Reviews

Jun 24, 2011
Anohana, as an anime original coming-of-age story, could have turned out to be a disaster. Especially with a short, 11 episode length, I was initially worried that there wouldn’t be enough time for to flesh out the characters too well. Instead, the characters ended up turning out to be absolutely captivating, and very well written right up until the end. This series wastes no moment in fleshing out all of the characters and pushing the plot, always moving forward and using the most of the limited time available for this series. And the resulting series turned out to be one of the most memorable series I’ve seen in recent times.

From start to finish, this show has always been fully focused on building the characters, resulting in a realistic and well thought out main cast. It’s truly the characters that shine here, always building upon the complex character dynamics between everybody, and exploiting the character relationships for an emotional, powerful story. Certain characters did need more screentime and development (Poppo and Tsurumi), but even then this series gave us a decent feel for their emotional scars and issues. They were acting a bit out of character towards the end though, which could have been fixed if the duo had gotten more in depth development.

What this series really emphasizes well is just how powerful of an impact Menma has had on all of members of the main cast, and their unresolved issues and problems associated with her. It leaves no stone unturned, fully exploring the depth and complexity to a lot of the characters and their relationship with Menma, and not to mention does a good job with developing Menma herself.

Now the only real issue I had with this series is how at times the series was just way too overdramatic. The characters may have been excellently built up, but some of their interactions were a bit too unnatural. Especially during certain key episodes, the drama was almost nauseating at times. Even so, the story for the most part was excellent at setting up the situation, as well as delicately pushing forward everybody’s eventual confrontation with their emotional scars.

As for animation, there are no reused frames, fluid animation, and consistently drawn scenery and characters. And not to mention, quite a bit of the animation was easy on the eyes and enjoyable to look at. Nothing fancy, but definitely above average. Music was solid throughout the series, especially the noteworthy ending theme, which was a perfect fit for a lot of the scenes in this series.

As a coming of age story, Anohana was great at forming an admirable story with a believable and compelling cast. All the characters really brought out the best (and worst) in each other, and everybody’s gradually progression in this series is done at a natural, yet well-executed, pace. This is especially notable considering how, with only 11 episodes, this series didn’t waste even a single precious moment of time, managing to show that a series doesn’t necessarily have to be long to be good. The series did kind of wind down a bit towards the end, with some plot holes and predictability (and some ridiculous drama), but for the most part it was a very enjoyable ride.

Animation/Art: 8.0/10

Music: 8.0/10

Setting: 7.5/10

Characters: 9.5/10

Story: 9.0/10

Overall Enjoyment: 8.4/10 (rounded down to a 8 on MAL)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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