Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda.

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Right now, there are 725 that have watched this movie. "Wow!", You say, "That's even less than Legend of The Galactic Heroes!" So here's THE deal I'm offering you. You get to be part of the exclusive 725 people (Now 726 if you watch it) who get to see something AMAZING. Care to hear my sales pitch?

Right now, 161 people, a good 21% percent of viewers, have rated this anime 10 OUT OF 10. Now that's not for no reason.

Lets kick this off with the story. Important background knowledge first: A young girl named Naruse stumbles upon a magnificent hilltop castle. Her ... curiosity makes her see something she should not have: Her father coming down from the castle with what seems to be a princess- but Naruse has never seen her father with this princess before. Excited, she goes tell her mother about the castle upon the hill and how her father was going down the hill with another princess. Having been told something Naruse shouldn't have said, her Father is kicked out and the family is torn apart. Then, a magical egg prince appears and seals her ability to speak because she wishes not to hurt people with her words anymore. [Words aren't very good to describe the aforementioned parts without spoiling it] HOWEVER this all changes when she is forced to sing in a musical, and much to her surprise, she finds herself able to express her feeling and thoughts through song.

The meat of the plot revolves around her, and a bunch of other individuals, having to organize and participate in a school musical after being unwillingly chosen to do it. Among them a baseball captain, Tasaki, and 2 other students, Sakagami and Nitou. They are all developed quite nicely in the time of 1 hour and 59 minutes. The dramatic conflict is quite well played out, tension rising between Sakagami and Tasaki at the start, Tasaki and his baseball team, along with romantic conflict forming between Naruse, Sakagami, and Nitou, this love triangle of uncertainty. Thus, I really enjoyed watching that. I could go into further detail about all of it but you'd rather save it for when you actually watch the movie. What I can say, is that there is a very strong sense of resolution to the story and the character development [How characters change] is absolutely spot on. Especially Naruse's, as she is the main focus, on how she transforms from a quiet, unnoticed, kind of girl to someone willing to stand up for others and express herself, ever so slowly, through sometimes moments where she forces herself to shout her feelings and moments where she just begins to sing at the most random of times. [This show is a little like a musical, or at least music and song focused at times]

The art was not bad even though art doesn't play much of a role in this sort of setting. But now we get to the music. The music shines when the characters are writing or singing songs. There is a rendition of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" in Japanese and the lyrics are altered to reflect what Naruse wishes to say, which is to express her thoughts and feelings [Even musical the characters organize is a retelling of Naruse's story made more child friendly]. This song isn't heard a lot throughout the movie, but I shed a tear when it was sung during the performance of their musical. Evoking emotions is what the creators intend to do, and they did it damn well.

Overall this movie intended to be dramatic yet heartwarming, provoking the viewer's emotions to what it called for, and this show is all that. A beautiful piece of entertainment that will live on in the heart of the 726th viewer. What else do you expect from the writer of AnoHana?

[VIEWER WARNING: The drama is, to be honest, quite important when deciding if you want to watch this or not. It's a great part of the show. If you can't stand high school type drama, or you can't just click with it [essentially all drama we can't relate to we call "Melodrama"], perhaps you shouldn't watch this despite it being well portrayed and executed in my opinion. It's like people who don't like burgers will never eat any, no matter how good they are.]

[EDIT: At the time of this review I did not know that this hasn't been released in English subs for streaming/download. For those wondering, I watched it on Singapore Airline's in flight entertainment system in English subs. Sorry for not knowing and I hope it is available soon!]

Oh goody, another Mari Okada teen drama. I’m not sure when my mind has started seeing these things as commonplace, but it was probably around the moment when people started saying to me with a straight face that “no really, Wixoss is totally a touching psychological character drama. Especially regarding that one girl whose main wish is to fuck her brother.” Nevertheless, I was kind of looking forward to seeing Anthem of the Heart. Anime dramas tend to be more tolerable when they’re only given a limited amount of time to tell their stories, plus if I’m not mistaken, this is the Anohana team’s first ... original film. So even if I didn’t like it, it’d at least be worth talking about. I’d say this review alone justifies the fifteen dollar price.

So the film starts with a little girl named Jun Naruse indulging in her Utena-like fantasies regarding a prince finding a princess when she sees her father leaving a castle-like love hotel with another woman. Not understanding what it means, she tells her mother about the incident and her father is soon given the boot, but not before reassuring her that his leaving was completely Jun’s fault. Fucking jackass. But since Jun is a kid, she sincerely believes it’s her fault to the point that she imagines a strange egg-shaped creature who tells her that her talkative personality needs to go if she wants to stop hurting people. Thus, Jun ends up getting the reputation of the girl who never talks by the time she enters high school and we get a promising setup about a girl having to face her inner demons in order to live a normal boring life.

After the timeskip, the film kickstarts by having the head teacher randomly choose four people to serve on the class council, and for good measure, he decides that they should be in charge of having the class put on a musical for the school festival because he’s just that much of a carefree jackass. Why? Because all good dramas have musical events in them and we needed a reason to get our outcast leads to participate in it no matter how contrived, let alone a reason to meet each other in the first place. So in addition to Jun and her personal problems, we get three other characters thrown in the equation, each with their own issues and romantic preferences between each other. I won’t spoil who’s hot for who, but the additional cast members are a nice boy who has no hobbies of his own, a gruff big dude who used to be the school’s top baseball player, and a cheerleader who puts on a confident facade to hide the fact that she had personal experiences with the nice boy in middle school. Think back to Anohana with these character types in mind, and you should be able to figure it out. Then become frustrated as the movie seems to change these preferences whenever the plot demands it.

