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This review contains heavy spoilers and its commited to those who have actually seen the show, so I wont explain every rule or how every game works.



INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY

In NGNL's world, everything is regulated by games. There are no wars, robbery or fights and 10 rules determine this world's order.

In my opinion, NGNL is a bad anime packed of cliches and plot twists without much sense that I wouldn't recommend to anybody unless you are a big fan of isekai and ecchi stuff.

Tet, the god of Disboard transports 2 siblings ,Sora and Shiro, to his world in order to challenge him. This could be a ... summary of this show. However, a better way to summarize this anime comes to my mind: 2 OP main characters that cannot lose a single game due to their pockets being full of plot armor machines and deus ex machina devices.

No game no life has been one of those shows I have know since I started to watch anime, as it showed up in a lot of "anime you should watch if you are starting" type videos. Nevertheless, I never gave it a chance because I have been always more interested in other genres such as action or mistery. After 3 years and a lot of bad and good reviews, I decided to watch this show without any expectation.

And, what was the outcome? I didnt have to finish the first episode to start regretting my decision.



STORY

There are a lot of anime where there is no action, but the plot put ourselves in tension as if it was an action shonen show. This is the case of shows like Death Note, Bakuman or NGNL, where characters "fight" following their own world's rules (the death note in death note, manga in bakuman and games in NGNL). This way, as in every action show, its very important to follow those rules and if it isnt done properly, it will cause a lot of plot holes to appear.
And NGNL is an obvious example of that.

After trying my best to ignore the horrible amount of similarities between NGNL's world and other fantasy anime's one (Medieval period appearance, dragons, kingdoms...) the already mentioned plot holes started to appear. In this type of anime, plot holes have a massive impact.
In order to defend my opinion as best as possible, I will provide you with some examples and comparations:

→ "She is cheating": We know both of our MCs are very smart, but they just need a quick look at the people which are inside the inn to know that Kurami is cheating. We have to assume that both of them have an excellent observation abilty (because its needed to play a lot of videogames), but they dont know until the second episode that humans share the world with 15 more races (they also dont know they can use magic). This means that is IMPOSSIBLE for them to know that there is somebody using magic in order to help a player. And its even more IMPOSSIBLE for them to discover that person because she is hiding her elf ears behind a cap.

→ The first important game: Until now, the MCs have only played games they knew, but when they challenge the main contender for Elukia's crown, they play something that seem to be chess, but which ends up being something competely different. Sora and Shiro managed to go through their opponets with ease because they knew the rules of the games they were playing and they could use Disboard rules in their advantage. However, this time, they dont know the limits of the game and they almost dont take advantage of the already mentioned rules.
So... How do they win? Easy answer: PLOT ARMOR
Shiro starts losing (obviously, as she doesnt know shit about this game) but her brother steps up and starts to take the decisions. This is when I lost my hope in this anime, as Sora - who has NEVER played this game before - is able to overcome every movement of his enemy. This game has a bigger amount of deus ex machina than a fight between 2 super saiyans. Everytime one of the players manages to outperform the opponent, the other one surprises us with a movement that was not part of our plans nor respected the rules of this world (Sora being able to break elf magic).

→ "I know more than 40 languages, but I decide to play using words of a language that I DONT KNOW while I still think Im going to win": Nice joke Jibril, I thought you were part of one of the smartest races.

→ War beasts and their technology: Why are they the only race that lives in 21st century while the other races that were showed used magic or lived in the Medieval period. They are known for their sixth sense, not because of their intelligent.
This is just dumb.

> I bet you all remember that time when Kira lost his memories in Death Note, and then he get them back when he touches his death note. Well, thats a plot twist we didnt expect and it also respects the rules stablished by the show. Thats what im looking for in these type of shows. But when Im watching NGNL, it feels like Im watching a hurdling competition and a runner starts to fly over the fences.


