I am not writing this in order to review every aspect of the series. It is mostly an opiniated, subjective review of what I felt was missed, loved, or completely went wrong. Sorry in advance if I sound like I'm a hater, because that is not what I am. I enjoyed this series to a certain extent, but ... just read it if you want to know. :T
Let's start by my melodramatic rant of a series I had high expectations of at the first half and then let's go into what I liked. You could just skip to this part if you don't feel like listening to a blob whine about stuff you most likely enjoyed since I'm so weird.
Kids comforting each other - not legit : Since when do kids this age start up paragraphs of comfort when one feels down? Kids don't recognize this type of stuff. It'd be Tsubaki's parents telling Tsubaki to go see him - oh and don't forget an umbrella or you'll catch a cold! It's legit when you see videos of a kid caressing another in order to make it stop crying, because it just repeats what its own parents did for them in a similar situation... Starting to say complicated words of comfort and whatnot makes no sense in this situation.
Cat dying so randomly - could have been okay in a darker alternate reality where she dies, but Arima is depressed instead of elightened. Another life he would not have been able to save. It would later lead to him suiciding, or something dramatic as such (that's how I would have used the cat dying part, if needed to be inserted, so it could actually have an impact).
Naiveté with love. For Tsubaki it's okay, but for Arima it's not. He's suffering from the same cancer almost every main wuss male character suffers from in anime : obliviousity of girls loving them. 2-3 times it happens where she obviously blurts out she loves/likes him and then runs away (hitting him or not) and he just looks at her and thinks it's normal??? Then we expect him to do something about it, but it the scene just cuts and they pass on to another day... uhm... lame?
No motive Kaori-Arima : There should not really be a motive for Kaori to force this dude that didn't play a performance for 10 years over and over again. I watched the part with the letter. He got her motivated to get into the music department... at 5 years old? I don't know, I feel it wasn't executed well; I just can't get my hands on how to express it.
Arima is a drag. To everyone - even a little friking girl. This is a trait that contradicts other people's relations to him. He's a lame ass guy that doesn't do anything unless told and it makes no sense for people to get around him in this manner. Unless he had a mental disease, maybe.
Deserve praise? For all you did for me? I don't get these words said by both Tsubaki and Kaori towards Arima. What did he do for them? Perform for Kaori after she used up so much effort that even a sloth would act faster in order to get him to do it? Or for saying that Tsubaki was not an actual gorilla and a girl... Okay, so romantic for a 5 y-o.
Attention whore. Need I mention his name? He loves being cuddled and recomforted so hard, like a cat. Is he a cat? Is this done on purpose? It completely missed the mark for me. Praise him and he scratches back (btw I love cats, just not this depressed one).
Last minute resorts - shounen phenomenon. Why? Why does it have to be last second? It happens every time Arima is performing. Why can't it be that he feels this way BEFORE performing, instead of as he is currently in session? It makes it so much less realistic than it should be...
Didn't use her death properly. They should have made Kousei learn of her death after the performance he would have been glad of. It would have impacted him a lot more. After such a great performance just for her, he would hear about her condition and be seized by the news. Also, if not this situation and keeping the same scenario that happened, then it should have ended in her repeating the EXACT same motions she air-violin'ed on the hospital roof top while it was snowing; not to mention I felt he was sad instead of depressed to get her back in the end. I think depression would have matched his extreme piano playing more for that part of the song.
There should be no confusion nor bad guys, or so that's what the author wants the image to be, but the image that was portrayed to me was not this wanted one. What I mean by this is that Arima is a complete jerk, but none of the other side characters seemed to have felt this way, except for Tsubaki that mentions it, but I doubt she really means it. She sees him as a liar, because that's what he is, but it feels like nagging from an over compulsive childhood friend more than anything.
Eliminating competition is super convenient for this series. I feel like if eliminating Kaori was the only way for the final scene to exist, where we see that Tsubaki reconciles with Arima and happily live ever after.
Inconsistent character in Arima Kousei. Instead of being depressed over any little thing like he's been all this series, he's living without any worries anymore. Actually, this is the type of feelings he should have had throughout the whole series, but he's always been so lame and curled up over every little thing. Now that she's finally dead, he manned up? I don't buy it. Similar to when he went into the hospital room. I mean, of course he has to feel sad, but at the moment he sees her, in front of him, alive. After seemingly thinking she was dead, she is alive. You'd expect a bit more happiness. But he's not a happy man... until the end when she actually dies. Idk, makes sense somewhat, but not after all this series has made me feel towards Arima and how they built him.
Their comedic relief sucks. Hard. Limited to Kousei getting lifted upside down by his sensei, thrown stuff at by Kaori/Tsubaki, or just serving as a punching bag for any girl since he's a wuss.
Kaori makes this whole story. So naturally, me being pissed about Kousei Arima is not really an issue if you consider he's just a shitty secondary character. Kaori is the one that brought Kousei back on his feet (like 5 times), sacrificed herself for both his and Tsubaki's feelings (and it doesn't matter if Watari suffers, because nobody cares about him, right?), and gives this whole story a goal.
You may have noticed that a lot of this rant is about the last episodes. I think I've said enough, but for a bonus about the whole series, I really despised the repetitiveness of them reminding us he can't hear and he sucks, as well as the fact his mother died. That part was extremely boring and tilted the series to be a lot less interesting than I had found it to be originally.
Now, for the good stuff. Even I need to admit some stuff were really well made.
The letter at the end. It was extremely necessary for it to exist. Else, it would have given no meaning to her death, after that bad use of time lapse (crap, I forgot to mention it), avoiding any sort of complicated expressions every character would have felt. And I also really loved Arima's (wow, you liked something about him afterall?) expressions as he read it, because those felt real and good.
The parallel to the first opening as Arima was performing his last piece. OH YEAH. I totally felt that, it was extremely brilliant and epic, for someone that really digs music in anime. I have not seen many other series do this so well, so I was really surprised. I also really love their soundtrack. I mean, the music they play is flawless in the "concours" and it's weird to give the trophy to any contestant since it's literally the song itself without mistakes, but the OPs/EDs and the song called "Yuujin A-kun wo Watashi no Bansousha ni Ninmeishimasu" are used brilliantly. Not to mention how great the images they give us during the OPs and EDs are.
Kaori's tears and person. She's so strong and powerful. She deserves better and is passion in person. I really loved this bright character and without her this story would be a complete mash up of Arima's mistakes and messes. So much potential and originality with how much maturity she gives off.
The concept. Music! I long for more complex series that distance themselves from classical pieces, since we already had the popular Nodame Cantabile, but it was really used well. More classical discoveries to be made and this time in a more piano-focused fashion (although I really love violins much more). It truly takes a lot of effort to play at this level and they portrayed that effort very well.
The art was well and modern (not to mention colorful, but still conservative, which I like - no pink or green haired people). Use of CGI was not overdone, as it was to mostly direct fingers while playing violin or piano. I don't dig it, but it was not in vain.
Well, that's it for my review. I am mostly deceived about this series because I feel like it has let me down, but I have hopes that this series will bring forth even stronger ones, with great characters like Kaori.
