into actual problems, and turn them into bots.

Keeping people healthy isn't a moral issue, especially when it's available to everyone. Being capable of getting ill doesn't make you more "free", but just the opposite. It's quite odd that this is considered an issue, especially on the level they present it as.

For some reason it seemed like the story was supposed to come out smarter than this. There was hardly any humanity in this film. The movie reaches it's best point when the people of the world are handed an ultimatum and havoc begins. It doesn't make much sense how we arrived at the point but it seemed like it realized that it was hitting the dull side and threw a shock at you at the right time. But the latter half of the scene was relegated mostly to Tuan watching reports of the incidents. It almost seemed like a lazy way to not have to do any voice work or heavy animation for the entire 5-10 minutes.

Animation wise, it's okay. The CGI was surprisingly good at times, blending in with the typical hand drawn animation. But mostly it was typically irking.

This movie was somewhat entertaining, but disappointing. No, actually this movie was just plain stupid. Whittle down a human concept to characters trying to be revolutionary, but just being childish and pretentious is ultimately silly. A movie such as "Gattaca" which holds a similar premise actually posed a moral question by purging those who are deemed genetically inferior, something that doesn't occur in Harmony. Harmony says nothing about human nature, and the follies people have to face for themselves. The movie wants to stand for something, but it doesn't really have a thing to offer.

First of all, I'll say that <harmony/> is probably not what most people will expect it to be.

This review will be mostly spoiler free. If any spoilers exist, it will not take the form of story spoilers but of discussions about the movie's lasting message.

<harmony/> is a plot heavy movie that raises a lot of philosophical questions that I feel is not asked naturally in today's society. The notion of 'Peace' alludes people, the unified understanding and belief of peace is that it is the lack of conflict. Yet conflict takes many forms. Also, what happens when only peace exists? Can only peace exist? ... Or does human nature revert back to savagery once peace is obtained? Can peace even exist without conflict?

The story also brings about questions about consciousness. What is consciousness? Is it the state of being aware? Or is it the the ability to make a choice? If one's ability to choose is taken away, are we conscious? Are we even alive anymore? What is living? Then again, what is life? What is the will to live, or the will to choose?

Many believe that Free Will is obtained through achieving peace, but Free Will also creates conflict as it exists to both agree and disagree with a stance. That brings it back to the original question: 'What is 'peace' really?"

- Story (in my opinion) is amazing

- The art was beautiful. They used a mix of 2D and 3D - seamlessly together that I almost did not noticed the transitions. 3D (for those who hate it) is used tastefully and only in sequences where it greatly enhances the story and it's visuals. NOT for flashy action sequences.

- They did an amazing job voice acting all the characters. The music's presence (and sometimes lack thereof) evoked emotions that suit the message(s) of the story

- There aren't many action sequences. When they are shown, it is done rather tastefully and important plot wise.

I'll be honest, it is not for everyone. Many my find it boring for it's lack of action set pieces but I think most people that stick around to see how the story progresses will learn to appreciate the work to some degree. Me personally, I love this movie.

How can one feel alive without knowing the pain of living? Does disease and suffering create our consciousness and our sense of humanity?

Harmony creates a world in which human ingenuity has eradicated illness through the use of medicules, a clever injection of molecules that police our bodies and report our health to world authorities.

With tailored diets, expert fitness routines, and regular psychological assessments, all of humankind have traded an individual-driven existence in order to live healthy, well-balanced lives.

Declining population rates in the aftermath of nuclear fallout have made the human body the world's most precious commodity. The health and continuation of our species outweighs the ... selfishness of the individual, and yet, suicide rates among those born into this system are on the rise each year.

Three girls come of age in this world, led by one of them, Miach Mihie, a charismatic and overthinker human being, who brings cynicism seeds around her and in the way of the two others who are intrigued by her. Each girl must decide whether to abide by the self-sacrifice of harmony or to rebel against the insulated lives the world expects them to live.

Philosophically, Harmony is the window dressing for a discussion about the nature and purpose of the human soul. It postulates that not only is the ego unnecessary, it is also a hindrance for human evolution. The strife and confusion in society—as well as that within our own hearts—is due to consciousness itself. Only in a world without “I” could there ever be true harmony.

