Watched Sing a Bit of Harmony (アイの歌声を聴かせて)

One of the anime films that came out recently is Sing a Bit of Harmony (アイの歌声を聴かせて), which is about an artificial intelligence project in the form of a high school girl. I thought it would be thought-provoking in terms of AI-human coexistence, so I found time to go catch it soon after release.

And kind of regretted my decision less than halfway into the show.

(This post will contain spoilers. 😅)

The story starts with a futuristic setting in Japan, when technology and AI robots have become a part of our lives but they do not have human shapes. The AI high school girl, Ashimori Shion, was created by high school girl Amano Satomi's mother and her team, who work for a major tech company. They decided to send Shion to Satomi's school in an experiment to see if people will discover Shion is actually an AI robot. The concern is that this may infringe the AI ethics law of the time.

Personally, I wished they had elaborated more on the AI ethics law. The coexistence of AI and humans is a theme that I keep thinking about, and I had thought this movie would provide some new angle. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The movie was more like an hour-long commercial for the songs by Shion (voiced by Tsuchiya Tao). Yes, Shion was portrayed as bringing happiness through song... but the way the movie was written, Shion is just an airhead who sang at the most inappropriate times. If you like cute anime girls with no IQ, then this is the movie for you. But if you are expecting more from paying money and spending time, I would suggest you skip this movie and watch something else. Even the new Sword Art Online movie, which I watched on the same day, was better than this one.

Why?

First, the story is too unbelievable. You have a 9-year-old genius who added text-to-speech capability to a tamagotchi-type toy? Which is all the more unbelievable because that would mean this genius did this task about 7 to 8 years before the story. When technology would be at a lower level of proliferation within society... and that AI in the tamagotchi toy back then was even smart enough to recognise the instruction of "make Satomi happy". You are talking about a sentient AI in a tamagotchi toy at a time when such technology has yet to become a part of our lives. It is just too far-fetched to be believable, which makes it hard for people to empathise with the story. And when you cannot empathise with the story, it is a lot less enjoyable.

Another part is the creepiness of the story. This sentient AI has basically been stalking Satomi for 7 to 8 years. It has been lurking around in her home security system, the school's security system, even garbage collection robots, observing Satomi as she went about life. The sentient AI is able to communicate with other computer systems and get them to do what the AI wants. Like erasing her shape from security camera footage. Wow. The ultimate stalker. Who is everywhere and leaves no trace... This is not amazing. It is plain creepy. If the producers wanted to make people afraid of AI, I think they have managed to put that point across.

I walked out of the theater thinking, "How I wish I can have that two hours of my life back." Well, at least watching SAO after that made the trip to the cinema not a total waste of time.

 

In the end, I don't even know what the producers of the movie wanted to say. What is their message? Other than, nice songs, please buy the soundtrack.

If you like singing AI, watch Vivy. It is a lot more thought-provoking, the story is better written, and the anime quality is much better too. I mean, it is a TV series, but the quality is much better than this movie.