Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
When you think of sad anime, what comes to mind? Uh, lets see, uuuhhh, clannad, clannad after story, clannad before story, clannad after after story, uuhh, yeah I guess. Oh yeah, and anohana. Well, yeah I guess... A sad and emotional anime, yet a short one at that, anohana is about a boy named jintan who has become a shut in gamer ever since the death of one of his friends, and the separation of his other friends. But one day, he starts seeing the goa- ghost of his lost friend, menma. Now, in order to send her up to heaven, he and his friends getback together to make her wish come true. Yeap. The story is actually pretty emotional. But......im gonna admit......I never rlly cried, or even felt like crying. Maybe its because the ending was a bit rushed. Like, if there was at least one more episode, it could've ended off better, and given certain characters more screen time.
The animation is overall good, not great, but still good. The character design is the biggest strength art wise. However, one issue I have (I'm not taking points off for this) is that on crunchyroll, its highest is 480p, instead of at least 720. I mean, hd existed in 2011. So why isn't a show from 2011 in hd? no clue...
The soundtrack is very well done imo. The OP and ED are both gr8. The voice acting is gr8. That's all I gotta say tbh. yeah.
Characters rlly feel alive, and that's where anohana shines. Instead of focusing on art and animation (like many shows nowadays), it focuses on its characters, and makes them very good. The issue, tho, is that some characters get a ton of screen time (jinta, naruko) while others lack in screen time (especially popo). If they had at least another episode, they could have gotten more screen time. Also, while the characters do confess how they feel towards eachother, the only one who rlly gets any development is jinta and naruko. Besides that, most characters don't change much.
I enjoyed this anime quite a lot. It did occasionally get boring, but that may be because of how short it was. Despite that, it rlly was tense, and the ending, while predictable, was satisfying. Again, not much to say.
Here is teh verdict:
Story: 9
Characters: 9
Art: 8
Animation: 7
Sound: 9
Voice Acting: 9
Enjoyment: 9
Overall Score: 8.57
My Score: 8.6
On the positive side:
The story was fresh
The characters were good
The art and animation were pretty good
The soundtrack sounded nice
The character designs felt alive
You can finish this show very quickly
On the negative side:
The short length (11 eps) left unanswered questions, some characters undeveloped, and a rushed storyline
The series was occasionally predictable (I could already predict the ending just by reading the sypnosis)
The quality wasn't very good (480p for a show made in 2011)
Biggest Strength: The characters
Biggest Weakness: The short length