Mar 19, 2015
A captivating vignette of that critical threshold between adolescence and adulthood, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso masterfully captures the sheer sentimentality of one of the most formative periods of our lives, and does so with an astonishing sensitivity to the truly granular nuances which color human emotion and experience.
While the work itself might be most readily categorized as a "coming-of-age" tale, it doubly operates as a thoroughly cathartic emotional surrogate for those of us who have been fortunate enough to not yet have dealt with loss in our lives, as well as a penetrating inquiry into the notion of loss in general: what
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are the various ways in which we can lose? can we recover that which has been lost, and how do we cope with loss?
As you will see in the series throughout, loss encompasses not only life, but feelings and perceptions about others, interests and passion in things, and also abides in the dynamic between victor and loser with respect to acknowledgement, affection, and adoration. In refrain, the series expertly explores the ways in which we tend to rationalize and respond to loss, whether it be through resignation, listlessness, anger, reprisal, or despair.
Of course, the work as a whole is a visual and aural delight, and employs these elements as not merely representational niceties to the narrative, but as singularly evocative components which can just as easily stand on their own merits as they can come together to enhance the sum presentation into something truly spectacular. On the artwork, the series elegantly employs an alternating color palette and variable visual style to reflect character interiority: scenes of despondency are depicted with dull and overcast tones; those of bliss tend towards vibrant hues or impressionistic representation with soft and dream-like pastels; and, at the very end, moments of absolute understanding, clarity, and repose as expressed through lucid tones, diaphanous outlines, infinitely reflective surfaces and pristine planes. While I can't speak as authoritatively to the music, the choice of pieces seemed fantastically appropriate; the Saint-Saens was delightfully playful, while each of the Chopin compositions were sufficiently stylistically variegated to accurately reflect the depth of emotions informing the performances themselves, ranging from tender and plaintive sustained notes to dizzying and tempestuous cadenzas.
While many question the appositeness of broad, soul-searching, introspective monologues from adolescents, some rather histrionic narrative devices, and the frequent fragmentation of visual and affective continuity with stylistically divergent humor scenes, it has been a wonderful opportunity to view what I believe has been one of the most poignant and cohesive endeavors at relating the totality of emotion which underlies those chance associations which color our experience: those necessarily fleeting moments which imbue us with sadness and strength, and the unanticipated and abrupt way in which these special encounters make us more whole in wholly unexpected ways.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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