Ranked #1446

Konnichiwa Anne

For many of us, happiness is an emotion we feel very often in our lives. It's undeniably a very important emotion in our lives. It's so important that you could say this is the emotion that keeps us alive. How does one define happiness though? Konnichiwa Anne is the first anime I've seen to attempt at answering this question.

Konnichiwa Anne is about a young girl called Anne Shirley who is trying to find happiness in life. Anne Shirley is an orphan who's been adopted by a family where no one really gets along. She doesn't let either of these two things her down though. A lot of characters try to come out as good, but very few characters show the level of goodness Anne displays.

Anne is someone who's kind towards everyone, no matter how cruel they may've been towards her. Not only that, but she actually cares about the welfare of those around her. She's someone who gives up her own needs to meet the needs of those around her. The amount of goodness in her is amazing, especially when you consider how her life is far from perfect.

Much of the emotion this anime tries to convey comes through Anne's actions. What she does and what she says make her such an innocent and likable character. She rarely ever gets mad at anyone, does her best to get along with everyone, and tries to find the good in totally dreary situations. She's such an innocent character that it's nearly impossible not to like her.

What separates this anime from other slice of life anime is the level of emotion it conveys. It's nice to see an anime that puts a smile on your face out of sheer happiness, but seeing an anime that makes you cry out of sheer happiness is something else. This is the second anime I've seen to make me cry out of sheer happiness, with the first being Monster.

Konnichiwa Anne has three things in common with Monster. The first being they both conveyed similar feelings. The second is they both feature unbelievably kindhearted protagonists. The third is they both acknowledge the fact the world's not perfect. It's a sad truth, but we live in a world where bad things do happen to good people.

Anne, despite being the good person that she is, lives a very difficult life. What makes her life so difficult is the amount of conflict within her family. At times her family's situation becomes so bad that you may actually cry out of genuine sadness. During these situations, Anne isn't moping around. She does the opposite, she tries her best to keep her family from falling apart. It's during these situations that this show is no longer heartwarming, it becomes something that is very heartbreaking instead.

Konnichiwa Anne doesn't just show Anne's life at home, it also shows her life at school. When she first began going to school, everyone seemed to dislike her. This didn't last very long though, Anne's classmates eventually grew to like her because she helped change their lives for the better. Even though this show is about Anne finding her own happiness, she spends most of her time helping those around her find happiness.

If in the unlikely case you don't feel anything towards Anne, there's very little chance you won't feel anything for her adoptive father, Bert. Out of all the characters in this show, Bert is the one that truly deserves your sympathy. From the start of the show, Bert has one major problem: His heavy consumption of alcohol. It's because he's an alcoholic that he ends up doing a lot of bad things, and sometimes it's against those in his own family. In spite of the bad things he's done, you never feel any anger towards him. Instead of evoking anger, Bert's character evokes sympathy. For some reason, the viewer can't help but feel sorry for Bert.

Although the animation is nothing special, the soundtrack more than makes up for it. Konnichiwa Anne's soundtrack plays a prominent role in conveying the emotions the show aims to convey. Take the opening for example. It always put a smile on my face. Usually when I smile during an anime's opening, it's out of the anime's sheer stupidity. Konnichiwa Anne is different though. It has an opening that put a smile on my face out of happiness.

As for the ending theme, it's just as lighthearted as the opening. There's one issue with it though. Several times in the series something serious occurs towards the end of an episode, and a lighthearted song essentially ruins the mood. After episode 26, the transition between the first and second half of the episode changed. It's a shame the ending theme didn't change as well, especially when you consider how different the last 13 episodes are from the first 26.

The rest of the soundtrack consists mainly of melodies. As you hear these melodies, you'll feel all kinds of different emotions. Some will make you feel relaxed, some will put a smile on your face, and some may make your eyes water out of happiness. During the show's tragic moments, the sound drastically changes though. It somehow manages to fit those tragic moments perfectly. I wouldn't have smiled (or cried) nearly as much if it wasn't for this show's soundtrack.

Like every other anime, Konnichiwa Anne is not a show without flaws. This show has only one flaw though. That one flaw is the final thirteen episodes. The final thirteen episodes are so different from the first twenty-six that it would've made much more sense to end the show at twenty-six episodes and make the final thirteen into the second season.

In these thirteen episodes, the show's focus shifts from happiness to tragedy. It's no longer all about putting a smile on the viewer's face, it's now about making the viewer shed tears. After each episode, Anne's situation seemed to get worse and worse. It's literally one bad thing after another.

These thirteen episodes didn't evoke many tears from me. The reason for this is because this show isn't moving because of the tragedies alone. It's moving because of the perfect blend between moments of happiness and moments of tragedy. This is what made the first twenty-six episodes so great.

I did realize one thing about Anne because of these thirteen episodes though. No matter how bad things got, she never became disconsolate. She somehow gathered the will to keep living her unimaginably hard life. Anne is just a child. For someone to be able to deal with such dreary situations at a young age isn't easy. I still prefer the first twenty-six episodes though. Those were the episodes where the emphasis was on happiness, not tragedy.

By the end of the series, Konnichiwa Anne has two things to say about the human condition. The obvious one is finding happiness isn't always easy. For some, the search for happiness may be a long and arduous one. More importantly though, Konnichiwa Anne does answer the question of what happiness is.

Konnichiwa Anne suggests that there is no definition for happiness, no universal definition anyway. Happiness is different for everyone. No single person can come up with a definition and force that definition upon you. Happiness is whatever you want it to be. For Anne, happiness is knowing that others care about her and being able to care for others. For Anne, happiness is essentially love. Maybe this is all any human being needs to obtain happiness...

It's hard to sum up Konnichiwa Anne with one word. Many would call it relaxing because it's comparable to the Aria series. Konnichiwa Anne is relaxing but at the same time it's much more. Unlike Aria, Konnichiwa Anne isn't afraid to show life at its worst.

This is an anime that shows life for what it really is: At times it can be something that is truly wonderful, but at others it can be something that is unbelievably painful. This is an anime that reminds us of the reason we watch the slice of life genre in the first place: To feel those same emotions we feel during everyday life.

This is the slice of life genre at its finest. read more