… And most important, what do you plan to do if you have someone, whom you hold dear, is facing these problems?
“Your Lie in April” is the story about Kousei Arima who is amidst his coming of age. Although he has a solid life and friends who accept him the way he uses to be, his living isn’t quite the one which you could describe as desirable – monotone, phlegmatic, despite the fact that he was hailed as a piano prodigy two years ago. Although his friends can imagine why he retired from his piano career, they do little to bring him back to the stage. Until now – when he meets Kaori Miyazono, who will change his life forever. She knows no mercy, has a very demanding, unyielding way to get people to do her own will – and she has invited Kousei to join her journey, filled with colour, music… and sorrow.
It’s hard to follow a main character who got struck by a trauma and has zero self-confidence in the beginning. But the more you stick and suffer with Kousei, the more you get to see his growing matureness and independency, thanks to his friends who don’t give up on him, but encourage him, force him, even hurt him, to bring him out of his shell. I can understand his development so well since I was in a similar situation myself, being pulled out of this swamp of depressions by my friends. It’s the doings which brings you forward, even if it means that you have to fail and lose. Kousei will experience plenty of it, and he will start struggling like he never did before. His character development is subtle, but immensely powerful.
So, while the whole first half of the series is about Kousei being able to stand on his own feet, the second one challenges Kousei even more: Will he learn to live with loss and move on, keeping the beautiful memories instead of getting overcome by the sad ones, breaking down again?
Is it overdramatic? Yes, indeed, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be automatically bad. “Your Lie in April” is a rather predictable and fictional (!) drama with teenagers, after all, and you can’t expect a serious, adult undertone in this anime. Being a teenager means finding a way to adulthood, and let’s be honest, you would prefer a dramatic, crazy time, full with feelings, to a grounded one as well, wouldn’t you?
As I said by now, this is mainly a drama and not a mere music anime. Sure you’ll get to know a bit more about the background of the chosen compositions, so you can understand why they were picked. But except for being taught that competitions and recitals are crucial for the young musicians’ future (especially shown in the scene when the results came in and the competitors who didn’t pass the round mourn “I’m so bitter!”), you won’t get to learn anything more about the music business in particular. And you won’t see details to the playing per se. It’s all about the feelings which the young talents want to express, against the will of the critics who don’t want to see someone “finding himself” at a competition.
Feelings is the key word to describe “Your Lie in April”. Some of the characters use well-known methods to handle with them – Watari being a player to boost his popularity, while showing his soft and not-so-manly side only in the bathroom and Tsubaki, who is unable to understand Kousei’s world, denies her true feelings and resorts in excuses. Speaking of them both, it’s a bit strange that Watari receives very little screen time and thus, barely character development (this happens in the manga as well, though). Tsubaki on the other side gets many great moments, which enhance her importance a lot.
Kousei and Kaori are musicians, and as musicians, they express their feelings through the sound of their instruments. A carefree violin, a happy piano, a mournful one. After this show, you will have no doubts that music is able to tell emotions, and that words aren’t needed to give away your feelings.
All those feelings culminate in the live performances, which are without doubt the highlight of this show.
The tension which is created before the performance starts is superb. I found myself having goose bumps waiting for the heroes to finally play. Everyone is anxious, worried, reciting the score over and over again. Then, from the shadows, they enter the glamorous stage…
Which looks great. The visuals are phenomenal. While not having an innovative art style, “Your Lie in April” is a sparkling eye candy. Everything shines in a broad light, the stage transforms, and suddenly you’re not in a concert hall, but on a meadow, in the skies, or deep below at the bottom of the sea. The animation studio surely knows what to do: Using light and shadow to demonstrate the anxiety and the resolve, powerful colours versus fading, desaturated ones for activity and transience, and skillful uses of height-altering camera angles and isolating zooms.
There are some sloppy animations though, like in the practising scenes, where too many still pictures are used, which appear downright cheap in comparison to the grand live playings. And on the other hand, it was sometimes too much (or call it “manipulative”), overflowing with too many shots. (And you definitely exaggerate the use of cherry blossom petals, A-1, they are literally everywhere!)
