Ai no Utagoe wo Kikasete

Satomi Amano is a model student as well as the daughter of the leading project manager of Hoshima, a company that has revolutionized AI technology. However, due to her standing, Satomi's presence has isolated her from her classmates—an obstacle she knows she may never overcome.

On an otherwise uneventful day, while preparing for school, Satomi uncovers her mother's latest exciting proposition: an AI that will prove whether robots can live alongside humans. Intrigued by how her mother will commence the project, Satomi makes her way to school, but standing in front of the class is none other than the AI herself.

As the subject of research, Shion Ashimori is tasked to fit in like a normal teenage girl without exposing her true identity. However, Shion has another goal in mind—to make Satomi happy instead. With her talent for singing, Shion strives to compose harmonious melodies that not only connect her with her newfound friends but also dispel the dissonance within Satomi's heart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ashimori, Shion Main

Tsuchiya, Tao Japanese

Amano, Satomi Main

Fukuhara, Haruka Japanese

Suzaki, Touma Main

Endou, Asuka Japanese

Sugiyama, Kouichirou Supporting

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

Satou, Aya Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Gotou, Sadayuki Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Kaichou Supporting

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Nomiyama Supporting

Hamada, Kenji Japanese

Saijou Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Amano, Mitsuko Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Iizuka, Toshio Producer

Matsuo, Kousuke Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Reviews

Sep 2, 2023

ggultra2764

Recommended

Sing a Bit of Harmony was a film that got sandwiched in with Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song- and Belle in 2021 with its focus on AI and technology within a near-future setting. The name Yatsuhiro Yoshiura may ring a bell to some folks as he was the director behind the highly acclaimed 2008 ONA, Time of Eve, with its mundane focus on androids and exploring how life would seem from their perspective as they secretly have gained sentience. Sing a Bit of Harmony dabbles into somewhat similar elements of exploring a near-future setting with technology as a company is testing out a new AI-programmed robot ... named Shion to attempt having her blend in with students at a high school as loner student Satomi, who attends the school, is the daughter of Shion's lead programmer and finds her life getting hectic with Shion attempting to give her "happiness."

This film has a number of the familiar drama beats you may see from other coming-of-age films that include a lonely teenager being an outcast and another character coming along to help liven up their lives and improve their interactions with others, this chemistry focused on with Satomi and Shion. The AI focus comes into play with exploring the bond between humans and technology with Shion's attempts to bond with Satomi and several of her classmates, as her infectious energy and antics clash with the otherwise mundane environment from her human companions who believably react to her outrageous behavior. This does make things feel a bit different from most sci-fi titles that depict AI as being logical and to the point in their interactions with others, as Shion's lively personality and inability to blend in with students due to unintentionally showing off her inhuman abilities does add some additional dimension to her character with her efforts to make others happy. Elements of Shion's character hint to a more closer connection she has to Satomi than expected that the film does explore as things progress with it.

Outside of the focus on the main duo, there is focus on some of the issues affecting several of Satomi's classmates that Shion gets herself involved in as well, notably Satomi's childhood friend and talented engineer Toma. The film has enough time to flesh out and provide some sort of resolution to these issues, though it does get a bit clumsy with handling moments of teenage angst affecting the characters.

Overall in spite of having some typical elements of a coming-of-age drama, Yoshiura's touch on the genre with Sing a Bit of Harmony makes Shion's lively character quite different from typical depictions of AI in media and offers some solid exploration on the idea of humans and technology having positive relationships with one another, even if feeling a little romanticized compared to his earlier work on Time of Eve. I'd at least give it a watch, even if it doesn't completely break any new ground as far as its coming-of-age drama elements go.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 14, 2023

PY3

Mixed Feelings

To summarize this movie without any spoilers:

You we're excited when you found out a new steak house opened nearby you

You went and was served a really good looking medium rare steak, which was also plated beautifully.

First bites tasted good, you were enjoying your time, the restaurant's atmosphere is amazing, the friendly staff's and beautiful music playing in the background.

Two more pieces of the steak remains and after eating... You spat it out, because of how extremely salty it was.

... Confused, as to why there was a random salty part, you looked at the last piece and hoped it wouldn't be as salty as the previous piece

It was salty.

For a few mins you just sat there disappointed that you didn't get to enjoy the the very last piece.


