is a 2021 Japanese animated

slice of life Slice of life is a depiction of mundane experiences in art and entertainment. In theater, slice of life refers to naturalism, while in literary parlance it is a narrative technique in which a seemingly arbitrary sequence of events in a characte ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

film, produced by J.C.Staff and directed by

Yasuhiro Yoshiura (born 1980) is a Japanese writer and director of animated short films. Many of his works such as '' Pale Cocoon'' and '' Time of Eve'' have garnered awards and featured at film festivals. His production studio is called Studio Rikka. Biography ...

. It premiered in Japan in October 2021.

Plot

The film takes place in a unspecified near future in a small Japanese town, which the technology company Hoshima uses as test site for multiple AI controlled systems and robot. The story follows high school student Satomi Amano, who lives with her mother, the Hoshima employed AI specialist Mitsuko Amano. After a past incident, Satomi is isolated at school, shunned by her classmates, and estranged from her childhood friend Toma. Her mother is preparing a secret test of a newly developed AI system, which is supposed to be indistinguishable from humans. In this test, the AI is to spend a few days in Satomi's class in a realistic looking robotic body as exchange student Shion Ashimori. Shortly after having been introduced to the class, Shion surprises everyone by recognising Satomi, asking her whether she is happy, and breaking into song. In the following days, Shion is bent on making Satomi happy. She helps Satomi find friends, helps these friends with their problems, and goes on to fix Satomi's relationship to Toma, all with the power of song. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that someone mysteriously manipulates the recordings of the school's security system and Shion's telemetry results to hide Shion's unconventional behavior from Hoshima. When the company eventually gets wind of this, Shion is violently taken in and prepared for deletion. But Satomi and her friends decide to rescue her, and Shion's mysterious link to Satomi is revealed.

Characters

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Production

''Sing a Bit of Harmony'' was announced by

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializ ...

, as a co-production with J.C.Staff, on September 10, 2020. The film is directed by

. Yoshiura and

Ichirō Ōkouchi is a Japanese screenwriter and novelist. He is a graduate of Waseda University, School of Human Sciences. Ōkouchi is best known for collaborating with director Gorō Taniguchi for composing the story and script of the Sunrise original producti ...

co-wrote the script, Kanna Kii drew the original character designs, Shuichi Shimamura designed the characters for animation and is also the chief supervising animator, and Hidekazu Shimamura served as supervising animator. Ryo Takahashi composed the music and Yohei Matsui wrote the songs. On April 6, 2021, Funimation posted a trailer for the film.

Release

''Sing a Bit of Harmony'' premiered in Japan on October 29, 2021. The film had its international premiere on October 2, 2021, at the Scotland Loves Animation film festival, held at the Glasgow Film Theatre.

will screen the film, in both subbed and dubbed formats, in the United States and Canada on January 23, 25 and 26; in Australia and New Zealand starting on January 27; in the United Kingdom and Ireland starting on January 28.

Manga adaptation

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

adaptation, illustrated by Megumu Maeda, was serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

Monthly Afternoon is a Japanese monthly ''seinen'' manga anthology published by Kodansha under the ''Afternoon'' line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. ''Afternoon'' has spawned many successful manga series such as ...

'' from June 24, 2021, to July 26, 2022. Its first ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or m ...

'' volume was released on October 21, 2021.

Reception

In October 2021, ''Sing a Bit of Harmony'' won the Audience Award at the Scotland Loves Animation film festival. It is also won the Best Animation Film Award at the New York City Film & Television Festival 2021, entered finalist of New York Animation Film Awards 2021 Best Animation Feature Film. In Japan, it is also nominated for the Excellent Animation of the Year in Japan Academy Film Prize 2022. ''Sing a Bit of Harmony'' grossed $50,490 at the box office.

References

External links

* * * * {{Afternoon 2021 anime films Android (robot) films Anime with original screenplays Films about artificial intelligence Films with screenplays by Ichirō Ōkouchi Japanese animated feature films Funimation J.C.Staff Science fiction anime and manga Seinen manga Shochiku Slice of life anime and manga