Why don't you like this anime or why do you? and why did you give it the rating you did?

TripleSRank said:
My main problem with Shigatsu is the framing and premise for the in-story events. Kousei was given a good backstory to give depth to his character; namely his psychologically and physically abusive mother. This made his introverted tendencies and dramatizations of events believable and even relatable. It also gave him an interesting/unique relationship with the piano, a sort of love/hate relationship thanks to the trauma associated with it. He tried so hard to please his mother, to "earn" her love, but he failed and it crushed him. Now, despite the piano being something so connected to him, he can't bring himself to play it because it reawakens said trauma: The inability to hear the notes isn't literal, but mental- a coping mechanism. Kousei is a dramatic and depressive sort of person, after all.

None of that is bad. In fact, by itself it is a superb premise. The problem arose with Kaori and Tsubaki started pushing him. The pushing itself wasn't bad; Kousei viewed his life as empty and meaningless. He needed a push. However, the way they pushed was all wrong. They were giving him "hell on earth" over playing the piano. They put music sheets everywhere; they kept bugged him about it incessantly; Kaori even guilt-tripped him. It was bullying, plain and simple, and while I can't fault Kaori for that, Tsubaki knew Kousei's background and should have been more sensitive.

Still, depicting bullying in itself isn't a bad thing. You could even justify it in that these are middle school students who probably though they were actually doing something helpful (though I don't feel realism is always desirable in fiction, but I digress). However, what makes it a problem is how the anime framed it. Kousei was depicted as having psychological trauma and the anime frames the bullying as the solution to his problem. It is flippantly unbelievable and even offensive. Rather than suffering a breakdown (a realistic reaction), he sees it as a wonderful experience! Reliving the trauma of his past is so amazing now that he has this pretty girl in front of him.

The story is completely belittling and outright ignoring the realities of those who have suffered abuse. It might not be a problem in a series that doesn't take itself seriously, but Shigatsu definitely does, and it treats the issue with total disrespect. "Man up Kousei! You should be totally okay since this pretty girl likes you!" (The "man up" part is actually stated by a character in a later episode.)

Not only are these problems ignored, but it even turns into full-on emotional abuse after the violin performance via victim blaming. “I collapsed because of the stress someone gave me because they refused to play” (paraphrased). It's totally unfair and wrong: they essentially forced him to relive a trauma then berate him when he does poorly. Then, to add more insult to injury, it's used later as leverage to guilt trip Kousei into reliving his trauma yet again via a piano competition.

The entire method in which Kousei recovers from his trauma is suspension-breaking and offensive.

It gets even worse, though; the latter problems are even more offensive than the former ones. Leading up to the climax of Kousei's inner struggle with his abuse, the writer/director (I don't know which) decided it would be a good idea to portray Saki in a "positive" light. They started showing scenes of her making justifications for herself. In the scene following her hitting of Kousei and drawing blood (which DOES juxtapose horribly, even offensively, with the bloody comedy), she starts talking about how she loves him so much and worries about his future. Bullcrap. Later, she talks about how she won't be able to protect him; how she just wants him to have a future in music; etc. More bullcrap. In essence, it tries to make the abuse look like it stems from love, when it does not. She was taking out her frustration with the world on him; she was overstepping her role as a parent and forcing her desires on Kousei- who, being a child, wanted to please his mommy. Immediately after these scenes, it shows a scene of Saki and Kousei together before she became abusive, embracing.

After all of these scenes of false justification on Saki's part, and the sudden happy scene, we get a thought from Kousei seemingly out of nowhere: "I knew all along. The ghost of my mother was a shadow of my own creation. An excuse for me to run away. My own weakness."

Those lines take a dump on anyone who's suffered abuse and its aftereffects, and it continues to be suspension-breaking with the following lines: "My mom isn't there anymore. Mom... is inside me." Scenes are then shown of them embracing- happy memories. Kousei is (wrongfully) leaving the blame on himself and pretending the happy memories are all that existed. Without addressing the abusive actions themselves, this cannot be construed as forgiveness or "moving on". Rather, this is showcasing denial as the solution while simultaneously portraying Saki as "loving".

