Hello World

The year is 2027, and the city of Kyoto has undergone tremendous technological advancement. Within the city live two classmates: Naomi Katagaki, a socially awkward and introverted boy; and Ruri Ichigyou, a girl with a cold personality who is often blunt with people. Despite sharing Ruri's love of reading, Naomi is afraid to approach her due to her unfriendly nature.

One day, while out on a walk, Naomi witnesses a crimson aurora pierce through the sky for a brief moment before vanishing. Shortly after, he encounters a three-legged crow and a mysterious hooded man, who reveals himself to be Naomi from 10 years in the future, explaining that he has come to change an imminent tragic event that happens to Ruri soon after they start dating. Initially taking his words with a grain of salt, present-day Naomi follows his future self's instructions and starts getting closer to Ruri, determined to save her. Will he be able to change the future?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ichigyou, Ruri Main

Hamabe, Minami Japanese

Katagaki, Naomi Main

Matsuzaka, Toori Japanese

Crow Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Kadenokouji, Misuzu Supporting

Fukuhara, Haruka Japanese

Xu, Yiyi Supporting

Kotobuki, Minako Japanese

Senko, Tsunehisa Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Takei, Katsuhiro Producer, Planning

Itou, Tomohiko Director

Nozaki, Mado Script, Screenplay

Hosoda, Naoto Storyboard

Reviews

Oct 28, 2019

ziIIa

Recommended

"I just wanted to see her smile again."

Well, well. What have I got to say... That was some pretty good words coming from a guy who has spent so much time trying to get her to wake up again. This Sci-Fi romance film was something I wouldn't have expected to be extraordinary, I kind of kept my hopes down for the entire film. But after watching the movie, it felt... decent? good? I was confused at that point. However, what I CAN say is that the romance was implied pretty strongly on the main character. Spending 10 years to save a girl you literally ... just started dating with? That's some sheer determination there my good old friend. Enough sputtering filler phrases, let me start my review on Hello World.

To begin with, the story felt... confusing? Especially at the end, it might make you go, "what just happened?" Well yeah, that was me as well. But if you got confused at any part during the movie other than the last, I suggest you go watch Steins;Gate again to turn yourself into a true mad scientist! (Not sponsored by Dr. Pepper) However, you got to catch the information quickly especially at the first when it was the most crucial about his future self explaining about ALLTALE Quantum technology. If you missed that, good luck trying to understand the whole movie. If you didn't miss that however, good for you then! You have just gotten the whole gist of the movie. Now onto the romance, as a romance-freak, I don't know I should be happy or not. But all Naomi did was just follow his future self's instruction and got her in the basement. Why can't that happen to me as well? I want my future self to get me a girlfriend too! Sadly, this is indeed a Sci-Fi movie so I cannot complain and whine about it, but still!

Now onto the art & animation, which the art felt lackluster in emotions for a Romance film. However, do keep in mind that this a full CGI film, so get ready to see some wack animation. I only noticed one however, but it downgraded the whole thing since that animation was literally one of the simplest ones that is given a lot of time, I can probably do it as well. Back to the art, although lackluster, there were a few scenes that were incredibly cute thanks to the visuals. So it depends on whether you care about the Romance or the Sci-Fi, and then you see it yourself from a specific viewpoint then on. What I have to seriously criticize on however is the amount of color they used in the movie. Oh my lord there was so much rainbow beams shining everywhere my eyes actually hurt from watching. That is one thing I want everyone to take note of : A LOT OF RAINBOW

Not to mention, the music was pretty dope. It's honestly personal preference though since we all have different tastes in music. But for me, I loved it. As for the voice actors, they've honestly done a pretty good job at... doing their job? There were some moments however that should've been implied harder than what was screened. So... director's issue? I don't understand the industry that much so I assume I have no say in something trivial like this. But still, good job.

Okay, Ruri and Naomi were so cute together it just felt amazing. (and then the story went downhill from there but let's not talk about the sad times) | Naomi in the future felt like a how a mentor should feel like, although there were *some* "disagreements", he has done his part well at tutoring himself in the past. Naomi in the past wasn't a wimp either, you can see the his development throughout the story through sheer willpower to save Ruri. He isn't that wimpy kid that doesn't even dare to enter the library anymore, he is a reliable and independent teen that people can rely on. As for Ruri, the only true character development she got was only when she is with Naomi. But without her, this whole story wouldn't have existed so she is still crucial for the story.