And the best part is that the comedy steps up as the more important genre of this show, in detriment of the historical and military plot this anime could have developed.
Jibril is known for killing hundreds of elves in a war that occured in the past, but Fii (the elf that helps Kurami) doesnt hold any resentment to her and she forgives her if she agrees to lick her feet. Horrible.


I dont think that everything is wrong with the story. For example, NGNL doesnt resort to the typical isekai resourse wheer the MCs are the saviors of the humanity, as their objective is to be the best at every game they play. This way, their final objective is to unify the other 16 races so they can challenge Tet.

I enjoyed the last arc (leaving aside the fact that they dont explain why the war beasts have that 21st tech) more than I expected tbh.

About the comedy, I wasnt persuaded at 100%, but I have to admit I laughed at the references.


Summarizing, I consider that NGNL story has a big and wasted potential, but as the author tried to fulfil the requirements of every isekai (comedy, ecchi...), he got rid of it. What is the result? A flat and awful story.



CHARACTERS

Both Sora and Shiro are two flat characters. The author didnt insisted enough on the backstory for me to be invested in and I dont like incest jokes (b-but they are not real sibl-SHUT UP!) so I couldnt stop myself from hating them.
They are both smart and timid while in they are in front of a lot of people (I will return to this fact later) but aside that, what non-cliche characteristic defines them in order to make them more enjoyable? The answer is zero, at least for me.

Shiro is a kawaii 11 years old girl which excels at chess and shooters. She has no appeal aside from his physical (if you are a lolicon). Even if that didnt disappointed me because it was what I expected since I watched the first episode, a question popped up in my brain: Was it necessary for the plot to have a 11 year old kawaii loli? There are lots of 500 years old loli, why would you want your loli to be 11 years old?
I would havent been disappointed at this if it werent for the age which Shiro started to be considered as a genius: 1 YEAR OLD!!!! It was not necessary a 11 years old kid for the plot. If she would has been 18 yo (the same as Sora) she wouldnt has been that useless. It was Sora who moved the plot forward almost everytime.

I loved Sora's reasons to believe in humanity but I didnt liked how similar he was to other isekai MCs. He always had to be the coolest guy in the room and that doesnt match his social disorder case. This way, the author contradicts himself, affecting the building of his most important character. Why cant an isekai MC be shy?


When the siblings are introduced to us in the first episode, the author states that both of them have a social disorder but... do they? I expected them to be extremely shy, but they werent at all. They also didnt have any type of difficulty meeting people they didnt know.
But, in episode 4, they remember they have a "social disorder" when they are holding a speech in their crowning moment of Elukia kingdom. But they just needed to hold their hands to forget again about their mental disease. We almost dont see more about this in the rest of the anime.


I would like to point out the bad use of the female characters this show does. As in every isekai I have seen , females are relegated to a second level, where they only do the job of being ecchi machines. Take as example Steph, Jibril, Kurami or even Shiro. Wait, thats almost every important girl of the show, isnt it? Cool.



ART AND DESIGN

Another isekai, another Medieval world. Im tired of this and I didnt even watched a lot of isekais xd.

I dont tend to criticize Madhouse works, but in this case, I dont like the palette used. It seemed that I was watching the show through a red tinted-len.

I dont have much to say about the designs, as the most of them were similar to other isekai anime designs.



SOUND

The soundtrack is the best part of this show. It has a nice variety of themes and they all fit the topic properly. However, that epic theme whose name I dont know was used over and over again so I got a little bit bored of it.

In general, I enjoyed the seiyuu but their job wasnt spectacular. Was it intentional to have Sora voiced from the same guy that voiced Kirito?

The opening song is great and the visuals are pretty but I dont think the ending matches the theme of the show properly, as I find it a little bit slow and sweet, while the show's charm relies on comedy and ecchi.




In conclusion, there is no excitement in watching a show where you know that the MCs will always win. What if they lose a game? that could help them grow as characters, but thye author prefered the easy way and went for a comedy-ecchi show.
I would have enjoyed more a darker and deeper plot, but I guess this is too much for an isekai anime? In the end, there is still no better isekai than Grimgar.

