"Hello World" is an award-nominated Japanese animation movie (i.e. Anime) from 2019, so this one is not super new anymore, but still relatively new. It runs for briefly under 100 minutes, so you could say the same there again that it is not a super long movie, but also not too short. I remember this was shown here at one of my regular movie theaters in summer, but I did not watch it there, so this time it was a good occasion to catch it on the small screen two days ago. Overall, I was glad I watched. The director is award-winning filmmaker Tomohikô Ito who launched his career approximately 15 years ago with the television series "Death Note" that was such a triumph and is still appreciated by many. Quite a way to get going. He stayed for a while with television series, then also worked on television movies before he finally made the transition to the big screen and if I see it correctly, then this one here was his second theatrical feature film release. The first was from 2017. The writer is Mado Nozaki. Not too many information to be found there. I see only one other credit for a television series, but it was not one that Ito worked on as well, so that the connection happened there, but looks like they did not know each other before this project here. Good for Nozaki though if the second career project (if the listing on imdb is correct) is a film like this here. Quite some prestige to it, even if it did not score any award wins apparently, but at least a couple nominations. I am sure that Ito will sooner or later be able to add more award wins to the one that already happened by now. I cannot say anything really about the voice actors because I watched the German dub, but the quality there was relatively nice overall I would say. Dubbing has really become so good in recent years. Not only in animation, but also with foreign films. At least here in Germany. I have stepped away from restricting myself to only seeing original versions a long time ago.

Now let's talk about the film at hand here though: There is a great deal of drama here, lots of science fiction and at the center of it all the romance element is dominant. Here and there, we also get a dose of comedy, but it is really nothing too common at all. Pretty much the way it is handled usually with anime movies as none of them are ever comedies, but they do get in a few inclusions that will make you smile or even laugh. One good example of that is at the beginning when we see the male protagonist and how he is asked by some other students if he wants to come with them to a karaoke event. His reaction was quite funny and about the same how I would react as well. Then there is of course the scene in which some dirty magazines fall out of a drawer or so and this was used by one character to show another character that he is really the other's future self. Only he himself would know where they are. There you also have a reference to the science fiction element. There is some time traveling going on here, but this is not totally at the core, even if at the other hand it really is because as always in these films there is major focus on how you are not really allowed to change the course of events. Or at least not change it crucially. As a consequene we have these kitsune character or call them fox masks or whatever. Characters that did not do a lot of talking, but went against the main character's older version and his attempts to change events the way he wanted to. As a consequence, I did not see these creatures as something evil really in the first place, but the longer the film goes, the more sinister they become you could say, even if their acts and looks never seem totally threatening. It was more about their quantity I suppose. Towards the end, when they all melt into this gigantic character, it was quite something and seems that with its actions and how it causes mayhem there, they forgot about their original mission to not mess too much with the events that happened in the past.

In any case, this is a film you have to watch more than once to really understand it. Maybe watch it more than five times even and there will still be a lot unclear. It's impossible to mention it all. Just take the older protagonist's initially hidden main objective. Take what happens when the two guys meet again after their initial meeting. Take the twist at the very end then when we see how the older guy wakes up somewhere totally unexpected. And so on. One of the maybe most emotional moments was when the older self decided to sacrifice his life to protect the other two. It is a bit melodramatic perhaps, but not bad in any way and worked nicely with the movie. I also liked his words that all he wanted was to see her smile again or something like that. Some may found it gooey, but I thought it was sweet and in a way he (through his other self) will stay there to see her smile a lot in the future. His sacrifice there (which was not really too much a sacrifice as we see in the end) was also pretty much worth it then because the film ends with a happy ending between the two main characters, the boy and girl, and that was kinda sweet how they had each other eventually. I surely like the entire film there more from this perspective, but I have never been too big on science fiction anyway, so it makes total sense. How they got to know each other, how they got closer here and there, how they talked about the books (sale) etc. Was sweet to watch. His initial doubts that he would rather be into girls cuter than the female protagonist were blown away fast. Was also kinda nice to see the two sit next to each other on a park bench and how one moves closer to the other on one occasion while they were talking and it was maybe to show each other something. The film reminded me a bit of some other movies. The romance had a touch of "A Walk to Remember", but maybe I was the only one thinking so and the science fiction elements, especially the frequency of the antagonist(s) reminded me of "The Matrix" and the guy there with the suit and black shades and how he was everywhere at some point too in terms of quantity. Of course, I cannot say if Ito was inspired by these films, but it is what came to my mind. If he was inspired, then probably it was rather by "The Matrix" than by "A Walk to Remember".

In any case, even if we got to witness great animation on so many occasions lately, no matter if we are talking about Japan or America, it should not be taken for granted how amazing this film looks at times. Some beautiful shots in here and the music is fine too. The character animation is another success. I also liked the supporting characters that we do not know too much about honestly and they added their share too. Just take the girl there that is the epitome of cute and the one the main character was referring to a bit when he talked about how he is more into cute girls in general than into the one who turned out his actual love interest not much later. Also the other kids watching the two main characters was kinda cute and funny on a few occasions and how they react to the two growing closer. It was these scenes that included a bit of the aforementioned comedy. In general, there are definitely not many comedic inclusions in here compared to other anime films. In the second half, they are pretty much gone altogether and it is about nothing else anymore except the romance and science fiction drama you can say. The antagonists and tension of the whole situation there makes it impossible to get in a few laughs I suppose. You could even call it an action film there. The girl when her brain works again and she wakes up from her vegetative state becomes also a bigger player than she was before that when we only saw her when the two got together and she had no idea about the big fight about to happen. Maybe it was even a bit unrealistic honestly that our two/three protagonists ended up defeating the bad guy(s) if you look at this villain's strength and power overall. I did like the element though that it was a completely silent danger and had no lines or dialogues.

One thing that others maybe liked more than myself was the inclusion of bright colors in the science fiction context. On quite a few occasions when something major was happening in terms of time shifts, we saw these really bright and really colorful special effects, brighter than any rainbow honestly, and that was a bit too exaggerated for me. This is only personal taste though. At least it felt memorable, which is never a bad thing I suppose, but for me it did not work too well. This is just minor criticism though and you see if that is what I complain about, then the film overall cannot be too bad. Except that it was really difficult to understand on a few occasions what was going on. You had to fully concentrate really and that was not even enough here and there. Perhaps not all of Ito's vision and ideas made it to the screen in a really understandable manner. Pity. Then again, I am talking as somebody struggling with science fiction here and there anyway, so this is just my biased perception. Huge genre fans may have an easier time and those who do not only adore anime (like myself), but also adore science fiction should really not miss out on this film. It is even close to a must-see for those perhaps and I think it could very well happen that this movie is again shown on the big screen at some point and then it might be an even better watch for them. For me it was a good film with here and there also a great moment, but overall I would say that seeing it on a television or laptop screen is enough for me with my background, so I would also not call it a must-see in general or great movie. For my very individual taste, a little less science fiction and a little more reality would have turned this into a better watch even. The positive recommendation was never in doubt though. Give this one a chance if you like anime. It is worth it.

Since the movie is all about complex programming and its manipulation, its title alludes to the "Hello World" program which is often used to represent the basic syntax of a programming language.