Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

This is an anime series that I considered dropping after two or three episodes. I'm glad I didn't. Story: Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day starts out with introducing us to Jinta, a high schooler who spends all his time at home, playing video games and skipping school. He lives with his dad, whose probably the most carefree father I've ever seen. However, one day, his friend, Meiko, starts appearing around his house. The problem? She had already passed away and only Jinta can see or hear her. He then spends the entirety of this series finding out whyshe hadn't passed on yet.

This anime honestly starts out really slow for me. I couldn't get into it in the first few episodes and was advised to keep at it. I did, and here we are!

Much of the story is based around Jinta's childhood friends - which we see were known as the Peace Busters, back in the day. This consisted of Jinta, Meiko, and four other friends, who used an abandoned shack as their secret base. As the story carries on, we learn more and more about their past and how their group was affected after they drifted apart. What did they decide to do with their lives and how did their old friend's death affect them? This gets really deep too. I highly encourage you get through at least five episodes before deciding whether or not to drop this because, for the sluggish start, you get an equally exciting ending. I wasn't the biggest fan a plot device that involved Meiko, and this might bug you too, because it's something that felt inconsistent without an explanation really being given.

At the end of the anime, there was a ton of emotion and, pretty much every question mark had been answered. Solid ending in my books. (8/10)

Characters: Anohana sports some of the best character writing I've seen in quite some time. Without spoiling too much, every character has a secret or two that keep from each other, and the way we go about discovering it all is beautifully laid out to us. All the Peace Busters have great character motivations and reasoning and, while they aren't perfect, they did do them justice in a short 11 episode series. I didn't love Yukiatsu's character because there was an "oh, why are we seeing / hearing this again" moment for me, but this likely stresses why he does what he does a lot more than we originally thought.

As for side characters, I liked Jinta's father, as well as Meiko's family. Jinta and Meiko clearly have very different families and the way they going about grief is completely different. This gave Anohana more depth than we might've got without them. (9/10)

Art: I'll be honest: I feel like the art style faltered at times. The colours and the style hold up, but anything that included shots that were even a little further away really struggled. This isn't to say the art generally isn't good. Because it is. But it falters a little more often than I might've liked. (6/10)

Sound: I honestly didn't notice the OST too much, but it never got in the way of anything. Griffin Burns (Jinta) and Erica Lindbeck (Anaru) were really good here. Both of their characters shows a fair bit of emotion and they nail their roles. However, Xanthe Huynh (Meiko) was the best here. She kills it. I've mentioned this in a few other reviews, but voicing young kids isn't easy, but Huynh manages to pull it off quite well. The rest of the VO cast were really solid. (9/10)

Overall Enjoyment: Anohana is definitely worth picking up if you want a Slice of Life / Semi-Romance anime. It has a Supernatural aspect to it, but it's there to help push the enjoyment of the series and obviously, the story around Meiko. I didn't love the beginning or Art style, but I could easily look past those, because the series itself brings about a fantastic journey. (8/10)