"Harmonie" Anime Review

***This is a spoiler free review***

For a one shot episode, Harmonie packs quite the punch in both tone, animation, and overall acoustic qualities.

Story: 8/10

I cannot talk about much of the plot without ruining the whole episode but what I can say is that they studio really crammed a lot of story into twenty minutes. The overall purpose of the plot might not come easily to everyone watching the show but it does hit pretty deep once you really think about it. I kind of wished that we could see what happens after the episode was done.

Animation: 10/10

Astounding, fluid, beautiful, crisp, bright, dark, ext. This anime landed everything you possibly need in putting on a perfect visual presentation. It's not just the beautiful and handsome character models that make this anime so great to look at; it's the amount of effort that shows in the end product. Shadows, glares, sunlight, facial expressions, eye straining, it's all here and done so well.

Sound: 9.5/10

The music, ambient background noise, and voice actors did an amazing job. The opening scene has many different conversations going on at once and they somehow matched all this up with perfect lip syncing. The music is very soft when present and isn't just some generic sounding crap you would find in most anime. The piano and singer did a great job trying to reach out to the audience. The background noise was very fitting and hit all their marks. Slaps, inner dialogue, chair movements, just everything matched up with what was going on screen. The voice actors did a very good job relaying all of their characters emotions.

Characters: 8.8/10

We unfortunately did not get to see the characters mature as much as we hoped to but from what I saw, they became likeable and I was invested fully by the end of the anime. The main character wouldn't stand out very much in any other anime but he had true feelings; something that is hard to achieve without coming off corny. The supporting cast doesn't really get a chance to shine since it is only a single episode but they do a great job of setting up plot points and providing some very funny moments.

Overall: 9.1/10

This anime was part of the Young Animator Training Project which almost always turns out eyegasm looking anime. What we were lucky to see in this instance however was the addition of a interesting plot, characters, and some of the best sound design I have heard in a long time. If you have twenty spare minutes just do yourself a favor and give this a watch.