Thank you for reading my review!!!

After reviewing the shitty film OP movie 3 was, I feel the need to write another one about the 4th movie: Dead End race.
If you have seen the 4th one, you would have probably seen the 3rd movie too, and I hope so, because I will be comparing this masterpiece to that failure of a film.


This film differs from the other since the very beginning, as the strawhats find themselves involved in a pirate ship's race in order to get some money. This is a nice basis for a OP movie, because as we all know, they alway run out of money due to Luffy's ... monstrous hunger. We rarely see the mujiwaras looking for a treasure in the manga, but they always need to get some money.

First of all, I would like to exalt the island where the movie takes place: Anabaru. This island gave me that pirate vibe im not used to see in OP. The different pirate crews that were in the casino impressed me: Great designs, great ideas and lots of different characters, from giants to gyojins, showing the large amount of different people that coexist in the huge OP world.
Every scene in the first 30 minutes was fucking great. The strawhats having fun together in a tavern (we dont see this type of scene since episode 200 or something like that), the fight in the casino or even the flying shot which showed us the passages of the city. Pure greatness.

As I always say, the best thing about OP is that everything can happen, and Toei know this better than me. The start of the race was impressive and the island design was so good I could have believed this was a canon movie if somebody told me.

The film path was pretty good (when I realized it, I had already seen half of the movie) and the way the different character are connected was unexpected, as opposed to the other 3 movies. One Piece is an adventure and this film too.


In the last movie, Chopper was supposed to be the MC, but he was pushed back to a second place for almost half of the movie. In Dead Race Bouken, every character has its moment to shine. Zoro and Sanji dont need a 1v1 fight to have importance the film, Robin, Usopp and Chopper werent useless as they are in a lot of OP arcs (specially the latest two) and the scene were Nami yells at Adelle because she lost her will to live is just amazing. Toei captured the essence of the mujiwaras perfectly in this movie.

The non-canon characters were good. So good I just want some of them to be canon.
This time, the villain is Gasparde, a 95 million berri pirate who left the marine looking for power. This guy isnt the best villain of the show, but he is intimidating as fuck. That bounty was not a joke in this part of the show (remember this movie takes place exactly after the Arabasta arc) and his subordinate was also strong.

The other character I want to talk about is Shuraiya Bascud. This guy emit CHARISMA. He is a bounty-hunter who arrives to Anubara seeking for revenge. A pretty simple story but a great character design and development (I wish he was canon lmao). He was the one who dealt with the first mate of Gasparde, taking the spot Zoro and Sanji always get. That fight was thrillering, smooth and in conclussion, amazing. I wish they animated it entirely.

As opposed to the 3rd movie, the art style and animation are great and the characters arent bright anymore. The final battle was pretty good and the effects surprised me in a good way.
And talking about the music, here is where I have the only complainment about this movie: Please Toei, use some new themes. OP has a great OST but it can be boring if you overuse it, and Toei certainly did with 800+ episodes of this show.


Finally, I would like to applaud the ending of this movie. Those last 5-10 minutes in the ship made me change my rating from a 9 to a 10, and the last scene where the people in the town recognize Luffy due to the arrival of the new bounty is amazing.

In conclussion, Toei have proven that they know how to make a good OP movie so I will be disappointed at them if the following films are trash. If you made it this far, Ty for reading!

I know that only few people will read this, as One Piece is one of those shows a lot of anime watchers refuse to watch due to its length but here I go anyway. However, the movie is just 55 minutes long and you can watch it if you have seen/read at least until Drum Island arc, when Tony Tony Chopper joins the crew.


In this review I will talk about One Piece 3rd movie and first of all, I have to say that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE One Piece, but this film just pissed me off. This morning I decided to watch the first OP film ... and I enjoyed it a lot, so I binged two more. I just hope it doesnt keep getting worse, as I plan to watch them all.