Project Itoh delivers an astounding science fiction work that walks a fine line between utopian ideals and dystopian disillusionment, and provides ample brain candy.


NOTATION :

[Story part : 7.5/10]

-Pacing is badly driven because of the lenght difference between the novel and the anime adaptation. (0.5/2)

-A solid plot without hole. handled with intelligence and rigour. (1.5/2)

-Extremely deep. It's essential to think a lot to understand. A true "SEINEN" (2/2)

-Regarding Plausibility, it was one of the most relevant and believable perspective of mankind's future I've seen. (2/2)

-An interesting and coherent conclusion in regard to the premise and the foreshadowed spiritual and philosophic issue. But there was an awkwardness in the staging. And it was a little bit rushed. (0.5/1)

- Very good premise. (1/1)


[Animation part : 8.5/10]

-Very high production value. Impressive. (2/2)

-Beautiful visual effects. (2/2)

-A pretty good character design overall, but a bit generic (except for Miach). (1.5/2)

-A contestable staging. There was a half-failed intent to show us several things. (1/2)

-Very detailed background (2/2)


[Sound part : 7.5/10]

-High quality sound effects. (2.5/3)

-A discreet OST, but proper with the atmosphere and the universe. (2/3)

-Efficient voice acting. (2/3)

-Good BGM, atmosphere is totally immersive. (1/1)


[Characters part : 7.5/10]

-About characters presence, there is a huge focus on the protagonist, Tuan Kirie... and that does sound not so bad. Because she's the only interesting character beside Miach Mihie. (1/2)

-Catharsis is symbolically the key word in this show. (2/2)

-Character development is here, but overblown by the rest, especially by the story. (1/2)

-Characters personality : Interesting, rationally cynical, original (only for Miach Mihie concerning this last word)... (1.5/2)

-A gargantuan (Gargan...Tuan...) backdrop, as far as the eye can see. (2/2)


[Miscellaneous part ( doesn't count in the notation ) : 8.5/10]

-An analytical replay is appropriate. (3/3)

-Ending theme is particulary memorable. (1/1)

-Well on, it was an enjoyment. (4.5/6)


OVERALL : 7.5/10
Class : SS mid-tier.

Indeed I was quite excited to notice that Harmony was finally available, subbed, on my favorite streaming site. I've been anticipating this movie ever since I first heard about it. What I got, opposed to my expectations, was a mediocre film wrapped in beautiful visuals, animation and sound.

The story begins with a red haired girl named Tuan Kirie who is first seen doing some sort of illegal operation with a refuge group. We then learn about the setting that our story takes place- a future utopian society in the very distant future. The world is supposedly perfect as issues such as disease are no ... longer a concern. The narrative is told through the perspective of Tuan: both in present and via flashbacks.

The most important thing to note about the story is the complexity of it- and I must say- if I have one major complaint it is that the movie did no justice to the story. The execution of the story was pretty poor and the movie would require many re watches in order to fully comprehend it without looking up explanations online. I feel that the enjoyment of this show will be lost to most who will be unable to fully understand the story. I don't mean this in a condescending way- as I only grasped parts of the story myself and was left clueless at many parts.

The other main character we learn about is Miach who is the main character's childhood friend. We learn about Miach mostly through the flashbacks of Tuan, which has its pro's and con's. I for one believed Miach to be the most interesting character of the series and the most meaningful philosophic statements to be expressed were expressed in scenes dealing with Miach. Unfortunately, she barely resembles a main character as she gets little screentime in the present day Utopian world.

Without spoiling anything about the story that isn't basically given in either the first couple minutes or the synopsis- I can only mention that the ending was another great disappointment to this show. Not that I didn't like it necessarily- but because it felt incomplete and anti-climactic. The show felt like it was progressing towards the ending which would be epic and mind-blowing and what we got instead was confusion along with disappointment.

While the characters are interesting- many of them are too complex to relate to and sometimes- even after learning a great deal about them- their actions are unpredictable and hard to interpret. The ending is a great example of this- but there are many moments in the show where your perceptions about a given character will change suddenly due to an out-of-the-blue action.

