Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

I decided to check this anime out because I saw the the script writer was Mari Okada. After getting completely destroyed by Maquia I watched Anohana to get destroyed again, but I was left disappointed. While Maquia made me cry throughout act 3 (the war) and the whole of act 4 (the ending), Anohana, with much more popularity and positive reception didn't have half of the former's effect. First I will highlight some of the positive aspects of Anohana, and then I will highlight how Anohana failed at having a strong emotional pull. -- The good First, Anohana succeeded with its highly comprehensible directing. I am notthe sharpest tool in the shed. In fact, I get completely lost trying to watch most Seinens and I need commentary to explain what each scene is trying to do and what the anime is trying to say (take notes content creators). Despite that, Anohana does not have that issue. While many of the visual metaphors in the first episode flew over my head (like what kind of insight the parallels between the past and present provide about the main character), I did get some of it. The directing was simple, which helped me understand what was going on.

Secondly, Anohana has exceptional pacing. Watching most Hollywood films is a nightmare because they don't take any time at all during the expositional phase to develop their characters or the setting (ie: Pirates of the Caribbean, Spider-Man: No Way Home). While anime, in general, tends to be a lot better with this, Anohana stands tall among them. The anime takes its time developing the characters and their situation while giving the audience as much information as they can through the dialogue and the visuals. This aspect enhances the ending because the audience has a stronger connection with the characters and a stronger understanding of the characters' situation.

Honorable mentions: the op/ed, the pretty visuals.

-- The bad

note: I watched this with my mom, so I had to watch the dub. I'm also bad at remembering characters' names, so I'm using the MAL character list (apologies if I call a character by the wrong name).

First, some characters were ignored. While Jinta and Anjou got a good amount of character development. The three other characters from the main cast were mostly forgotten. Hikasawa had a dramatic moment, but it was near the end and came out of nowhere. Matsuyuki did some weird and dramatic things in the anime, but his character was entirely incomprehensible (might have been my fault, idk). Tsurumi barely did anything at all. Honma, while an entertaining character, was inherently intertwined with the plot, and thus, the plot became her entire personality, so her character suffered.

Second, the plot's resolution was contrived. It was not quite satisfying watching them all become friends together after hanging out at a shrine for a little while, especially after all the fights they went through before. It was a unsatisfying resolution to their tense relationships. The ending scene was fine though.

There are likely many more things that made Anohana suffer, but I'm not qualified to speak about them, so that's it. That's why Anohana gets a 6.