So the movie starts the same way the other two did: The mujiwaras go after a treasure (what?) and they end up helping the good people defeating the bad guys. I have zero complainments about that, its a long running shonen movie so I didnt expect Toei to surprise me in that aspect. Then, why am I that triggered if I didnt expect anything from Toei? Well, lets talk about it.

The film's MC is supposed to be Chopper, as he is isolated from the crew and he is proclaimed as the king of the animal island. Then, why does he end up in a second place? Does every OP story arc - or movie - need the monster trio to have a fight?
Toei missed a great opportunity to develop Chopper and they didnt take advantage of it. But if you think a little bit about it... Chopper DID receive a development in this movie but, does it make sense?

In Drum Island, we meet Tony Tony Chopper, a timid reindeer with self-esteem issues, that keep being a coward until Arabasta arc, when he gets developed after watching Ussop suffering. So, if this film takes place after Drum Island (remember that this arc is part of the Arabasta saga, but occurs before the Arabasta arc) why does he overcome his personal problems dealing with the villains? It just doesnt make sense in the OP timeline (well, only few things in this series does make sense).

I love Chopper, but if you are going to let him behind after putting his name in the fucking title and you wont respect the canon timeline, I dont want him to be the "protagonist". Just fuck you Toei.


Early OP villains arent the best of the show, but the enemies of the movies are just pathetic. First movie had a nice story and it was related to some canon characters like Woonan and second one at least had some good characters as Borodo. But if you dont have a good story nor charismatic characters, the TRASH villains take more and more importance. Dude just give the guy the violin violin no mi so, at least, he doesnt rely on improvised power-ups.

As I already said, this movie does not have good characters. You have the mujiwaras, your typical OP child with a sad backstory, 2 weird animals that can talk and 3 sad villains. The rest are just animals that doesnt even talk. Trash out of 10 for the characters.


The first thing I noticed when I started this film was: why the fuck are the strawhats shining? are they using lotions now? The art style is so bad it made me cringe for the 10 first minutes of the movie. About the OST, I cant deny that OP soundtrack is amazing, but as a guy that has seen this show twice and that listens to it while studying I can say Im a little bit bored of some pieces.


In conclussion, this is the worst of the 3 first OP movies and I cant believe that something will be worse than this piece of shit. Hey, at least it was funny, they made strawhats interactions believable.

As always, I find myself losing time in MAL in exam time, I hope that some of you made it to the end. Peace!

Spokon is one of my least favorite genres in anime, but I heard good things about this one so I decided to give it a try. I will compare Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru with Haikyuu so it doesnt matter if you have not seen the show, as you will understand my review if you know whats Haikyuu about.

One of the most important things a spokon anime has to succeed at is to convince the viewer that the sport they are watching is interesting, to show the appeal of that sport. When I watched Haikyuu I was amazed of how enyojable volleyball seemed to be, but ... this show had a more difficult task.
Unlike football or basketball, athletics is a sport which lacks of excitement in some of its modalities, specially in long duration ones, as they consist of a person running for hours. Thats why, while the most important part of other spokons is the action and the games, this anime relies more on the characters, exchanging the electric scenes for internal speeches.


This show starts as every other spokon I know does. It has a promising protagonist, an underdog team and some cliche main cast.

One of my main issues with Haikyuu (and spokon in general), is that the characters only have their respective sport in mind. If you are not told that they are high school students, how would you know? They spend every minute in the court, training for several hours everyday. So, where are they examns? And their problems? Where are the injuries? There are no family issues, they dont think about love relationships, they dont care about exams, they are just there for the sake of playing volley.
However, Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru is about college students, about adults. These guys are worried because they wont find a job, because they cant stop smoking or because they are gaining weight.

Everyone who has practiced sports in their life know that it encompasses a wide series of concepts so training isnt everything that concerns a sporty.


If you have seen some spokons, you will be used to the "I want to be better" plot device to develop characters. Well, you wont see that in this anime. Every character has his own arc to question themselves "why am I running?", and the show portrays the personalities and problems of every character in a perfect way. There are a lot of enyojable characters in this show but the most remarkable one is Kiyose Haiji.

