Hal (movie by studio Wit)

[bastek66]

http://hal-anime.com/
Director: Ryoutarou Makihara
Screenplay: Izumi Kizara
Music: Michiru Oshima
Original Character Design: Io Sakisaka
Character Design: Katsuhiko Kitada

A man named Hal dies in a plane accident, and his girlfriend Kurumi loses the will to live. To open her heart and help her move on, a robot named Q01, designed to look and act like Hal, is sent to her house. Though reluctant at first, Kurumi slowly becomes fond of the robot Hal, as Robo Hal begins to uncover parts of Hal and Kurumi's past.

[Makino]

Fantastic movie. Was looking forward to watching this ever since I saw the trailer half a year ago. The movie didn't play out the way I thought It would and that's a good thing in its own right. Very few anime movies has actually managed to not go down the path of predictability in a good way.

[Last Sinner]

Reasonable movie. It had some potent elements but I personally felt its emotional impact was weak and that for a short movie, some aspects were really rushed. Maybe another 15 minutes could have fleshed them out appropriately. Kurumi was one of the strengths of the movie, by far.

Nothing wrong with the concept but some elements, related to the source material, were a bit lacking.

Spoiler for The outcome:

I felt Kurumi was underused. Around halfway through the movie, she begins to shine and bring some feeling to how things went wrong. She really was the better part of the movie.

Wouldn't really call how things came to pass that unpredictable. The fact that at no point, the use of robots or their co-existence was explained, was a major hint to what was really going on. The other major hint was Kurumi's actions and emotions in general. There was rarely sorrow in her moments - mainly regret. The odd part of Hal's past seemed way out of place. Eventually, things added up.

A compelling reason to empathise with Hal would have been welcome. Once everything was said and done, I only cared about Kurumi. Hal seemed damn ungrateful for how much Kurumi did to better his life and others.

[Blue-kun]

I do agree that the emotional impact itself could've been bigger if they'd spent a bit more time on developing the characters, but I still enjoyed quite a bit. I'll spoiler this because I think this movie really must be seen without knowing anything about it, so, open at your own risk.

Spoiler:

Whatever emotional bit was lacking, I thought they did a hell of a good job with the twist at the end. That scene in general worked for me on so many different levels. Visually it was great, Oshima's score fit it perfectly and, above all, the delivery from Hosoya really made me feel HAL's pain there.

I ought to rewatch it, since I'm sure there will be little details here and there that will come across differently once the whole truth has been exposed. Also liked how they dropped several little clues throughout the story to the twist. Kurumi talking about she hadn't "experienced" those outbursts from HAL, Ryuu's little line of "it's a shame that happened right after you had a fight with Kurumi" and so on.

As for Hal, himself, I don't know. I can't say I dislike him because when everything was said and done, he showed true regret for his actions and you see just how much he cares about Kurumi. It took a tragedy for him to realize it, but the little sequence at the end, after the credits, left me with a big smile. It was very sweet.

[Nachtwandler]

So-so. I'm a romance fan but this movie were just not convincing enough. Can't say why but for me it was just average. Not bad but not great either. And the final twist was quite predictable.

[Kanon]

This movie would have benefited from being longer. They didn't have enough time to spend on developing the characters (especially Hal) and their relationship, making the emotional impact low. We needed more flashbacks in order to fully understand how precious Hal and Kurumi were for each other. 1h30 would have perfect.

Spoiler for major spoiler:

I'm usually good at seeing twists coming, but this one really caught me by surprise. It hadn't even occurred to me that Kurumi could be the robot. It was well done and improved my impression of the movie as a whole.

The post credit scene, which lasted barely two seconds, was wonderful. It's the little things...

[kyouray]

I've just watched it and it turned out to be good. As people said here the movie would have been better if it was longer since the pace isn't really harmonious. I thought the beginning was slow whereas the end was a bit fast. However it still is well handled to be enjoyable. The story may be simple at first sight but it approachs some deep themes.

The movie is technically great with some great visuals. Animation is also nice & expressive thanks the good animators, I'm pleased to see Atsuko Nozaki as one of the animation directors. Hitomi Hasegawa is credited as accessory designer, I think she did a great job with fashion jewelry, ornaments and numerous various stuff which were eye-candy & cute.
Ryoutaro Makihara already showed his skills as animator and episode director but he did a good job for a first movie. I'm looking forward to his next movie since he desires to do more this kind of stuff.

Originally Posted by Blue-kun

Spoiler for :

I ought to rewatch it, since I'm sure there will be little details here and there that will come across differently once the whole truth has been exposed. Also liked how they dropped several little clues throughout the story to the twist. Kurumi talking about she hadn't "experienced" those outbursts from HAL, Ryuu's little line of "it's a shame that happened right after you had a fight with Kurumi" and so on.

Spoiler for :

I also need to rewatch it. The first time I already noticed something was wrong with the flashbacks but I didn't manage to know why. It worked since the twist caught me by surprise. I'd be interesting to rewatch and collect all little details.

[mpt37]

Spoiler for story:

That twist ruined it for me. Being traumatized into thinking you're a robot? I've only seen that used in an episode of Futurama.

[Goty]

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

Spoiler:

A compelling reason to empathise with Hal would have been welcome. Once everything was said and done, I only cared about Kurumi. Hal seemed damn ungrateful for how much Kurumi did to better his life and others.

Spoiler:

I don't think he was 'ungrateful", he just failed to see her side, the same mistake she did.

Hal had a harsh way of seeing life. Which is understandable for someone who was abandoned by his parents, had to work as a slave and was fated to spend his life in debt.
He shouldn't sell their buttons, although he did it not because he was selfish, but because he actually believed he was doing the best for both of them. He even used it to buy the tickets for them.

Kurumi, on the other hand, had a better life and a pink-colored view of the world. Like Hal, she was doing what she believed was the best for "saving" him, but she pretty much ignored his background and feelings when doing so. Even the robot Kurumi grasped that she "couldn't fully understand Hal" either.
They were both at fault, two very different people at heart that failed to fully understand each other, which is perfectly normal in a relationship. But none of them could foresee a trivial fight would end how it ended.

Originally Posted by mpt37

Spoiler for story:

That twist ruined it for me. Being traumatized into thinking you're a robot? I've only seen that used in an episode of Futurama.

Spoiler:

He didn't actually "think" he was a robot. It was a self-defensive form of escapism to avoid dealing with his sense of guilt, as robots aren't supposed to.

People can do strange things when they go through a shock, and don't forget we're talking about a world where robots are part of their routine.