Like most Mari Okada works, the film loses its way a short ways in in regards to discovering the best way to tell this story, because it keeps glancing at the “how to write drama” handbook whenever it’s confused on how to progress things and grabbing something from a really successful work without understanding why it worked when it did it. So what we end up with is a bloated mish-mash of underdeveloped tropes that tend to get in each other’s way rather than do any complementing. Most of the story is told in a rather dry manner where the characters just go through the motions and hang out with each other in order to establish that the little girl might like the shorter of the two males and that he might be the prince that will allow her to talk. But then she starts to speak up for herself because she wants to participate in the music club's activities because for some reason, she really wants to sing despite never showing any interest in it before. And then people are surprised she can talk. Then they aren't. I kept on feeling like I missed a post-it note explaining these transitions somewhere down the road.

And despite the story pushing Jun's problems, it never takes center-stage as much as it should, mostly due to the fact that it never feels like her inability to talk meshes well with any of the romantic entanglements or personal issues the other characters face. At times, it feels like Jun's inability to talk is just a vehicle to make her fall in love and deal with the consequences. I find that disappointing, because romance holds up about as well as action in standing on its own aka not well at all. It also doesn't help that good chunk of the subplots have that usual "came up with the set pieces first" problem you'd expect to see in a visual novel anime. The big gruff dude of the main cast is tangled in a conflict regarding his team and pushing them to the nationals that adds fuck all to the plot and only exists so that he'd have something to do, with said conflict getting swept under the rug after a few scenes and said guy losing any sense of importance throughout the story afterwards.

Also, as much as we see him, the main male lead never acts as anything more than an arbiter for events rather than a fleshed-out character with his own motivations. Any problem he experiences is always tied to one of the female characters, and it generally tends to circle back so that their problems are rooted in their relationship with him and nothing else besides vague motivations we never get to truly understand. I'll admit that where it finally ends up did stick in my mind, although it's a pity that the scenes preceding it were a real chore. I really wish Okada would stop it with conclusions where the characters cry and yell out all the frustrations that have been boiling up over time like it's some form of triumph. That's only true if the revelation lives up to the magnitude caused by the character's overacting, and Jun overcoming her ability to stop acting like a spoiled brat isn't exactly something worthy of a Lifetime achievement award. Especially since that problem was pretty much inserted in at the last minute due to that classic and incredibly tired "I heard something I shouldn't have" plot element that I thought we were over by now. There should be a rule in that drama handbook with the statement "don't do this crap!"

Buried somewhere underneath all the slipshodness, there's potential for an interesting story regarding personal problems and overcoming them, but in this team's hands, it's like trying to wring out noise from a giraffe. All the characters act dramatic whenever it's convenient for them after overly long periods of slow boils that can't stay focused long enough to develop into anything noteworthy, and the connection between their problems is thinner than a woman's spread legs when you start bringing up your opinion on right-wing policies. At its best Anthem of the Heart can most accurately be described as the quintessential example of a teenage anime drama, and I don't mean that in a good way. It has all the elements you'd expect of its genre, but the way they're executed is so wide-spread and bland that I grew bored and stopped caring about the characters thirty minutes in, then groaned when I realized that the movie was two hours long rather than the ninety minutes I initially thought. And it was really wearing on my patience during the ninety-minute mark, let me tell you that.

The film does sort of come into its own by the end, but it's not worth the long stretch of muddled subplots and dry buildup to get to that point. And all the ending really did at the end of the day was remind me of the vastly superior The Girl Who Leapt Through Time as well as the also superior Sound Euphonium. If you have the opportunity to go see Anthem of the Heart, I'd recommend watching those anime instead and simulating the experience by pretending the characters are all Final Fantasy archetypes by way of a Hot Topic filter. In other words, the emo whiners from Kingdom Hearts.

Kokoro ga Sakebittegaterunda reembraces the theme of “expressing yourself,” reminding people that it is okay to speak out their true feelings about anything. This anime film, from the creators of Anohana and Toradora, tells a coming of age story that many people can relate to. Because the film illustrates a very relatable everyday situation, Kokosake evokes enough nostalgia to the point where the film becomes tear-jerking. The film’s situation can be seen as a general self-reflection of anyone’s life, questioning the freedom of expression—whether one should talk her feelings out to the world freely, or keep any thoughts to herself. But, acknowledging that there are ... many more choices and themes than this, Kokosake's story, characters, and music shows that it is a beautiful anime film worth watching.

With regards to the film’s story, Kokosake’s slice of life storytelling successfully portrays a situation that many people can relate to. In general, this plot sets to resolve the protagonists’ internal conflicts through the events of resolving the story’s conflict. In Kokosake’s case, Naruse Jun, the protagonist of the anime, has her internal conflict in which she cannot speak her true feelings—the main conflict that the film revolves around. As the story progresses, the resolution of the story’s conflict, the school musical, helped her to “open up her heart.” Cleverly enough, the story not only resolves Naruse Jun's internal conflict, but also resolves the conflicts of the other protagonists in the film.

The characters’ development in Kokosake was also enjoyable to watch. Kokosake’s plot is very beneficial toward developing the main protagonists’ relationship, communication, and their feelings toward each other. For example, Naruse’s personality changes as the story progresses. Naruse’s actions to “break out of her shell” is hilarious and at the same time relatable, making the film more interesting. There are some bits of comedy and typical anime tropes that tangent off the main story. But, overall, the story is well paced, has enough content to convey the film’s message, and concisely portrays the actions that Naruse Jun and the other protagonists take to resolve the main conflict.

The artwork that portrays this story brings the animation to life. With Anohana’s and Toradora’s art style, Kokosake’s artwork impressively makes the animation look realistic. The film’s settings is well drawn and emits an earthly vibe throughout the film. The characters of the anime were drawn really well to the point where anime seems to be merging with reality. The characters movements in the animation follow most physics and their facial expressions—especially Naruse’s expressions—is exaggerated to express emotions and feelings. Since Naruse does not initially communicate with actual words in the film, her facial expressions and body language conveys an idea about what she is trying to say. With this realistic and expressive art style, Kokosake’s art is one quality that makes the anime a beautiful film.

