Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

To start off, AnoHana is the only anime that has literally caused tears to flow freely from my eyes. AnoHana deals mainly with the themes of friendship and the consequences of the loss of someone dear. It handles these themes masterfully. Every character is pleasingly unique, with their own personalities, motives, and secrets. AnoHana expertly manipulates the characters to weave a story that, in the end, will leave a deep impression. The anime takes complete control over your emotions, with a sense of looming sadness more than two or three episodes from the finale. And finally, all your pent-up nervousness and sadness culminates in one tearjerking moment. Crisp andclean, the anime ends with a pleasantly salty, but pure taste in your mouth. No dragged-out sadness or pompous endings in this anime.

Edit: I was listening to Nanairo Symphony, the second OP for Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, when I realized I should re-review AnoHana and Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso.

So, everything above stays true, but here's a more thoughtful, less fanboyish review.

AnoHana is known in the anime community as a tearjerker anime, joining the ranks of other highly popular animes with the same classification such as Clannad: After Story and Angel Beats!. However, I believe sad animes speak to the psyche in three different places: your sympathy, your attachment, and your heart. Animes that speak to your heart have the greatest effect. With this idea in mind, AnoHana speaks to your heart, making it a powerful, moving anime.

At one point, people have struggled with loss, shattered friendships, and unrequited love. AnoHana not only deals heavily with these themes, but it also goes the next mile and executes it almost seamlessly. This makes the sorrow of AnoHana intensely personal, and it pierces your heart mercilessly. In comparison, sad animes that speak to sympathy (i.e. Kousei in Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso) and to attachment (i.e. your favorite characters in Angel Beats!) cannot pierce as deep--their greatness is determined by their execution. In other words, animes that rely on affecting your sympathy or attachment to characters can be good, but they're much more dependent on execution in order to be able to effectively create "feels" (on this note, Angel Beats! has poor execution when it comes to creating feels for all the characters--sorry, Angel Beats! fans). Speaking to the heart, on the other hand, is by essence personal and hits on a much more deeper level; these types of animes are much less reliant on execution, and they have the highest possible potential in terms of anime greatness because of their inherent advantage.

AnoHana, in my opinion, transcends the other popular "feels" animes (Angel Beats!, Clannad After Story, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, etc.) because it not only targets your heart strings (already giving it a leg up) but it also has great execution--the only possible flaw I can note in this anime in terms of execution is Menma's rather static, simple personality.

Feel free to drop a message or something if you see flaws in this re-review. I feel like it gets a bit convoluted, but trust me, it sounded a lot better in my head when I thought about it. If you point out a mistake, I'll go fix it. This review is intended to be as analytical and informative as possible, but I can already see flaws that I can't quite place my finger on.