HELLO WORLD

Hello World is a 2019 Japanese animated sci-fi romantic drama film produced by Graphinica
and directed by Tomohiko It. After his previous work on Sword Art Online, Tomohiko Ito directs
“Hello World,” his second animated feature film. In a remarkable departure from the franchise,
the filmmaker collaborates with screenwriter Mado Nozaki on a sci-fi romance reminiscent to
Makoto Shinkai's enormously successful "Your Name." Outside of its intermittent visual flair and
explosive ending, however, the film struggles to find its footing in a rather uninteresting core
narrative. After graduating from Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Itō joined
Madhouse and switched from being a production assistant to an episode director. From his time at
Madhouse, he appeared in a number of productions under the alias Kagurazaka Tokiichi. The pen
name is a combination of his hometown and the name of his grandfather. Before making his
directorial debut with Occult Academy, he worked as an assistant director on Death Note, The Girl
Who Leapt Through Time, and Summer Wars.

When Naomi Katagaki was initially intimidated by Ruri Ichigyo's standoffish behavior, I really
felt that! I have an affinity for defrosting icy exteriors so I ended up rooting for Naomi to win over
Ruri. Before getting into the rescue effort, I appreciate how the film takes its time to build the two
characters' relationship and depict their progressive closeness through little exchanges. In the
perspective of a teen romance anime, it takes the characters roughly two months to start dating,
which I find surprising. I purposefully left away a large amount of the plot in my summary to avoid
spoiling the viewing experience. Beyond the core notion, there is so much more to discover. The
plot will take abrupt twists and turns as the film progresses, leaving you perplexed and unsure of
reality until the very end. Certain notions and hypotheses in Hello World lean firmly toward hard
sci-fi, and they become a hot topic of conversation after viewing. The plot, on the other hand, has
a propensity to become overly complicated later on and could have been simplified. In terms of
the setting, I enjoyed how the futuristic notion was put against the backdrop of traditional Kyoto
locations. The film's action sequences are heightened by the dynamic cinematography. In the odd
camera angles used, I can definitely identify influences from Doctor Strange and Inception, as
noted by the filmmaker in an interview. However, the artistic features can be rather disorienting,
particularly when the perspective begins to spin out of control. However, I believe it fits the sci-fi
mood perfectly and is surely preferable to a dull scene. In comparison to the romantic relationship
with Ruri, I thought the interaction between adult and teen Naomi to be lot more fascinating and
engaging. Have we not reflected on our prior terrible experiences, going over what happened again
and again and thinking what could have been done differently? As grownups, we finally get our
wishes fulfilled. Naomi is able to tutor his younger self, teaching him to be more proactive and
resilient in order to avoid the mistakes of his childhood. However, as the story unfolds, the older
counterpart ends up learning a lot more from his youthful self's sincerity, determination, and
optimism.

Many people are familiar with the phrase "Hello World" as the first line of text supplied to a
new software. It indicates that the code is working properly, but it also conveys a sense of
enthusiasm and optimism, as if a new entity were standing on the shores of an unknown place,
hungry for adventure. The phrase is carefully placed not at the beginning but at the end of
Tomohiko Ito's sci-fi-inflected anime, affirming that the hero has managed to step into himself,
discover his place, and come to an understanding that grants him a sense of agency and possibility
in a brand new world of his own creation. However, Naomi Katagaki is a textbook “regular high
school boy” who fears he is just an extra in his own life, quietly reading away at the back of the
classroom and being the last in line for dinner. Reading a self-help book on becoming more
assertive helps less than he might have hoped, but two changes are gradually introduced into his
life, albeit passively. The first is that he is pressed into joining the library committee, and the
second is that he is approached by a strange man who claims to be himself a decade older. Future
Naomi claims to have arrived from “reality,” revealing that the environment Naomi is presently
living in is a simulation created to precisely preserve Kyoto as a digital archive held inside the
infinitely memory supercomputer Alltale. His older self predicts that he will fall in love with
classmate Ruri, but that she would be killed by lightning at a festival in three months. Despite the
fact that their actions will have no effect on the "real" world, Future Naomi claims it's enough for
him to "save" Ruri, even if it's only virtually, seemingly unconcerned that he'll be completely
ruining the Chronicle Kyoto project by introducing an inauthentic note perfectly primed for the
butterfly effect.
 In any case, Naomi learns that you can't always trust yourself, especially if you appear to be
nothing more than data and hence perhaps infinitely expendable. Young Naomi doesn’t seem
particularly fazed by the revelation that his world is not real, and is perhaps overly trusting of his
new mentor’s guidance following his instructions to the letter in accordance with the “Ultimate
Manual” he’s been given to facilitate his romance with Ruri whom he originally claims not to
fancy because like many immature teenage boys he only likes cute girls like transfer student
Misuzu who literally sparkles while Ruri is like him a wallflower obsessed with books, shy and
with an aloof, slightly intense aura. What Future Naomi offers him is pure male adolescent fantasy
wish fulfillment in the form of the Hand of God, which allows him to conjure objects from the
digital world and will ostensibly help to save Ruri from her cruel fate.

The universe, on the other hand, has other plans. Soon after, he is pursued by the forces of order,
Homeostasis System Droids, who are trained to eliminate and correct inconsistencies in data and
appear as oversize cops in kitsune masks. Even though he's been told he's the creation of a
simulacrum, nothing in Naomi's world makes much sense. Some of this could be explained by a
final twist that turns everything we thought we knew on its head, implying that the gaps and
contradictions we see are due to the vagaries of analogue rather than digital memory, combined
with physical and emotional trauma. Nonetheless, it turns out that Naomi's mission is to save
herself twice over, allowing Future Naomi to reconcile with the traumatic past while giving birth
to a "new world" of adulthood in which he is the fully realized protagonist rather than the bit-
player extra he's always imagined himself to be.

Hello World's 3D animation fusion of 2D reality and the digital realm makes for interesting
production design as Naomi's world eventually crumbles around him in multi-colored pixel while
he's chased by giant neon hands under an angry red sky, with character designs by Kyoto
Animation stalwart Yukiko Horiguchi. Nonetheless, its wilful incoherence is frequently
frustrating, even if its myriad plot holes may be explained in part by the final revelation, which
introduces another note of perplexity in its concluding scene. However, Hello World is primarily
a coming-of-age romance in which the hero saves himself twice while learning to rediscover a
sense of wonder in future possibility. The film raises some minor questions about the collection,
use, and storage of personal data, archival practice, the limits of digital technology, and the nature
of "reality".
 Hello World demonstrates that no amount of technological innovation can give a quick fix for
profound pain and loss. Using the knowledge learned from the experience to help others, on the
other hand, can help you heal as well. The animated film is a visually exciting journey that will
leave you with plenty of questions to ponder. Expect some shocking revelations that will alter your
perception of the entire film.