The pacing for this show is another major problem for me as the beginning was ridiculously slow to the point where the person I was watching it with got bored and uninterested. Meanwhile- the ending felt pretty fast paced whereas I would have liked there to be more substance near the end of the show. You watch through this show hoping there will be more but you just receive more vagueness and ambiguity.

While the writing suffers and can be super confusing and hard to interpret: the production value of this show is amazing. The visuals, animation, and sound are all above average and quite excellent at times. The stunning visuals are apparent from the beginning of the series and some breathtakingly gorgeous shots are presented later in the film.

But a film with great appearance cannot fix broken writing. I DO recommend this show for people who are looking to challenge themselves intellectually. If you like works like Paprika and Penguindrum perhaps this movie will be up your alley. But I fear that for most, the story was presented in such a way that it is hard to keep up. With complex dialogue and narration- many people will feel lost without looking to the internet for an explanation for this movie. And having to look up what happens in a movie kills the enjoyment for me.

Well....this is My first time writing a review,so please spare me from my mistakes XD

So one day,i decided to randomly scroll down a list of animes in kissanime ,hoping to find something interesting to watch.that was when I found this movie.I was immediately interested when I browsed through the description;a concept of how mankind can evolve into the future,a story of mankind living in a false 'utopia'.As a sci-fi lover,i definetely recommend this show if you want to have an experience of a possible future,and here's why I think so.

Story:It is about the future where humans live under control of a network system, controlled by ... the government.a few who detested the idea of living by the rules of the system,a system that supposedly leads every person to becoming a perfect being,but one without freedom.It may seem like a simple plot,but this movie is able to bring out the deepest of this concept,and will bring you to a future world.

Art:The art style in this movie is definetely a better display of what cg can bring to anime,compared to the many awkward moments in the art style when cg is used in anime.(Berserk omg).In harmony,the characters and more so on the machinery(combat ships,planes,drones etc.) are illustrated with great detail,and the art just looks really smooth~The soundtracks in this movie are not the best,however it essentially adds an element of excitement and gives off a 'I am in the future' feel with its robustic melody.

Characters:My Favourite character,without a doubt is miach;white hair twintails,gives off a cool alluring aura..it really reminds me of Inori from guilty crown,twintails,alluring aura...anyways,miach has a very interesting point of view on this futuristic world,one that deviates from the norm.She has the power to captivate,to convince one to understand her beliefs and perspective on the way she views the world.Her Friend juan,captivated by her and accepted her philosophy,is a strong fighter,and her authority and power puts her in the main stage alongside miach.

Overall:There may be a few things lacking here and there in the characters and soundtrack,but ITS A REALLY REALLY GOOD MOVIE;the depth of this anime regarding a sci-fi world,the logic behind the thought process of these characters(especially miach),the detailed Cg art,sealing the package with its perfectly themed soundtrack.

Story: The story for Harmony at least for me was confusing (without thinking) after I thought about everything throughout the movie and then after to make sense of anything I finally understood most of it if not all. It's a very beautiful story and the telling of it was very well done.

Art: Holy, the art in this anime is insane. It's the best animation I have ever seen. the movement of the characters and backgrounds (especially in the finally clips) is so beautiful and I love it. One of the best things about it is the animation.

Sound: Not much to say about this it ... was good in general nothing really great. The music was fine but nothing more.

Character: Tuan really changes throughout the movie. With a lot of emotional conflict she goes through and the choices she makes changes her, I think it changed her for the better but that can be debated. I loved following her and get through those conflicts.

Enjoyment: At first I didn't really like it that much then after certain things come around I start to love it more. The ending in particular was the selling point for me.

Overall: In general if you don't understand whats going on I don't think you would like it. If you do understand however you will love it. The ending was amazing and this will definitely be in my top 5 anime movies.

