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There is a word to describe this anime: poor.

ART : 6/10 - fair.
The art is rather good though. It has got its own style, between realism and cartoon, and it's pretty cool. Moreover, the quality of animation is sometimes outsanding. But, let's be honest: can you really use so many times the same animations in a 12-episode anime? I don't think so.

SOUND : 8/10 - very good.
Yet, the sound is great. Some skating music themes are not excellent, the ending is awful, but the rest is really great. I found the soundtrack good, and it's rare enough to be stressed. The opening is one the ... best I've ever heard. A pure masterpiece.

CHARACTER : 3/10 - poor.
Honestly, the main characters are boring. Yurio is okay. Yuri isn't really interesting. Victor isn't developed at all. Precisely, Yuri seems to have deep thoughts and a character development. The problem I'd like to raise is that it is never shown. So, we just see Yuki in different moods and we don't understand why he got so moody. So, it doesn't work. Victor, for his part... an empty character. You enjoy seeing him as a coach, but, otherwise, you haven't got anything to say about him - because the anime hasn't got anything to say about him!
The minor characters are quite developed though. But it gets on your nerves. Shigatsu wa kimi no uso developed its minor character and it didn't bother because THE MAIN ONES WERE DEVELOPED. YURI !!! ON ICE's are not.

STORY : 3/10 - poor.
The three first episodes were okay. They were not terrific, they were good enough. But they have a flaw that will be found several times in the anime: the scenaristic contrivances are obvious! The people who wrote this script were lazy. "We need Yurio to find Victor? Let this random old man tell him with no reason!"
But what comes after the first competition between the two Yuris is horrifying. You just see people skate... sometimes the secondary characters have a little development. The relation between Yuri and Victor is just boring, and you don't understand why they like each other so much. You don't even understand if they're in love with each other or not. There. Is. No. Story. But. This. Skate. Competition. Some fanservice and skating don't make a story!

ENJOYMENT : 5/10 - mediocre.
But it's quite enjoyable though. The skating representations are pretty good and well animated, even though the CGI is sometimes laborious. And I guess the opening saves the day.

OVERALL : 3/10 - poor.
It isn't totally awful. Sometimes, and I don't know why, it is pleasant. But this anime has got really dreadful flaws. The story is really boring... well, let's be honest: the story is absent! They didn't want to tell a story: they wanted to draw sexy guys skating and not daring to make out together (let alone the fact that they use a lot of the same images again and again and again...). It's not enough to make a good anime.
But I didn't hate it. But the best word to decribe it is: "Meh." The second best is "poor."

It's not perfect, I know it. But Dragon Ball Z must be seen as a pioneer which has influenced most of the nekettsu and shonen works. It has some flaws, but it has given so much to the manga industry.
Still, Dragon Ball Z is a great anime. The story is rather good, the characters are enjoyable and charismatic. But its greatest quality is to be so much enjoyable. It gives you feels, and it never stops impressing you.
Moreover, it hasn't got really big flaws, and even works inspired by it are worse (Bleach, Naruto and Fairy Tail are sadly well-known examples).

In brief, Dragon Ball Z ... is a masterpiece, a monument. It does truly have a legacy.

I'd just like to raise one signle question: why is there a censored version of this anime? I mean, it's not a masterpiece that everyone should see. This anime is a huge amount of undescribable shit.
If you need to wank, go for it. But if you look for something like a story, characters and so on, forget it!

By the way, I'm French, and French websites have summed up the anime like this: "Kujo [I didn't even know his name...] is a young man who inherited the family sanctuary and who has become a priest. Someday he goes to an alumni meeting and finds his first ... true love. Straight away, some strong feelings emerge in him. But is it really acceptable for a man of religion to have a fleshly relation with a woman?" This is why I expected a story similar to Frollo's in the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. But know it: the person who wrote this sum up is a liar. The anime doesn't deal with it at all.

This anime is the kind of anime you have to go through so that you enjoy it.

Firstly let's talk about the art. It's okay. Its 3D is better than Aikatsu's at its beginning, Kirari's, Sailor Moon Crystal's transformation's and so on. The 2D is not that great, but it is fair.
The music is great! The OST is kind of boring, but the songs and the openings (especially the second) are interesting!
The characters seem really show at the beginning of the anime. But as you discover them, you see that they're deep. Not especially original or complex, but they are definitely not clichés.

The story is ... harder to criticise. Precisely, the beginning is just awful. It is probably the worst beginning I've watched, seens, listened or read. You just can't understand what's going on.
But the story gets better, and the end is far from being good. It's brillant. I won't explain why, but the end of the anime is just excellent.

And somehow, I loved Prism shows. I don't know why. They aren't that great. But the anime makes you understand that they are more than show, that it is a reflect of your soul. It may not affect you at all. But, for my part, I've just felt amazed and affected. I know it is not that good. But somehow, I love it.
This is why my overall grade is 7/10. I guess that it truly deserves 5/10. But I can't give that. Because it truly resonates with my soul.

It could have been a shonen-ai masterpiece. It is precisely a shonen-ai/SF fiction. It would be irrelevant to describe it as an SF masterpiece though. It's maybe to classical on that point. Otherwise, the story is coherent and well-written.
The art is pretty good. You're sometimes really amazed by the landscapes, the colours and some really great ideas.
The seiyuus are fine, but it's often the case in Japanese animes. The music could have been better, though. It's sometimes pretty good, but often it doesn't affect you that much.
The characters are great! Shion and Nezumi really fit each other. Their relation seems really natural and real, although ... the anime prefers developing its story instead of the main couple. As well the other characters are really interesting and they really raise interesting ideas concerning totalitarism, utopia/dystopia and segregation.

