Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

It's a pretty rare thing for an anime to focus itself on a set of themes and really stick to them. It's even rarer for all the elements that make up that anime to come together into a truly whole and complete show. The term 'flawed masterpiece' gets thrown around about a lot of shows, even some of the most highly regarded ones in the medium. In comes Anohana, which has decidedly few flaws, and comes pretty damn close to masterpiece status. It executes on a simple enough premise; slice of life tale about loss and regret with some heavy comic relief, but it doesso with drive that is not often found in the genre.

The narrative of Anohana is almost solely character driven, revolving around the lead Yadomi and five of his childhood friends, with a pretty decent group of secondary characters rounding things out. This cast of six is easily the place where the show shines most brightly, as all of them are distinct, well written, and remarkably human. There's a lot of respect on display here for them and their growth throughout Anohana's 11 episodes, and I was thoroughly impressed with the characterisation every step of the way. There's genuine depth and always present growth going on in each episode, and essentially no filler.
Visually Anohana is mostly standard, albeit very good, fare. The backdrops are high quality, the use of color is great, and even some of the less important support characters are carefully designed. As with the story, the core six characters are where things shine visually though. Their designs match the associated personalities brilliantly. A lot of care went into bringing these characters to life. Their animation similarly matches their deliberate design and it further cements how well put together and human these six feel. Anaru specifically stands out as a character with immediately recognizable features that strongly parallel her personality. Overall it isn't as gripping or interesting as some notable shows with a strong sense of style, but what it does it does expertly.
Ultimately Anohana is a simple, beautiful slice of life about coping with loss and coming together. An easy recommendation for anyone who has enjoyed Clannad, any Kyo-Ani stuff, etc.