Just gonna be honest on the story, i dislike it. it doesn't mean it was bad. i dislike it. "the way to sacrifice one's freedom to achive absolut safety, peace, and a perfect world" that is how the world in this anime works and i dislike it for the first time i saw/heard it. but i was expecting a good ending where all of those bullshit utopia would be destroyed in the ending but instead the utopia went into another level.
The story is about a world where people can live with absolute peace because of the system called "WatchMe". people can't even get sick/diseases ... because those system called "WatchMe" is protecting every people's body. but you know, nothing comes without any price. the price is your freedom. every people who planted "WatchMe" inside their body will be controlled by the goverment. so "WatchMe" is something like a server or for the easiest way to say it, it's something like a mobile phone/computer that connected to the host server. and the host server is the goverment. they are always watching their citizen from "WatchMe".......and i really dislike that concept of story.

to me, the characters are meh. no one even want to try to destroy the utopia. no one. well, some of them really hate it including the MC but none of them were trying to destroy it.

on the other side, the art was really good imo. they were using CGI in some of the scene but i think it's okay. there was almost no long action in this show. from what i remember, it only happened in the beginning and it was pretty good.

Soundtrack is meh......and i don't think there were many soundtrack in this movie....but the ending song is so nice. well yeah.....obvious it's nice. supercell was singing the ending song xD.

tbh, i enjoy the show, but in a different way or more like i was into it especially the story or maybe because of the story, i was into the show so much and the other part was because of the suicide case. that was really thrilling and interesting to me. the ending isn't satisfiying enough for me because in the end, the utopia still exist and went into another level. this show could be better if they changed the ending where the MC destory the utopia and turn the world back to normal.

6/10 for this show or more specifically 6.5 (0.5 because of the ending song; Egoist xD) it could be better if they changed the ending imo.

Sorry for bad english.
Hope my review can be helpful to you all.
Thanks. Have a nice day

Had to write a review, of course, SPOILERS D:

The movie, in a nutshell, attempts to utilise all its assets to convey one central philosophy - the conflict between selfish individualism and "harmonious" collectivism, the importance of the former to distinguish oneself as an unique identity and the latter for collective betterment. Sounds familiar? Yes! The shtick of literally every existential film ever made! Psst Ghost in the Shell?

Before that, let's talk about what's unsurprising about the film - the animation is slick, the music sufficient in establishing atmosphere, and the characters passable. HOWEVER, after watching nothing sticks, and certainly doesn't have the same impact as ... say GitS, why? Because like the seemingly glossy, cohesive society the movie presents, the film itself quickly succumbs and unravels at the slightest touch - the music perhaps comparatively fared the best, successfully accompanying the clinical, sterile atmosphere, but it daren't go further - the gritty environment of Old Bagdad was given the same by-the-number treatment as perfectionist urban Japan. There is no variance, there's no contrast, virtually no distinguishable change, literally run-of-the-mill in the worst sense of the phrase, which contributed a great deal to the monotonous mood that induced so much boredom in other reviewers.

he animation, though seemingly marrying 2D and 3D gracefully (you can still easily tell apart), still feels detached from the rest of the movie - WHY did the camera have to swell around the restaurant? Or around the monolithic medical facility in Bagdad, or around the urbanscape of Japan? As a tool to establish the scale of their dominance and uniformity, okay, but surprisingly repeating shots of the same slow-paced wide-angle shots don't invite much excitement! "But Lord of the Rings showed a lot of panning shots or huge monuments too!" True, but they had a COMPARISON - all shots showed the characters engaging with either the New Zealand wilderness or from the whole of Minas Tirith closing in behind Gandalf riding along its inner streets! In Harmony, the animation is either unnecessary filler to create action where there is none (swivelling around unmoving dialogue in the restaurant), thereby detaching animation from the characters, or doesn't show enough engagement between the characters and the wasted landscape shots - what's the point of empty shots around sunflower fields or reflecting lake? Perhaps to establish atmosphere? No, there is no connection between what is SPOKEN and what is SHOWN. The gravitas of the ensuing carnage in Japan is completely lost and glossed over like a passing mist, not registering any response from the protagonist, therefore not connecting to the audience. And unnecessarily long shots are set aside for empty landscapes that address nothing, solves nothing, and serves nothing except to establish a pseudo art-housey mood - as if to say "ohhh look we can FEELLLL", but feel for WHAT?!

