Review for HAL - Collector's Edition Combi-pack

Introduction

There is so much anime out there these days, especially in the UK that it’s easy to miss out on stuff, stuff that in previous years would have been on my must-watch list, or my blind-purchase list. Hal certainly came blazing its film festival trail with a heap load of hype, and now that I read the synopsis, and learn that it’s a sci-fi anime, a tale of tragic lost love and robots, I realise that in years past I would have been all over this film like an embarrassing rash. As it is, it’s was the offer of a check disc from All the Anime to stop the Gurren Lagann check discs from feeling lonely that first drew my attention to its existence.


It’s the near future, and robots are commonplace, common enough for some to consider using them for therapeutic purposes. Although you might question the sanity in using a robot to help a bereaving girl named Kurumi come to terms with the loss of her boyfriend Hal, by creating a robot in his likeness. But it seems to work. Kurumi had become isolated in her despair, but the Hal-robot starts to draw her out again, gets her engaging with the world. But in the process, the robot learns about what the real Hal was like, and more about his relationship with Kurumi, bringing him an unexpected insight into humanity... Can a robot fall in love too?


Incidentally Hal is released as a Blu-ray DVD combo, but I received just the BD check disc for review. I can’t comment on the packaging, or the booklet that will be included with the retail release.

Picture

All the Anime have sourced the Funimation master (via what seems to be an Australian detour to strip out the trailers) for the UK disc. The image is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen 1080p, and the quality of the transfer is excellent, clear and sharp throughout, bringing across the animation without flaw. The film is just 60 minutes long, so even on this single layer Blu-ray you’re not going to see any signs of compression or digital banding. It’s a gorgeous animation too, detailed, made with a soft colour palette, and with a hand drawn feel that seems very traditional in this era of CG perfection. It’s very atmospheric, and surprisingly warm and engaging from the same studio behind Attack on Titan.

Sound

You get the choice of Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround English and Japanese, with optional translated English subtitles and a signs only track. I was happy with the original language track, which offers effective, but not overbearing sound design, while the dialogue remains clear throughout. What little I sampled of the English dub was good enough, although I wasn’t immediately convinced by Kurumi’s voice actor. The subtitles are accurately timed and free of typographical error.

Extras

We’re not doing too badly for extra features on this disc, which presents its contents with an animated menu, beginning with the usual Funimation audio commentary. Fortunately it’s one of those moderated by ADR director Mike McFarland, and as he usually does for feature film commentaries, he gets the main cast members in one by one to interview them about their careers and the film. One by one he speaks to Chris Burnett (Hal), Bryn Apprill (Kurumi), and Bill Flynn (Aranami). It’s an easy commentary to listen to.


Making Of: Production Process lasts 11:10, is presented in 1080i, and features the production staff commenting on the making of the film over production art and slides of how the film was put together.

There’s more of this in Making Of: Animation and Scratch Tracks (6:17), which takes more of a look at the early stages of the dubbing process.

Finally there is the Original Trailer, the Textless Ending, and the U.S. Trailer.

Conclusion

Hal is short and sweet at just 60 minutes in length, but 60 minutes is all that it really needs to tell its simple and heart-warming story. It’s an enjoyable and gentle tale of lost-love, mourning, and healing, and it is very watchable, not least because of the beautiful imagery and appealing animation. It’s got a cast of interesting and rounded characters, and its story concept has enough that is innovative to draw the viewer in. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really deliver on what looks like an enticing premise.


The way the film begins, you have the expectation that you’re going to get more of the psychological drama underlying the romantic aspects of the story. After all, the idea of creating a robot that looks like someone’s dead lover has enough that is questionable about it, to expect things to go poorly. And then, as the relationship between Kurumi and robot-Hal develops, you have to wonder what kind of conflicted feelings she would be experiencing, the idea of replacing a loved one with a replica. There’s certainly some interest in seeing Hal learn more about his original, and finding out that he wasn’t a paragon of virtue. But you never get the impression that the film has addressed any of the questions that any rational person would ask. Instead it keeps things light and humorous for the most part, making use of a really appealing Rubik’s cube device as a means of connecting Hal and Kurumi’s feelings.


Instead, the film goes the classic sci-fi route of throwing in an unexpected twist right at the end, one that turns everything on its head. It’s an effective and well executed twist, and I certainly had to applaud the fact that this was one twist that I didn’t see coming. Although in that old saw that nothing in entertainment is new, I was immediately reminded of an old Star Trek TNG episode called Hero Worship.


As it is, Hal is a pretty enjoyable film, one which tells an effective story and manages to entertain in its runtime. But the whole thing feels contrived. The twist feels pretentious, while the drama added to create a dark back-story for two of the characters is forced and out of place given everything else that we learn about this world. In the end, Hal settles for the quick and easy jolt of narrative juice, whereas it would have been a more interesting film if it had tried to explore some of the harder questions its premise had posed. As it stands, if you want the definitive anime on human-robot relations, Time of Eve is the anime to go for.