Harmony - An anime critique / review

Hey there!!

Only a week ago I watched a movie called "Harmony", which is based on the novel by Satoshi Itoh or "Project Itoh". It was made by Studio 4°C and was first released in Japan on November 13th 2015.  As far a I know there is no specific release date for Germany yet, but it's said to come out in late fall or so. I'm not sure though.

For everyone who hasn't seen the movie yet, Harmony is set in a future world, where, after the so-called "Maelstrom", a time period, where nuclear war and disease plagued and destroyed almost the whole world, everything concerning health and society is controlled by "admedicstration" facilities. Nanotechnology, in the form of "Watch Me", a technology, which is implanted at birth, is used, to allow a better living. It makes sure that potential harm, in any form, is avoided. 
But in Japan, there a three young girls, Tuan Kirie, Miach Mihie and Cian Reikado, who, with their decision to refuse food and medication, give life to an incredible protest against this so-called "perfect" society. Yet, only Miach, succeeds in fulfilling their plans and commits suicide. 

Tuan, thirteen years later, works for the World Health Organization as a "Helix Agent", fleeing the society she still hates, through her work, traveling to conflict areas all over the world, as the "Helix Agents" belong to an international medial police force.
The faithful meeting she has with Cian after all these years gives start to an investigation in which, all the truths and threats behind the "perfect" world are to appear. 

Because, I got really interested in the setting and the story, when I first heard about Harmony, I actually took the time to read the book before the movie came out, which I know probably not a lot of people from, at least the western audience, have. I just wanted to say this before I get to my actual review / critique.
And btw. if you're German or so you can go and check out my German review here:
https://proxer.me/info/10524#top
You might have to scroll down a bit until you find it. (Username: AnnaPerenna)

These are the two covers of the book. On the right, the English one and on the left the Japanese one. I like them both, but I feel like the Japanese one is a bit more artistic then the English one, which is a bit simpler.  

Under them both I put the key visual for the movie, which, I also like, yet the only thing that's bothering me is the message it's giving.

So, now let's get down to the actual review. In general, I think that the movie wasn't bad, but I think I also had pretty high expectations for it, given that I read the book and was more than amazed by it.

Story: 
They didn't change anything about the story, which I liked because that kept it very true to the original. I also liked how they managed to explain the plot, which can be confusing at times, so well in only 2 hours. The only thing I might have to criticize, but that's just nitpicking, is that, in my opinion, the ending, which plays an important part in the book, was kept to short. It missed a bit of an explanation for what had happened, but as I said that's just nitpickingg.

Characters: 
This is something I will have to criticize heavily. Most of the characters were fine, except for some minor things, that I personally, might have perceived differently when reading the book. The only character I really want to criticize, is Miach Mihie. She was the only character, who was completely different from how she was portrayed in the book. In the book she is portrayed as a strong, loud, confident and smart girl who could be a bit opinionated from time to time. (She was also always a little bit crazy.)  She just seemed like some one, who would, no matter what, fight for what they believed in, yet in the movie she seemed so quiet, a bit fragile and to me, also a bit arrogant, which is just so different from how she was described in the book.

Music & Animation:
The music was nice, but it certainly didn't stick out, but it fit the scenes it was put in pretty well. I really liked the ending, but I'm in general a fan of EGOIST, so yeah. 
The movie was animated in a 3D kind of style, which I think fit pretty well with the setting and the story. I really liked the pictures of the landscapes at the end, because they looked very realistic. 

Key Visual:
When I was talking about the message that the key visual was giving, I was talking about how in the movie they made it that Miach and Tuan are falling in love with each other, which I don't have anything against in general. I just think that, for the story it was unnecessary, but what actually bothers me more about this is that in the book nothing like this was even mentioned. 

In general I think that the movie wasn't bad, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it though. I would much rather recommend the book, which in my opinion is better than the movie. 

Tell me what you thought of the movie, if you've seen it and also tell me if you knew that there was a book and if you've read it.

Anna