Story 9/10
the story in itself isn't that much particular, if we summarize it a lot its about a fallen genius getting back on stage and how bright he shines but as other reviews said its the way the story is told that makes it so great. The pace is great it kept me awake the whole night and i was so exited that i had to do push ups and sit ups between each episodes to be able to stay in my seat (kinda feel sorry for my room mate and i gotta say that I am a geek I don't do sport). It used some very common elements like a girl showing up and asking the main character (MC) to help her on something but it is well done like it takes time for the MC to accept it and at first he feels really bad and afraid of playing without hearing his piano which is all he has. another well done point is that we don't really feel the time passing like the story covers around 7~8 month in 22 episodes and we feel like the times stops during concert, it can take 1 or 2 episode for a single concert and there are a lot of them. and the time during the training goes very fast and i guess thats how they feel it like when we start rehearsing for finals the last few days passes in the blink of the eyes. mainly the time was like 50% on piano (training and concerts) 60% on the development of characters (it's not that i don't know my numbers it's just that a good part of character development takes place during concerts). Another good point is how the side stories fit in so well that i was about to write that a minus is that there isn't side stories (thanks god i didn't do this mistake) like when he teaches piano to Azai Nagi who is also the little sister of Azai Takeshi one of the two rivals of Arima it shows first how he is like the motor of the progress of all this pianist. playing a supporting role but playing so well that if his partner don;t improve himself immediately he will lose the lead, which leads to everyone getting better at piano. this concert also was a message to both Takeshi and Kaori so that they can find their way back.
SPOILER SPOILER
Kaori not giving up on violin would be very important for when she supports him when her condition is getting worse, and maybe also so that he can see her playing with him during the las concert.
There are also a lot of foreshadowing so not a single event made us feel like WTF?
I didn't give 10 because there a lot of well done stuff but nothing really extraordinary. The best part is the characters thought.
Characters 11/10
I can only give 11/10 for the characters in this show because they felt not only alive but real. There wasn't a single character who didn't have his hard times, they were all unique. We can really feel how Arima is horrified by the visions he has from his mother. Or when he starts doubting about the health issues of Kaori we feel like he has the reaction he should have. he have been running away from himself and piano for two years, it seems correct that he tries to run from these problems too at first. The relation between himself and Kaori is also well handled, it takes him a lot of time to finally say how he feels about her because he thinks that she likes his best friend so he can't express his feelings. Their relation and conversation takes place essentially when they play together and as they say several times, sometimes music can reach people even more than words.
SPOILER
How Kaori started to follow the path of his mother and crying or screaming for nothing is well done and she then changes because Arima made her not want to give up on violin and it is also great how even if she is strong again, she still has her moment of weakness. another well done part on this character is how we could feel she was like a candle about to die, giving all she can to shine as bright as she can because she knows she doesn't have time her death was also coherent and led Arima to improve himself even more as his aunt foreshadowed he will improve in his sadness.
Another great character is Sawabe Tsubaki the neighbor of Arima and his childhood friend. I would not say that she was a likable character because she is kinda holding Arima back and it also takes her time to realize that she loves Arima and she hurt people during that period which isn't fine for those people but great for the coherency of her character. We could feel her jealousy and she handled in a way that was also coherent.
The two rivals are also great as they have a long life span, i mean that they don't get defeated a single time and are only here to make Arima shine even more. they progress a lot and also contribute a lot in calming Arima and making him realize that it is fine to be scared, that he isn't alone and special so making him a more mature person.
It is also interesting how the friend of Tsubaki takes a role in the plot, when i first saw her i sought she was the kind of character that appears once in the show and then is blank for the rest but she keeps on appearing and lead to changes in Tsubaki's character leading to changes on Arima.
The only minus stopping me from giving 12/10 is that the character of Ryota isn't as developed as he could have been, Arima Tsubaki and Kaori all have a lot of development and importance in the show but his role didn't really change during the whole show stopping Arima to be with Kaori and sometime saying some intelligent things.
Sound 9/10
Well I have to say I feel a bit bad to not give 10/10 for sound on an anime on music. The musics during concerts was really nice but i don't feel like the two ED and the second OP made a big impression on me which is kinda sad. another minus which is maybe my bad because i don't have a musical hear, is that sometimes I couldn't feel the beauty in the music they were feeling which is kinda hard for me when we hear the comments of the teachers and it makes me feel deaf...
I will say its a good point that i wasn't able to cry at the end because the music Arima is playing is mainly for Kaori so its fine if we don't feel that much (its probably because i have bad hearing but lets not say it for the sake of all the viewers who don't have a musical hear)
Art 10/10
Art is great, we can really feel what emotions the characters have and the tears are real big but even with these out of standards tears we can still feel different kind of tears like sadness, dolor or regret. How sometime it changed of style also made the show have the right share of comedy. The animation of the different characters playing violin or piano was also greatly made it felt like real (even though i have never saw a real concert so I can't really tell if its real) but the least i can say is that it was beautiful, even if you cut the sound and just watch them play it is elegant. Another great thing is the starry sky, even if its not as good as Fate Zero's but thats normal, when Arima says the different starry skies he sees with different people we really see a difference. there were also beautiful scenes like the one with th firebugs.
Enjoyment 10/10
Well as i said it kept me awake and exited for 8 hours from 12 am to 8 am so i really enjoyed this show. I was just a bit sad that we couldn't have the music of Arima and Igawa Emi for the preliminaries of the concur the one just before the last concert.
Overall 10/10
Well I can just say it is a masterpiece, with a little space for improvement just as the character have still room for improvement in their skills after the end of the show.
