How was the film "Sing a Bit of Harmony" reviewed when released in Japan？-No Spoilers- #SingaBitofHarmony

・This article is a summary of what Japanese audiences thought about the movie "Sing a Bit of Harmony".
・This article is intended to support the release of "Sing a Bit of Harmony" in English-speaking countries.
・The author is not fluent in English, so the translation is done with the help of AI. Please forgive me if some parts are not well translated.

(※海外での公開に合わせての英語版です)

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【Introduction】

The movie "Sing a Bit of Harmony" is an animated film that was released in Japan on October 29, 2021. Public information in English-speaking countries can be found at the Funimation website below. As noted on this Funimation web site, the film won the Audience Award at Scotland Loves Animation 2021. It also recently won the "Excellent Animation of the Year" award at the "Japan Academy Film Prize 2022", along with "Belle" and the latest "Evangelion" films.

Sing A Bit Of Harmony | Funimation Films

- Story ―――――――――――――――
The movie begins with the arrival of an AI-powered robot named "Shion" at the high school of the main character, "Satomi". This is a kind of "Wozniak test (Mr. coffee test)" to see if the AI can blend into human life, and if the other students don't find out that Shion is an AI, it passes the test. At the beginning of the movie, the only person in the high school who knows that Shion is a robot is Satomi. However, Shion behaves strangely, suddenly starting to sing, which confuses Satomi and her classmates. In the middle part of the story, we see how the relationships between Satomi and her classmates are turned around by Shion and her songs. Shion declares that she will make Satomi happy and acts accordingly. But the story takes a major turn when Shion's development company "Hoshima" intervenes....(To be continued at the movie theater)
――――――――――――――――――――

This movie picks a fight with the "Frankenstein complex", and delves into AI and happiness. At overseas film festivals, people commented that it was wonderful that it was an AI film that pursued happiness rather than a dystopian future.

This film is a combination of science fiction, musical and coming-of-age story, songs play an important role in this movie, just like in the animated film Belle. It is also worth mentioning that the structure of this film respects Disney films.

For me, the biggest highlight is the scene about Shion's secret. This scene is not to be watched without tears.

Frankenstein complex - Wikipedia

【Audience Impressions in Japan】

"Sing a Bit of Harmony" has been highly acclaimed in Japan. This film was released in Japan on October 29, 2021. However, in the early stages of the film's release, it did not attract many viewers, perhaps due to the influence of CＯVID‑19. One theory is that it was due to the unappealing trailer. However, the reaction of those who saw the movie was clear. About 90% of the people who saw the movie gave it a good review.

The author collected about 300 feedback tweets on Twitter and ranked the degree of feedback from "great admiration" to "Bad rating".

A : great admiration
e.g., "One of the best movies of my life", "The best movie I've seen all year", "100 million points out of 100 !"

B : favorable reviews
e.g., "It was very interesting", "It was very good", "90 points !"

C : Good
e.g., "It was good", "It was interesting", "I enjoyed it !"

D : Slightly favorable
e.g., "It wasn't bad", "It was good, but there were a few things that bothered me"

E : Unpopular
e.g., "It isn't for me", "I didn't enjoy it much"

F : Bad rating
e.g., "Waste of time", "Not worth watching"
(This examples are rating criteria, and none of the tweets I collected had this kind of harsh feedback.)

The following is the percentage of feedback tweets.

A : 6.3%
B : 43.3%
C : 42.9%
D : 5.6%
E : 2.0%
F : 0.0%

It was quite well received. The total of A and B alone is close to half. If we add the tweets up to C, which were well received, almost 90% of the impressions were on the positive side !! 

The 300 tweets I collected did not include any tweets classified as "F". However, to be fair, I would like to mention that there are rare tweets on Twitter that are very critical.

I did this analysis in November of 2021. Today, this movie is still available in Japan, although fewer theaters are showing it. Word of mouth spread about how wonderful the movie was, and this led to it becoming a long-running movie. On Twitter, you can see several tweets that people have gone to see this movie more than 50 times !

Here are some feedbacks on the movie without spoiling it.

"The storyline is classic, but it's very good."
"The foreshadowing was really good."
"I usually don't cry at movies, but I cried a lot."
"The feeling of euphoria after watching the movie was amazing."

【Conclusion】

I'm jealous all of you who can watch "Sing a Bit of Harmony" and experience a fresh emotion. I wish I could erase my memory and watch this movie again.

This film may not be well-received by all audiences due to differences in cultural backgrounds, but on the other hand, it may end up being praised by many more. And this movie is designed to give you a different impression the second time. If you are moved by this film, I hope you will plan to watch it a second time.

I am sure that "Shion" will make you happy.
Thank you.

(This blog post was translated by "https://www.deepl.com/")