ハル

HAL

MOVIE

MOVIE
Dubbed
SOURCE
ORIGINAL
RELEASE
June 8, 2013
LENGTH
60 min

DESCRIPTION

Kurumi's heart was broken by the sudden death of her boyfriend in a tragic airplane accident. Forced to carry on without her beloved Hal, she fell into a reclusive and joyless existence. Kurumi had given up on the world, but a brilliant scientist devised a plan to win her back. By melding futuristic technology with the binary equivalent of human emotion, they created an ultra-lifelike robotic surrogate to take Hal's place – and lure Kurumi from her shroud of solitude.

Resistant at first, this shattered beauty slowly yielded to her feelings of longing – and took comfort in the company of a robot. Though their unique bond grew stronger with each passing day, Kurumi and Hal would soon discover that nothing about their artificial love story was quite as it seemed.

(Source: Funimation)

CAST

Hal
Yoshimasa Hosoya
Kurumi
Youko Hikasa
Ryuu
Mamoru Miyano
Aranami
Shinpachi Tsuji
Tokio
Tamio Ooki

RELATED TO HAL

MANGA RomanceHal

REVIEWS

Plat5
60/100
HAL: How to construct a basic plot twist

Plot: 7/10
The story follows "Kurumi", a heartbroken girl who just lost her boyfriend 'HAL' in a plane crash, and "Q01" a robot who got assigned to help Kurumi by transplanting itself as HAL.
There are only two good things about this film; the plot twist and (read further). Throughout the film, the story carefully plants subtle pieces of information that trick you into thinking one way but completely flip on your head when the reveal happens.
But because of its short run time, many points feel rushed and some things are left completely unexplained like world-building which is severely lacking. The whole story happens in some greenhouse future, where everywhere is green (there's even a cultural event that happens in the movie) but then at the same time, there are android terminator-like cops! And the whole 'people unethically getting sent to dangerous places instead of robots' plot point is very poorly explained. Even the logic they try to explain the main twist is lacking and needs a bit more work, and time.
Everything was laid out just to execute that plot twist, and despite all the hiccoughs, I think it's still pretty good.
And about the amnesia thing, it might sound a bit weird, but it makes sense considering the heart got replaced with an artificial heart. It really is a bit of a stretch but not completely illogical.
If you don't wrap up things in a satisfying way, then the twist loses its value.

Characters: 5/10
This also became a problem because of the time constraint the studio is working on. You really can't connect to these characters. The adorable interactions between the 4 grannies at the rehabilitation center are what I remembered and that's saying something about a film where the central characters are a heartbroken young girl and a humanoid trying to help her while looking like her boyfriend. If given more time, at least 6 episodes, then this would've been a bit more engaging, and it would've also helped tie a few loose ends. But if the studio did that, we'll lose another great strength of this movie, the budget.

Visuals: 8/10
Did you know that this is studio WiT's debut movie? (They still show Production IG at the beginning but AL says WiT, so whatever).
Did you know that this movie came out in Sept 2013, around the time when AoT Season 1 Episode 12 came out; when Armin stabbed his metal blade on Eren's titan back? (Good times)
Have you seen the backgrounds of this film?

Do you see this smooth Yawn ball and hand animation?!
(God that's so satisfying)
The character designs are Shoujo-Esque because of course it is! The reason it's not getting a 10 is that surprise, surprise! It's the FuCKinG CLunKy CGI In ThE BacKgGr-

Sound: 5/10
Not the best score or theme song I've ever heard but not bad, I suppose.

Enjoyment: 5/10
A surprisingly bland film. Excluding the constant eye candy, and the twist that occurs during the film's pre-climax scene, everything and everyone are just so boring and uninteresting, from dialogue to characters. What also takes away from the experience is the translation problems.

Important note: If you're watching the sub, then I urge you to be a bit more concentrated on the actual Japanese dialogue. Don't completely rely on the translation, as it ruins your experience a bit.
Or you can watch the dub, but that voice acting is not on par with the original.

Conclusion: Mixed
I think this movie really serves as an example of "how to write a plot twist", but it sacrifices the extra time it needs to wrap up things neatly and characters to deliver the emotional punch, all for the sake of one damn great twist.
If all that sounds good to you, then give this film a try.
Continue on AniList