I find that extremely offensive and suspension-breaking.

There are other parts as well (such as the bridge-shoving scenes, which Tsubaki's friend even called her out on, and the fireworks scene recreating the sensation of drowning that Kousei felt whenever he played the piano), but the above parts were the main ones. Higashi's claim that anyone who is familiar with real life abuse first-hand or second-hand also finds the show offensive holds true for me as well (save mayu, to an extent). In fact, I know of people who had panic attacks watching the early portions of this show- to the point that they had to drop it.

Now Kousei is parading around without a care for his past nor a lick of depression. He's just having love problems now. We get to see Tsubaki continue to act like she owns Kousei, and see Kaori (almost certainly) die and cause so many "feels" despite acting so selfishly around Kousei. How utterly disappointing for a show that had so much potential.

Nidhoeggr said:
This anime is full of horrible women and the writer is an idiot.
Why is the concept of fucking psychotherapy foreign to anyone in Japan The dude has serious mental problems, yet the authors thinks that a cute companion can somehow cure these severe issues through sheer "love and attention"? This is not how it works...

ESPECIALLY WHEN BOTH YOUR CHILDHOOD FRIENDS AND YOUR SUPPOSED LOVE INTEREST ARE ABUSIVE AS FUCK AND DO EVERYTHING TO FORTIFY SAID TRAUMA

Seriously:
- Violent behaviour towards a mentally damaged person.
- Stalking and bullying him into joining activities he doesn't want to do.
- Making him relive the most traumatic experiences in his life.

Are we supposed to feel sympathy for the female main characters here? Because all I see are some people who use a fake altruism to foster highly egocentrical goals while putting their supposed friend through suffering. And even worse is the fact that the anime's messages seem to support these girls. Even his friend joins in on the "disbelief at his lack of accompanying ability" train despite better knowledge. Why!?
It's baffling how the author thinks we can be supportive of such a rotten personality just because she is good at playing music and looks cute? Oh, because she has a disease! Give me a break: Another way to add cheap drama and make her sympathetic despite our better knowledge.

Everything Kaori did was egocentric so far (She only wants a good support for her violin and even gets mad when he actually gets better at the end of the performance because he "might steal her thunder"!) and it is baffling to see so many people both in-universe and here being supportive of her. And Kousei's sickness gets downplayed simply because
a) the author is too incompetent to write it more realistically or
b) the author is a giant asshole who thinks psychological trauma is not serious and is fun to mock.

I think it is a mixture of both.

Ironicallly enough though, the anime mirrors Kaori: Nice looks and presentation, but rotten content. But since apparently appearances matter more than content, this criticism will not garner much attention.

I said:
The disgusting thing about Shigatsu is that it pretends to seriously tackle the issue of abuse while ending up being extremely hypocritical about it since it still can't let go of the 'female abuse for comedy' trope. Usually that trope is just mildly annoying but ignorable, but in the context of that show where abuse, pressure and emotional distress coming from his mother = bad and traumatic, but when Kaori is doing it = good and helpful and funneh because she's a cute girl.

Everything the show does in regard to trauma, psychological issues and abuse is just WRONG and harmful but it is portrayed as the best thing that could have happened to him, which actively disgusts me and makes me cringe more than any other anime before it. Pressuring someone and telling him to 'man up and not be a pussy' (which is what she basically did) instead of taking his obviously psychosomatic trauma seriously and having it treated by a professional is just terrible and there's no excuse for it.

You simply can't expect to have even on ounce of credibility left regarding the topic of trauma and abuse AND still portray it in the usual, comedic anime matter, but Shitgatsu does exactly that. It even regularly triggers flashbacks of his childhood trauma when Kaori/the girls are doing their thing with the MC, it can't really get more obviously hypocritical.

I don't even need to talk about the shitty dialogue a la 'The winter rain tastes like lemonade.' to justify why I hate this show so much.