But, one of the main qualities that makes Kokosake such a beautiful film is through sound. Because the anime aims to encourage the freedom of expression, the voice acting and music are exaggerated. The voice acting matches the characters and their personalities and the music is well composed to match the situations during the plot, enhancing the liveliness of the anime. As the protagonists who can talk speak, the music serves as a substitute for Naruse’s silence and embellishes the atmosphere of the film. It may be because of the film’s music that enables people to shed tears along with the nostalgic story.

With this, Kokosake’s plot, artwork, voice acting, and soundtrack enhances the anime’s beauty, making the movie enjoyable to watch. The film does indeed beautifully conveys its theme. Thus, Kokosake’s coming of age story is one of many good anime that people young and old can enjoy.

But, the decision of whether this anime is worth watching is definitely up to you. I acknowledge and respect any opinions that you have for this anime and I hope that you will read my reviews in the future.

Thank You So Much For Reading!

Trauma from the past play a huge factor in the way we govern our lives in the future. Although there are ways to rehabilitate, more often than not we remain changed as a person and even more often we don't get the proper treatment or outright deny it.

From the producers that brought you Anohana, Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda feels like a one-shot that hits you right in the feels the same way it does with Anohana. We as an audience can draw from many of the experiences in our own life in all scales and magnitude to relate to Naruse Jun as she struggles to live ... the adolescent years of her life when faced with traumatic experiences in her past.

While Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda follows a story of similar circumstance as Anohana, what really drives a story home is the use of good sound in combination of a natural and fluent devlopment of the plot. There was an excellent contrast of song and music with corresponding parts of the film and even if there was a lack of ambient sounds throughout the film, the core parts of the film came together very naturally with music and setting in harmony which is what I thought they did a spectacular job in. The characters don't seem to stand out excluding Naruse but it fits the school life setting so it could be argued that that was the atmosphere the producers wanted to achieve.

To conclude, this film ended up being quite enjoyable and is absolutely worth your time and your money if you are lucky enough to catch this in theaters.

When I first started Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda, I initially dismissed its mediocrity and by the numbers plot for yet another angsty teenage romance, but upon further evaluation, I discovered that Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda does something very special, something very rarely seen or heck, even discussed in anime.

What I'm referring to of course is the depiction and commentary on the issue of mental health in teenagers in Japan. Tragically, in reality, most cases are simply dismissed or ignored; the social stigma for someone suffering from a mental disorder is especially daunting and uninviting. What does this have to do with the anime you ask? This theme ... is mostly conveyed through the primary heroine, Naruse, in this anime. Without spoiling much, some family complications leave her in a state of despair and she suffers through a mental sickness that left her hallucinating and unwilling to speak, for her mind will render a stomach ache if she does.

Now this is where the anime starts really taking off on its harsh and brutal social commentary, instead of seeking outside help or advice from, say, a medical professional, she instead decides to be a complete shut in for several years of her life. Adding to the fact that neither her mother or other classmates notice this until her uncaring teacher arbitrarily decides to group her and the main characters into a Community Outreach performance, reflects the reality in which how uncaring most outside people are to people suffering from some form of mental disorder. In fact, earlier on, her ostracization from her fellow classmates as well as the accompanying isolation is especially cruel.

The other major characters also provide a gateway for meaningful commentary, courtesy of the writer, to the audience. Most of it is especially cynical and a criticism of perhaps, modern society in Japan. Takumi for instance, is a reflection of how stubbornness can be mistaken for determination. His stubborn insistence for Naruse's involvement in the project as well as his refusal of taking her medical condition seriously is often mistaken for genuine determination by the rest of the cast. I believe this reflects well on our society's cultural norms. And then there's Natsuki, who while at first glance may seem to be the typically cliched girl who met protag-kun before earlier in life but never fessed up to him and never bothers properly confessing or telling him or at least hanging out with him or some logical thing, but, and this is where Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda really shines here, now, dear reader, Natsuki is actually a satire of all those anime cliches. Her actions in fact, actually spell doom for the main heroine and well, you'll just have to find out what happens. No spoilers here!

As the whole story wraps up, Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda ends up being one of the most profound anime of our time for its strong social commentary and its clever use of the mundane and common to subvert all of our expectations, creating simply a unique package.

Or that's what I thought after downing a few beers to justify this anime's existence.

I gave 8 overall because of the ending.

Don't get me wrong this movie is wonderful.Music is extraordinary and I totally enjoyed this.
I gave 7 to characters because when I think about it I never understood any of them.

*********************SPOILER*****************************


Ending really destroyed everything for me at least.That baseball player Daiki he was called?Nevermind at the end like WTF he never really played a big role this entire film and at the end he confessed his feelings to Jun.Like seriously did you even had a normal conversation with her ?

This is my first review and I just wanted to say everything I have on this movie.

Just finished watching it so here's my review while it's still fresh in my memory. Beware of spoilers.


THE STORY -


It's about a really lively little girl who talks a lot named Naruse Jun, dreaming to find her prince, she travels in front of a Love Hotel that's shaped like a castle because she's little, she doesn't know it's a love hotel... to her this is a castle, she wants to meet her prince one day and usually you can find a prince inside a castle.

She saw someone heading out, it was her dad with another woman.
She thought that he was a prince ... since he came out of the castle with a woman. She pictured them riding horses next to each other with nice royal clothes.

She got home all excited and told her momm about how her dad really was a prince and added that her mom wasn't the princess.

Her mom understood what was going on and kicked out the father. He was moving away next week.
Naruse ran to her father and asked him why is he going away to which he replied ''don't you get it...? It's all your fault''.
Which struck her.
She sealed her words away under the stupid story that an Egg Prince came and cursed her to never speak. If this isn't cliché and stupid then I don't know anything about anime.

