Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

Death is something that we all have to deal with eventually. It’s inevitable, as the universe willed every living being to eventually die. The impact of a death can greatly vary, depending on your relationship with the living being that had passed. You probably won’t care if an insect died when you squashed them, but you probably would care a lot more if someone you loved dearly had passed away in an accident. So what would happen if someone you cared for very much had suddenly passed away? What if it were due to a flurry of circumstances and events that you and your friendshad inadvertently created together? Would you blame those friends? Would you blame yourself? How would you cope? How would they cope? How would the people that were close to that person react and how would they deal with the loss of that person? What type of regrets would you and others have? Finally, what would happen if you saw that person again?

Story: 8

At the beginning of the show, we are introduced to the main protagonist of the show Jintan (Jinta Yadomi) playing games and eating food in a hot summer, with a girl in pure white trying to talk to him and gain his attention as he games. After he actually notices her, he tries hard to completely ignore this girl’s existence as she continues to try to get Jintan’s attention. We are eventually shown that this girl is called Menma (Meiko Honma), and that Jintan seems to be the only one who is aware of her presence.

We then have a flashback of a summer 10 years ago, Jintan and Menma was a group of 6 close friends who called themselves the Super Peace Busters, with Jintan as their leader. At the young age of 5 years old, Jintan, Menma, Anaru (Naruko Anjou), Yukiatsu (Atsumu Matsuyuki), Poppo (Tetsudo Hisakawa), and Tsuruko (Chiriko Tsurumi), enjoyed the bliss that was childhood together. They created their own secret base in the woods, gave each other their memorable nicknames, played games with each other and did fun activities together. Until one day, Menma had an accident in the woods and unfortunately dies. This event hits the group of friends very hard, and eventually the close group of friends that was the Super Peace Busters drifted away from each other.

Back in the current time, it’s clear that Menma has somehow returned, but Jintan is the only one who is able to see and interact with her. Other people, including the other members of the Super Peace Busters cannot see Menma, leading others to think Jintan has a screw loose. The story begins with Menma saying that she still has an unfulfilled wish of some sort, with the show revolves their adventure on finding out and fulfilling that unknown wish of Menma’s. At the same time, the show explores and expands on the characters, and shows their relationships with each other and how they are related to Menma, with their relationships with her also affecting how they took her sudden death and their reactions after it.

Art: 9

A-1 Pictures did quite a good job when animating and drawing AnoHana. The show’s art style is very atmospheric with it’s visuals, with the backgrounds looking quite pretty with shading and lighting. The show tends to have dark shading or lighting to set the atmosphere quite a bit of the time. I think this is done to make certain things stand out, like Menma in her pure white attire, the secret base with it’s bright orange light at night, and the flashback scenes of their childhoods which look a lot brighter compared to the rest of the show.

I believe that this was done to symbolise these certain things, as after Menma’s death and when the characters grew up, the world began to look darker and more bleak, with these areas or objects linked to the theme of their childhood being a lot brighter in tone and standing out, to symbolise the beauty and figurative brightness of their childhood. Animation was good overall, while most of it is nothing overly spectacular or special, the animation for the main cast was quite well done, especially with Menma. When it came to Menma, her movements and facial expressions really helped make her seem more special, with notable areas being her face and hair.

Sound: 8

The soundtrack of this series is very beautiful and peaceful to listen to. For one, a lot of it’s OST is done with piano in it and that’s a very common instrument for a show that is made to give you feels. While AnoHana’s music can be sad when the show calls for it AnoHana does this thing where the piano combined with how the music is done makes it where the OST not have too much sorrow in the music, but still makes itself emotional by mixing in happiness and bittersweet sadness in it’s tunes to make wonderful melodies that are peaceful to listen to.