Although we see the story from the perspective of Kurahara Kakeru, the protagonist is Haiji. He inspires Kurahara and the whole team, he moves the plot forward, he helps every character to surpass their problems while recuperating of a knee injury. In case you dont know, knee injuries are the most dangerous in almost every aerobic sport and depending on what type of structural damage you have, the recovery and rehabilitation can last for several months or even years. I relate a lot to this guy.


When I saw the first race and I noticed the CGI animation I was disappointed. Production IG always have great animation, but I guess that hundreds of athletes running was too much. Anyway, the CGI wasnt that bad (Im not an expert, but if it does not make me want to stop watching the show as Overlord or Re Zero did, I dont consider it bad).
Character designs are detailed, sharp and pretty well done overall and I bet some anime movies would like to have such detailed backgrounds. In the summer vacation arc, the scenes where they are running around the lake are so fucking precious.


The best tool for a spokon anime to hook the viewer is music. When you are watching Haikyuu and "Battle of concepts" starts to play, you know something big is coming and you start getting chills through the spine. This show doesnt have that great soundtrack, but it has pretty good songs too. The first opening is catchy and I love the first ed because it reflects PERFECTLY what injuries feel like. The seiyuus did a great job expressing how the characters felt (Haiji almost make me cry with his last speech) and for 20 episodes, I thought the twin's VA was the same lol.


In conclussion, it doesnt matter if you are a spokon fan or not, as the perfect balance between action and character development this anime offers will satisfy you anyway. One of the underrated shows of Fall 2018.

This review may contain major spoilers. I have to point out that I havent finished the second season because I wanted to rewatch the original one first and I havent played the VNs either.

I know that most of the people wont even try to read this because Steins Gate is a famous show who everyone have watched, played or reviewed. I also know that I wont do justice to this fucking masterpiece because there are some things that are out of my understanding, but I will try to express my feelings towards this series as good as I can.


Well, 2 years after I finished Steins ... Gate, I was wondering why I kept it as my favorite anime even after I watched another shows that I fell in love with like Monster, Fate Zero, FLCL etc... So I decided to watch it again. And Im surprised of how much this show hooked me again even if I knew what was about to happen.

I tried to be as objective as I could while rewatching it so I could make the best review I was capable of. And I didnt found any major flaw which could lead to the dethronement of this anime.


The most common argument people use for dropping this show or just to say this anime is not as good as it fandom believe is that the first 12 episodes are so slow paced they cant stand it at all. And yes, they are slow as fuck, but they are completely necessary for the 2nd half of the anime to be as good as it is.

The characters are introduced together with the different ways they use to travel through time, while explaining the rules of those time travels. You need that first half of the show to understand what Okabe is doing in the second one and why every character act like they do.

In adittion, some of the episodes dont seem to contribute to the progress of the story as much as they should and we can find some plot holes or convenient plot twists (Okabe being the only person who can maintain his memories after they send a D-mail) so the story can go on. I have read comments of people who complain about how innocent and carefree Okabe is about the D-mails info. I can understand somebody can get mad at it because it leads to Mayuri death, but the characters would have never imagine how important the experiments they were doing at a "labo" would be.
If you are not bothered by the slow pacing and those little flaws, you will reach to episode 12, where the real Steins Gate begins.


I will talk about the story and characters after I give my opinion about the art and sound sections.

The weakest point of Steins Gate is, in my honest opinion, its art. Character desings can trigger some people because how wide is the range they cover. In one hand you have simple desings like Okabe or Daru while in the other hand you get to see eccentric character desings (Feyris). Anyway, the story is carried out in Akihabara, the moest place in the world, where a lot of "weird looking" people get along with "normal looking" folks.

The animation isnt the best and sometimes characters movement may feel a little bit unnatural but, does a psychological anime where characters spend most of their time talking need an extraordinary animation? It doesnt.

Even if the animation is overall, the amount of detail which is used in the face expressions always impress me. In addition, you wont spot a bad use of CGI.