Haha, I know everyone is waiting for this. If you hated this movie, you will want me to type here : I hated this shit 0/10 no watch pls. Vice versa, if you loved this movie, you will want me to type here : I loved this movie omg 10/10 pls watch. I'll be honest here, I have mixed feelings for the movie. For me, I love sci-fi theories and I read a lot about them. So naturally I understood and enjoyed the movie. But at the same time, I love to look at things on an unbiased scale. What about the people who just came here with no knowledge of sci-fi whatsoever? Will they know what's the butterfly effect? A parallel world? A paradox? Naturally, they will get confused and not enjoy the movie as much as I did. Personally, the romance contributed a great factor for those who did not understand the sci-fi stuff IMO. As I said above, I am a romance-freak, so I savored every moment of romance the movie contained. Now for the big revelation, I will get my enjoyment an 8/10.

Overall, if you have epilepsy, I will not recommend this movie due to the amount of colors and the motion. If you do not however, I can recommend it if you like Sci-Fi or romance. Or else, if you just like anything you watch then why are you here? Go ahead. However, if you are a critic that hates CGI, romance and time traveling. Then please, do not watch this. I already warned you beforehand. Well then, signing off. El Psy Congroo

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Nov 4, 2019

Tower_12346

Mixed Feelings

I was going to hold this review back, but upon seeing what made it to the forefront of the reviews, I thought some differing opinions could spark conversation.
TL;DR Score: 5 - First half good second half bad.
Incidentally, you watch Another World AFTER this movie.
Story:
Most of the problems stem from the flawed and convoluted story. To put it simply, it's split into 2 parts. The first part is a fairly pleasant romance drama. The second part is mostly an action flick with scifi themes. I also don't mean that there are 2 stories, rather that the 1 story really shifts gears halfway through ... following a decent plot twist.
The first part is actually reminiscent of Orange, although with the key difference that the future MC time travelled instead of a letter. Basically, the future MC aims to hook up present MC with a girlfriend to avoid later tragedy. This is actually pretty good, because the future MC is a very decent character with fun interactions (I'll get back to this later). The pacing is well done because we're always on the edge of our seat to see how the Naomi (the MC) and his future self manage to pull off this unlikely romance. Part of why I say it's good would be because I'm partial to character drama, but even if it wasn't amazing it was still enjoyable. Unfortunately most of this part is retroactively made worse by the fact that most of the plot here doesn't actually make sense when given information from the second part. In addition, most of the events that future Naomi ended up changing weren't necessary at all because they would've happened anyway. The only reason that the ultimate goal ended up being so difficult was because all the previous unnecessary changes pinged the "antivirus". It was still enjoyable in the moment at least.
The second part is mostly cheap action scenes with some scifi themes overlayed on it. When I say cheap, I mean that the amount of action scenes is disproportionate to their relevancy to the plot. It just seemed like an excuse for animations, and in my opinion they went on for far too long. This shift in focus was extremely unwelcome to me, personally. The second part also has another plot twist halfway through, but unlike the first twist, it is barely expounded upon and seems likely to confuse the audience unless they do some mental gymnastics. At the very end of the movie they reference that twist again (and failed to explain it again), and by that point most of the audience forgot about the twist because they didn't understand it so they're confused again. As a result the ending is not very satisfying, even as someone who >mostly< understood the twist (I have some grievances with it but I'll assume it makes sense). I saw some other reviews compare the twists to Steins;Gate, and I disagree here not because the twist wasn’t complicated, but because unlike Steins;Gate it establishes the rules, makes a plot twist by breaking the rules and implying the rules were false, and completely fails to properly establish what the true rules were in the end. So basically, it is extremely unforgiving to those who miss clues or such, which is not a good thing. People who are proud of understanding the plot twist should be proud, but that’s not good for a movie that supposed to have widespread appeal. Perhaps they could’ve spent more time on explanations rather than incessant action scenes.
Something that perhaps only I didn't enjoy was that the technology was rooted in reality to the extent that I completely failed to suspend disbelief when they begun to stretch it. To try and explain one example without spoiling, for some reason specific data can only be moved but not copied... for some reason... when the data was originally a copy to begin with...
Another stretch was the hilariously impractical visual portrayal of the antivirus.

Art:
It does fairly well when it sticks to 2D animation and some simple 3D animation (like during the romance drama scenes in the first half). When it tried to do more dynamic 3D animation, although sometimes it looks pretty good, it ends up looking atrociously bad at times. I only have the impressions of when I watched it in cinemas, but I remember thinking that some action scenes look like they could've been made in Counterstrike (edit: on rewatch this holds true, although they're sparser than I remember). The overall variable quality of the animation actually did end up detracting from my enjoyment, which I consider to be very unusual considering the fact that this was a movie.

Sound:
Unfortunately I did not pay too much attention to sound, but it was pretty good and I don't remember any music being used in inappropriate contexts or such.

