Anime Review: Your Lie in April

Hello and welcome to an anime review by yours truly, Necro

As I am sure most of you do not know, I am actually in my school band playing Clarinet and not many people realize the struggles that come from all the practice whether for a minor crowd or large cast. So to my surprise I found out about a series called Your Lie in April, a series that delves into the minds of musicians and the stress it can bring and what points it may enter. So I waited a bit for all 22 episodes of it to be posted and marathoned them. Now I am here to give my thoughts on this brilliant series and talk about the animation, music, characters + Plus fav and most memorable moment of these characters, etc...

Now there are spoilers inbound for the ending, which if you wish to watch this series and not be spoiled, DO NOT READ THE SPOILER TABS.

With that Said, Let's Get Started!


Plot: The plot centers around a piano prodigy named Arima Kosei. Kosei dominated every piano competition he has entered with training by his sick mother, who would hit him with her cane if he got the music wrong. This, in term, made his the equivalent of a human metronome. Then before a performance that would let him travel overseas, he find out his mother passed away and has a mental breakdown on stage. This mental breakdown leaves with him a side effect. The side effect being when he plays the piano, he cannot hear the sound of what he plays, even though he has perfect hearing.

2 years pass by and Kosei still faces this trouble and even sees the world in a monotone and mute color. Then one day, Kosei meets this girl named Miyazono Kaori who teaches him to look for the color in playing music and help Kosei back into playing piano once again.

This Plot is amazing. The concept alone tells the struggle of a pianist or rather any musician in keeping to standard and how in one moment, it can all come crumbling down. The struggles Kosei faces are real and identifiable, especially later down the line when we see flashbacks to his childhood. A great plot indeed.

Characters: First, lets go over our main protagonist, Kosei. His turmoil is amazing and seeing the struggles he goes through are great as well. I just love his interactions within the cast of characters every step of the way. He just has so much going for him and yet fate tortures this poor kid. You just feel truly sorry for him in the beginning. Even when in one flashback he starts to defend himself and pretty much tell his mother to drop dead, something anyone would consider immoral and evil, we see the build up to that moment and understand why he snapped like that. The scenes involving him and Kaori are beautiful and I could not help but fall for the setting and colors used as well as their chemistry. My favorite scene with Kosei though is in the middle of the series, when Kaori is late to a Gala performance and Kosei must go out and perform a song that was really close to his mother, all while reminiscing the past and using this song and its beauty as a proper final send-off to his mother.

Speaking of Kaori, lets talk bout her. Kaori is amazing. Her scenes with her playing music are fantastic and her violin skills are amazing. Plus we get one of the biggest surprises in the show (read Spoiler if you wish)

Spoiler:

Kaori's inspiration to Kosei is amazing and very relative to real life and she became tied with Kosei as my favorite character of this show. One memorable moment I can think of off the top of my head is the moment when she first meets Kosei and like in a typical romance anime there is always that trollish gust of wind that blows the girl's skirt and he accidentally takes a pic of her underwear and she flips out and attacks Kosei

Next is Kosei's best friend and neighbor, Tsubaki. She is a very likable character. If any comparison could be made, I'd say she is a tamed version of Minori from Toradora. She is a very sporty girl and the best friend to Kosei. She also gets a particularly funny moment in episode 1 where she hits Kosei with a baseball after it shatters the glass window. We also see throughout this series she truly cares for him, even before the incident 2 years ago. Later on we she her slowly develop a crush on Kosei, but never seems able to tell him until very late in the series. Overall she is a great character and I'm pretty such you guys will like her too

The final character we will talk about here is Ryota Watari, Kosei's other best friend. He is the soccer captain and dating Kaori in the series. He is a very supportive friend, even near the end when Kosei straight up says he like Kaori. Most hotheads would just hit the character for thinking thoughts about their GF, but Ryota takes it with some amazing humor. Overall though he is the weakest of the main characters. but I still like him.

Music: With a series centered around music, you'd expect this series to deliver. And Boy howdy does it deliver. The music is simply amazing with so much of the amazing and classic music you'd expect of a musical anime. Plus not only is the concert music amazing, the music outside the concerts is also beautiful and I love it so much. Listening to so many different kinds of music is just AMAZING.

Animation: The animation of this series is some of the finest animation I have ever seen. One amazing animation moment that struck me the first time seeing it was when we see what happens to Kosei when he starts freaking out. The music fades from the pages and we see an underwater feel as it seems like he is trying to wade in think water. plus the use of lighting in certain scenes. Especially when the scenes of Kosei falling in water occur.


Well guys, this is all I got to say on this anime. I highly recommend it to everyone and I rank it a 9/10 (FRICKING AMAZING)

I will see you guys later!

im not sure if i wanna watch it.. first thing you said when you got in chat was is hit you in the feelers ;-;