Hal

First of all, the animation in this movie is absolutely insane! Second of all, I didn't expect to go through such a rollercoaster of emotions in just one hour. The movie contains some cyberpunk elements, featuring some advanced gadgets that makes the visuals even more captivating. Even though it's only a one-hour anime film, it delivers a powerful emotional impact. I enjoyed every moment of it from start to the end.

Una historia conmovedora de amor y duelo mezclada con fantasía y ciencia ficción, mostrando como trasciende el amor de un ser querido más allá de la vida. La ambientación de las escenas es muy cálida junto a la música que le acompaña. Quizá no recomendaría la película para espectadores que buscan historias más ligeras o sin tantos significados porque de primera podrías confundirte, pero fuera de eso es una excelente historia que vale la pena ver.

this movie snuck up on me and i genuinely was not ready Hal is only about an hour long but it packs more emotional weight into that runtime than most two hour films manage. the premise sounds simple on paper — Hal dies in a plane crash, his girlfriend Kurumi shuts herself off from the world completely, and her grandfather sends a robot built to look exactly like Hal to help her grieve. but the execution is anything but simple the Rubik's cube thing is such a clever device. Kurumi left her wishes written on the cubes and as robot Hal slowly solves them one by one he pieces together who the real Hal was, what their relationship was like, all the things left unsaid between them. it sounds gimmicky but it genuinely works as a way to drip feed you the emotional history of these two people without it ever feeling forced the visuals are gorgeous too, very warm and soft for most of the movie which makes it feel like you're watching something delicate. Wit Studio was brand new when they made this and you can already feel the care they'd bring to everything they made afterward and then there's the twist. i'm not going to spoil it but i will say that if you pay close attention there are hints scattered throughout that you only really catch on a rewatch. the first time around it genuinely made me sit back and just stare at the screen for a second. not a cheap twist either, it completely recontextualizes everything you watched and makes the ending land twice as hard the only real complaint is that some side characters and backstory threads feel slightly undercooked given how short the runtime is. you get glimpses of things that feel like they deserved more time but overall Hal is the kind of quiet, small movie that stays with you way longer than you expect it to. absolutely worth the one hour

This short sequence takes our breath away as we witness a character who, against expectations, returns a lost belonging to a friend, played in the most unexpected way. Here, beautiful animation and a great narrative vocalise that relationships went deeper than they are thought to