That's how It felt watching this movie.
Beautiful animation, okay characters, great soundtrack,but cmon!!! that climax made no sense! And that ending was unsatisfying either! Meh

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 1, 2025

Gsarthotegga

Not Recommended

The director and creator of Sing a Bit of Harmony and Time of Eve is proficient at what he does, but his past forays into AI/android-based sci-fi had more depth and inventiveness, even when I wasn't sold on his vision of the future. This new film is more along the lines of the typical blockbuster, meaning there is a little bit of everything in the family friendly sphere of fiction: coming of age, sci-fi concept and theme, romance, action, comedy, social commentary (gag), etc.

I might as well not even write about android-raising simulators, as I've said just about all there is to say across ... a wide-range of notes, for they can only be about two things if you're making a humanoid android: 1) labor and household chores. 2) sex. Well... there's also 3) pretending to be human, which would have applications for espionage, surveillance, or a goofy comedy premise, as we have here, though it turns to tedious drama before long. This world has sexless, creepy androids everywhere, and while the most degenerate fetishist might derive some pleasure from such things (hello, man who was arrested for having sex with a helicopter), those are functional and meant for completing rote tasks. But, let's face it, there's only one reason to make them cute. The director presumably found the sexual tension too high in Time of Eve, so he made the main a busybody FMC with a bad haircut and a Disney Moon Princess obsession, though there are a few curious males sniffing around as well.

The FMC's single mother girlboss is competing in a, as her daughter states, "patriarchal company," where you can tell the director is trying hard to get you to sympathize with mommy and tying together technological progress and political issues, with mommy being removed from her position indicating a "regression in AI research." I simply couldn't care less about this plot point and already felt like I was being spoonfed a Netflix film. The daughter is adamant about making whatever excuse necessary to deflect any possible inkling of incompetence on the part of mommy in relation to the AI project; although it's because mommy is family, there's the subtextual element of female integration and dominance in the work place. Mommy's boss is introduced with bad guy music, mannerisms to match the hammed-up portrayal, and a conspiracy soon develops to put mommy in her place. There's even a scene noting that mommy is neglecting her child in favor of her career. Get back in the kitchen, and you should be ashamed that your daughter grew fat on toxic baby formula instead of your teat. The five-year-old Touma, goofing off on a Tamagotchi, was more important to the plot than you'll ever be. Hilariously, it can be argued that the parents probably caused much of the FMC's dysfunction, but all is well in the end because of the healing power of the AI that mommy had a hand in developing. Thanks, mommy! What really annoys me about this is that if Satomi's father were the AI scientist here, then they wouldn't be able to use the "sexism" plot point, and we'd instead have to focus on a philosophical difference between the "noble scientist" and the corporate side of the industry and their stooges, which is far more meaningful and pertinent to the subject of AI. The writer could have just as easily written it with this focus for the mother and made an attempt to present her sacrifice as being of such great importance that it was worth neglecting her daughter over (it's really hard to make this part palatable), without making excuses for her. However, the only way this would work is if you had more pronounced philosophical distinctions. It's not that this needs to be an overwhelming part of the story that overshadows Satomi, her friends, and the AI, but it should at least be in the backdrop more than it is. I keep thinking this story would be a lot more meaningful if it had a touch of the debate found in something like Crichton's Jurassic Park novel about science but revised and updated for AI.

The characters are archetypal and cliche, and the dynamics are forced, with all the right (or wrong) moments padded with chintzy music. The cast is stale and not written in a way to even partially transcend their stock roots: the computer nerd, generic FMC, athlete, popular girl, handsome guy, etc. I can't remember most of their names, and they're forgettable as characters. About the only thing this ironically dated coming of age offers is moe and technical polish, for the android is a cute, unpredictable bundle of energy, with highly expressive animation and the perfect touch of wacky uncanny valley for fetish fuel.

Similar to ToE, this is another techno-optimist sci-fi film meant to present what could easily be rendered as a dystopia but slaps on a soft-focus sheen: robots that look like crash test dummies everywhere, performing the tasks most would rather avoid; AI is integrated into virtually everything, making everything convenient and easy; everything is surveilled to make sure you're nice instead of naughty. Admittedly, Japan would have an easier time presenting a clean, hopeful setup like this, whereas the U.S. would quickly become more of a dystopic hellscape than it already is. Nevertheless, Yoshiura is only interested in looking at the positives of this tech, which leaves his film feeling like nothing but a quirky comedy about an uptight girl who wants to make friends, and gosh darn it, mommy's sexy female android will make it happen, one awkward scene after another!

