Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

I begin this review with informing you. If you want the full effect of this show then don't read anything about it. I just recommend to watch it as blind as you can, as long as you aware of its genres. It's not just because every review contains somewhat spoilers but I speak out of experience. I wish I wouldn't have known anything about this before I watched it, then it would have been even better. So this is my final warning, just go ahead and watch it, ignore all other information. Now that that is out of the way, I will start by making a bold claim. Thereare only 2 kind of anime.

Type 1 - This type is about telling you a compelling story, with cliffhangers, plot twists and and interesting setting or theme.
This is all about to make you think.

Type 2 - This type on the other hand is all about making you feel a certain way. It's not that Type1 cannot make you feel, it's just that Type 2 disregards the plot more than type1 and focuses more on manipulating your emotions.
This is all about to make you feel.

Of course you could argue there are Type 3s that are a mixture of both, or then there are weird ones that are all about art. But those could usually be categorized in one of the 2 more than the other.

So what is AnoHana?
Type2 it's that simple.

AnoHana isn't about telling you this interesting story that keeps you hooked and craving for more. It's about making you feel. It is entertainment for the heart not for the brain.

So the right mindset to watch it would be: Turn off your brain as much as you can, and embrace the feelings that will overcome you. If you focus to much on details you will find yourself in a spot where you cannot appreciate what this show is about.

!!! Warning - Some Spoilers contained !!!

AnoHana was directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai, who is also responsible for Toradora! and Railgun. But also directed Ano Natsu de Matteru and Honey and Clover 2.

You can see a pattern here. He likes SoL. And drama.
And he is really good in this.

Besides Nagai, Mari Okada was responsible for the Script of AnoHana.
She also worked on Toradora!, and wrote the script on Black Rock Shooter, Gosick, Sakurasou and True Tears. (as well as many more).

You can see a pattern here as well, she loves drama and romance.

With this background information we can take a look at the

Story:

AnoHana takes place at the end of Summer in an idyllic small town in midst of Mountains and surrounds a group of Teenagers who used to be best friends in their childhood. Though a tragic event happened, in which one of their friends died, which led to the disband of the group.

The Story revolves around how Meiko Honma returns as a ghost to bring these friends together and get her wish granted.

The premise sounds already heartwarming and is maybe not something you never have seen before in some way or the other but still gripping enough to make you interested.

Through out the course of only 11 episodes we see the maincharacter Jinta Yadomi, who is the only one who can see "Menma" ghost try to come in contact with his old childhood friend again and get back on track with his life, as well as seek redemption for the burden he imposed on himself regarding Menmas death.

11 Episodes though is far enough, and 10 would have been enough as well.
The story does not drag on and is fast enough/things happen on a steady pace, that you never get bored.

The story is not particularly complex, which is good, since it can focus completely on the plot and the characters. The viewer doesn't need to know much in advance, nor is it 100% necessary to pay attention at all times.

Though AnoHana is farm from being plausible. There are so many things that are never answered or looked into with great detail it fills the plot with so many holes, if it was a ship it would sink the moment it enters the water.
But as I said, this show is not about a great, well thought out plot. But about emotions.

If you disregard all the supernatural things that never get any explanation then you will have much more fun watching it than nagging on every occasion something doesn't make sense.

At least the ending is solid and we get a satisfying, sad but yet still happy ending.

Overall the Story is just cute, nothing too heavy. It's about themes like, friendship, love, redemption and dealing with the death of a loved one.

Characters:

It boils down to 6 characters that matter in the show, and a handful of sidecharacters that are at least mentionable.

Yadomi, Jinta (Jin-tan), is the male maincharacter, he skips school for quite some time and lives alone with his father. He is the only one who can see Menma and first thinks of her as a mere hallucination. He is stressed, not only did he lose his childhood friend he could never tell his true feelings, but also his mother due to an illness.
Since he is the maincharacter, we'll find out the most about him compared to other characters in the show. Not only do we have the biggest insight on his past and the way he lives, but also on his thoughts and emotions. Obviously he grows the most as a character comes from accepting Menma as real, to confessing to her and finally in a struggle to let her go, lets her go.

