Sing a Bit of Harmony Review

Date: 2022 January 24 19:12

Posted by Joe

Anime movie Sing a Bit of Harmony will be out in UK and Ireland cinemas from Friday 28th January 2022. The film tells the classic story of Japanese School Girl meets robotic AI with hilarity and pandemonium ensuing. We've been lucky enough to catch it already. So read our review to find out what we thought.

Full Story

Sing A Bit of Harmony is the latest cinematic offering from Funimation. The movie is written and directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura who is best known for the enjoyable Patema Inverted and the excellent Time of EVE.



Set in the near future in a world where robots and similar AI are becoming an emerging technology. The movie tells the story of Japanese school girl Satomi. She lives in a community heavily influenced by Hoshima the big AI corporation. They have test areas for farming robots and self driving buses are common, along with AI assisted running shoes and all sorts of other gadgets that are being tested. Satomi's school is part of the test programme with students able to use an app to report issues with the worker robots who collect rubbish and do other basic cleaning tasks.



At school Satomi encounters mysterious transfer student Shion, who becomes popular with her classmates. Satomi and her friends discover that Shion is actually an AI in a late testing phase to see if she can blend in with society! It s seems Shion's mission is to make Satomi happy. The only trouble is Shion's real life experience is limited so takes a rather computer based algorithmic approach to the task. Chaos and hilarity then ensue.



While watching this film couldn't help thinking of Time of EVE and in many respects it seems similar. Both are set in a near future in a robotic aided world that seems plausible. Both also explore various "what ifs".

The animation is to a consistently high standard, but overall this is mid budget movie. There aren't that many locations used, and there aren't that many characters in the film nor many moments that feel big budget. It's not really a movie that you simply must watch on the big screen to get the full effect.

The song and dance routines are good and enjoyable both in the original Japanese and English dub. Funimation have made an extra effort re-recording the songs into English and it works and sounds natural (which isn't an easy thing to do). The big-bang song 'Lead Your Partner' feels especially appropriate in English.

Sing a Bit of Harmony is a light hearted anime with comedic moments along the way. Although it's not groundbreaking, it sets out and achieves exactly what it intends to do. It's enjoyable, light hearted entertainment at its best. It's one of those movies I'll happily watch again and buy the home video release.

The movie is actually a co-production with Funimation. We think it's great that they're investing in the production of anime and we look forward to them co-producing more anime in the future.

Sing a Bit of Harmony will be out in UK and Ireland cinemas from Friday 28th January 2022. You can buy tickets now online.