Hakubo

Hakubo Review (5.4)

About music and love,but they didn't meet my expectations in the story. The animation is not very good, but it's ok.There seems to be something missing that I didn't see in the story.The song is good anyway.

STORY:5/10
The story isn't very interesting,it's a bit boring and I thought it was just about the music on her violin and there's also a love story which is quite ok.

ANIMATION:5.5/10
The background is beautiful,it looks like they just took a real pic then they edited it so it's not too obvious.But when it comes to the animation it's not good but it's pretty ok.

... CHARACTERS:3.5/10
A woman who knows how to play the violin and a man who knows how to draw are a good couple,especially the scene where they confess to each other.I'm looking for something that I didn't see in this story.

SOUND:7.5/10
I just thought the song was good because in this genre the song is really good but it's still good.

A pretty simple and boring story with no enjoyment. I barely managed to finish it even tho it was for only 50 mins. The only thing i loved were it's visuals. The art, the animation, the visuals, they were amazing ✨.
Even though I got pretty bored during the movie but the only thing which kept me going on were it's visuals and art. It was so fascinating and soothing.
Other than it's art and animation everything was bring. So if you have a lot of time and are in seek of anime with amazing visuals. Go for it. But if you are looking for a ... good story i would never recommend this one.

The music were great. two scenes were good, the one were the friends found out about him and freaked out in the cafe, and the one were he wanted to ask her for her LINE. everything else was cliche and cringy AF. i had a cringe overload at the end when they were confessing i thought i would die . The MC had the personality of a dead jellyfish, you could hear the oil dripping from her mouth, if this was a real girl i would euthanize her and save the world. there is too many red flags about her, she remind me too ... much of Stephanie Lazarus. that poor boy is looking for too many years of horror. i wish he had friends to tell him to run away from that bitch. anyway, its not that bad but not that good.

I've seen some negative reviews and I felt I should clarify my stance. Hakubo is a very solid movie;
it's a simplistic love story revolving two teenagers brought together by the Hakubo. Hakubo being the title for the scenery near their bus stop. They begin a relationship that naturally progresses into a romantic relationship. The movie doesn't do much or attempt to do much. It's a love story between two completely normal teenagers, it's pure, cute, and awkward, all playing to its benefit. It does so by creating a serene atmosphere and calming tone to the overall movie; supported by the very solid production. Otherwise, the ... characters felt human and so did their lives, nothing special to it, no excessive drama or deep character arcs, just a cute romance journey.

The problem for some may be that it's boring because of how serene it is or the fact it lacks no real direction. I've seen one person complain that it doesn't elaborate much on the premise seen in the synopsis/the earthquake plotline(something that didn't bother me since I went into it raw, without reading it)

The most reasonable complaint is its lack of standout aspects. Especially for a simple movie like this, some may expect a standout cast; which is fine, the movie doesn't exceed a 6 because it's lacking in these departments

So I don't think you should expect the synopsis to hold much weight in this movie. The hook that its about the lives of teenagers post the 2011 earthquake is of little to no significance in the narrative.

That out of the way, it's an okay high school romance. The story is predictable, but if you like the high school romance premise, this is passable. I wish the duration of the movie was a bit longer to flesh out the events post the 2011 earthquake we were alluded too. 5/10

The characters are nothing special either, but they fulfill their roles well. I liked the voice ... actors they used for this. 5/10

Animation-wise, its fluid and the background art is nice. However, it feels dated, like something from around the 2010s. This shouldn't matter too much though, as there were no overly bad frames in this short movie. 7/10

Overall, I'd rate this way lower had I been promised a story about school kids dealing with the trauma of the 2011 earthquake, but I'll look at the show for what it is and give it a pass. 6/10

The first minutes of the medium-length film are rather slow, putting more emphasis on the sublime twilight landscapes than on the protagonists. The heroine, Sachi, is a 17-year-old girl who is a violin enthusiast, in the midst of her quest for identity, but who doesn't really seem interested in social relationships. She has her own music club, and that's enough for her. Rather introverted, she likes to enjoy simple things alone, such as sunsets. The narration, from her point of view, is initially enough to try to understand the high school student and her way of seeing the world. Her meeting with Kiji, a boy ... her age, will (of course) upset her tidy daily life. An artist too, he paints in his spare time, and seems to have the same passion as Sachi for twilight. Inevitably, they both fall in love. Their romance is rather cute, although there is nothing original about it. Its evolution is predictable despite some "twists". We could have blamed it on the format of the film, namely a medium-length film, which doesn't have time to develop this one. But the romance, somewhat rushed, is not the only one to have been botched in the end. Above all, what interested me in Hakubo was the willingness of the director and the studio to highlight the March 2011 catastrophe that hit Japan, and particularly Fukushima. So one could imagine that the story would naturally take place after these sad events, telling the traumas resulting from them on the inhabitants of the region. But it is not, or almost not. So yes, Sachi seems to be marked by the earthquake and what came after it. However, we only learn about it because his sister talks about it, otherwise it is not obvious. For Kiji, the trauma is indeed more present. But the film once again hovers over this intrigue which, however, could have given Hakubo a boost. The medium-length film would have needed it, because apart from the romance, not much happens. Beyond the romance and the failed message that Yamamoto Yutaka wanted to convey about the March 2011 drama, there is little left to say about Hakubo. Apart from the main couple, the other characters are only extras and bring nothing to the plot. Nevertheless, we will retain Hii, Sachi's very annoying friend, whom we can't help but hate so much because she is so selfish and unbearable. But that's all. On the other hand, I really appreciated the simple and soft atmosphere in which the film plunges us, with a certain serenity which emerges from it. The soundtrack is effective, with violin pieces in perfect harmony with the visuals, and above all, the sumptuous representations of the sky. Special mention for the ending Tooku interpreted with great delicacy by Azuma Hitomi. If the sets are indeed rather successful, the animation can leave one skeptical. There is a certain contrast between the shades of colors of the sky worked with precision and the rather singular chara-design. The facial expressions are hardly perceptible, especially the smiles. And the animation is sometimes very (too) fast and sometimes almost static. This is a pity. I won't go as far as to say that Hakubo is bad. Let's say that it is a nice entertainment but very far from being transcendental. I didn't have high expectations for the movie, but it still left me disappointed and somewhat frustrated. The poetry of the beginning fades very quickly in favor of boredom, all the more so since the romance, the real interest of the film, turns out to be tasteless and above all dispatched. Above all, the director's initial message, that one must continue to live after a drama, has completely faded away. A beautiful waste.