Right now, there are 725 that have watched this movie. "Wow!", You say, "That's even less than Legend of The Galactic Heroes!" So here's THE deal I'm offering you. You get to be part of the exclusive 725 people (Now 726 if you watch it) who get to see something AMAZING. Care to hear my sales pitch?
Right now, 161 people, a good 21% percent of viewers, have rated this anime 10 OUT OF 10. Now that's not for no reason.
Lets kick this off with the story. Important background knowledge first: A young girl named Naruse stumbles upon a magnificent hilltop castle. Her curiosity makes her see something she should not have: Her father coming down from the castle with what seems to be a princess- but Naruse has never seen her father with this princess before. Excited, she goes tell her mother about the castle upon the hill and how her father was going down the hill with another princess. Having been told something Naruse shouldn't have said, her Father is kicked out and the family is torn apart. Then, a magical egg prince appears and seals her ability to speak because she wishes not to hurt people with her words anymore. [Words aren't very good to describe the aforementioned parts without spoiling it] HOWEVER this all changes when she is forced to sing in a musical, and much to her surprise, she finds herself able to express her feeling and thoughts through song.
The meat of the plot revolves around her, and a bunch of other individuals, having to organize and participate in a school musical after being unwillingly chosen to do it. Among them a baseball captain, Tasaki, and 2 other students, Sakagami and Nitou. They are all developed quite nicely in the time of 1 hour and 59 minutes. The dramatic conflict is quite well played out, tension rising between Sakagami and Tasaki at the start, Tasaki and his baseball team, along with romantic conflict forming between Naruse, Sakagami, and Nitou, this love triangle of uncertainty. Thus, I really enjoyed watching that. I could go into further detail about all of it but you'd rather save it for when you actually watch the movie. What I can say, is that there is a very strong sense of resolution to the story and the character development [How characters change] is absolutely spot on. Especially Naruse's, as she is the main focus, on how she transforms from a quiet, unnoticed, kind of girl to someone willing to stand up for others and express herself, ever so slowly, through sometimes moments where she forces herself to shout her feelings and moments where she just begins to sing at the most random of times. [This show is a little like a musical, or at least music and song focused at times]
The art was not bad even though art doesn't play much of a role in this sort of setting. But now we get to the music. The music shines when the characters are writing or singing songs. There is a rendition of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" in Japanese and the lyrics are altered to reflect what Naruse wishes to say, which is to express her thoughts and feelings [Even musical the characters organize is a retelling of Naruse's story made more child friendly]. This song isn't heard a lot throughout the movie, but I shed a tear when it was sung during the performance of their musical. Evoking emotions is what the creators intend to do, and they did it damn well.
Overall this movie intended to be dramatic yet heartwarming, provoking the viewer's emotions to what it called for, and this show is all that. A beautiful piece of entertainment that will live on in the heart of the 726th viewer. What else do you expect from the writer of AnoHana?
[VIEWER WARNING: The drama is, to be honest, quite important when deciding if you want to watch this or not. It's a great part of the show. If you can't stand high school type drama, or you can't just click with it [essentially all drama we can't relate to we call "Melodrama"], perhaps you shouldn't watch this despite it being well portrayed and executed in my opinion. It's like people who don't like burgers will never eat any, no matter how good they are.]
[EDIT: At the time of this review I did not know that this hasn't been released in English subs for streaming/download. For those wondering, I watched it on Singapore Airline's in flight entertainment system in English subs. Sorry for not knowing and I hope it is available soon!]
