Heyyo, I am back with another anime review and we are going to talk about Shigatsu wa Kimi No Uso or commonly known as, Your Lie In April. This was based on a manga series shown in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Magazine, and it was animated by the studio A-1 Pictures (Erased, Sword Art Online, Fairy Tail, and Black Butler). This drama was directed by Kyohei Ishiguro (Fairy Tail) and written by Takao Yoshioka (Elfen Lied). This is also a music anime and the music was done by Masaru Yokoyama (Scum's Wish, Mobile Suit Gundam; Iron-Blooded Orphans). The anime aired back in 2014 and ended in 2015, and is known to be yet another tear-jerking series that tugs at not only your heart, but also your soul.
This review is spoiler free.
Plot
Okay let me break it down for you; Kousei Arima was considered a piano prodigy at such a young age, but a terrible event in his life discourages him from continuing music. Whenever he attempts to play a piano, his trauma returns and he suddenly cannot hear the notes and abruptly stops playing. His life has become quite dull, boring, and even sad due to the lack of closure of his past wounds until he meets a cheerful young violinist named Kaori Miyazono, whose unconventional passion for music brings technicolor into Kousei's life. The two gradually build a strong emotional bond together over their love for music, and little does Kousei know that Kaori is not only helping him get back on his feet, but is also keeping a devastating secret that might shatter him once more (source: Classic )
Now, if you have seen anime shows like Clannad, Air, Rumbling Hearts, or at least has a storyline that can make you cry, Your Lie in April is typically one of them. It is also one of those shows that uses deep metaphors to describe the emotions that the characters go through. This is definitely not the first time I have encountered an anime that goes into this kind of storytelling, but for a dramatic and somewhat depressing anime, it has a very bright and positive atmosphere going on in terms of animation (which we will talk about later). This show gives hope and light no matter how gray life gets, which was pretty much what Kousei goes through before he meets Kaori. This story is somewhat considered a love story because of the apparent attraction between them, but to me it didn't really feel like one. Rather, this was a tale between two people who both love music and became friends. One, loved music but circumstances in his life stopped him from loving it, and the other loves music with all of her heart and shares this love to the people around her. Having these two meet made the story all about regaining something precious and in this case, it was Kousei's passion for music. In other words, this wasn't a cheesy love story about singing or dancing. To me, Your Lie in April was a coming of age story for Kousei. He was reached a point in his life where he literally had to face the music, and had to overcome the trauma he felt when playing the piano. Not only that, we get to see how Kousei responds to Kaori's way of reaching out to him. Eventually, we see how these two compliment each other in a way that they build each other up for the better, through their love of music. Talk about relationship goals, right?
I appreciate the realistic take of this anime, especially when it was tackling very serious themes like depression and other things. But I am not saying this is the most realistic anime. There are moments in the show where it can get a bit melodramatic when it didn't need to be. But it is interesting in watching this show through Kousei's perspective, where he tries to find another reason to love music again and comes up with a different and fresh way to identify himself from other musicians in the story. His road to redemption is definitely not easy, which is the realistic bit I was talking about. Usually in anime, not giving up is a common theme and the character usually realizes how important it is for him or her not to give up in at least two episodes. Meaning, the change in character can get pretty drastic and it almost looks too good to be true. Your Lie in April is nothing like that, since it is a story about how a boy is slowly recovering from his pain and how this pain literally sprung from his only love, which is music. So there aren't any huge dramatic easy victories in this anime, because the characters here fail a lot but they learn from these failures. That's how the anime itself becomes emotional. After understanding their stories a bit, you can't help but feel a bit of sympathy because the pain sucks. You can't help but route for them, and it becomes touching when they try to find even the tiniest victory in their failures. I believe that's when the show becomes slightly depressing and emotional. How these characters try to find something good and beautiful in something that was obviously tearing them apart. And this is very much evident in the dialogue done here, which is arguably the best part of this anime in my opinion.
Score for plot:
Characters
From top, L-R: Tsubaki Sawabe, Ryota Watari. From Bottom, L-R: Kousei Arima, Kaori Miyazono (source: Overmental )
There are only four major characters here in this anime. Aside from Kousei and Kaori, we have two other friends of Kousei's, and they are Tsubaki and Watari. All of the supporting characters in this anime are mostly people who are involved in Kousei's life. Simply their role in this series were giving additional info with regards to Kousei's character and background, and through these characters we understand how Kousei became the person that he was in the anime. These characters were not really comical in any way, and were there as regular persons. These characters were not completely one-sided in terms of personality and showed other emotions as well without straying from their characters, which was really cool. Then we have the relationship between Kaori and Kousei, which is one of the most beautiful friendships I have ever seen in anime. Their stories were described in such detail that you can't help but get behind these characters.