She met Sakagami Takumi (The male lead). Convinced that he was peeking into her heart because he understood her well.
Of course she quickly fell in love with him. What else would you expect?
They had lots of cute interactions together so of course fans start shipping
them. He helps Naruse with her troubles and she isn't as asocial as before.
And they are forced to help with the music festival so they meet 2 other people who are going to help as well, Tasaki and Nitou. Tasaki is the captain of the baseball club, he is really determined about baseball so he doesn't let anyone rest and is extremely harsh as the captain and he is in love with Nitou and Nitou is Takumi's ex-girlfriend, she still harbors feelings for him.
Some progression happens, to summarize, Tasaki fixed the issue with everyone from his club hating him, tried to make some moves on Nitou and was rejected.
So when the music festival was about to happen, Nitou was jealous of Jun at that point and told Sakagami something among the lines that ''you like Jun anyways'' and he tried to tell her that it's not true, he helped Jun so far because he was moved by her trying so hard, not because he loves her, the one he truly loves is her, but right before he said ''the one I love is y-'' he was cut-short by Nitou and she ran away, due to PLOT CONVENIENCE Jun accidentally overheard this and ran off as well, when the musical was about to start Sakagami had to find Jun and like EVERY MARI OKADA WORK, she confessed to him and was rejected so she yelled out her all of her frustrations to him like it was some sort of a triumphant achievement. Well, it's not. After they came back for the musical and did it, everyone's happy, Nitou and Takumi have made up and they'll probably start dating soon enough as they both like each other, the problem is... Tasaki comes out of nowhere and is like ''I will do it! I Will go confess my feelings to Jun!''...
WTFFFF? WTF IS THIS? HOW, WHEN, WHY?

Involving music somehow makes it all deep and touching? Nope.
Screw you Mari Okada, screw you and your stupid mind who can't think of anything else but stupid melodrama and love triangles.




ART -

The art was great but a bit generic. It had beautiful scenery

CHARACTERS :

The characters were pretty good but the best one was Naruse. As expected of the main lead. She had her own problems, motivations and was fleshed out as a character.

Tasaki was first introduced as an asshole but he turns out to be pretty kind, an extremely stereotypical misunderstood character.

Natsuki was Takumi's ex girlfriend, she was the one I least cared about from the main cast, she was really boring as a character and didn't have much personality.

During the course of the story her relationship with Takumi got alot of development. It made me want to cheer them on.
But oh, the movie so far's been pretty good, nothing can go wrong.
Except it did.
At least for me.
It turned out Takumi still has feeling for Natsuki and right at the end of the movie... he rejected Naruse.
All that development for nothing. And they had a pretty cute development.
Him having feelings for Natsuki came absolutely out of nowhere.
And at the end of the movie Tasaki was suddenly ''I am going to confess my love to Naruse''. WTF?
YOU WASTED ALL THAT BUILD UP FOR NOTHING?

This is one of the movies where it will make you all fuzzy inside when you watch the 2 MCs interact and will cut you off out of nowhere...
It was obvious it was going in a romantic direction but Mari Okada fu*cked it all up just for the sake of being unique and more melodramatic.


MUSIC - The OST songs are probably well composed tracks... dunno. None of them is really memorable and they don't have much impact.


OVERALL SCORE - 5/10

+ Portrays a common but wonderful message
+ Brilliant music that takes a spin on the Western Classics
+ Wonderfully written main characters with great dynamics, and great interactions among them
+ Great story progression (even the smallest details that could be affected by an event were not missed out). (First Half)

- Romance aspect of the show muddies the message the movie is trying to portray
- Loose ends due to an underwhelming ending that focuses on unneeded romance, a contrast with its wonderful first half.

It is common knowledge that words are very powerful. They can inspire, bless, curse, and hurt others. And like anything that’s powerful, ... it needs to be controlled. There are some who are more open about it, claiming that ‘one should express himself without caring what others think’, while some say that ‘expressing and saying too much shows that you’re weak and emotional’. These are two popular yet contradictory mindsets that people in society have today.

This movie is about expression, it is about a group of friends who find trouble expressing themselves, be it because of a curse, past experience, trauma, or just the personality of the person itself that make them bottle up what they want to express and say. Ultimately, like real life, these feelings if caged for too long could no longer be contained. As shown when the female MC, although mute, shows very explicit emotions through her facial expressions and actions. In some cases, these feelings will explode in a violent eruption, as we can see when the drama of the movie unfolds with the characters yelling at each other about past problems at the top of their voices, not really in anger, but in result of saying something that needs to be said since a long time ago.

One could say that this is illogical, as why would they even need to bottle up their feelings anyway? The movie does well by fleshing out our 4 main heroes, as each of them has their own troubling experiences whenever their emotions are brought up to the surface.

Our main girl, Jun was a chatterbox who excitedly says whatever she sees, feels, and thinks. Her naivety in the end brought an eventual misfortune upon her family. Realizing that her expressive personality is the culprit, she comes to loath it and brought upon an unusual curse upon herself, resulting in her self-isolation from other people to avoid harming them.

The main male lead, Sakagami, embodies the much desired ‘don’t give a damn attitude’ that is deemed as ‘cool’ in this world today. He does not participate but observes the drama that unfold around him, be it among his family or friends. He could see how terrible expressing one’s feelings can be and thus develops a cool and aloof attitude, taking events as they are instead of reacting emotionally towards them.

Natsuki, the highschool girl bottles up her feelings not because of apathy, but in fear of how dangerous confrontation can be. She’s the kind who puts all her problems under the floormat, praying that the vagueness of issues would prevent her already half-burnt- bridges, her relationships, to crumble.

Tasaki shows the all-popular façade of putting on a tough-guy look who seems to be very expressive by shouting and yelling in anger all the time, but is truthfully hiding what he really feels on the inside.

These 4 characters and their personalities show very common ways in how we people today deal with our emotions, be it to avoid them, not giving a damn about them, or to fake them. Kudos to the people who gave these characters so much life that viewers could see a reflection of themselves in.