One must ask who thought this android was ready to blend in as a human at school and fool anyone. She's off the charts on autism, physically stronger than humans, stands out in every way, and bursts into song and dance at random to bluntly state the concerns and emotions of the characters, emphasizing the power of tech for fostering and maintaining connections, even if it's the opposite that has typically happened, whether we're looking at Japan or elsewhere; this quirk is sort of hilarious at first, but quickly becomes absolutely nauseating, especially during the solar panel/wind farm light show, where the entire cast act like they're at a Disney karaoke club, producing maximalist barf fuel. The AI doesn't even wear the proper school uniform, opting instead for a super-kawaii shirt with buttons! Somehow her handlers don't realize this mischief, as she works in tandem with other AIs and humans in zany hijinks. The funny thing is that the AI has the awareness to figure out how to cover her tracks at school expertly (when it comes to her handlers, anyway), but she's oblivious to it being a bad idea to hack the entire power grid for a laser light show and inspirational idol pop dance session.

For the second half, the pacing slows down, and the script enters the pensive piano drama realm, becoming whiny, boring, and entirely predictable, as idealistic high schoolers and mommy rise up against adults in three-piece suits at the AI corporation. The director returns to his thematic roots a bit, as the company was acting against regulations, the FMC declares that the AI "is not an object," there's a question of AIs being infected, consciousness, etc. The director implies that because AI can appear to approximate human behavior, then it is nearly inseparable or should at least be given similar freedom and rights and should not be thought of as a tool, in spite of why AI or androids would be created in the first place.

The way the film integrates the backstory of the AI in the second half adds a stronger emotional impact, but, for everything done well during this segment, there always seems to be something done poorly, so the experience never rises above mediocrity; one of the best (worst?) examples is how there is always a crappy Disney princess CGI video playing in a corner window for any scenes from the AI's perspective, which is one of the tackiest things I've ever seen, trying to generate emotion and falling back on ready-made corpo-crap. It reminded me of 86 in tone, when the machine goes through its vast data stores and relives the memories of the cast and those who had long since died, only the intent is different and pertains more to machine learning and sentimental persistence, as the roots of what turns out to be a rogue and well-meaning AI are crafted from the "pure intentions" of a child before there could be any chance of the little tyke being "corrupted" by society or some such pablum, so the film is naively Rousseaun in that sense. The worst is when they start insisting Shion was perhaps "more human" than they thought, her desire to make people happy couldn't have been an order, and must have "come from her heart." Please stop this syrupy nonsense.

It's probably the most positive portrayal out there of what could easily be a dystopia, for the loving, most pure of AIs is following Satomi around as if it were her guardian angel, and the staff do a fantastic job of selling this with the abstract depiction of a network, the AI zipping from one camera to the next, thinking only of how it could fulfill its role to make Satomi happy; sure, you might get swept up in the emotion, but, in the back of my mind, I think of who controls these apparatuses and an inversion of the sweet Shion. AI can be used for good or bad intentions, but the film confronts this reality in a childish manner, despite semi-realism. We're treated to an optimism so thick that deus ex machinas are popping up all over the place toward the end, like singing to restore wiped data or the other outdated AIs having "evolved" to assist everyone and being "good."

Yes, Yoshiura, we get it. The dull-as-cardboard character "Thunder," who is the rock-for-brains judo practitioner, is clearly a stand-in for you, because he asks out the AI with a blush and a stammer. All of your work is about sexy female androids and AI. In ToE, the whole setup was basically there for sexual tension to develop between humans and androids, with his dream scenario of being a high schooler who has a sexy female android fetching him tea but finding himself in the awkward situation of his parents and sister being around so he must abstain from having sex with it. You were so embarrassed by this insight into your life that you instead used an FMC to uproot the sexual tension (tbh, I'd probably give this anime 6/10 if there were a male protagonist, as it's indecent to star an FMC in a sexy female android film and make me power through the female empowerment plot point sludge), but I know you have a fetish for this. You don't want anyone to get in the way of your sexy female android incel revolution, except you want to liberalize it, making your AI girlfriend free to leave you and take the house and all twelve cats. Just admit it already.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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