Kaori, however, is one of those characters with a shroud of mystery surrounding them and you don't get to know her that much until you reach the next half of the anime. But this is a shroud of mystery that I did not mind because you will wonder how and why did this girl decided to butt in Kousei's life. I like how she isn't this perfect happy young girl that looks one-sided. The anime shows her other characteristics too, and it can get very shocking to see a completely different side of her. The role of Kaori is basically the solution to the whole problem in the story, and it fits very well considering the kind of character that she is, and she makes a perfect complementary to Kousei's character. Kousei is yet another introverted archetype, but the things he had to go through at his age are really tough. The way he explains it is just very depressing because of this calm demeanor that he always poses. He is the epitome of a depressed person; he acts fine and cool, but whenever he's alone, that's when you see how broken he actually is and it is difficult to watch him reemerge from the black pit that he's gotten so used to. The struggles that these two main characters had to go through is what makes the anime heavier, because the problems they deal with happens in real life and sometimes you can't help but relate to them.
My only gripe with some of the characters is that there are some that were shoehorned and had a hasty background story. What's worse, this happened in the second half of the anime, when it was nearing its end. I am talking about one of the supporting character's little sister, which is Nagi Aiza. After understanding her story, I still wonder why she needed to be included in the anime. Without her, I think the anime's depth wouldn't waver at all. Although the introduction to her character came with my favorite piano performances in the anime, I think her arc was unnecessary and that the anime would still manage without her.
Score for characters:
Music
This musical of an anime is not the same without its music. The score is very gentle and soft, matching the overall tone that the anime was going for. Unfortunately, it didn't really stand out that much for me, since the music that you will be constantly hearing would be from the performances the show has. The anime was able to hire some people to play the piano and violin performances done by the characters, and you will hear all sorts of pieces that were originally done by Chopin, Beethoven, Kreisler, Rachmaninov, and many more. But each piece was purposely selected for each character in the anime, to illuminate not only their personalities but the emotions they go through when performing. This anime is not really about what music is to them and why they love it, but more on how much music means to them and how it has created such an impact to them and the other people who listen. Although the performances and music are great, they can get bombarded occasionally by the dialogue and exposition that occurs during the scenes.
Masaru Yokoyama created the original soundtrack and the music chosen for opening and ending themes are great. Each episode begins with an upbeat song and ends with a sentimental and gentle one. There are two opening themes and two ending themes, but my absolute favorite out of all them would have to be the first ending which is titled "Kirameki", and it is performed by Wacci. For me this matches the overall anime perfectly, because it has a happy yet sad beat.
For a sad and emotional anime, it is very very VERY colorful. I love how vibrant it is, and how it actually represents hope. Not only that, it experiments with different colors to match the mood the scene is trying to express, and I like how they don't use conventional schemes of color to say that this scene is going to be sad or happy. It uses many colors, and the scene will still be as emotional and as beautiful. The anime plays into metaphors of color, and I love how the colors and brightness transitions from one scene to another, and how even the saddest moments can still look positively bright even when it focuses on one color scheme. That's the first thing I've noticed in this anime, and I am honestly not mad by it. The details are also really great, and this is definitely a gorgeous-looking anime.
Score for Art:
This anime definitely has a lot of heart. It teaches you that it is important that you find someone who not only makes you feel good, but helps you improve yourself in the most decent way possible. Your Lie In April, personally touched me in so many ways. There were times it did hit close to home, and I just love how love itself was depicted in this very anime. It's not cheesy, it's not too dramatic, but it's quite raw and genuine.
YOUR LIE IN APRIL HEREBY RECEIVES A
AND IS TAMAGO CERTIFIED
I implore you to go see this anime when you've got the chance. It is heartwarming, somewhat painful, and absolutely beautiful...especially in the snow.
That is it for my anime review, and I hope you would give this anime a try. Be sure to tune in to my next blog posts and if you need to contact me, click my profile shown in the right or go to my social media handles. Thank you so much for reading, and till the next post~
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