“Hello World” is directed by Tomohiko Ito and is the director's second animated feature film after his prior work on Sword Art Online. A notable move away from the franchise, the filmmaker here teams up with screenwriter Mado Nozaki to deliver a sci-fi romance akin in approach to Makoto Shinkai's wildly successful “Your Name”. However, outside of its sporadic visual flare and intense finale, the movie struggles to find its feet in what is a mostly lacklustre core narrative.
Hello World is screening at Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme
We follow Naomi Katagaki, a young high-schooler living in a technologically advanced Kyoto in 2027. While eager to come out of his shell and be more confident, he struggles to find the motivation. That is until his future self appears to him through a complex computer programme, with a personal mission to save a girl he began dating around this time, Ruri Ichigyou. Agreeing to help his older self, Naomi is granted the power of ‘God's Hand', which allows him to manipulate the world around him.
The film's initial setup presents an intriguing future in which new technology has allowed a supercomputer to keep perfect records of Kyoto's past. Outside of this development, which is conveyed through lengthy exposition sequences, and a handful of drones flying around, there's not a lot to distinguish this Kyoto as a city of the near future. However, at least for a substantial portion of the movie, this means little as the narrative is more focused on the melodramatic romance at its core.
The development of Naomi and Ruri's relationship can be summed up as being rather typical. This is not to say that it isn't full of charm, as Naomi grows closer to his fellow high school bookworm with help from his future self, who has seen all this play out before. However, the early focus on their blossoming romance is free from any sort of conflict for a large portion of the film. There's no real threat prohibiting the development of their relationship, which leaves the opening hour or so feeling meandering and whimsical.
Things take a sharp turn as we move into the feature's final third, as a stark narrative shift sees the sci-fi elements of the movie brought to the forefront. Everything leading into the finale has a sense of urgency that is sorely missing early on, injecting some much-needed tension into the plot. You actually begin to fear Naomi and Ruri as their fate becomes less clear. Such uncertainty proves to be far more engaging than what has come before and would have been welcome much earlier.
It's the marriage between sci-fi and romance where the movie falls short, as it continuously sacrifices focus on one for the other. Not only does this muddle the tone between the first and second halves of the film, but it also means that many of the sci-fi elements feel rushed. For example, a thorough explanation of the feature's fictional device ‘ALLTALE' is integral to understanding the plot. Rather than being fed bits and pieces about the device on the way though, we're often overwhelmed with swathes of important information and left to piece what is a rather complex narrative together ourselves.
Where “Hello World” does succeed quite spectacularly is with its visual splendour, which takes full advantage of the film's technologically-based sci-fi setup. Sporadic explosions of colour feel other-worldly as Naomi masters his God's Hand power. The turn in narrative focus towards the latter stages of the film also lead to some ambitious and experimental sequences, some of which are almost psychedelic. The finale, too, has several moments that are awe-inspiring in both scale and execution. Director Ito clearly had a distinct visual style in mind for the film, and it shines through in these splendid instances.
For all its promise, Tomohiko Ito's “Hello World” doesn't quite live up to the potential of its premise, as it proves to be a film of two halves. While the latter of these is visually stimulating and tense, it doesn't make up for the by the numbers shortcomings of the former. Some gorgeous visuals and charming characters shouldn't be dismissed, but they do little to make up for what is a rather surface-level affair.
