Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

Perks: Honest story, relatable, good artwork, engaging, interesting characters Quirks: Slow pacing at times, certain unneeded elements, possibly more character distinction needed This anime was 'the anime of summer' for me. I suppose that's appropriate, seeing as it came out around the start of summer, but that means more. Summer's a very ephemeral thing, and we see so many movies and hear so many songs about fantastic summers that eventually pass and are completely in the past, and yet, something draws us back to them, if only to the memories and how those made us feel. Ano Hana was like this for me. It focused on the present,but was very much incorporated into the past. We got a good amount of flashbacks, to times before the death of a good friend, times that couldn't be repeated after her death. And yet, in a way, they were. A ghost brought back together what fell apart years ago, and made them remember. It made them live it again, and in turn learn to appreciate each other again. Whether these characters will try to stay close friends we aren't really shown, but that's not what's important. What's important, is for a very particular period of time, they were, again.

And now, the actual review.

Story: 9
As far as the most original plot, is it? No, but it's a slice-of-life story, and I think it succeeds very well in this genre. A lot of times, I thought back to my group of high school friends and wondered, what if something like this happened to tear us apart? How would we react? It was very relatable in that way. At times, it wasn't exactly focused, and some elements seemed somewhat silly (such as the whole crossdressing plot...I never felt why that was necessary for the character it centered around). Although curious as to how Menma died, it didn't detract from the plot not to know; in fact, it emphasized that Menma's death shouldn't be the focus of the story: the story was on the friendship itself. Throughout it, I felt the essence of growing up, of losing yourself and not being happy with where you're going, but going anyway, and I think that's an important topic to address in shows about teenagers, or about anyone. I felt that a lot of the emotion just came from this situation, and its juxtaposition to the past. Remember being a kid and thinking how your hangout spot was the coolest thing ever? And now you're stuck at WcDonalds, clueless as to where your life is going, if you like the direction, if you even care sometimes.

Art: 9
The soft palette added to that summery/beachy feel. I think it fit into the mood of the story too, which, although it had serious issues to address, still maintained a level of childish beauty to it. The characters were designed softly too, and they blended in nicely to the backgrounds. The art could capture shifting mood well though; a particular favorite scene of mine showed a moth out in the streets; it later cuts back to it and we see the moth dead: clearly symbolic of the suddenness with which life, and childhood, passes.

Sound: 8
Closer to a 7.5. I really enjoyed the opening of the anime, but overall I can't remember the music too well, so I can't rate this too high. The voices fit the characters, I think, and everything seemed to tie into the tone.

Character: 8
I thought the cast had a good range, and that they each had a fair amount of character development. We get to see some present issues with each of them, and so we get to know why they think as they do. For a short anime, it paced their development, but I still feel like we could have cracked down further past the surface. Quite a few of the characters seemed sad or otherwise unhappy with themselves and, like I said, we see why this may be, but I don't think enough to really understand why it permeates them so much and how that's different from character to character. For instance, Poppo provides a nice uplift to the melancholy experienced by the majority of the cast, and is instrumental in reuniting them, but his personality more so struck me as that happy-go-lucky character a lot of anime have. I mean, a lot of times people are happy and don't need a reason, and I'm not particularly looking for one, but he doesn't seem quite fulfilled in terms of character sketch. Maybe he's happy from the simple joys of traveling and that's enough, but I don't know if that means he's really okay. He still carries guilt over Menma's death, and we see that, but I still feel like some aspect of the spectrum between that and his happiness goes uncharted. The conflicts of Yukiatsu and Tsuruko were also somewhat blended together because of their similar 'antisocial' personalities.

Enjoyment: 9
Although I didn't really meet with any plot twists or anything shocking or super compelling to make me want to continuously watch, I very much enjoyed this simple story. It was told rather well, and established its own identity while being natural and easy to identify with. If you really demand to see things that haven't been done before, or have to have high levels of drama or action, this probably isn't what you're looking for, but give it a chance. I can't say I've seen too many slice of life anime yet, but in general I enjoy the genre, and I think you'll find, at the least, some elements to enjoy as well.

Overall: 9

Also, I love the name...it's very much like something you'd attribute to childhood--something forgotten, something that can't be reclaimed. How often did you see something, like a flower or an animal or some random object, as a kid and wanted to tell someone on it, but can't because you don't know the name?