Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

Anohana is an amazing show and emotional rollercoaster, and while I wholeheartedly recommend watching it, I do have my issues with it. I think that a lot of the emotional scenes towards the middle of the show fail to hit by the nature of the tone that they were trying to go for. It's supposed to be a meloncholy yet lighthearted show, but I think it's the lighthearted bits that bring it down. A character will be going through a full meltdown, their entire world shaken, then another character will hop in and make the whole situation better with a single sentence. It doesn't happenevery time, and in my opinion, the show excels when it lets the characters sit in those moments. Obviously diffusing a conflict or consoling someone is human nature, and they're wonderful storytelling devices when done well, I just think that those interactions fall flat here.

I wanted to get my main gripe out of the way before I talk about what I loved about this show, and why I gave it a 9/10. I love when a story of any kind can build up an emotional scene in the background through small interactions and have everything reach an emotional climax that feels natural, and I think that this show does that amazingly. The way it ended felt right in a way that only a perfectly set-up ending could feel, and I appreciate the skill it takes to pull something like that off with such a short runtime.

The characters that the story focuses on are well written, and while their motivations and arcs might seem a tad predictable, I figure you'll find yourself surprised by them a time or two. That being said, there are some characters that kinda get pushed to the side in favor of others, which is kinda sad considering the nature of the story. I will choose to lay that at the feet of the short runtime, you can't put everything you want to say into 11 episodes, but they did a remarkable job with what they had.

Moral of the story? Don't go in expecting Violet Evergarden, but if you're in the mood for an emotional story that probably won't make you cry (until the end) with lovable characters, I'd give this one a solid recommendation.