[Anime Review] Sing a Bit of Harmony - Pale Cocoon's Spiritual Sequel

In my Pale Cocoon review, I made a statement that I would have loved a continuation set in the same world. I decided to watch this film after seeing that it was directed by the same person in my research for that review. I wasn't expecting it to feel as similar as it did; in fact I will make several comparisons between the two due to that. You won't need to have seen that OVA to appreciate this film, but many aspects of it were on display here, and I'm all for that. Welcome to my review.

What Is This Film About

In the near future, artificial intelligence has become an integral part of daily life. On June 6, a plan is put into action in Hoshima Corp's robotics laboratory to see if a human looking robot with an advanced AI could be inserted into a High School for five days and not be discovered. That school happened to be the same one that Satomi Amano, the daughter of the woman in charge of this project, attends. Singing, dancing and shenanigans ensue. Can an AI pass as human?

Who Are the Main Characters

Satomi Amano - the main perspective character of the work. She's fairly tall for her age, has short, black hair and is shown immediately to be a loner. Awhile back, she had gained a reputation for being a snitch and currently was disliked by most of her classmates for it. The relationship between her mother, Mitsuko, and her was possibly one of the most loving ones I've seen in a good while.

Shion Ashimori - the AI girl. She had long brown hair and was of average height with a similar complexion to Satomi. After transferring in, her first action was to find Satomi, ask her if she's happy now, and to start singing a song that she created just for this moment.

Toma Suzaki - a close guy friend from Satomi's childhood. His hair is short, brown and seemingly unkempt at most times. He is one of the tallest characters in the main group and was introduced hacking the school's surveillance systems in order to check on Satomi. It's implied that they haven't been super close for awhile; his friends in the Computer Science Club jokingly called him her "stalker".

What Impressed Me

Let me set the record straight: this film was gorgeous and dripping with detail. The curtains, appliances, some of the cutlery, the few vehicles on display and several of the future technology were all in full 3D. A similar shading effect to what Pale Cocoon had employed was used here to integrate them into the world. It was more noticeable on the vehicles at a distance, but they weren't on the screen long enough for it to take me out of the experience.

This film, unlike Pale Cocoon, was half classic Disney film musical. When Shion began to sing, birds began flying away from her in largely sweeping camera pans, other AI companions (such as a trash collector bot bullies had harassed in an earlier shot) joined in on her dances, and a piano started to play on its own with compositions she had created displayed on the computer-generated white boards in the music hall. Just like with those films of old, the music here felt uplifting and bombastic when Shion opened her mouth. One such impressive song and dance was a simple Judo sparring montage treated like a ballroom waltz.

Ryou Takahashi composed the soundtrack, and in both the English dub and the original Japanese, the voice actresses nailed the voiced song tracks. I appreciated how much effort was put into matching the English lyrics with the tracks they belonged to. I didn't notice any unneeded pauses or extra jumbled together lyrical chains (might not be the right term). The musical tracks that were composed for individual scenes but lacked vocals masterfully conveyed the tone of the scene. Example: when Shion heard that a prince could make Satomi happy, she searched for and mandhandled Go-chan into an awkward situation involving the lip connecting kind to a playful swing tune.

The final part that impressed me was how tight and well formulated the mystery was here. Due to this having a similar structure to Pale Cocoon, the revelations in the latter half of the film were not as impactful for me as they would have been for someone who experienced this as their first Yasuhiro Yoshiura production, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy them. I won't spoil them here (due to how important going in blind is to any good mystery); just know that some of the implications made could be tied directly to Pale Cocoon depending on how hard you want to think about it.

What Disappointed Me

If there was one place where I felt the film stumbled hard, it was the inclusion of the villain. Their motivations were hinted at pretty early on in a seemingly throwaway line and a glancery look at a photograph in the background, but I felt they didn't add much to the story. They weren't a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere, but that would have been more interesting than what we were subjected to, the Card-Carrying Villain type. On a positive note, they were relatable in our real modern day society.

My Final Thoughts

I don't regret watching this film. It gave me more of what I had wanted all of these years without being as bleak as its predecessor. It took full advantage of its film budget and told a mostly self-contained story with a somewhat open-ended finale that didn’t feel incomplete or sequel baity. I would recommend watching Pale Cocoon first due to history and how that work can elevate one’s understanding of this experience but it’s not required viewing.

If you enjoyed this review, feel free to vote, reblog and comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful rest of your day.

Important Info

• Original Property created, directed and written by Yasuhiro Yoshiura
• Studio: JC Staff
• Genres: Science Fiction, Slice of Life, Musical, Mystery, High School Drama
• Released When / Time: October 29, 2021 (1 hour and 48 minutes)
• Where to Stream: Crunchyroll
• Recommended Similar Content: The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (feature length film sequel to the Haruhi Anime series but has just as much of an interesting premise); Robotics;Notes (similar premise in some ways with a bit more mystery and a longer runtime)