Why then is it not a masterpiece? The last episode is crap. It just tries to be grandiloquent and impressive, without caring about coherence and stuff like that. This last episode is manichean, and the series is conclued thanks a "Deus ex machina". And symbolically, this is shit, but I can't explain why without spoiling, despite everything, a nice anime.

First of all, I do not love it because it is popular. I'm French and nobody knows it in France. So, nope, I've just been told by a friend about Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso.
I'll try to organise my review: we'll first talk about the plot. Then, we'll talk about the music. After, we'll deal with the characters. Last, but not least, we'll "judge" the animation.

So, let's begin with the plot: fabulous. Yet, the original speech looked classical: Kosei was a great pianist, "the human metronome", who was able to play perfectly every score, as if the original composer was playing. Today, being fourteen, he ... doesn't play the piano anymore, because of a trauma I won't spoil, and see a monochromatic world, the same colours as a music sheet or a piano keyboard. But comes in his life an excentric and free-spirited violonist, named Kaori, playing the score the way she wants to. She will try to make Kosei's love for piano and music reappear. Yes, we could have thought the plot would be: "Kosei unhappy. → He meets Kaori. → She helps him playing piano. → It's hard though. → She doesn't forsake. → Kosei is alive again. → They fall in love and live happily ever after." Well, perhaps it's a little bit more complicated. The work doesn't use music in order to deliver a cheesy shojo. It's more "a slice of life", even if Wikipedia and Mangafox describe it as a shonen. No matter what, it's a real love letter to music. We insist on the emotions music can make us feel, and it's amazing! Love, anger, loneliness, sadness, determination, the panel is pretty wide. And it's really strong. We're told that it's this way of playing which will make our music etch in people's hearts. We've got a reflection about music, but about the place of the artist as well: must they be what people expect them to be? Or must they be themselves, but being people that no-one understands? Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso also proposes a reflection about the surfacing of love feelings, about seeing your beloved far away, about traumas, about mourning and so on. It's pretty good. And to insist on these ideas, several symbols are given to the spectator, free to interpret as they wish: spring, cherry tree's flowers, piano, music at bottom, stars and even trains (the only thing I cannot interpret). Yet, there's still some little faults: the beginning of the second part. That Kosei faces his trauma at the beginning of this part, according to me, should have been at the end of the first part: moreover, the 10th episode was excellent because it had already concerned that and the battle looked like it was led. In my notes, I've even suggerated an achievement of the hero. But, fortunately, this accomplishment is completed at the 13th episode (the second episode of the second part): it's not worth grieving! Especially as the humour is particularly excellent. For the plot, I let me give a 5/5, deserved.

Let's deal with the music. We have got Chopin's. I think it is enough to show how excellent it is. The "songs" we listen are extremely well played, it's a feast for our ears. The original score is effective, and even though it is not unforgettable, it's able to be mixed with "classical music" (I use "classical" because I can't make a difference between "classical music", "baroque music" and so on, even if I hardly recognise the romantic music.) Endings and openings are excellent. Especially openings. Especially the second one. Music is enchanting, and pictures' representation is superb. Fine art. All of this work's music (opening, ending, original score and intradiegetic) is well done. In a nutshell, the music, without surprising nobody, 5/5.

Then, characters: most of them are interesting. The hero is well made. A musician not hearing the piano when he concentrates on playing: it was ambitious! So, we have a character traumatised, totally empty, monochromatic, and who has got nothing to prove to the world, and to himself too. Yes, he will change (luckily, seeing a depressive character the whole work on wouldn't have been worth seeing, it's only well done in Life). He will colour his world thanks to Kaori, extrovert and free-spiritied musician. Kaori, who is, all the same time, an excellent character. All of the characters are excellent, and I won't be able to develop without spoiling, because all of them are suprising. Even some characters you discover after a lot of episodes and who are not that present are amazing. Nevertheless, there is one flaw: Watari (what an unluck, it's one of the main characters!). He didn't seem really developed. I thought it was an empty character that they wanted to contrast with the hero (you will understand how they are constrated by watching the anime). But we understand that he's got a willing making him cry. Is he developed or isn't he? If he weren't supposed to be developed, why this little development? If he were, it's not enough. Conclusion? It kills me admiting that but... it's... a... *clearing his throat* non-sense... Regarding Tsubaki, in order to complete the square of teenagers, she is extremely well made and deep. Characters, 4,75/5, but because of Watari.

The animation only confirms the rest. Super. Grandiose. They have really good ideas, really good effects. I mean, representing Kosei non-hearing the sounds playing piano by diving him in the water is an excellent idea. Landscapes are detailed, the characters, amazing to look, and lots of efforts are made: we have even got sentences on t-shirts (the "No Life Is Enough" made me laugh). Animation is intelligently between 2D and 3D. Even if it's not the best 3D ever (*sweet looks to Disney and Pixar*), it's enough to what it represents, and, in addition to that, rare enough for not bothering. Moreover, it's not that far from the 2D animation, it's pretty good. It's not like if they used that for the whole show (isn't it, KIRARIN REVOLUTION 3?). Yes, I find the animation superb, splendid, intra/extradiegetic plans are excellent, beautiful work, 5/5.

To put it in a nutshell, is it neat? You have understood: a masterpiece. Even a big one. 19,75/20 (=9,875/10, so let me give 10/10) isn't from nowhere. People say you can judge something only when it is finished: it is finished and superb! The beginning, the middle, the end: everything verges on genius! Excellent things, a rich and mastered universe (just one little non-sense), you've got everything to have a good time. This anime is an excellent "mise en abyme" of its aim: it offers you anything it has got in order to stay in your heart forever. Your Lie in April, as it is translated is a pure masterpiece, the centrepiece of shonen and "slice of life" mangas, a delicious work deserving more than a glance: it deserves your heart, your soul and your passion. Ears welcome.