Review of Hello World

THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW I was browsing through Amazon Prime Video, looking for something interesting to watch when I came across “Hello World”. I was immediately hooked on the premise. I can´t remember when I last watched an original sci-fi anime movie. Story – 8/10 The premise of this show is extremely interesting. Set in the near future in Kyoto (Thank god not Tokyo again), this anime has some very cool ideas of how technology will be used in coming years, with the main focus being mapping and simulating our world through surveillance. Over the course of the movie, more and more layers are added to themultiverse plotline.
Hello World is separated into two story-parts. There is a huge plot-twist in the middle of the movie that splits it into a funny, light-hearted romantic comedy with sci-fi elements and a dark, twisted Christopher Nolan-esk action drama.
Now, while I don´t think any of the concepts and twists in this movie are 100% original, the story itself works really well and the plot-twists are unexpected and sudden. The pacing is also really good. The last third of the movie gets a bit convoluted but not to a point where it harms the experience.
Another thing that I would like to add here is that there is actually a post-credit scene that really surprised me as it delivers a key plot-point that wasn´t explained earlier.
Definitely wait for the credits to finish!

Art – 8/10

This is a fully 3D animated show and I have good news for you.
In the last decade, fully CGI animated shows always struggled to exactly replicate the humanoid figure. Even the fantastic “Knights of Sidonia” , while having insane mechdesigns and fight-scenes, gets weighed down by it´s clunky and unrealistic character models.
This is the first CG anime where that is not an issue. The character models look almost exactly like if they were hand-drawn. This is a major step for the anime industry.
Other than that, there are some REALLY trippy scenes in this movie that are animated fantastically. However, I don´t think anything done in this movie couldn´t have been done by traditional animation, which is why I can´t really go higher with the score in this category.

Sound – 7/10

The BGM is solid and very charming, especially in the first half. I think the directors took some inspiration from Makoto Shinkais works, especially “Your Name” and “Weathering with you” here. There are multiple montages and vocal tracks seemingly implemented in the movie. Again, the change between the comedic first and the dramatic second half becomes apparent in the OST.

Characters – 7/10

There are actually just 4/5 characters in this movie. The cast is really small, which, in my opinion, helps the movie a lot. Our main character, Naomi, is your average anime protagonist, but as the story progresses it actually makes him extremely interesting and relatable. What I mean with that is the very...interesting(!) relationship between him and our main “villain”. Please go into this movie as blind as possible as to not get spoiled. I guarantee you that you will be surprised.
Other than that, there is not much to be said here. Our female heroine Ruri is pretty unique especially at the start, but her development gets sidelined in the final arc.

Enjoyment – 8/10

This was a nice, interesting take on the sci-fi genre. It is always refreshing to watch new-gen anime movies that tell stand-alone stories and don´t belong to an established franchise. If you like sci-fi, drama and romance this is a movie for you, although I think this film can truly be enjoyed by everyone, especially believers of 3D-Animation!

- Marco_Yooo

FINAL SCORE - 8/10