Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

Anohana has a reputation that precedes itself. With its high ratings and fame as an emotional anime, I came in with high expectations, and was very disappointed. Story 5 The story revolves around the five friends trying to grant Menma's "wish" so she can go to heaven. It takes them a few tries to discover what her true wish is, but when it's revealed, it fell flat for me. I won't reveal it because of spoilers, but I will say that I felt it had been granted many times previously. The story had a bit of strange pace, and there were many scenes that I couldn'tfigure out the purpose of.

Character 5
On the surface, Anohana's characters look like a diverse bunch and have great potential as friends. However, it soon becomes obvious that every character (except Poppo) is defined by their unrequited love for another member of the group. Even when they were supposedly good friends as kids, there was all this romantic drama between them. In addition, Menma is supposed to be an angelic figure, who is the most kind-hearted and loving member of the group. But we don't really see this side of her. She is mostly annoying, making Jinta's life harder than it has to be by pushing him to fulfill "her wish" while not working harder to reveal herself to the rest of the friends, which make them think Jinta is crazy or lying.

Art 9
The art was very good, no complaints here.

Sound 10
The music was excellent! I love both the opening and ending!

Overall 5
Anohana failed in my opinion to tell the emotional story it wanted to tell. For a similar story of estranged teenagers reuniting and becoming friends, I would recommend Koe no Katachi the manga.