Story 6/10
I didn't find the story really compelling. As you can imagine there musicians and they enter competitions, and a lot of time is dedicated to describing what's going on in people's minds while they are listening to/playing classical music. That being said, if you don't enjoy classical music then watching this series will be like trying to eat six crackers in a minute without drinking water.
I watched this subbed so my perception of the script was at the mercy of whoever wrote the subtitles. I think this matters especially for this show because the script had a lot of metaphors, and there could be a loss in translation when you get into literary devices. I didn't really like how metaphorical it became; at some point it was just excessive and the metaphors just became weak and lost their impact with me. If you're the type who loves eloquent writing and can't get enough then I think you'll be an uber fan of this show.
The plot does get pretty dramatic and I'm trying hard right now not to give away any surprises. I didn't find that the selling point of Shigatsu was its plot, so don't be discouraged just yet. Ya bish.
Art 10/10
The art was beautiful. You might not be a fan of the style because for once anime characters have lips and a decent nose, but I seriously believe that you'd be lying (uso!) if you said the quality wasn't good.
There were some moments that I wasn't a fan of where some kind of dramatic tension was relieved by a sudden crudely drawn chibi scene. I think these moments were really poorly placed and poorly drawn, but the quality of the art for the majority of the time overrides it. And I guess part of the humor is how crudely drawn the chibis are. Ya bish.
Sound 10/10
I've mentioned that there is a significant amount of time dedicated to analyzing the sound of classical music. They really used high quality recordings for the production so if you enjoy classical piano, that alone will be entertainment enough. The music was still amazing the times that they weren't in concert. The way they handled the music and the moments they played it was really appropriate and skillful in contributing to the drama.
My only criticism with the music is that after a while the same music they used for every dramatic moment became predictable for me, but I'm really nit-picky with details like that. Ya bish.
Characters 8/10
Next to the music, I think the second biggest reason to watch this anime would be its character development. Each character lies to others or even themselves in their own unique way. It was interesting to see the way the writers used the theme of lies to design each character, but personally I didn’t really find myself attracted to any of the characters.
Arima Kosei:
Kosei suffers from some kind of mental trauma from being abused by his mother (ya bish). I mean anyone would; the lady's got no eyes. After being crippled mentally he's crippled musically when he loses his ability to hear the sound of his own piano. The series basically begins on this premise of Kosei being a bish and struggling to play the piano again, so if you're into mental struggles then you're sick- I mean you'll enjoy this series. You’ll find that his lies are all excuses for his suffering. Ya bish.
Watari:
Watari is apparently a lady's man who has some kind of romantic relationship with Kaori, but I didn't really like how little effort they put into enforcing that fact. A lot of the anime relies on them being together, but they pretty much just mention it by word without showing us any actions to back it up. Watari lies so effortlessly that you may not even notice when he lies while you’re watching. Ya bish.
Tsubaki / Washibashi:
Tsubaki AKA Tsunderebaki and Bakiwashi or whatever her name is. I count these two as one person because Washiwashi pretty much serves as Tsubaki's conscience. Tsubaki lies to herself a lot so any time you're wondering what's going on inside Tsuderebaki's head just listen to Kashiwagi. Tsubaki spends a lot of her time in the show kicking Kosei and making him bleed. Ya bish.
Kaori:
Finally, we have someone who was pretty interesting to watch. There was a lot more to her character than what you can see at first because her speech and body language in the beginning of the anime will take on a very different meaning towards the end. She is probably the biggest liar in the show, and after realizing this I couldn’t help thinking over and over: ya bish. She also has a strange affiliation with a black cat, so keep an eye on that cat too.
Hiroko Seto:
Seto serves as kind of a guardian to Kosei, but her job turns out to be pretty tragic. She reminded me of King Midas.
Aiza Nagi:
I think her existence was all that was needed in the anime. Anything she said or did I just saw as filler. She was supposed to have some kind of complex with her brother, but they didn't really do a good job convincing me through her actions.
Aiza Takeshi:
I'm including him in this section to call him out on his hair. Takeshi's hair really bothered me throughout the show, partly because it was blonde when he's supposed to be Japanese and partly because it was trying to give me a high five through my laptop screen onto his face. Ya bish.
I'll also point out that in one of the scenes near the end of the anime Kosei refers to both him and his sister as "Aiza-san", which leads me to wonder what kinds of misunderstandings could be caused because of this.
Enjoyment 8/10
The majority of my enjoyment in this anime came from just listening to piano music. The characters didn’t stand out to me at first, but after wondering why the show is called “Your Lie in April,” I started seeing lies everywhere, and found it to be much more interesting. I like to believe that any detail the creators put into a show has some kind of significance, so I may be overthinking it. You do not need to overanalyze the show like I did to enjoy it; it is pretty dramatic and there are a lot of emotional moments. If you enjoy thinking about metaphors and watching people dramatically react to them then you will find a lot of enjoyment in this anime.
I would recommend this if you enjoy classical piano and are looking for a romantic drama sob story.