And here comes the biggest problem - characters - we have already established there is no connection to the setting and the ants that supposedly inhabit it, so what about the protagonist? Tuan, by design, is the every"woman", a supposed blank canvas onto which the audience projects him/herself. BUT, we're not allowed to see and judge for ourselves this world, instead, we get it all via motionless exposition whilst distracted by unnecessary camera movement in a still situation that does nothing than to promote the 3D software. As others have said, it feels like an endless dialogue tree in a Bioware game. At the very, VERY least you might say it's consistent - the character is uninvested in her world, so by association neither are we.

The biggest, and central stick, is not the protagonist, but rather Miach, the driver of everything in the story. The little character development there is were all invested on her - the suspense of her motivation being the only thing that sustained me through the entire film, culminating in a tragic, but not altogether unsurprising reveal of her past and reasons. It rightly squeezed some sympathy out, if only because of the heaviness of her past's subject itself.

Which is why the end is so, DISORIENTING - for the entire runtime we were made to believe Miach's ultimatum was to unleash terror equivalent to that of her traumatic experience, only to be whacked on the head and be told the endgame was not the unleashing of survivalistic id to destroy collective harmony, but rather an UPGRADE of said colletive harmony, to further ENHANCE the trapped feeling she so hated while in Japan?! If you want that as your end, fine, but show us WHY, give us little threads to tug on throughout the film to lead up to this twist! If there's no correlation, there's no sense or rationale behind it! Frodo took the ring because it was hinted at, not because of a last minute 180 turnover!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Bottom line, everything in the movie feels adequate enough, but on closer inspection nothing connects, between the story, characters, setting, or the audience. The philosophical conundrum turned out to be nothing at all, as the antagonist cancelled all progression to support what she originally opposed. The philosophy turned on itself, so no conflict ever happened or was resolved, the characters were neglected for vacuous shots of literally nothingness in promotion of nothingness, disconnected to the story and the characters. It held such promises as shows like GITS proved just one philosophical conflict was an endless pit of possibilities, but in this case, it all, literally built up to nothing.

p.s. knowing this is an adaptation of a novel, I'm sure the novel itself will answer and weave the various disparaging segments e.g. why was Miach killed in the end? The anime certainly gave no hint or answer, but I'm sure the book will - so like the Harry Potter movies, I suggest reading the book and just use the anime as a glossy picture reference, because unlike the Lord of the Rings movies, this film doesn't seem to stand on its own without the wider context of its source material.

TRIGGER WARNING FOR HARMONY: Many suicides are shown on screen, rape is discussed in relative detail

Story (1/10): The story was comprised of the MC being info-dumped by everyone, even if the person giving the information isn't doing it out of their own interest. The story uses suicide as a plot device, pretending (at the same time) that it is both poetic, and a casual part of life. In reality, suicide is neither of those things. Harmony comments how books can cause suicide imitations if the suicide is described in detail, yet has no problem whatsoever showing full suicide scenes within the movie. Harmony's plot itself ... is also flawed, as it starts out as a utopia with problems, but it cant decide whether it wants to be Orwellian or Huxleyian. If it had chosen one (or neither) this would not be an issue, but every other scene it seems they change their mind. Harmony pretends to use philosophy as a plot device, but in actuality, it is just high-school level science. Looking at the story from a scientific lense, plot points have several plot holes, even when giving the world the benefit of the doubt. For example: "This rare recessive gene can cause the human to be born without a conscience... But then, her conscience was awakened by the horrors of Chechnya." That's just not how a conscience works.

Art (9/10): While some backgrounds weren't perfect and some faces were bland, most of the art was quite beautiful. Important sidenote: the suicides scenes had blood and LOTS of it. Do not take these warnings lightly!

Sound (7/10): Nothing to write home about, but nothing bad either.

Characters (1/10): The side characters only existed for info-dumps, and once they finished their shpiel, there were never seen again. The MC and her friends try to glorify suicide, and they are one dimensional too. Throughout the story, the MC flip-flops her ideology 3 times within a scene 4 separate times.

