Back when I thought I was better than other people I would always say "an anime should only be judged objectively", or in other words, feelings don't matter. But I was so wrong, or at least that's how I feel now. Even if including how an anime makes you feel is subjective and can't apply to anyone else, it's probably the most goddamn important aspect. For this reason, my review (which is my first ever on MAL, btw) should be taken as pure opinion. You can agree or not, but if I'm describing things about this anime and you're thinking, "hey, I might enjoy that",
...
I urge you to watch this. I really really do.
Story (9): I won't summarize or describe the story using any specifics because fuck me spoilers can ruin an experience and the feelings you get (which remember, is given the heaviest weight in my ratings). I enjoyed the story, not too complicated and I never really felt it got too sidetracked: a few times it would go off on a tangent for a minute or three but nothing that detracted much from the show. I liked it.
Art (9): I'm not expert in animation but I do know a tiny bit given how much of my life I've wasted on anime. The style is pretty conservative I'd say but really quite beautiful. The shoujo style mouths that the girls had threw me off at the start but I got used to it and it didn't really detract anything from my experience (if you don't know what I'm talking about literally look at Kaori's mouth in the first scene of the first episode). The animation can get a little "still frame after still frame" if you know what I mean but it wasn't too often and overall, the animation was good. Apparently some people dislike the CGI for the hands but if it was drawn the animators would probably be long dead before they finished. I know I don't really sound like it but I really did enjoy the art and animation: the color palette does this cool, subtle shift throughout the entire show and the chibi style is relaxing and funny.
Sound (10): Beautiful. This is a music anime. And the music and sound production live up to it. By far and god absolutely gorgeous. Of course, this is just my opinion and the music may not be your preference so...yeah. But the music they used fit every scene if not perfectly at least enough for me to forget about when it didn't (so almost perfectly).
Character (10): I never realized how rare it is for an anime to establish realistic (to a degree), likable characters until I rewatched this. Now I say realistic but let's be real here, this is an anime. Nothing about this is realistic. It's just something about the characters seems natural with only a few parts where it's cringy. Yeah the angry chibi scenes aren't exactly natural but they're not meant to be so I don't count them. The parts that are meant to be natural are great. The characters act like what you'd imagine (again, to a degree): when you feel like they should get angry or sad or happy they do. That's hard to do and one of the strongest points of this show.
Enjoyment (10): This is pretty much just a sum up but absolutely fantastic music and characters along with great story and art puts this as a solid 10 (I round up). Now then, onto the most important part of this review...
What I say here might just negate everything I said before (aside from the first paragraph) b/c I'm going to admit my bias. In my head, there are two things in this world I consider absolute beauty: 1) rolling hills with grass, wildflowers, trees, and rivers and 2) music. This show was what put music on that list.
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso changed my life. Literally. Throughout most of my life, piano was the only thing I really did aside from school. I was raised a classical pianist and while I'm not nearly at the level of Arima I did get pretty good. But it wasn't b/c I enjoyed it, rather I was constantly pushed by my parents and piano teacher.
When I first watched this show in the spring between 10th and 11th grade (about the same age as the characters now that I think about it) I came to know music. The true, unyielding, undeniable, absolute beauty in music. This show opened my eyes to that beauty and I can't thank it enough for doing so. I owe who I am today to this damn beautiful show. Hell, I even tried to become a pro pianist after watching this, that's how moved I was. Alas, such dreams aren't always possible but music is still one of the biggest parts of my life.
That is why this anime is my absolute favorite show of all time.
I write this review not just to tell the world of my opinion but to hopefully show some kid out there, some kid who is like how I was before, what music is. Because that's something every kid should know.
Feb 26, 2018
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso
(Anime)
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Back when I thought I was better than other people I would always say "an anime should only be judged objectively", or in other words, feelings don't matter. But I was so wrong, or at least that's how I feel now. Even if including how an anime makes you feel is subjective and can't apply to anyone else, it's probably the most goddamn important aspect. For this reason, my review (which is my first ever on MAL, btw) should be taken as pure opinion. You can agree or not, but if I'm describing things about this anime and you're thinking, "hey, I might enjoy that",
...
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