Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Anohana is a show that rots. Once its blighted flesh is scraped away, all that remains is a spectacular soundtrack and great visuals. I’m happy to applaud the show’s production - but it cannot make up for the cavity that lies at Anohana’s center. It’s about time someone drills in. I’ll just get this out of the way; Menma is the cavity. If I was asked to make a list of the characters I hate the most, she’d be in the top five. In preparation for this review I watched a “Cute Menma Moments” compilation and was left physically sick. Before her death, two of themain children liked Menma, and two liked someone who liked Menma, leading to envy or resentment. After her death, the five children are all still unable to cope with her passing. They each have developed some nasty habits or complexes - and their childhood friend hangs over their heads in one way or another. The plot revolves around satisfying Menma’s wish, and in the process addressing the trauma her death left the cast.
There is nothing wrong with this structure. This last paragraph could be describing a show of any quality. But you have to understand what’s going on here - Menma has been placed at the show’s center - From day one, Anohana would succeed or fail based on her ability to carry the weight of every character’s arc - And the plot as a whole.
Menma’s tiny arms would crack if she even tried to be Anohana’s central pillar. So she doesn’t. She just stands there as the ceiling cracks around her and the show collapses into a splintered heap.
From my earlier synopsis, this show should be about coming to terms with the past and finding closure. Instead, it’s a show about drama in a group of five-year olds - because even as young adults, these characters still act as if they were on the playground and they just found out that she said WHAT?! And before you say, “But they’ve been frozen in time! Menma’s death has stunted their development and-” If the show had executed this with any subtlety or precision, I’d probably be crying like the show’s fans promise you will.
Menma is at the center of all of this. She hasn’t grown up, of course. Her infantile, obnoxious attitude makes up most of the show’s humor and solves most of the show’s problems. I hate how she jumps onto people constantly, hate the direction of her voice (Direction, nothing wrong with the VA) and her dialogue, hate how her body is treated (More on this later), hate how Jintan enables her foolishness, hate those shots where we see her face as she watches the group and you know she’s going to say something naive and mildly sad. . It’s like her scenes screamed half-baked, annoying, and empty to me. It’s hard for me to understand why anyone would find her endearing. I don’t know how I could convince you that she’s a hollow, nothing character, but I’ll try.
The show never sells Menma as this glue that held the six together. For what reason did the lives of her friends’ revolve around her before her death? Playground drama. And after, she is only relevant because she was the one who happened to die. Death is senseless and it chooses at random - Menma is only a death, only an event that traumatized her friends. It’s impossible to look any deeper into her. She is a device the plot that happens to emote without concern for the personal space of others. She is a shallow representation of childhood innocence and is only ever characterized in these simple, boring terms. Menma is not a character. She is not a character that maybe I find annoying or obnoxious. She is simply nothing, and the beautiful music and the tears tricked you into thinking otherwise.
As an aside: A better show could have explored Jinta’s sexuality. The implications are sad and worth looking at. But this is Anohana, where the dead girl’s body has been aged up - and oh, haha, she sat on his lap and what’s that, a popping noise! Uh oh, haha! Oh, Menma, the dead-aged-up-ghost child is wearing a towel, haha! It’s disgusting.
You might cry. I remember tearing up; This show does a wonderful job of selling emotion with its production. But when the music fades and the screen turns to black and your cheeks dry, what’s left? Maybe the music is still playing in your head. Maybe you can still picture that final scene, which so many love. But if you look a little deeper, you’ll find that Anohana is ill at its core. My rating has gradually ticked down as time has passed. And of course it has.
Because Anohana is a show that rots.