Enjoyment (1/10): I rolled my eyes countless times while watching Harmony, but I think you gleaned that from the rest of my review already.

Overall (2/10): The artwork was beautiful but the rest of Harmony was not, do I need to say more?


TL;DR: Do not watch this.

To begin this is a hell of an animated movie to review for my first time reviewing anything. Also this is a review mainly observing the philosophical merits of the movie. For those seeking a more entertainment based review I suggest you go elsewhere.

Story: 9 out of 10

The story itself pursues a far more unique and bold setting than your typical run of the mill anime series and anime movies as it approaches some key concepts in existential philosophy. It manages to ask all the big questions that most unversed in philosophy tend to pick up on. Such as the meaning of your own life ... being a common one.

It approaches these fundamental questions that get asked everyday with the WatchMe system which globalizes medicine effectively eliminating disease and aging within the networked populace. This quite easily fits into the meaning of your own life as it calls into question whether or not we value individuality where in this case we clearly don't.

The pacing of the plot is expectedly slow considering we're dealing with a movie seemingly intended to challenge our thoughts of self and society.

Art: 7 out of 10

The art style is fine but the seemingly seamless transition between drawn art to CGI really impressed me warranting at the very least a 7 as so many anime that use CGI tend to have poor transitioning. This of course making it noticeable to the viewer leaving a feeling of want.

Of course in addition to the wonderful CGI the background art is also quite spectacular with such high attention to detail and sweeping landscapes I am hard pressed enough that I don't give it a higher score just for that.

Sound: 7 out of 10

I don't generally pay attention to soundtracks most of the time and this one is really no different. The soundtrack fit the scenes like clockwork and helped to enhance the atmosphere within the movie itself but other than that the soundtrack did little to elicit any reaction from me.

The character voices are actually quite accurate to what you would expect given the character descriptions. This over the soundtrack really enhances the experience but again it simply fit just as well as the soundtrack did.

Character: 8 out of 10

There is very little in the way of character in this movie mainly because we only see the movie through the eyes of the protagonist Kirie Tuan whose character development is shown through short flashbacks to the past contrasted to what we know about the present. Kirie Tuan herself is quite intriguing because she herself has an unusual take on the utopian world once again putting existential topics to question.

Miach, Tuan's highschool friend, is another character worth noting as she serves as a key plot point for the beginning of the movie itself and acts as a foil for the utopian society that has been created.

The other characters are fleshed out to the extent that they fit in a logical and satisfying way within the story.

Enjoyment: 10 out of 10

This is where I get to persuade you to watch this movie for the philosophical concepts presented. Having watched the movie and re-read my review I will say that this movie is still loaded with existential concepts thus making it hard to pin down which philosophy it chases. However I like to think that it draws heavily from Absurdist philosophy which states that while humanity tries make sense of the universe that is impossible due to the discord between the two.

Simply put humanity strives to understand that which cannot be understood, we strive to find inherent meaning where there is none, and most importantly we fail to challenge the certainty of fundamental concepts. And in this movie these ideas are put more and more to question. What is the purpose of life, what is happiness, what is truth, what is society, the deeper it gets the more questions you have and by the end of the movie you're on a metaphysical joyride deeper into the bowels of madness.

But enough of that if you truly want to challenge your mind with some complex and possibly insane concepts then by all means watch Harmony, if you want to find something more than the common Moe and Harem crap saturating the market then by all means watch Harmony. If not tough because this anime is probably not for you.

Final Note

Don't let my lower scores for the aesthetic dissuade you I stand by my overall rating when I say that this anime is an outstanding work of philosophical exploration within 2 hours.

I just finished the movie and this one definitely left some thoughts to ponder and question which wasn’t answered. I might’ve not really even caught onto what it was even about. However, in my own opinion, my generalization of this movie is a story about a HOSPITAL IN WHICH YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM that is in a form of a utopia. Perhaps the goal was to reintroduce the topic of well-being that is depicted in other forms aside from the usual hospitalization, suicidal symptoms caused by disorders, disability and the like.

