Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Before you begin reading, please take note that this is my first review I've written on MAL, and that this is the first and final draft. I do not plan to go back and edit this for whatever reason, so if you find any grammatical errors or anything that is wrong, please send me a message and I will fix it with haste. *There will be spoilers. If you've not watch this Anime yet, I highly suggest you do so BEFORE reading this.* I am not going to review this anime, or anything for that fact, in the typical Story, Art, etc layout. I will review thisin my own way.
The story of Anohana portrays how an occurrence in the past can literally hold one back from truly advancing and moving on. The story revolves primarily around two characters, Jintan and Meiko. Jintan is a teenager who isolates himself from the outside world due to the fact that he frequently talks to Meiko. There seems to be no problem in the eyes of the viewer; however, Meiko is dead. The supernatural aspect of the story comes into play with it is revealed that only Jintan can interact with Meiko. On top of blaming himself for her death, he feels even more shame for being looked down upon by the general community. These two weights pull Jintan back as he realizes that he has to find a panacea to his issue with his past. With this, the viewer embarks on a journey to see exactly how Jintan and Meiko make resolve and move on with their lives, both in the real and after world.
In the few short episodes that this masterpiece offers, it takes the viewer on a journey on how Jintan and his friends try to move on from the tragedy that plagued their child and near-adulthood. The story itself is nothing too original, nor too mainstream that the viewer cannot predict so easily. At its core, it is a story of one moving on from the past, something that everyone can relate too. That alone is what makes this Anime a must-watch for anyone who is dealing with anything innate that they themselves do not want to solve--whether it is too difficult to face, or too saddening that a remedy would not fix completely. This plot follows the latter. If Jintan were to solve his issue with his friends and past, Meiko would disappear forever; however, if he clings to the past, he will never advance in his life. It is a struggle between cleaning up bits of glass with ones hand. Cleaning it up would fix the mess, but at the cost of a many cuts that would hurt for quite some time.
The characters were relatively well developed considering the length of the story. It depicts the main issues with each of the characters and how they all blame themselves for something that they themselves did not have the power to change. The cross-dressing and hallucinations are by-far the most powerful ones, in my opinion. It shows how one issue can only escalate to something even worse. Each character brought to the table something that normal teenagers go through; however, with that is another weight, the guilt of the past. They each deal with it in their own way, but it is not until the end that they realize that everyone does hurt, and it's okay for everyone to be hurt together.
The sound animations were really well done. It was not over the top, but it certainly was not average. It something that complemented the whole story without overpowering it.
Now, the reason why the top portion of this review was kind of broken and not fluid was because I want the viewer to watch the actual Anime to understand. I am just sharing my opinion. This is where the real review begins:
Quite a few people did not find this anime sad, and there is another portion of viewers who found this anime very sad. For me, I found this quite sad. Many critique that the emotions evoked from the viewer is mainly derived from the characters themselves crying; however, that is such a foolish statement. This anime depicts how teenagers cry, how they are powerless to do many things to change anything of the utmost importance. In the end, all they have are friends. When Meiko's brother resents his mom for still lingering onto Meiki and not giving him the fullest attention he needs, he just gets bitter. It is the true response of the characters that make it truly compelling and alluring.
The single most important scene is the fact that Jintan and his friends all gathered before Meiko disappears for good. The fact that they all cried is good, but the fact that they all cried together is what makes it truly fantastic. All of them realize that they have been trying to solve problem that was "Created" by the collective group individually, but they realize they need each other to get through this. In the flashbacks, there were no scenes of the group mourning the loss of Meiko. As children, it is natural to cry to release endorphins to make themselves feel better; however, the tragedy seemed to sudden and hard to believe, that the lack of response was more natural to them. It was only years later that they truly cried and got over this. A delayed psychological response was the true remedy.
Overall, I would give this anime a solid 10/10. This does not mean each individual point of the anime scored a 10, I just believe this Anime is a masterpiece. Is it sadder then the Clannad Series? In my opinion, yes.
If you have any questions or comments about this review, feel free to PM me. Ciao!