With such wonderful characters setting the bar for such brilliant writing. The movie maintains that standard with ease as we can see how these 4 characters, who are basically standing on 4 different corners on the personality scale, interact and unknowingly strengthen each other.

It is heart-warming to see throughout the movie that Jun began to trust and embrace her expressive personality once again. It is moving to see Sakagami for once in his life care about the emotions of others after realizing the fact that emotions could bring joy as well. One could yell the word ‘FINALLY’ after Natsuki yells out everything on her mind in a confrontation after she couldn’t bear the vagueness of her relationship in others and we give a round of applause to Tasaki who got rid of his tough guy attitude and instead says what’s really on his mind.

This movie is not receiving any awards for originality, the setting is done in typical anime fashion- in a high school with angsty teenagers. The character growth is predictable, and the theme of the importance of words and expression is a commonly used one that is recycled time and time again. But originality, or unoriginality rather, doesn’t deem quality. The Anthem of the Heart shows brilliant execution by never failing to get its message across. Anime drama tropes like yelling at each other at the top of their voices, isolating one’s self after a realization are usually cliché and cringeworthy, but these are the exact tropes that are perfect for the movie’s setting and are done well. We are given a sense of realism as we see how the 4 friends initially have so much trouble getting along, that when their friendship blossomed some lingering romance comes to the surface leading to unrequited love, and that even though they are close to one another, that doesn’t mean that they are immune to discord forever.

Aside from the 4 main heroes, the story progression is top notch as we can see how the writers are very thorough on how every significant event that happened in the past would influence even the slightest things. A notable example would be:

[SPOILER]

When the divorce of Jun’s family led to not only Jun’s trauma, but also changes in her mother’s attitude and life as she is forced to work for both their living expenses, the struggle to pay the bills as a family upon the father’s departure, Jun’s lack of a social circle due to her communication issues. A notable highlight of this is when Jun finally has the courage to speak to her friends in school, she does not miraculously become able to speak in her very own house and neighbourhood, and understandably so because the root of the whole trauma itself lies there.

[END OF SPOILER]

The Anthem of the Heart also shows that expressing one’s self isn’t limited to verbal conversation, as it also shows how musicals, or the songs played in them rather, could also portray vibrant or sorrowful emotions. Western Classics like ‘Over the Rainbow’, ‘Greensleeve’, and ‘Around the World’ were given a twist. The melodies of these amazing song were combined with lyrics written by Jun to express her past and her thoughts to portray her emotions to the audience. And as mentioned before, things like facial expressions and other things like tears further enhance what emotion that a character is going through.

Despite all its quality, the movie however, failed to maintain a consistency. The ending is in the very spotlight of this issue as it has developed much gripe from the viewers. With the powerful message of the importance of expressing feelings preached to the extent that it is blatantly shoving it in one’s face, the ending takes a huge U-turn on what the whole movie is about.

[Spoiler] It pairs up the 4 friends into 2 lovey dovey couples [End of Spoiler]

One could argue that this is only natural, and indeed there is nothing wrong with that, and this could even be a plus side, but the problem lies not with the romance aspect itself, but the indication that it takes the spotlight over the message that has been shown all along. A notable example would be when

[Spoiler]
Jun, for the first time in her life faces unrequited love, her character growth is thrown in the limelight on how she embraces the heartache and moves forward with life, knowing very well that this is just a result of expressing her feelings. This could be a very important lesson for all of us, that expression doesn’t necessarily bring good results like how it happens in fairy tales, but up comes along Tasaki to confess to her, giving her a happy ending anyway. It’s like the directors and writers completely forbid Jun to suffer, and that she must be paired up to satisfy shippers. What then, is the point of this movie? To see friendship blossom into romance and become couples? Or the other one that has been preached all along?



Not only that, the ending was also a crucial time space that could have been used to tie up the many loose ends of the movie, notably revolving the people around the 4 friends. Jun’s mom, who looked at her daughter with eyes of pity after she can’t speak anymore, was moved to tears after seeing how far her daughter has gone to improve herself. Daiki who was now finally a reliable senpai to his peers could be shown how he treats his friends differently, but instead falls in love with Jun. There are so many small things if portrayed could highlight the end of a very long journey that our young heroes has gone through. But instead, we are given romance that seemed to just be a mere subplot to become the epilogue.

[End of spoiler]


Despite its flaws, this movie still successfully tells the story of how most of us take a step back and avoid expressing ourselves after realizing that our words and expressions can indeed hurt other people. We then let the emotions swell up inside us to avoid those horrible experiences again. As we get close with certain people, the lingering thought for us to take a chance will emerge, and like a child tapping his feet against the sea along the beach, we would take a step forward and a step back, testing the waters until we can accept that these feelings inside us are fine being expressed regardless of it bringing us pain or joy, as it gives something far more comforting- closure.

Yes it is unoriginal, yes the drama and some scenes are predictable, but the Anthem of the Heart, without a doubt, impresses with great execution, and aside from the ending, was of great class. It is a message that is wonderful, and though preached and shared commonly, is a message that people need to be constantly reminded of.

I have never genuinely given an anime movie an "11"/10 before due to the fact that they only take a few hours to complete and thus lack in great story and character development. Making them feel rushed or either incredibly boring. Examples of anime movies that aren't really that good are The Place Promised in Our Early Days, A Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Nerawareta Gakuen, etc.. ( no offense to those who enjoy watching these movies ).

When I first encountered Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda. and saw an attachment of Anohana's related link attached to the movie. I was like "Ah, shit. Here we go ... again." and nearly refused to watch the movie. However, due to tiny scenes I accidentally perceived on YouTube about the movie. I ended up watching the movie at the end after making up my mind.

At first, the movie wasn't that interesting. It was slightly annoying, gives off Anohana vibes and it was very plain. But the last scenes completely demolished my bad impressions about the movie and swapped it to good like turning the table in a poker game by placing all the cards you have on the table and they are royal flush. I was so surprised that the movie could turn things around in just a few minutes. I had goosebumps, cried a little, and felt happy due to the realism the anime gives off as well as the overloading enjoyment from the well-sang song that took around a quarter of the movie to complete the script.