Although, my favourite song has to be the ending theme called “Secret Base ~What You Gave Me~ 10 Years After Ver.”, and it’s one of my favourite endings to date. It’s was preformed by Kayano Ai, Tomatsu Haruka and Hayami Saori, who are the seiyuu of Menma, Anaru and Chiriko respectively. The song is just...beautiful, the three girl's voices sound in character yet different at the same time, and it helps with the innocence and true emotion of the music. The song's lyrics are very touching and the ending just hits at the perfect moment when an episode ends with an emotional or touching note. It makes these moments feel just as cheerful, emotional, or hopeful depending on when it's used, and it does it so well that I just love the song.

Another great song in my opinion is the opening, called "Blue Bookmark" preformed by Galileo Galilei. His voice is relaxed and calming and it goes well with the relaxing atmospheres of the show. The lyrics do relate to the show's characters' thoughts, and I think it's just a nice way to start a new episode.

Character: 9

The characters play a very important role throughout the entire show, as most of the plot is entered around them and their interactions with each other. Jintan is our main protagonist of the series, and while that’s the case, he’s not always the centre spotlight throughout the show. Menma has the most attention in the show as the series essentially revolves around her, but is not always the most prominent character. Her personality is essentially that of her 5 year old self, as she didn’t really grow up due to dying, she’s very childish, cheerful, and loves being with her friends, but at the same time, she has an emotional side which can make you feel things. While we don’t see her seeing as much action as I would like, she’s still a very important and overall prominent character throughout the show.

The characters seem to follow the typical character tropes at first, with Jintan being the antisocial hikikomori, Anaru being the popular trendy girl, Yukiatsu being the cold asshole, Poppo being the loveable big guy and Tsuruko being the smart girl. However, as the series progresses, we learn that most the characters are not as one-sided or as clichéd as they seemed. Note that I say most of the characters, unfortunately certain characters don’t get as much development or impact on the story as the others, but they still do have pivotal roles in said plot. Most characters are connected to Menma in a big way, although the show relies heavily on love triangles to connect the characters instead of showing us a lot of real development between them in the past. That's one of the only real problems of the show, but I personally don't mind it that much. In the end, the relationship of each of the characters were connected to each other by Menma in some way, and due to her death, the relationships between these characters really fell apart, and it made their pain a lot more convincing.

Enjoyment: 9

I really loved watching this anime. In the short time of 11 episodes, the anime delivered on some very interesting characters, and their interactions with each other was definitely a worthwhile watch to say the least. I never got bored while watching as each episode ends on some sort of mini-cliffhanger for tension, and since the show was only 11 episodes, it wasn’t hard to go through it all. I liked seeing the characters try to deal with their emotions and feelings to one another, and the tensions brought up due to certain circumstances. Each character was interesting, and really enjoyable to watch, especially the protagonists Jintan and Menma. With Jintan being the type character that I want to comfort and talk to, and Menma being the type of character who is extremely loveable and the type I would like to have tones fun and smile with.

Overall: 9

This anime isn't entirely an emotional ride like Clannad: After Story or 5 Centimeters Per Second, but as an anime that will give you feels, it definitely stands up there as with them. Although it's not done by the typical feels of sadness, but instead with joy, bliss, and touching moments. It doesn't just follow the sorrow throughout the middle of the show and large relief afterwards, but also by mixing joy and relaxation into the mix.

While AnoHana didn’t leave me with the feeling of “emptiness” that I would feel from an anime that i've spent hours enjoying and watching, I had to put it as one of my favourite anime as of now, because I absolutely enjoyed this show and loved watching how the events folded out and ended perfectly. The show is not perfect, certain characters could’ve gotten more development and backstory than they did, and there could’ve been a less reliance of love triangles to create relationships between the characters.

However despite any flaws it may have, I cannot help but say I loved this show, and that I enjoyed watching every second of it, from the beginning to it’s beautiful ending, I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys any form of emotional anime. AnoHana was a a beautiful show, and i’d definitely recommend it if you’re interested.

PS. This is my first review, so please feel free to give me constructive criticism. Did I give too many minor spoilers? Did I do anything not to your taste? Tell me on my profile or PM me. :)