Review of Sing a Bit of Harmony

This review contains soft spoilers that should not impact your enjoyment of the movie. Going in, I did not necessarily know what to expect, as I have just seen the trailer and decided to watch it on a whim, more so for the cinema experience rather than the movie. Regardless, it was a pleasant surprise. An AI robot joins a regular high school class as a scientific experiment - the goal is to not be found out. The AI gets in a little accident and is revealed to a small group of kids who decide not to ruin the experiment and keep it a secret fromeveryone else. In the end, they develop connections both between one another and the AI girl, obviously not without a fair share of troubles. The direction and art are wonderfully crafted. The world built around the story is also immersing. The characters, on which the show stands tend to be shown from a range of perspectives, very fitting to the tone... But if you are someone who was expecting a serious story then this anime is not for you.

This was the first, and the biggest surprise actually watching to the movie - it is very much like an anime cartoon fairy tale. There is even a good amount of cringy musical-like singing and a Disney Princess connotations in the story. There are clear Western animation influences from things like Disney or Pixar. That being said, it has its serious moments, and also a couple of good jokes, which I shamelessly chuckled at. NOW HERE IS AN IMPORTANT PART: It may be because of the specifics of the Japanese audience, but not only the screening started at around half past 9 PM, it ended almost by midnight. The people in the audience were all older than me, who is in his 20s, up to a bunch of people in their 60s, fairly split between males and females. Was it because they did not know what they signed up for? Unlikely. And that is because that neglecting the funny random singing Vocal Outburst syndom moments, the whole journey was solid. Disney-like, but with a good mix of regular Japanese anime you all know and love, I believe there is something for everyone.

The premise works well, the problem and resolution leave a nice aftertone. A couple of eye candy moments, the music and singing fit well, although I would not say they were exceptionally memorable. There is not much I can nitpick here except for the pacing at some moments. The beginning feels a bit short, I wish there was more time for a setup and getting to know and understand who the characters are and how they interact. It may not be a very serious story, but this does take away from the experience since basically everything is built upon the chemistry within the group, all they do, and what we should take out from it. In addition, I think that the "treating AI like human", and overall hyper-positive view, putting in a lot of feelings into AI and robots was a tad offputting, but once again, it's not the main idea here and the story does not present this point as something that should be taken as in as a serious consideration. It was a bit of a magical journey; a nice change of pace for me personally.

Please, DO NOT pay much attention to the review score, it is my first time giving a review to something in this genre (?), and I also believe that I am not exactly the target audience here. All you should know is that I have enjoyed it thoroughly and if you find the premise interesting - then by all means watch it.

EDIT: I guess the singing made perfect sense, especially since the name of the anime is literally "Let's sing a bit by love".