Fuckin' hell. This was fantastic. This movie also slightly relates to myself in real life in which really made me feel "motivated" to try and change myself even more. This movie is amazing and I think it should deserve more than 8.10 stars. I recommend this to everyone. It's so damn underrated, I swear to god.

One of the biggest hurdles in growing up is the struggle to adapt to the conformity of society. When you interact with people, you have to be prepared to be judged by everything you do, which is a conflict that Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda tackles head on.

Directed by Nagai Tatsuyuki and written by Okada Mari, the main pair behind Anohana, Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda tells the story of people managing to move on after facing past trauma. There are four characters with distinct personalities and different issues who gradually develop throughout the course of the show.

The main character here is Naruse Jun, an energetic girl who ... becomes soft spoken after a painful tragedy hits her during her youth. She is cute and instantly likeable without being grating, I especially enjoyed how her gestures were animated and the way she tries to convey messages without the use of dialogue.

The way the show handles character development is subdued, there are no excessive flashbacks or unnatural behaviour and you learn about the characters by seeing them react without the show telling you outright. I really respect the show for being able to develop multiple characters at once, sometimes within the same scene, which is a rare thing in any medium.

The voice acting in this show is superb, each voice matches the character to a tee. The animated movement and expressions of the characters in the show play a huge role in this, its very easy for elaborate movement to look weird in anime, but its an issue this movie doesn't have; during the more emotional scenes it keeps you completely absorbed in the moment.

Small caveats though are that the show can get pretty slow during the middle act, but it quickly sidesteps over that with a truly excellent finale. Some of the twists in the show are pretty bold, they avoid cliche at crucial moments and make the show more interesting.

Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda is the rare movie that manages to pay close attention to its characters despite having quite a lot of drama going on. It tells each story beat gracefully and beautifully, making it a feel good movie that is really worth watching.

quick review:
-please check what a "7" means in general in the profile
*stylistically as expected from anohana
* more anohana influence than toradora
* not as impactful in terms of emotion
* some themes and its incorporation awkward or not developed
* ending of the characters seemed forced, unearned
* could've benefited from focusing on one aspect instead of trying to cover everything about teen's life (love, family, communication, friends,...)
* music wasn't up to par for it being a movie about musicals, liked Japanese incorporation into classic songs

I guess my opinion about this film was based on pretty high expectations as Anohana is one of my favorite series of all ... time. With lowered expectation, you could enjoy it more. After seeing it however, I think watching Anohana twice would've been a better experience than watching this film. As it says in my profile, "no regret in watching it, but FOMO was the only driver that convinced me to watch the series and I would've been fine never having watched this. "



high expectations...
* feels like i wouldnt have missed out on anything by not watching it

** this review may contain few spoilers witch are very basic and do not affect you'r viewing of the movie**

Words can hurt, once something is said you can't take it back but words can also heal, create happiness and most important express what someone might feel, that's the premise of this movie.

Naruse a cute little girl that grew up as an active and talkative child, always with a smile on her face. Everything changes for her because of a thoughtless comment she made.

If I had to describe Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda with one word I’d say it is Art. From the beginning to the ... end you can feel that someone put a lot of attention and love into this movie and tried his best to get a message across to the viewers. It is a story with a unique atmosphere that will make you want to know how everything is going to end.

Story- 9/10

A story about how a trauma, words someone might say to you can change and affect the way you are going to grow up and interact with other humans and how you are not alone in the world and other people had experience and suffer the same as you.

Art- 9/10

What really struck me as different about this movie is the incorporation of different effects and styles. The storytelling and animations are simple, but the producers added a few extra touches here and there from the phone parts to Naruse's fantasy world.

Sound - 8/10

The OST is simple but was well done in the Musical parts.

Characters- 8/10

They should have been more developed but overall you have different kinds of personalities with Naruse being just so cute and perfect( i love her <3) and even imaginary characters.

Overall and Enjoyment- 9/10

I believe some people might find this Movie boring or average but for me was just Great i did not lose attention watching it and it kept me wanting more and more, i loved Naruse and felt caring and worrying for her, so yeah overall this movie was great and is totally worth watching and it should be watched :)

Enjoyment (or my personal bias not counted with the above ratings): 🍟
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Truth be told, I hardly give any notice on the audio-visual aesthetics of everything I watch, except IF they do manage to interest me. Probably because I'm nearsighted and had a bit of deafness that symbolisms and mood changes are, most of the time, lost on me. Still, I'm not blind nor deaf enough to be unable to enjoy the stuff I have on my media player.
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With that said, The Anthem of the Heart was a big disappointment for me. I thought the premise was rather intriguing. To give you a clue on this, ... here's a short teaser courtesy of Wikipedia:
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The story revolved around one chatterbox girl. One day she saw her father come out from one love hotel (she had mistook for a castle) with another woman and told her mother, resulting in her parents' divorce. Her father blamed her, which saddened her greatly. While she was crying, a fairy egg appeared and sealed her words so she won't hurt people again, making her UNABLE TO SPEAK.
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The story then fast-forwarded to her high school life, and this is when everything went down.
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Okay... So, regarding the UNABLE TO SPEAK thing, apparently she could talk but just refused to do so because it gave her stomach aches, yet she did eventually do so because she was captivated by the singing of the male lead. So enticed, she even told him about her "curse" and requested him to turn her words into a song, somehow convinced that what she could not say directly she could sing instead. Really? She hadn't spoken to anyone, not even her mother, about her issues and yet she was spilling her beans to someone she barely met. Forrest, is that you?
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Then a lot of things happened that I could not remember as I was continually drifting from being awake to falling asleep while watching it. I mean, come on! This is just a common high school drama story, and not even an interesting one at that. Character interactions were lacking and even "them feels" failed to deliver. Heck, the musical play they were presenting was more engaging than this movie. Not even the climax was enough to whet my curiosity, though at the very least it made the female protagonist realize the true cause of her quirk— which the viewer knew all along right from the very beginning. I was plainly bored with the film I just let it run its course until it was finally over.
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Now, before somebody else accuse me of being only interested in magic, mecha, sci-fi and other non-grounded genres of fiction, let me just say this: I find "Umi ga Kikoeru", "Whisper of the Heart", "Garden of Words" and "Only Yesterday" leagues better than this eye-candy. And don't tell me I only liked happily-ever-after stories as one of my favorite film is "Five Centimeters per Second". Heck, even "She and Her Cat" is better than this auto-tuned anthem.