He is by far one of the most likable characters in the show, though not the most likable character I've ever seen in such a show. At least he feels somewhat new and original and I have trouble fitting him into a stereotypical archtype without thinking about it too much. If I had to, he would be the antisocial "emo" teenager.

Honma, Meiko (Menma), is the second most important character. Even though the story revolved around her, Jin is still the protagonist and we get the most insight on him.
Menma is still like a child even though she (supposedly) has grown (but still looks like a loli). Her attitude is that of a curious happy go lucky girl with very playful character traits. She is pushy and somewhat clumsy. Compared to Jin she is much easier to identify as stereotypical character as him, but that's mostly because you are supposed to feel sorry for her.
I personally enjoy characters like her, and wish I'd have a ghost like her being around me, she is just too cute, both in her appearance and in her attitude.

It's hard to tell if she grows as a character since her mindset is so simple at times. Unlike Jin who turns from an antisocial emo to a strong, independent male.
Her change comes more from what happens to her, rather what she becomes.

Anjou, Naruko (Anaru), is almost as important in the show as Menma, though the story doesn't revolve around her. Besides Jin she gets the most attention and undergoes the most changes. She starts of as being your typical tsundere, but is a bit more than that. She is in love with Jin and always thought as Menma, not only has her friend, but also as a rival.
She grows in terms of confessing to Jin, forgiving herself and accepting Menma as the "winner". She learns to stay true to herself and becomes less easily influenced by those around her. Similar to Jin she learns to become less dependent.
She was more likable than I first thought she'd be and I found it kinda tragic that she didn't "win". But it wasn't so much a romance as it was a drama.

Tetsudo Hisakawa (Poppo), is the comic relief of the show show, but turns later to become a bit more than that, though I kinda found his motives too attached and not well fleshed out. They were tagged on way to late in the series and thus never truly making him a really serious character like the others were.
But that said he was good comic relief and a very likable character. You kinda feel sorry for him being the "forever alone" guy of the group, but they handled it well and so did he.
He doesn't go through a lot of transformation but was a very important character in bringing everyone together again, also he was a true friend to Jin.

Atsumu Matsuyuki (Yukiatsu), I personally couldn't stand him. Right from the start he is introduced as Jins childhood rival/friend who has turned to a real dick. It is revealed later on, that he didn't really overcome Menmas death either and also was jealous of the bond between Jin and Menma. Though not the most likable character, he is important and is the direct counterweight to Jin, which was very important for the story.
Unlike Poppos resolution, his wasn't as cheap but also not really founded in the end. They gave him enough screentime though, yet I had the feeling they didn't really know what to do with him in the end. I found it hard to see him as anything but a counterweight.

Chiriko Tsurumi (Tsuruko), the forgotten character. No really she has not only the least amount of screentime, also her backstory is explained the least. I can't really say if I liked her or not, but I feel sorry for her being so underrepresented in the show.

Mentionable sidecharacters:

Irene Honma, the crazy mother of Menma, who also got her salvation in the end. Not much to say here.
Atsushi Yadomi, Jins father who is like the coolest dude ever. He is calm and lets his son work out his own way without leaving him behind. He wins the award for best dad 2011.

Everyone else isn't really that mentionable.

Overall AnoHana has a good, l likable cast with fleshed out characters and interesting interactions.
The entire cross romance thing felt like attached drama though. Especially since some of it wasn't really mentioned before ep10.

Animation:

AnoHana uses a mixture of warm but soft colors, emphasis realism over stylizing things and is in tradition with similar shows like ToraDora or Sakuraso no Pet na Kanojou. It didn't use any crazy techniques or ugly 3DCG that was out of place. It was overall very clean looking and had simple but somewhat realist animation.

Despite being "just" a Slice of Life, Drama, AnoHana actually had some really well animated scenes. But sometimes you also got some "quality". I can only remember one occasion where it actually was unintentionally funny, when Poppos eyes looked cross-eyed and everything around him was super serious. Despite that, it is neither amazingly animated nor bad. Above average.

