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(Disclamer : This review will also include bits and pieces from the movie, also I’m sorry if there’s a tiny bit of spoiler material inside, I will try my best to reduce it)

Now, this is my first time watching this type of anime as I’ve always sticked to stuff like Physiological anime, supernatural anime, horror and those kind of stuff. Luckily, I entered the anime challenge and decided to pick up anohana as a different type of supernatural anime.. It’s a different type of supernatural anime that I usually end up watching.

Now , Anohana : The The Flower We Saw That Day is an anime ... which speaks a lot through emotion and friendship. A lot of anime from various type of genres too speak through emotion, however it different from Anohana because most of them are like sprinkles of emotional bits here and there this is because its most likely where you would remember that scene the most out off any given show. None the less, when I run across Anohana, which to me, it's sole purpose is to create a plot which have this gradual buildup to this one BIG emotional climax. This would follow up by a huge void inside me that would need some time to recover from the eternal sadness of finishing watching this ride of sadness.

It’s like the producers of the show were saying in their minds “Happiness? LOL, There’s no such of a thing here” and hit us with an intense moment of eternal sadness and depression in the end.
Why, you might ask?

Sure, it is pretty common and it’s used in a couple of different mediums of entertainment before. However, none have really speak to my heart before. Anohana have something inside it, something special that could even make a grown man shed a tear with it’s sweetness and it’s heartwarming friendship with Menma and the rest.
Everyone of them have their own way of trying to forget about Menma, unfortunately her return which only Jinta can see makes everything complicated.

As you look at the characters, you could feel what they feel.They are believable and relatable to a certain extend. That sense of remourse that you lost one of your good friend who seem to cheer everyone up with his/her personality. It’s like the light in the dark tunnel of your life, and when you lose that person, you lose something inside you. Those are what the people of anohana feels like when they lost Menma and I feel their pain. During the near end point of the series, none of the characters wanted to let go of their memory with Menma and often have troubles coming terms with their past.
I’ll just say something, it takes a whole lot to make me cry, and especially after watching the series and immediately watching the movie….I lost it, when the closing theme song was played in the middle. My face was T____T;; (Like that when I was watching the near end of the movie)

The art of the movie, in my opinion is perfect too. If you noticed carefully, when they have the flashback as kids. The mood and surrounding, seems to be more..colourful, and more innocent with vibrant colours surrounding the scene. It relects the thoughts of a young child, only wanting to remember the good part of his tragic past. As they grow up, the mood lean towards a more darker feel. A sense that we lost our part of innocents when we grow up.

I would say, after watching all kinds of horror anime/supernatural anime, I’m glad I took the back seat and go with something I’m unfamiliar with in Anohana : The Flower We Saw That Day. I felt that empty void inside my heart after watching this series and also shed some tears which not many things could make me. In short, I would recommend this to everyone who enjoys anime that rips your heart out and feed it to a pack of cute looking wolves.

*Damn feels, sobs*
On the side note, Menma is so adorable… Her voice actress did a good job in my opinion.

Ah yes, the studio to one of the first anime I’ve seen (Production I.G) when I started out anime, Attack On Titan; with numerous titles that I’ve haven’t got the time to watch (However I want to) like Psycho-pass, FLCL, Ghost in the shell, that I’ve only heard nothing but greatness about them. This time, is the same once again, with one of the most anticipated manhwa to grace the screen as an anime series (although this time it is a single ONA), Noblesse: Awakening.

Now how did the story go, for a 30 minute ONA... If I could give an analogy to this, it would ... be that it’s like an appetizer to a full course meal. Something that keeps you busy while we wait for a little moment (well hopefully soon) until the full course is ready.

How was the actual story?