I can say anything other than that this anime is perfect! And here is my opinion why is it a masterpiece, and to be noted the connection between the music, story, character, art ..really make the enjoyment magnificent. I am almost speechless tbh...it is that good!

Story:
The story is one of those movies that really touch me and drift me into the feeling of the characters. The pace is slow but steady and revealing each lines and connection between every character one by one in the perfect timing. I gotta start wonder whats the story gonna end though, but I really enjoy every each scenes connecting ... the dots of the story, and very surprised with the end. It is a remarkable in many ways, and the screenwriting is one of the best yet I have watched. Not cheesy in any way yet still give that shiver and I kinda try hard holding my tears at most of the time (true)

Art:
The art is noticeably detailed with colours and environment. The colours shifting very nicely in the dark area and light. Well..I can't say much about the art but it is nicely done.

Sound:
Well...this is the most outstanding part of the anime IMO. The songs, the lines are all made together and mix well inside the screenwriting, and it really convey what character feeling and what the audience got to feel. It really touching and got a right punch on my stomach. Pouring the screen writing into song and well this is what musical is all about.

Character:
Each character i can say they are all solid. It doesn't push the intrigue into that kinda movie that burn the hell rage out of audience but it is really solid that we can see how that kind of character was made through their pass and how they handle themselves throughout the movie is really remarkable. Each character develop themselves really well and you will notice at the end of the movie everybody is a changed man (or in some of them a changed woman)

Enjoyment:
I enjoy every little bit of this and I did rewind every single lines that I accidentally missed, every single scenes I accidentally missed. And I will definitely watch this at least more than 10 times (same goes with that 'Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki' it is in the same level with that movie so if you love that, you will definitely love this as well, and either ways)

Overall:
I don't write review much and this is one of those movie/ anime that I will regret not to share the enjoyment and the excitement to anybody anime fans.

Note: This will be my very first anime review and i'm striving to give helpful reviews in the future. So if u happen to have any advice/correction/criticism, i'm pretty much open for it and i will be very thankful. Lets start!

Have you experience going pass through anime lists and other possible sources in hopes of finding a good anime to watch? Well i did recently and that was the time that i came across "Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda" or "Anthem of the Heart" which is the english title. I was captivated by it and tried to watch it as soon as i can. It turned out ... to be one of the most beautiful anime i' have ever seen.

The story starts off with a girl named Naruse whom as a child has accidentally seen his father commit adultery. Brought by being a child and that she didn't exactly know the true meaning of what she has seen, she cheerfully told his mother about it causing his family to get torn apart. Aside from that, Naruse got blamed for what have happened and that her talkativeness cause such events. In a midst of all that have happened, an egg fairy appears and curses Naruse so that she could never talk again. Naruse grew sad and silent. But one day, Naruse was chosen to be a member of the community outreach council and has to play a major role in their musical. And thus unfolds the journey of expressing herself once and for all.

Apart from Naruse, there are three more major characters that makes up the plot. The three concist of Sakagami, Takumi and Nitou and are the other members of the community outreach council. The three of the them already share a seemingly deep connection in the beginning. This connection causes various conflicts as they interact with the main character and thus affect the well being of the main character. But in the end, all of this conflicts get solved as the characters convey themselves which is beyond their capabilities to begin with.

When it comes to the art, it is generally beautifull and notably there are some part that used vivid colors and artistic fairytale-ish animations that adds up to the vibe of the anime.

The music played a major role in this anime. Its is the music that pretty much brought up the beauty of the whole anime. Naruse used music as a way to express her thoughts and feelings. The character's singing if just full of emotions that makes you shed a tear specially when it comes to Naruse. The soundtracks that play in the background are also remarkable and fits the mood of the anime.

Overall i enjoyed every second of the anime. Though i've noticed there are some important part that could have been portrayed better and a lot more dramatic, it didnt bother me much and didnt affect the enjoyment of the whole movie.

Thanks for Reading!

Before writing this review, I recalled back when I was in elementary and middle school the "Parent-teacher" conferences that I was dragged along to. The teacher never failed to mention the same things over and over again.

"Chevybow is very quiet"

"Chevybow needs to learn how to come out of his shell"

"Quiet but attentive. Needs to come out more".


What kind of shell? On first instinct I thought that maybe she was referring to a hermit crab shell- a creature who sometimes goes into hiding within a hard shell that is unable to be moved. But perhaps she was talking about an egg shell? A hard ... shell on the outside with soft yolk and egg whites on the inside. What caused this shell? Perhaps it was my own doing- but it was not due to pure rebellion or through stubbornness. There is a reason for everything- and perhaps there was a reason for my quietness too. There was no reason for everyone to assume that I was doing it out of spite- or because I hate them. Perhaps, just perhaps, something happened while I was a talkative little child that made me scared to speak my soul from there out.

Perhaps.


Anthem of the heart tells a story of Jun, a girl who is not too different from myself. A quiet girl, it is implied that she never spoke at school due to a traumatic event that happened in her childhood... back when she was referred to as a "Chatterbox". With the curse of an egg preventing her from speaking up: she has to learn to express her emotions through singing; specifically within the musical for her school's outreach program. Along the way she learns about the power of music through her experiences with the students in the class and the members of the outreach program.

