First off, it's a thing to be noted that this anime was the VERY FIRST anime to EVER make my eyes well up. Actually, it's the first media item to ever make me cry. I've watched all kinds of hardcore stuff, but this was smth with SUCH an impact that... well... let's just start.
The Story: Kousei Arima is (or used to be) a world class pianist, being taught under his mother, a strict piano instructor, since he was six. Some years later, his mother dies, and due to reasons, he cannot hear the sounds if the piano anymore. He stops playing the piano for good, and lives his life with his friends without much care. One day, he meets a girl, Kaori Miyazono, who is a violinist, and begins to change his boring lifestyle by bringing him back on track with herself and the piano. Thus begins Kousei's journey.
Seems meager, yes, but it becomes so plain and so beautiful that you just stand in awe.
The Art: It's A-1 pictures, after all. It captures the art in the manga amazingly well and the fluid movements just make it all the more breathtaking. We see how Kousei's dull life, all gray and black and white, becomes colorful like the spring cherry blossoms. Be it day or night, with Stars or sunlight, it's so beautiful to watch, it's like an eye-gasm or smth lmao.
The Sound: The best thing about this anime, to be honest. It's basically centred around music pieces written by Chopin and Bach, played out clearly by the pianos and violins. The opening and ending themes were just lovely. I couldn't stop playing "Hikaru Nara" on my laptop or iPod or wherever for weeks! They were all so calming and sweet, and so slow, but still fast-paced enough to not get you bored. The emotions bring experienced by the characters at the moment walk alongside the piece they are playing, like anger, sadness, joy, everything.
The Characters: A big support pillar indeed. The Characters are well thought out, they are discussed deeply, every single one, on what they're feeling at the moment, and all that they are wondering about. All of them are strong, ready to face the future, some having to say goodbye, as you'll see when you watch this. Kousei, I admit, can seem a little too downcast at some points of the story, but this is just a negative image he created on his own in order to simply get rid of it in the end, influenced by all the positivity around him, and seeing what a great place the world is.
Kaori is HONESTLY THE PERFECT depiction of a "positive person". She knows more than ANYONE else that she's going to die because of her disease... but her reasons to stay positive and smile until the very end for someone that she loves.. (yup, the one guy she REALLY loves) and to change his life for the better before going... as if trying her hardest to make an impact on someone before she leaves for good is seriously inspiring!!! Even though the poor girl breaks toward the end, crying to Kousei about how she doesn't want to leave at all (then again, who does?) And Kousei comforts her, it's just so sad, especially considering (if you have the eye to notice right) that her hair, which was so bright and vibrantly blonde, now going paler and paler, as if giving us the clear-cut indication that she won't make it. And she doesn't.
"Hey, Doctor. Everyone needs someone to kiss them goodbye. --'Merci'." --Kaori Miyazono
All in all, I LOVED this anime. It was BEAUTIFUL. It'll keep you up at night, as you'll be saying, "One more episode, just ONE more." That's what I did anyway.
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso describes to us a single message, which, I believe, is undoubtedly one of the most important lessons of life:
"Learn how to say goodbye, and say it with a smile."
This is also how it describes itself.
