Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

— WARNING, CONTAINS SPOILERS — AnoHana is an anime that is probably just as infamous as Angel Beats! for it’s tear jerking ending. Despite not being a huge crybaby (AB! is actually the only anime that has managed to get me to squeeze out 1 or 2 tears so far), I was… quite sure I would cry in this anime. Maybe I shouldn’t have, because then ending felt hella disappointing and anti-climactic when I didn’t cry. Call me inhuman if you wish, but this anime just isn’t as touching as people seem to think it is. I have mentioned a few times already that first impressionsof anime are not to be trusted. Unfortunately, I say this about AnoHana as well…
My first reaction to this anime was, and pardon my language, “Holy shit, this is great.” After seeing about 3 episodes, I was ready to add it to my favourites, along with Menma. I wish the whole anime was like this. I guess great things don’t always last.
The story element of this anime was seriously disappointing, along with the characters, which I’ll get to later. In fact, the two really go along with with each other, more than the other anime I’ve seen.
AnoHana is about 6 childhood friends that drift apart after 1 of them dies (Menma). Two become somewhat stuck-up prep-schoolers, another becomes one of ‘those girls’ if you get what I mean, and two drop out of school - one to become a NEET and the other to become a chubby traveller who ends up living in the shack the kids would meet in regularly.
I daresay that, as expected, the NEET is our main character who is the only one to encounter a matured version of Menma’s ‘ghost’, because she loved him. So sweet (sarcasm) - I kind of expected it from the start.
The plot then essentially follows him as he meets up with his other, disbanded friends in order to grant a wish that can apparently only be granted when all the others around. Underline ‘apparently’.
In a sense, it was a little unexpected for me to enjoy AnoHana quite as much as I did, considering that it IS a slice-of-life, but at the same time it had that annoying slice-of-life feel - where you sit through 9 episodes and then ask yourself: “What actually happened in these 225 minutes of anime I’ve been watching?” It’s a puzzling question, really. Something did happen, of course, but it doesn’t feel like it. I was wondering when they would actually attempt to properly solve Menma’s wish. In the end, these efforts were crammed into the last 2 episodes.
The main thing I disliked about the storyline was that it was really, really anticlimactic, and by that I mean I was expecting something so much more deep and touching. I kind of feel like the rest of the anime just went to waste, in a sense. Menma’s wish suddenly came true when she remembered it, since she had already granted it herself, and she didn’t even need the others. Talk about misleading. This links back a little to the past, when Menma died. I was hoping that I would get to know exactly how she died, but oh, of course I wouldn’t. It’s like an annoying cliffhanger. Worst part about her death is that it was… anticlimactic. It simply turns out that Menma was trying to make Jinta cry, and that turned into all… that. I simply cannot put it into words. It was simply a disappointed ‘oh’ moment.
My other main problem with AnoHana was just how melodramatic it was. At the start it was light-hearted and funny, but near the end we were plunged into a tearful love pentagon, including all but Poppo. Seriously though, that scene (before the end) where they all burst into tears was just so pathetic I started laughing. It sounded really weird, too. True, there were some sweet and sad moments, and I ALMOST felt something resembling tears near the end, but the rest was just overdone, to the point that it was practically unrealistic.
To summarise, I really like AnoHana at the start, but near the end, the plot line just went down. That being said, I still enjoyed it, so it's not a total wreck.

Characters were similar to the storyline, kind of. They all had their individual quirks, and I found them nice, but I soon came to realise how stereotypical they were. I’ve kind of already mentioned this, but we have the smart, handsome guy who is a little stuck-up, the emotionless but emotion-ful kuudere who cares about her school’s reputation to the point of not talking to the other surviving girl, who resembles some kind of a popular tsundere (but not exactly), the jovial guy who has had the oh-so-tragic past of always acting dumb to be noticed and our NEET. And let’s not forget the cute, childish main character, Menma. Traditional deredere. We also have some somewhat-stereotypical side characters that aren’t even worth mentioning.
As mentioned earlier, all these characters form a love pentagon with Poppo excluded and Menma at the centre. There’s honestly not much more to say about them. Unoriginal.

Really, the characters and storyline remind me of Nagi no Asukara. They’re almost the same, actually. I gave that anime a good score, but god knows how much it annoyed me. I’m surprised that I actually liked Menma, since she’s like the ever-crying, childish Manaka who is only in my good books because she’s hella cute.

Art was probably the strongest point in the anime. The scenery was really nice, the characters were nothing special but I still really liked the artwork. Clean, simple figures that are still pleasing to the eye, with nice colours surrounding, you could say the artwork is… peaceful. It’s definitely not the best I’ve seen, but it was a nice change to the ‘generic’ artwork in most anime, and plus, it’s easy to draw. In any case, the characters definitely looked nice, Menma was adorable, and it suited the anime.

I didn’t really notice music in this anime, apart from the OP and ED, which weren’t great, but still nice, I guess. They suited the anime and the art, with a simple, calm, pretty tune and singing. I’m a little disappointed that there wasn’t more music in the anime - or at least that it was more noticeable - because I love music. It runs in my very veins and I cannot live without it. I suppose AnoHana had potential for some good music, but it didn’t exploit this potential. The… nature sounds were good, though.
Voice acting was really good, and it fit the characters quite well, especially Menma’s voice, but the crying scenes were way too melodramatic and exaggerated in terms of sounds as well.

Overall, I liked this anime, but it was quite disappointing.

Story: 6/10
Characters: 6/10
Art: 8/10
Sound: 7/10
Enjoyment: 6.5/10

Overall: 6.7/10 (rounded to a 7)