The problems I found with the show are as follows:

- One of the outreach members does not get fully developed and their motivations are unclear and appear to be unrealistic.

- Romance gets involved in several subplots when the show does not require it.

- While the plot is good, the execution is far from perfect and the ending, in particular, seems lacking as it seems to disregard certain characters.

With these problems aside this remains a beautiful show that I'm sure some quiet people, like myself, can relate to. With stunning visuals and sound: this show makes for an enjoyable watch. At times emotional and at other times comedic: This drama will keep you watching during the duration of the movie.


Will you find your prince? The prince that will open up the anthem of your heart?

--A quick overview
I might be a bit late for this review but here goes anyway.
Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda is an original movie made by the same team that brought us
most of Toradora and Anohana, Mari Okada and Nagai Tatsuyuki.
While Mari's work can be a bit hit or miss this one is clearly more of a hit.
The story follows a pretty simple path that is heavily foreshadowed, and you have probably seen
this type of a story done before like I have, so while the flow of the story won't surprise you
the execution more than likely will.

-Presentation (visuals & sound)
There isn't much to complain about the visuals, it ... does suffer from a bit of CGI syndrome,
a condition where the characters can occasionally stick out of the very detailed CGI background.
But since the CGI is only used for backgrounds it's definitely not that off putting.
Sound vise I could notice that when they do use actual songs when they say they do.
I also appreciate that they knew when to shut the hell up during dramatic scenes and not just play sad violin an piano over them.

-Characters and plot
I already mentioned that the flow of the plot probably won't surprise you, nor will it make you reconsider what you think can be done with animation, but the execution is spot on regardless.
The main character is a very talkative girl until she opens her mouth a bit too much and gets traumatized, after which she finds a new way of expressing herself through singing with the help of her friends.
Simplistic enough and very well done.
Mari seems to be very good at putting her own spin on common tropes and story lines.
But outside of that I do have a few minor nitpicks:
1. There's a guy whose arm is broken, and they never really do much with this, or actually resolve the whole thing, like did he go back to playing baseball?
this makes me think he had a much more detailed arc related to him but it got cut for whatever reason.
2. There's a scene where a guy tells a girl that he would like to take her to the love hotel,
she takes this seriously like it would be a possible outcome, but later in the movie we see that the hotel probably hasn't been in use for years. This seemed like a minor continuity error.
3. I'm not sure if this is even a bad thing, but when they insert the name of the movie in the final song they perform I giggled a bit.
I won't say much about the characters as this is a pretty character focused movie, so they could be considered spoilers and as such I will only mention that I like that none of the characters were generic date-sim archetypes.

-Overall
This was a surprisingly good movie, and while I've only seen it once as of writing this I already want to see it again.
The visuals were nice, they know how to use music and silence, I like the message, I like the execution, and the characters were good too.
This is my favorite anime from 2016 so far, and I recommend everyone to at least give it a quick try.
The only thing I could imagine coming in the way of saying this anime is good is that it's not the "cool" type of anime to like, if anyone asks you what you liked the most this year, you would likely want to give some cool action adventure anime as an answer.
Regardless I this is the most memorable anime I've watched this year.

It's been a long while since I last watched Anthem of the Heart but, I'll try to write a decent review out of it. Story wise, it's nothing out of the ordinary but, it does has it's own charm. The representation of growth within the borders of lies and youth was what I'd say interesting the most. I also appreciated the fact where it shows not the typical romance trope which truly brought out the slice-of-life in the whole story. The characters and their relationship development didn't feel forced which makes it a refreshing show to watch. So, if you're looking form something inspiring and ... fantastical approach to slice-of-life. I'd definitely recommend watching Anthem of the Heart.

I would've liked it better if they hadn't have thrown in the random romance. It's a great movie about friendship and working together and besides the ending I really liked the story, and the idea behind it. It wasn't what I was expecting, but it was a lot better than I had expected it to be.

The art was really pretty I think, and the character designes were also really cute. It was a really cute movie, and besides the fact that there isn't much characterisation the characters are pretty likable in my opinion. The background music was one of the best things about the ... movie though, it was really pretty.

Overall I'd recommend this movie to anyone who wants to watch it, it's kind of relatable if you've gone through similar things as the mc.

What's with the hate with this movie? It is very good from start to finish. I don't know why many people hate the ending but in my opinion the ending is totally great. The staffs of this movie is very aware what viewers hate in an anime. And the number one thing that the viewers doesn't want in an anime is cliche storylines. This one is a "middle finger" to those anime companies that do the same thing over and over again.

Story and Character (9/10)
For the story, all I have to say is it's very realistic. The first half of the movie is good. Heroine ... struggles with her past. MC arrives. Things like we often see in an anime. But the ending was.... Wow. That over there is what I've been waiting to see in an anime. Let me explain why I really love that. True that the MC and the Heroine spent their time with each other in most of the movie, making the possibility for romantic build- up, but don't forget the side characters. FSC (Female Side Character) had a relationship with MC in the past making them know each other very well and kinda awkward when they meet. Take note, they had a relationship in the past, that means that the MC loved her ones. So it's not that surprising that FSC got jealous when heroine and MC have some moments. My second point is the character development of MSC (Male Side Character). Heroine and MSC had some arguments in the past making them not so close. But since that character development of MSC , they became friends and for me it's a great part of the story but they should make more screen time and moments for MSC to make something like a rivalry (even though it isn't).

Art and Sound (10/10)
The art is so great. I really love the character designs and the animation is priceless. The sound is the best thing in this movie. Every insert song makes you wonder what is the title of that song. BTW that "Somewhere over the rainbow" almost make me broke down for no reason. It's that good.

Enjoyment and Overall (9/10)
I totally enjoy this movie and I would definitely recommend this. Overall this is a very good and self aware movie. I didn't rate this 10 'cause the move had some flaws. But it was still great. I will not easily forget about this.

Thanks for reading. :D