Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
This anime has found the perfect mixture of when to invoke certain emotions in someone. I had though from the beginning that this would be a great anime, but this has easily become one of the legendary animes among clannad and elfen lied. It was absolutely amazing in every way possible. Story- The story is quite a sad one. Its about a group of childhood friends who where always together, having good times and just being kids. Then one day a series of events happened that lead to the death of one of them named "menma". Years later menma appears as a ghost of sorts, butonly jinta can see her. The rest of the gang thinks that he has gone crazy. He couldn't handle the pressure of being called crazy so he dropped out of school and stayed at home playing games and eating most of the day. Then one day menma mentions something about fulfilling a wish that she had to jinta. Through a short series of events that span over 2-3 episodes the whole gang is back together and even thought they think jinta is crazy they still wish to help fulfill minmas wish, or so it seems. Can't really say much more for fear of ruining the story line, but it is definitely a very intriguing story-line. It's not all serious all the time though, which is the way i expected it to be. Not saying that in a bad way, the funny parts did't feel at out of place at all. Some parts had my sides hurting. Then there are other parts that got me really emotional. The ending was just really intense, it was wrote very beautifully. I don't usually tear up or cry while watching animes. The only other anime that got me to cry was clannad. Now 2 animes have got me to that point. It was the saddest thing, other than clannad that I've ever watched in my entire life. The writing was very excellent in this anime, there wasn't any filler and the anime didn't feel rushed at all, even though it's only 11 episodes long.
Art- Nothing much to really say here. The art was pretty average and nowadays it's pretty hard to mess up on the art of an anime. Nothing too spectacular and nothing that was bad. Then again don't watch this anime for its art style, watch it for its excellent story-line.
Sound- The opening theme and ending theme fits very well with the overall feel of this anime. I really liked it, its a very soft and smooth song which is very refreshing.
Character- The characters in this anime definitely unique. My favorite character would have to be menma though. She has a very childish attitude which i think is cute and it suites her well. All the characters are fairly different from each other and yet they all get along for the most part. This anime just goes to show you that just because you got hardly anything in common with someone doesn't mean that you can't be friends. I got a couple like that as a matter of fact. We're friends just because we're friends. There are quite a few "main characters" i saw it like that because they're not really the main characters, but they all are in every episode and all have a huge impact on the story.
Enjoyment- This anime had me laughing pretty hard at times, and at other times it had me really emotional. The ending had me cry 3 separate times to be honest. Any anime that can change your mood that drastically and still have the same feel to it, and not feel out of place has to be doing something right. I could tell from the first episode that this was going to be something great, instead it turned into something legendary. I always give every anime i review a 10 because i can't never make up my mind as how to rate it, but this anime is definitely something that should be dismissed. If it's on your list then you should definitely start watching it as soon as possible.
Overall- As i have stated plenty of times in this review this anime is something special. In my book it's something that is legendary. It goes in the same category as clannad, death note, and elfen lied. It's just one of those animes that are special. Animes that are coming out now are just too much fan-service, or they can't make up their mind on whether or not the be funny or serious. Very few animes know what they are, and what message they're trying to get across. I HIGHLY recommend this anime to anyone that watched anime. It's definitely something that is just amazing and should be watched by everyone. I absolutely love everything about this anime.