Despite being a mere twenty-five minute movie, Harmonie surprisingly felt as if it lasted the entirety of a full film. There's a lot crammed into this short animated movie, but it still did a great job in retaining my interest and holding a solid pace. Something that boggles my mind is why two of the genres that are tagged for Harmonie say 'Fantasy' and 'Supernatural'; Harmonie is, for the most part, neither of these and so this is confusing to me. What they should be classified as instead are: Slice of Life and Drama. In a realistic setting of a high school environment Harmonie depicts the social structure of what it means to be in high school. You have many cliques, all of which do their own thing and have different interests, but Harmonie focuses on two in particular. The first group is a normal, unpopular trio of guys who like anime, games, girls, etc. and the second group is a visibly more popular, good-looking clique. Harmonie showcases that these two groups are leagues apart in terms of social standing, and the way character interactions are done reflect it well.
The social hierarchy in high school, as many people may know first-hand, can be cruel and quite sinister. For a place that should be promoting students to follow their aspirations, it's ironic that it often does the exact opposite. Harmonie illustrates the concept of putting on a facade, in order to be socially acceptable, very well. I'm sure we all can relate to this from personal experience as viewers, and that sense of realism is astounding. You don't see this somber, depressing truth in anime all too often. On a more positive note, Harmonie also portrays that there is always a certain someone, or people, out there who will understand you and sympathize with your crazy delusions. Although Harmonie presents this message in more of a ‘destiny’ type of fashion than realism, the message doesn't fall on deaf ears.
The characters in Harmonie are high school students, and the main focus is on the main character, Akio, along with his interactions with Juri and her clique. Akio and Juri live in completely separate social worlds, and despite knowing that Akio wants to get to know Juri anyway. What starts off as simply a crush develops into something more. An unforeseen, common interest leads to the unexpected and depicts that sometimes you might find an unanticipated friend that simply gets you. Every character in Harmonie is characterized well and you're able to understand the basic personalities of each character despite how short the movie is; they are personified with convincing personalities and seem realistic. However, the short length of the movie also is the biggest negative aspect about Harmonie as well. There really isn't much development in characters that isn't plot driven, and because of this it's difficult to feel any lasting emotional or mental attachment.
Something I really enjoyed about Harmonie is the fact that there is no sugarcoating applied on the outside nor inside of the movie. Characters are designed to look believable and realistic versus the cute girl pandering often seen in countless school life anime. You can see the normality and mediocrity of Akio’s appearance, and this does a substantial amount in portraying the difference(s) between the popular versus the unpopular. The animation itself is fluid and it's what you'd expect from an anime movie rather than an episode of regular anime. Overall, the art and animation are visually pleasing.
Sound-wise, Harmonie is pretty good. Background music fits well and doesn't feel out of place. I have no complaints, but there is nothing so fantastic that I would boast about it. The ED is calming and relaxing, which was a nice touch in closing out the short movie.
Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing wrong with being perceived as different. Different is valuable. Different is interesting. Different is a fresh color in a world where things are often black and white with little in-between.
