Hal

Kurumi lost the person she loved in a plane crash. She cannot recover; she does not leave the house, does not speak and does not want to see anyone. A technology company makes a proposal: they will make an android in the dead man's place. Hal carries his appearance, his voice and his habits. He is placed with Kurumi. His task is to bring her back to life, and for that he has to learn what the dead man thought. There is a collection of paper cubes in the house; each has a wish written on it and Hal opens them one by one. Ryotaro Makihara directs. The studio is Wit Studio; Yoshimasa Hosoya and Yoko Hikasa are among the voices. It runs around an hour and tells a single story. The matter it treats is which side the grief is on; the film turns that around at the end with one piece of information. The animation and the use of colour work inside the narrative; the house and the objects are drawn in detail. The cube motif sets the structure and each cube answers to a section. The narrative does not go into explaining its science fiction; the android technology is used as a ground. The turn at the end changes the whole feeling and the earlier scenes take on new meaning. Its limit is length; the narrative is short and the supporting characters are not opened enough. Who it is for: viewers who like short Japanese animation and emotional science fiction. Who it is not for: it is short, the turn will feel strained to some, and the subject is sad.