Well, it started out with a Noblesse who goes by the name of Cadis Etrama di Raizel (or in short, just Rai) who has just awakened from a long deep sleep (820 years in particular). When he woke up, he met back with his servant (well, he calls him master) who is in charge of a high school. As in normal high school life, there is also people who love playing games. This is where one of my favorite scene came about where Rai was confuses with playing a video game. Even though it felt natural and logical to behave that way, since he is in a new era, it just felt too funny for me (since I’m a semi professional gamer myself). This is where, despite the lack of character development, since it’s an ONA, it felt like too rushed in my honest opinion. I wish there are more of these little funny scenes when and if they decide to come out with a full fledged TV series in the near future.

The art is where the light shines upon in the anime. God damn, it’s beautiful. The character design, to the aesthetic of the building looked amazing. The opening scene was good too. Rai looking badass as his the top ladder of the vampire world. The sinister looking vampire could easily identified as the antagonist with his sly smile of his. The high schoolers in particular, looked like people from high school. So that is a nice neat touch to it.

Overall, coming into the anime without any knowledge was a good experience in my opinion. It makes you eager to wait for a full anime series that is hopefully coming soon from Production I.G. There is some area lacking, like the pacing feels too rushed, the character development is a little bit lacking. However, I enjoyed every second of it. It’s defintely a good ride, don’t miss the train.

Disclaimer : This is the first time I’m writing a review, so I do apologized if there’s any mistake. Also please be kind if there’s any ideas that I put here, badly written or explained. I would also like to say that my English is not perfect, so sorry if there’s any grammar mistakes and what not. I’ve also only seen about 20 anime so far, but I want to write an anime about this because of it’s perfection in my eyes. I will also write this review, in a subjective form of manner, which is seen and written under my point of view.

There might ... also be minor spoiler in the review too.

Now for the meat of the review..

When I first saw the movie, I thought that it would be an ordinary of a girl whisked away in a dark fantasy world, trying to get out from it. Well, that was honestly my intital thought of it, we heard that story many times before both in horror-like setting or a fantasy one in almost every kind of entertainment medium. However , “Spirited away” got some feeling that is something different to me. There isn’t any epic battles, nor dramatic love scenes.. Instead, it’s put in a way of a young girl’s dreamlike-sequence. (Something like what you would dream when you were really young) with a lot of imagination coming into place. Instead of expecting something huge happening like in other anime, I recommend you to just sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy watching this dreamlike-world that have been crafted by the creators because It’s something really special in my eyes (and heart).

Firstly, the art in the anime, is of course AMAZING! The colours and asthetics feel up the world in like something that a kid would dream off in her imagination. The lights were amazing, the pig looked amazing… everything about the movie was amazing. Honestly, it’s one of the few supernatural drama-like movie that I will rewatched, seeing I’ve never really like drama-ish type of movies anyway.

The chracters, oh how I love each and every one of them. In the start, I was thinking that Haku would betray the little girl..I kept on thinking to myself
“Oh noo… I know where this is heading…Please don’t let it happen like in other medias..” (Judging from other movies and other form of entertainment media). Then I thought the Yubaba was the antagonist of the movie. I was glad I was wrong.. None of them are the antagonist. It’s really just about each and everyone in the dream-like world trying to live their life.

In the start, when Chihiro was brought to the sprit world, you can see that she was suffering, scared as she was brought on to a new world where she don’t know anyone.. As we see through her journey of hardship, you can see her going through that hardship as we have this sense of hope that she would suceed ( I mean, who don’t want to see a cute adorable to do so am I right?? ) with her sense of bravery and courage to bring her parents back to human again and return to the human world. It felt really humanly possible, a sense of connection to the world we live in as it fills up with a child-like dream that we would want to explore at any given time.

In short, This is the type of flim that we can feel vulnerable about, yet feel that sense of awe with the world by how creative and beautiful the world that have been crafted to us. It’s a masterpiece, that I would like to re-watch again after a given time. A trip where I can feel young and human again after a long while in work or university. It’s memorable, it looks beautiful even at the year 2016 (seeing it came out at 2001) It can make you feel like you’re a child again with a huge smile again after watching this movie. It made me smile, and I hope whoever watches this for the first time, will feel so just like me. Enjoy the anime movie guys ! 