Character:
These were good when they were the spotlight of the movie, rather than 3D fight scenes. Naomi is rather generic, but at least he has some personality. Future Naomi's snarky attitude and overbearing nature was actually pretty great. Ruri's personality was sufficient to understand why Naomi would be attracted to her, and they have cute interactions. One thing that I did find fairly amusing was how Ruri, despite having no knowledge of the scifi shenanigans, just completely rolls with everything when being thrown into the deep end during the second half.
One characterization moment that I did appreciate was when they showed how Naomi's passive nature affected his everyday life, and later contrasted it with the personality of Ruri. Although perhaps it was a bit on the nose, it worked and was a nice touch.
One characterization moment that I didn't appreciate as much was how they developed future Naomi, because he ends up being a bit of a lone wolf character despite the fact that he didn't really need to be and that nothing in his backstory would suggest such a thing. He seems to have very good relations with his coworkers and such, but does not confide anything to them. This had fairly heavy implications on the plot as well.

Enjoyment:
Although I enjoyed watching the first half, the incessant action scenes and incredibly convoluted nature of the second half drained all the enjoyment out of me.

Overall:
I gave it a 5, mostly carried by the first half.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Apr 10, 2020

Caterwauling

Not Recommended

This review contains minor spoilers, wherein I mainly elaborate on aspects of the story covered by the synopsis.

Simply put, Hello World is garbage. I could go into an endless stream of comical hyperbole in order to detail this, but I won't waste any time. If you're already familiar with how bad a Mado Nozaki story can be from Babylon or Seikaisuru Kado, don't be. This is much, much worse.

Hello World attempts to be a sci-fi romance flick, but unfortunately fails at the latter, and stumbles all over the former. The romance in this film is supposed to be assumed as true, both because our protagonist, ... Naomi Katagaki, gets roped into having a girlfriend by his future self, and also because it isn't actually developed in any real way aside from a montage of uninteresting events set to a forgettable J-pop song, sandwiched by scenes of cliched romantic tiptoeing. Right after confessing to his future self's girlfriend, Ruri Ichigyou, all romantic development stops and the rest of the film is fully dedicated to the sci-fi aspects of the story, which are just as bad. I'll avoid spoilers, but basically the worldbuilding is conveyed either through long, awkward, and cumbersome scenes of expository dialogue, or through vague, confusing, and contradictory "no actually" moments. This, I assume, is Nozaki's attempts at writing a clever narrative, but instead comes across as two stoner tabletop game DMs having an imagination battle. None of it is truly creative or original, it's just a collision of tropes established by other stories.

The characters are bland, trite, and have characteristics that are in opposition of each other. Naomi is introduced as the quiet, meek bookworm, but these aspects of his personality are quickly thrown away because they would hinder the plot progression, and he becomes able to process and adapt to reality shattering events with the same mental fortitude of an Elder Scrolls protagonist, and it's waved away because he's "familiar with sci-fi books", which should again clue you in on how creative the sci-fi aspects of this movie actually are. Ruri is introduced as the quiet, assertive bookworm. This is the part where I'd talk about her, but she actually doesn't do anything. She's like the flag in a game of Capture the Flag, she's an objective, not really a character. If I were to write out all of the dialogue she's given in the film, it probably wouldn't even fill up two pages. This is the main love interest in a romance movie. Future Naomi is introduced as the reliable chad doing everything for his love, but he spends the entire movie getting cucked, sometimes of his own volition, which is quite unfortunate, but also a little funny, because I don't think Nozaki was intentionally going for that. There's no particular reason to subject him to that, he's written to be a sympathetic character, so I can only assume it turned out that way as a result of incompetence.

I should also address the visuals. They're not good. The models are pre-shaded CG, meaning the shadows cast on them in scenes don't change naturally. A character will look out of a window and his face will be illuminated by the light streaming in from outside. Whether or not he is properly illuminated in this initial position is a different story, but the real disaster comes when he turns his head away from the window and his face remains fully illuminated. Only when his head is a full 180° away from the window do the shadows awkwardly pop in. This isn't something everyone will notice on a first watch, but once you do notice it, it becomes impossible to not notice, and remains distracting throughout the whole film. Aside from the shading issues, the CG models sometimes use the emotive faces found in a lot of 2D anime, and it always looks strange when they do. There's also various visual design choices which look absolutely hideous. For example, Naomi gets a glove that's an ultra-shiny teal. It looks absolutely disgusting because it has no visual cohesion with anything else in the entire movie, which mainly employs warm tones and then later an unsaturated aesthetic, and it's distracting in every scene that it's in. There's also lots of things with thin, rainbow colored stripes which look equally awful.

In summation, this movie is head-to-toe awful (with the exception of sound direction, which was unremarkable), and is a generally terrible experience, far beyond the acceptable range of bad in the phrase, "so bad it's entertaining". Watch at your own peril.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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