The soundtrack is perfect. It doesnt need to have amazing battle songs or an impressive variety of beautiful themes because the dialogue is way more significant.

Anyway, there are some songs that will captivate you and the different variations of Gate of steiner are 10/10.

The opening is amazing. Kanako Itou is a phenomenal artist and Im always satisfied with her work. Im pretty sure I will enjoy her tracks when I play the VN.
I dont personally find the ED as good as the OP, but when it is mixed with a cliffhanger it works better than I would have expected.

The seiyuus are amazing. I fell in love with Mamoru Miyano's voice when I first watched Steins Gate in early 2017. After 2 years and a lot of other characters roles he plays that I have seen, I can say that Okabe is the best voice acting this seiyuu has ever done. The way he is able to switch the tone of Okarin's voice from the mad bastard he is in the early part of the show to how fucking sad and disturbed he sounds after all the Mayuri's death thing is amazing.
I love when Mamoru's characters tear apart and their voice starts to crack (Kida, Light, Yao Ling...).

But Mamoru isnt alone in this show, because other members of the cast do a great job too. Nishimura (Kurisu's VA) does a great job, specially in the last episodes of the show and we all love the fucking tuturu.


After the slow-paced first half of the show, we get to the good part. From episode 12 to 22, Okabe lives the same days one time and another, witnessing the death of his best friend to the point he almost end up losing his sanity. When he realizes he cant prevent Mayuri's death, he asks Kurisu for help, just to find out he has to revert everything he has done for his friends in the first half of the story. Then, Steins Gate starts to explore topics like the feeling of guilt, sexuality and death itself one more time. If Okabe wants to save Mayushii, he has to destroy his friends' wishes first. When he finally revert one of the last D-mails (feeling responsible of all the pain he has caused to his friends) he realizes that he cannot save Mayuri without "killing" Kurisu. Just WOW.

The amount of emotions this show cause on the viewer while developing a complicated story about one of the most difficult themes not only in anime, but in every type of media (without almost any plot hole) is impressive. The end of an episode can be sad asf but in the next one you will find yourself smiling just to come back to the sad reality a few mins later.

When an anime decides to introduce a lot of plot twists to its story, it can be counter-productive for it, but it doesnt happen with SG. The way they tell us the truth behind this journey in little amounts of info is so great. My head almost explode when I realized that Okabe was the one who killed Kurisu (that paradox is so hard to understand). The show knows how to keep you hooked to the story so well.

I think is impossible for me not to rush the second part of the show in 1-2 days, and the 2 final episodes are so good that I go to the first one just to say, "Thats why Kurisu said that wow" one time and another EVEN IF I HAVE SEEN THE 1ST EPISODE LIKE 10 TIMES.

The narrative of this anime is pure gold and I enjoyed the first part a lot too.


Everytime I watch an anime with a small cast I remember Steins Gate. You can count the amount of characters who get a decent quantity of screen time with your hands. Every character gets his own development or background, from the main cast to characters like Mr. Braum, a person whose only role in the show was to scold Okabe.

Okabe's personality changes radically as the show goes on, due to all the shit he went through. As every anime fan knows, the "I love my friends and I will do everything I can for them" is way too used in this type of media and even if Okabe works like that, he doesnt feel as a cliche character at all (at least for me). I love early Steins Gate Okabe as much as I love the latest one. The personality of this guy captivated me from the very beggining and when I saw how he developed from a mad scientist to a sad scientist (I know that joke is already dead) I felt in love even more whit this character.

We saw him for 2 episodes trying to save Mayuri one time and another while he was destroying himself, fighting against the fatalism of the Steins Gate world destiny. Some people could say he is annoying, but I loved every minute he was in screen.

Sadly, Im not an expert on characters psychological dissection, but if you check Aleczandxr's youtube channel videos about SG you will discover how amazing this guy is.

I think that I already talked a lot about him so I will talk about the other 2 most important characters of this story: Kurisu and Mayuri.