The ending isn’t quite the surprise, but also far away from boring and it will deeply affect people. Instead of letting it end with a big bang and everyone being in shock, it ends in a rather unspectacular way, an epilogue-ish revelation what the “Lie” in the title truly means. After the ending, you will look at so many previous scenes in a different light! I’m glad that the anime adopted the really powerful manga ending without drastic changes and made it even better with the tools given, connecting it with elements from the first episodes. The last performance is a wondrous piece of beautiful art, music, and gorgeous directing.
But while “Your Lie in April” is mainly about drama and coming-of-age, you can’t ignore the music parts obviously. Manga-only readers are in a clear disadvantage, since they only see some floating notes and the thoughts of the audience to get an idea of how the protagonists are performing. The question is: Is the anime adaption successful in bringing the written down feelings of the source to life, leading the audience in a proper way or would it have been better if you could just mute the tone and listen to the songs which you have pictured on your own, in your mind?
The score can be split up in two parts. The first one includes all the music outside of the classical performances and was composed by Masaru Yokoyama, who has a way with creating music which is able to blend with the visuals, always decently reserved, but powerful enough to push the mood forward. It’s not the “best OST ever”, nor has it the remarkable touch which something like the Shingeki no Kyojin OST has. But it’s rich in variety and well-conceived. The range of the BGM is quite wide: Sometimes childish-playfully and dreamlike, then pumping, beating, full of young energy, exactly the soundtrack which you would expect in a teenager series. Additionally, several insert songs with singer ENA are included, which are played with accurate timing in the right scenes.
The classical music was released on a special album and includes pieces from several well-known composers like Chopin and Beethoven (pretty side note by the way which I can’t just skip: Kousei’s first performance is a Beethoven work, who – similar to Kousei - became deaf und unable to hear his own sound), but also works from Saint-Saëns and Ravel are used. Professionals can surely tell you more about the execution of the compositions. For me as someone who listens to classical stuff on a casual level, the music had such a great impact that after each performance episode I had to look up the works and re-listened to them.
Unfortunately, the producers were too serious in adapting the manga faithfully, which leads to an annoying flaw. While in the manga you could take your time for the monologues and comments of the protagonists without a problem, it would have been better here if they let the music speak for its own and turn down the monologue-heavy directing from time to time, rather than letting the characters explain every detail to the viewer – I could both hear and see the passionate playstyle of Kaori, the monotone and mechanical one of Kousei as well as his expressive very well on my own without the audience’s help.
At this point, I also need to mention that the two musicians who played the classical pieces, violinist Yuna Shinohara and pianist Tomoki Sakata, did a fantastic job in performing this. God knows I’m not an expert when it comes to classical music, but I instantly accepted the intentions which both wanted to tell us: Hope, relief, anger, sadness, a wide range of human emotions are reflected here.
My musical highlight was Sakata’s a.k.a. Kousei Arima’s interpretation of Kreisler’s “Liebesleid” (Love’s Sorrow) and I don’t exaggerate when I tell you I was sitting there in total awe, listening to every single tone and got completely immersed in that particular scene. This was absolutely stunning. Mad props to those two awesome musicians!
On top of that, there are 2 opening and ending themes each, and the first opening, “Hikaru Nara” by Goose House is truly amazing. It’s not sung by one or two, but by a whopping seven (!) musicians who harmonise perfectly with each other. And while I don’t like the themes in the second half as much as the first ones, they fit well to the story-wise transition to the more melodramatic side.
To sum up, the score is a very important pillar of the series and the main reason why it is at least a good show. Even if you don’t like classical music at all, you have to acknowledge the efforts and the love for detail which was invested in this anime.
I really enjoyed this show and got heavily touched by its contents. Counting my preferences alone, “Your Lie in April” would get an easy 9/10. But I don’t want to ignore some points either, which could be a great nuisance for other people, like the tendency to overdramatize many scenes. There are real flaws as well, the most noteworthy is the comedy part, where jokes and comic reliefs are suddenly thrown in, which aren’t always fitting and worse, even destroying the mood.
So, including all pros and cons, I give “Your Lie in April” a very good 8/10. It’s one of the highlights in the Autumn ‘14/ Winter ’15 season, technically outstanding and emotionally stirring. It is definitely a must-see for all drama fans, while “I’m not the sentimental type” people should avoid this series, because the melodrama will grow gradually with each episode, until it takes over the show and leaves people who expect a pure music anime (or whatever else) in utter disappointment.