Backgrounds were good looking but not stunning. I cannot remember any amazingly beautiful drawn backgrounds but it was always fitting and looked well made.
I mean, it's "just" a SoL, don't expect some crazy action scenes with stunning backgrounds and beautiful light effects. Well done is all you'll get here.

Talking about character designs is more interesting, because those were done by Masayoshi Tanaka, who also did the character designs for Ano Natsu de Matteru, Highschool of the Dead, Toradora! and others.
I personally don't really like his style. His characters Hair always looks like one piece of cotton, rather than hair. It's way more puffy that it could be, and also he likes to use all sorts of colors for his hair, instead of sticking to more realistic ones.
That aside his style is at least rememberable and you'll see the similarities in his other works (especially Ano Natsu).
I do give credit for Menma though. She was darn cute.

Again. AnoHana is not about winning awards for amazing animation, it's a cute story with cute visuals which are somewhat realistic. So don't go in and expect to be blow away.

Sound:

When it comes to voiceactors AnoHana had some famous names like Haruka Tomatsu (Asuna/SAO, Shizuku/Tonari), Ai Kayano (Inori/GuiltyCrown, Shiina/Sakurasou), Takahiro Sakurai (Suzaku/Code Geass, Makishima/PsychoPass), Miyu Irino(Makoto/DenpaOnna, Kiritsugu/FateZero).
So needless to say the voice acting is great as for most modern shows done but big studios such as A1 pictures.

The opening was pretty cute, but I personally skipped it (mostly out of time issues) since I wanted to see the show. I watched it 3/11 times and maybe a 4th time considering the song was in the last ep at the end.
The ending was also good but inferior to the opening in my opinion. Both were fitting to the show though. Not the best but good ones at least.

The ost is a mixture of Piano pieces, acoustic songs, sometimes mixed with hip-hop beats (don't misunderstand that, with hip hop beats I mean 4/4 with the snare on the 3).
It wasn't special or anything but fitting for a SoL and was well used in dramatic scenes. Overall it was calm and melancholic, like the show itself. I think it's hard to fuck up soundtracks in well made anime nowadays.

Value/Enjoyment:

On MAL AnoHana is one of the top anime, and also THE top anime under A1 pictures.
Not my personal favorite of A1 pictures (that would be Shinsekai Yori) but I can understand why.

The show itself wasn't anything new or special. But it was really well executed and deserves to be one of the best anime of A1 pictures. Yet I think it is overrated.
It gets compared to Angel Beats a lot, and I know Angel Beats has a lot of Problems as well and they are both tearjerkers. But if I had to pick one, I'd go with Angel Beats offering more than AnoHana.
So AnoHana stands among all the sad, romance/drama/SoL of the history of anime, but where?
It is one of the best, yes. Tatsuyuki knows how to make a good SoL, and so AnoHana was one of his successions. It will be remembered and watched by many to come and will make many people cry, it's just that good. But not the best...

I enjoyed it greatly and will treasure it, but it is not as good as people say it is, at least for me. I know the problems and I am not afraid of pointing them out if I need. I just ignored them because I can enjoy both, a great story and a great emotions.

Now to the Scores:

Story7/10 (good)

Premise2 (intriguing)
Pacing2 (through out interesting)
Complexity1 (Simple but sufficient)
Plausibility0 (none)
Conclusion2 (manly tears)

Characters7/10 (good)

Personality2 (multidimensional)
Behavior1 (sometimes illogical)
Development1 (mostly good)
Motivation1 (at placed tagged on)
Likability2 (great cast)

Animation 6/10 (fair)

Artstyle2 (Fitting)
Quality 1 (mostly good)
Background1 (well done)
Character D.2 (good but nothing great)

Sound7/10 (good)

Voiceacting3 (top notch)
OP/ED2 (good op, fitting)
OST2 (nothing outstanding but fitting)

Value/Enjoy14/20 (7/10) (good)

Value6

Rewatch/2.S1 (maybe some day)
Sentimental3 (very attaching)
Historical2 (A1 pictures "best" work)

Enjoyment8

Art and Animation1
Music & Sound1
Story & World2
Characters2
Value & Attachment2