Now, onto my question which wasn't answered: Was Miach able to escape that hospital ... and if she did, how did she? No, can you actually really even escape that? You see, the society depicted in this anime is probably the closest depiction to the one we would be approaching in the future now that people are becoming more aware with mental health issues. Is it alright for society to manipulate us or maybe even reset our brains to shape us into an ideal citizen, one who is not sick or poor in any aspect, from physical health to mental health?

I can empathize with those who found this boring. I couldn't deny the fact that people will find this boring because it really is when you are into the climatic-build-up type of literature. I personally like those stuff. However, once in a while I love to immerse myself in these kinds of works that sends a message or pose interesting ideas after watching. And so far, that’s been fairly enough for me.

This Anime Movie is not as good as Novel version since lots of detail is missing or deviate from original such as the motivation of Tuan killing Miach in last scene, the psychological activity inside Tuan when Cian passed away and their relationship which didn't mention very deeply. Also, how is the main character Tuan react to this world, what is her feeling about this world, may not be that thoughtful during the movie process. This maybe a problem that cause this anime not that clear and understandable for the audience. Sometime, audience (or me) maybe confuse for the scene that jump so fast that ... if you don't read the Novel, you can't catch up. No doubt , this is a problem of this anime which can't express the idea from original. But if we understand it's very hard for director to summary the whole story in about two hour for 240 pages and also the specific idea that given by the writer. Those complain can be forgot or maybe minimize so that we can enjoy this movie. Finally, i will give 8.2 for the story(i like the idea of Utopian), Art maybe 6.5, i don't like the way of 3D that represent in this anime. Sound, 8 include(1 point for egoist), character, 8( 1 point for Miach and Tuan), overall, 8( recommend for watching)

Time to review a movie I have recently seen that I must say I really really enjoyed.

Story 10/10:
The story is very deep and very good for anyone who likes psychological anime where one needs to think a lot to understand it. If you're looking for something to casually watch then don't even bother watching Harmony, however if you're ready to grind your mind when watching it, then you will very much enjoy it. This is a movie that really makes you think. One of the biggest questions you may think off when watching is "Is it better to live as a prisoner in a Utopia, ... or to be a free person in a war-torn stricken world?". At least that is the main thought I got of watching this movie. The story is very deep and can even change the way you think and perceive a lot of things, the story covers the theme of a perfect utopia where there is no cancer or sickness or disease and everyone will practically live forever. It also covers the unique hell that resides in this world and raises another question "Is there really such thing as a utopia?". Which you will understand more as you watch the movie.

Art 9/10:
The art is very splendid and you can tell it is done with a very high budget like most animated movie's are, since they are only a couple hours long they can create much better animation quality then a TV series. That said, the only downside I have to the art and animation is the occasional full "un-textured" 3D scenes that happen occasionally within the show. There are some scenes where there are people sitting around in a circle and they're all very grey and 3D modelled which I believe is a bit lazy and they could of done that a bit better by keeping it 2D. I'm not against 3D at all but it did seem somewhat lazy especially that the characters were all un-textured and bland in their 3D forms.

Sound 10/10:
The soundtrack is really amazing and I really enjoy sad yet unique music that this music includes. I must also say that I really really love EGOIST and they do have a song in this movie which is another reason why I love the music and the sound so much.

Character 9/10:
I would have rated the characters 10/10 but there are really only two characters you need to pay much attention to, which is unfortunate. However those two characters are very well written and very in depth that I had to give it a 9/10. Tuan and Miach are the characters you should be paying attention to when watching the movie, since they both have major impacts on the plot and the development of the story. There is not much else I can say about the characters without spoiling anything, so ill leave it at that.

Enjoyment 10/10:
For someone who enjoys a good, in depth psychological anime, I really enjoyed this movie. If you don't like psychological anime, it most likely isn't a movie you'd be interested in and you will probably fall asleep in boredom, but with the amount of questions that arise throughout the movie and all the thinking I had to do while watching it, it kept me glued to the screen and waiting for the next plot twist and/or next event to happen.

Overall I definitely recommend this anime for everyone who enjoys psychological anime that requires a lot of thinking. If you prefer something more casual or you just don't like psychological anime, then it probably isn't a movie for you and you probably won't like it.