Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

"I was so happy, it was so fun, and we had so many adventures inside out secret base". "I won't forget the end of summer with you, the dreams for the future, the great hopes." "I believe we'll meet again in August, 10 years from now". "I knew that you shouted "Thank you" from your heart till the end". The lyrics really hit me so hard...The feels. This is now the 3rd anime that made me cry like a little kid *sniff* (There will be some SPOILERS in my review) [Story]: (8.5/10) (SPOILERS) AnoHana is a dramatic slice-of-life anime that focuses on Jintan, a high-school shut-in kid. Menma, Jintan's childhood friend, diedfrom a tragic accident and has now appeared as a ghost and haunts Jintan. Jintan re-connects with all the friends he had during his childhood and they try to find out why she's here in the first place.

The story, in my opinion, is very touching. There are 3 plot points for this series. Firstly, we know that Menma is dead but do we know how her death affected her 5 friends? The first half of the series shows just that. It shows how her death affected her friends emotionally. Even in their high school years, they're still emotionally scarred and they tried to cope with her death. We also see that they have gone their separate ways in order to crop with Menma's death. However, Menma's ghostly appearance has brought the friends together again and this created an emotional fight/argument between the friends. It can be melodramatic at times but for the most part, it's a well-done heartwarming dramatic fight/argument.

The second plot point is how Menma's family is coping with her death. Answer? Not great... Menma's mother is the most emotionally affected of them all. At first, you'll think that she's a nice mother who has moved on from Menma's death but no. She's still emotionally scarred and she even hates Menma's friends because they're alive and they're all grown up while Menma died and didn't get to grow up. Menma's father is also affected. He has moved on and tried to forget he even had a daughter. I don't know about Menma's brother, he barely knows his sister so he's not even that affected.

The third and final plot point is the characters releasing all their emotional pains towards each other and how they want to send Menma to heaven for their own selfish needs. I was literally angry at the characters at this point. I mean, what the hell. All they care about is love? I'm glad they eventually solved all their problems and they finally accepted her death.

This is one hell of a depressing show but I didn't cry until the last 6 minutes of the final episode. I had to pause the show 5 times because I felt the tears coming out of my eyes and I didn't want my parents to see me crying. The notes that Menma left affected me the most. I don't want to talk about the ending anymore or else I'll cry like a little bitch again.

While the show made me cry, the show had issues and this is the reason why I didn't rate it a 9 or even a 10. Firstly, the pacing. The last 2 episodes was rushed. I did understand what was going on but it still felt rushed. Secondly, the fact that Menma took 8 or 9 episodes to show the others that she was there and that Jintan wasn't lying. They showed us that she can interact with objects. If she did that, the others would see it floating. Why didn't she just do that in the first place to avoid all the arguments and fighting? Finally, the fact that they never showed us how Menma really died. It left us guessing how she really died but if I have to guess, she died by slipping and falling off the cliff due to multiple hints that they showed us. To be honest, this is a minor issue.
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[Art/Animation]: (7.5/10)
The didn't really have the greatest animation. This was made in 2011 right? I've seen better animations but on the other hand, who cares? I was too busy crying my ass off that I didn't really care anymore. While the show had great lighting, the show suffered from the lack of details for both environment and character design. The road ain't that detailed, the houses and building look like it was lazily drawn, the character's faces and hair looked like it rushed, etc. Don't worry, the rating for the animation will not affect my rating for this show. I gave this show an exception.
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[Sound]: (8/10)
The name of the OP theme song is "Aoi Shiori" by Galileo Galilei and the name of the ED theme song is "secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~ (10 years after ver.) by Ai Kayano, Haruka Tomatsu, and Saori Hayami.
I've seen some profiles out there or some people saying that the opening is one of the best dramatic OP songs out there. I don't think so. It sounds decent but it's not that great. Ever heard of Little Busters: Refrain OP? I thought so....
However, the ED song far surpasses the OP and is a lot better in terms of the music and how hard it hit me due to the tone and lyrics. It now has become my number 1 favorite ED theme song.
The voice actors did a great job with their characters. Especially Menma. The way she says "Jenta" and the way she speaks in general is so cute!
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[Characters]: (9/10)
Ahh, the characters. One of the best for this show. We see how the characters are coping with Menma's death. They're now in high school years and they are still coping with her death, however, they changed a lot.
Jintan used to be a social, athletic kid but is now a shut-in antisocial kid who doesn't come to the school anymore. Poppo dropped out of school, got a part-time job, and travels around the world searching for adventures, Anaru tries to be more popular with the "cool" kids, Tsuruko is jealous of Yukiatsu because he had feelings for Menma and she always stays close to him, and finally Yukiatsu who is jealous of Jintan because Menma loves him the most. Towards the end of the series, we see a major character development between the 5 characters. It's slightly rushed but it's still a great development to me.
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[Enjoyment]: (9/10)
The earlier part of the series had some happy and funny moments that I greatly appreciated and the later part of the series became too depressing for me to watch. In a good way, of course. The ending is what really gave me the feels and made me cry. I am not afraid to admit that I just cried.
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[OVERALL]: (9/10)
This is, by no doubt, one of the best dramatic and saddest animes I have ever watched. Making this anime the 3rd that made me cry so far. 1st is SAO II and 2nd is Little Busters: Refrain!. If you're looking for a perfect dramatic anime then go ahead and watch this show now. It might make you cry..Probably. If it does make you cry, make sure you have tissues ready.

Pros:
+Great and Heartwarming Story
+Good Animation
+Great Soundtrack
+ED theme song that far surpasses the OP theme song
+Great and developed Characters
+Realistically depicts the pain of losing someone
+Ending that made me cry
+Successfully executed dramatic scenes

Cons:
-Pacing issues
-Slightly rushed Ep. 10 and 11.
-Few melodramatic scenes