Kurisu is the genius every sci-fi anime has and she seems to fulfill the role of the typical tsundere. For the most part of the show she is just used as a tool to understand the D-mail system and to develop the time-leap machine. She doesnt send any D-mail, she doesnt affect the rest of the cast yet and her only function is to have some funny interactions with Okabe (which I personally love).

However, when Okabe starts to fall into depression and he thinks he will never be able to save Mayuri, Kurisu appears to become the main pillar that maintains Okabe's mental state. Due to her intelligence, Okarin doesnt doubt to tell her what is happening and this is so important for both Rintarou and the story.

By the end of the show, she is mature enough to realize that the best option is to save Mayuri, and she tries to convince Okabe even if she knows that she will die, which means she wouldnt be able to keep living with the person she felt in love with. Awesome writting.

In the other hand, I dont find Mayuri as good as Kurisu is, but I recognise how important she is to the plot, as the only thing Okabe has in mind for half of the show is to save her friend.


I was surprised to find out I was crying with the final scene, just to realize AGAIN how much I fucking love this series.

I think im going to watch the movie and all the OVAs again lol.

Steins Gate is and will be forever my favorite show.

This review contains minor spoilers.

If I had to describe this show in a few words, I would say this is the best friendship in anime history. I didnt got this hooked for an anime in a lot of time.

The first 2 episodes seem to be the typical rom-com series start, but after that the story turns out to be different and unpredictable, and you finally realize you are not watching a rom-com but an unique story, where the friendship is the main theme.

So since the very beginning I was amazed for the beautiful art: different character desings, detailed backgrounds drawings and finally I get to ... see an anime where they dont remove the part of the glasses that covers the character's eye (which I personally find annoying).
Character's movement was smooth, specially when they were playing music and I didnt even spot bad cgi animation.

The music is the best tool this anime has to make people fall in love with it and it isnt weird if you start to listen to jazz after you finish this show. The way the characters talk to each other through the instruments is so good and captivating. Yoko Kanno is god herself, since not only the original soundtrack was good, but also the songs she adapted. Im pretty sure this anime has one of the best OST ever made, besides FLCL's J-rock, Naruto and Shippuden's rock mixed with japanese folk music and other Yoko Kanno's works.
I enjoyed a lot the scenes where Kaoru and Sen were playing music and the main reason for this was that they werent even talking but just playing music. I love Shigatsu wa kimi na uso, but one of the biggest issues I have with this show is that they dont shut the fuck up when they are playing. Like cmon dude, let me hear that precious music you are playing, you can tell me later how much you admire Kousei.

Finally a show with mature teenagers. However, I wont lie to you, the main cast is cliche. Your typical shy, introverted and sad background story guy who has a crush on the typical good girl of japanese shows. At least their interactions dont make you cringe like other shows' relationships do.
I have to admit that the way Sentarou influenced Kaoru's character was great. In a little amount of time, Kaoru was confident enough to confess his feelings to his crush, and he easily became the main pillar who hold Sentarou.

But the best part of this common cast is that the non-common characters shine even brighter. Thats when Sentarou comes in. Sentarou seems to be the bad and handsome guy every school show has, but as the anime goes on, you realize he is something special as he turns out to be a shy, religious, responsible and very kind guy. Is that the reason why his character is that good? No, it isnt (at least by itself). Later on, you see his backstory, and then you realize how good this character is. An unwanted kid who is bullied and hated even by his family to the point his dad left home. After that "childhood", he had to be the father figure for his siblings while he studied and worked to bring some money home. If that wasnt enough, he is a real character, as you can see in the 2 last arcs. Best written character of the show by far.

In adittion, supporting cast also get some development and protagonism.

This anime has a lot of good things, but it also has bad ones. The end of the story felt a little bit rushed, characters' movement could have been more constant, some of the side characters needed more time to develop etc. Even if you enjoy the arc when Kaoru goes to visit his mother, it loses its charm when they dont explain why his mother left home or why did she act like that when they met.

Anyway, this is a great show and I highly recommend it if you are bored of childish stories.