I guess I’ll touch on some of the common criticisms I’ve seen from the series. At times, the drama can feel really forced and over the top. For middle schoolers, they also speak in a pretentious manner. At the same time though, they’re also musicians, and they’re emotional people who express themselves in such a way. Anime is a form of art, so I can’t really fault them for their poetic dialogue.
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso Finale Thoughts
The ending was foreshadowed and heavily implicated since early on in the series. I don’t think Kaori’s passing really came as much of a shock to me as I thought it would. From her personality, and all of the things she spoke of, it should come as no surprise that she had little time left. I guess it may have felt a bit anticlimactic for her to just pass on during an operation. She was weak, but there weren’t any huge warning signs that the operation could kill her. She kind of just passes on suddenly and we don’t really see much of the aftermath (the mourning). Even with that though, something about reading her letter just got to me and made the ending beautiful.
I don’t think her surviving could have delivered a satisfying ending. The entire series, Kaori pushes Kousei forward so that he can get back on his feet. If she were to survive, Kousei could continue relying on her to bring color into his life. While he experiences tragedy for a second time, Kaori’s death is a completely different experience. It was almost as if she were an angel, just passing by and helping Kousei before vanishing off into the sky. She had fulfilled her purpose since Kousei was able to continue moving forward, thus overcoming his past self.
For the entire series, we had been seeing things from Kousei’s perspective. Kaori was this wild and bold girl who wasn’t afraid of anything. When reading her letter though, we get the exact opposite. She was an incredibly shy and fragile girl who tried her best to change just so she could leave an impact. Just seeing Kaori’s perspective on her life really hit me hard, probably harder than her death itself. She left Kousei with an incredible gift by helping him overcome his past and move on with his life, even if she can’t be part of it.
