Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
In short; I enjoyed this anime and I can see how many others did as well. It's actually no wonder why it has many good reviews, but I wouldn't watch this again - at least not until I've forgotten about what happens in this story. And with that, let's get into it. The story is actually very deep, at least if you look at just the story and ignore everything else. Loss of a friend is a heartbreaking thing, especially when you're a child - which is probably why I did cry in the first few episodes. Like the main characters of Anohana, I too havelost a childhood friend when I was just a small child and carried the grief well into my teenage years. While I understand completely that people deal with grief in many different ways, I wasn't the biggest fan of the way they made the characters deal with it. It had been 10 years since Menma died, but still the characters carried the hurt as if she had died only few years ago.
Speaking of Menma, she is annoying. Sure, she is sweet and kind of funny, but to me the reason why it took me so long to finish this anime is because of her personality. Menma is portrayed as that childish, naïve young girl (I've seen many use the word "moe" but since I don't 100% understand that words meaning, I won't use it) that too many animes and mangas use. Not to mention even though they said that "she had grown with them", meaning that her body wasn't a child's body, it really didn't look like that. It's as if her physical appearance and most of her personality were catered to the fans of loli, which to me (and for what I've seen, to many others as well) is very off putting.
Now, the other main characters were okay; they had surprisingly good character arcs and while they all do fit in the basic anime character tropes, I didn't hate it. But I do need to touch on Jinta Yadomi. His story line - with not going to school - was touching and entertaining, but his relationship with Menma kind of creeped me out. The way he was still in love with her (in the way that he wants to marry her) was disturbing; she had been dead for years and he still has the same feelings for her, even when she came back as a ghost? I only really started to like his character after episode 6; the first episodes just rubbed me off in the wrong way.
To the other things: the music was amazing. I've listened the opening and ending many times on youtube, and played the OST while I study. Art style I loved a lot, it really fit with the story.
Overall, I enjoyed this anime. The ending really got to me - I didn't expect myself to cry so much; it was touching and heartbreaking, really coming through for this anime. I was originally going to give this a 7, but the way they tied everyone's story in the end was great and I had to give it a 8. Sure there were things that I didn't like (things that annoyed me and actually stopped me from watching this every now and then), but those things weren't really that big of things.
Anohana is a great anime and I do think that if you want to get into anime, this is what you should watch, even if this slice-of-life genre isn't your thing.