March 8, 2023
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by Jonathan Clements.
Kyoto teenager Naomi Katagaki’s world is invaded by a completely unexpected arrival – an avatar of her old self, transported from a gaudy, rainbow-colored otherworld to the year 2027, a man on a mission to save a girl’s life. is on Naomi’s classmate Ruri is destined to be the victim of a horrific accident, and the older Naomi is here to stop it. For that, he’ll need the help of his younger self, an overly shy, timid boy who needs a crash-course on how to talk to girls and be a hero.
Like the digital environment it predicts, Hello World Cleverly employs modern technology in its construction. The film was shot in 3D computer graphics, appearing as though it were drawn on a 2D cel, and thus allowing its vertical action or sudden onslaught of effects to seem out of everyday world. Such effects are most apparent in augmented reality scenes, but viewers can also see them when employed in subtle, mundane moments, tracking shots of ordinary life.
“It’s 3D, but it’s not,” laughed director Tomohiko Ito in an interview with Akiba Soken, “That’s why it’s so beneficial. I didn’t think much about the 3D industry, but I can’t compete with the US, which is so far ahead of us in 3DCG. Then I wondered if the Japanese could use their own resources for CG.” Is there a way to find a unique position for . I thought ‘cell lookup’ [i.e. toon-shading] The answer was
Shortly before the film’s release, screenwriter Mado Nozaki made a hilariously meta performance. An image magazine, pretending to go back in time for an interview from a fortnight in the future she herself about the success of the film. In the process, he credited Ito as both the director and producer of the film, Your nameKatsuhiro Takei, for the detailed planning meetings that separated the film’s plot and direction. “By the time we got to the scripting stage, I thought it was a Industry At work, trying to assemble everyone’s input into a coherent whole. But of course, narrowing it down made life easier, the plotting in the planning meeting was so intense that I never found myself lost and wondering what I should do next. The skeleton was all there.
Naomi Katagaki is pegged as a dreamer and bookworm from the opening reel. However, this marks the beginning of the plot of the film, as his library book is stolen by a three-legged crow. Yatagarasu), in reference to a mythical animal thought to herald the intervention of divine beings in human affairs.
divine? Well, definitely a visitor from what we might call a higher plane. As we learn, Naomi’s world is a construct of its own, a singularity that represents the successful completion of all the virtual-reality projects we’ve seen going on around her town. Kyoto has been successfully digitized; 2027 is included to the extent that it can be played in Naomi’s own future as a simulation indistinguishable from the real world. In fact, his entire world is carefully saved and stored, which is good news for his future, as Ruri Ichigyo, the girl he likes, would be put into a life-threatening coma within weeks. Is.
However, some surprises lie in wait in Mado Nozaki’s story. Although he presents us with a standard save-the-girl narrative, he slowly begins to open up to the audience about the questions it might raise. save the girl from What, save the girl for whose benefit, As the boys’ arguments about Ruri make clear, the elder Naomi’s memories of her may be flawed. To him she is a cherished love; to his younger self, a sinister stranger, admittedly handsome but clearly “not his type.” Nozaki’s script delights in their very different perspectives on the same girl – either the older Naomi’s got a lot wrong, or the younger Naomi goes on to experience a series of life-changing changes in her attitudes and interests over the next three years. Has been months. he is a teenager; Not that it is not possible either.
“From the beginning,” said Nozaki to himself. An image“We had the idea of three selves in different timelines, and one person loving two other people. When it came to Naomi, I wanted the audience to empathize with her, to say to herself: I used to worry about the same things when I was sixteen,
In Nozaki’s hands, the story of a pure-hearted hero who is sincerely trying to save the life of his love interest becomes a duel between two rivals, both of whom believe they are Ruri. deserves attention. The elder Naomi is fully convinced that she is here to “manipulate the past”, although someone versed in philosophy might have pointed her to a more Taoist solution, that if she stayed away from Ruri altogether, she Never waits for her. Under a tree in a storm, and therefore will never be injured. In the usual setting for an at times contradictory story, the presence of the elder Naomi helps create the very circumstances she is trying to avoid; but in Hello WorldHe has a reason… a sinister purpose for doing this.
But screenwriter Nozaki still has plenty of twists and turns, including a finale that must have been the subject of much debate among the production team. One imagines that a bolder production would have considered running this Afterwards Closing credits, Marvel-style, but since the credits last five minutes, it was probably a step too far. Wisely, the film ends where it should, all in sync with Nozaki’s novel: “The vast blank pages of a new world waiting for his next line,
Or does…? because the spin-off continued, in which a Hello World manga, a Hello World treasure hunt that requires players to find clues at real-world Japanese bookstores and an online e-book, in the distance, In it, Mado Nozaki revisits his characters one last time, piecing together images that play over the film’s credits, to tell the story of their later activities. Appropriate for a story about multiple realities, its story flies in multiple directions during and after the film.
Written by Jonathan Clements Anime: A History, Hello World Available from Anime Limited.