Review of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
I'm deciding to write a review for every anime I watch here-on since I'm starting to watch too many in a short span of time and feel like a loser. So first off with that is Anohana, which was... a tad sucky I have never had such mixed feelings on a show before, by the way, in this review I'm giving it a 6/10 but I have it as a 7 ftr because despite everything wrong with it it was still excellently executed and touched me emotionally Also I think this review will have SPOILERS so be warned Anohana is about a girl, Menma/Meiko, comin' back tohaunt her childhood friend,Jintan, in order to have him grant her final wish(which- she doesn't know what that wish is btw) nobody can see her but him but she can still interact with things. Which is probably the most annoying thing about the anime, half of the damn show is spent with characters fighting Jintan over whether she is actually here or not and him barely even trying to prove it, just accepting that he looks like an insane person arguing with the air and blushing at ghost A-cups over here until WAY too late in the show
Moreover I don't feel like the wish business goes much of anywhere, I kinda finished off the anime wondering wtf that vague-ass wish was and just crying along with everyone
Generally speaking though, although almost all the characters can be grating and the story has quite a few holes I think they're both actually pretty well done. Particularly Naruko, I almost put her in my favorite characters. I related quite a lot to her and she was understandable to an extent. But the thing for all of them... minus Poppo... is that it's all to an extent. There is hardly any reason for these characters acting as melodramatic as they are.
Naruko is jealous of this girl for stealing her crush, Jintan and Tsuyuki are going ballistic with serious romantic type love for this literal 5 year old who has been dead for like, 10 years. Tsuyuki, who I want to talk about SO bad, is both the best and worst part of this show because this man is so crazy, he's actually insane. He crossdresses as Menma and runs around the woods at night and he sniffs a dress of Menma's that he keeps in his closet- along with his wig, naturally- every night. It is so fucking stupid I love it so much.
The love triangle, er square is just ridiculous, I love romance so I didn't mind and like I said I relate to Naruko so I get the feelings but I think it is just too much. None of it is settled by the end and the idea of these two men and subsequent two girls fighting over their attention and how much they love a dead elementary schooler is just nonsensical.
Poppo btw, the big guy, I just want to talk about him because I love him. He has probably the most logical reason and yet Jintan to feel very upset by her death and feel guilt. He saw her body floating by in the water after her accident and was too scared by the image and feelings to do anything. He is the best part of the anime, he brings so much more life to everything. It feels like the other characters have not had a happy moment in their lives since Menma died, and I think that is really annoying.
I still liked the anime, I still cried with it and I enjoyed the ending balling my eyes out just like everyone else but I just think overall it wasn't a great show. A beautiful show definitely but not a great written one.