Now to start, the Main Character, Arima, was a convincingly sad character. His backstory is tragic, is current future looks bright, and then complications make and break his outlook on playing the piano. At first it all made sense, but the more I watched the more I got a "catcher in the rye" feeling. I felt like he was lying to me on a consistent basis when talking about his deceased mother. He would explain how she was abusive, then turn around and explain why he loved her and how he was the only one on her side. I was extremely frustrated with his flip-flopping nature about his parent, and when it was finally revealed what her true nature was, I could not forgive Arima for being so forgiving. The mother's excuse for being abusive was not nearly enough for me to think the way Arima thinks, and overall I could not connect with his character, nor understand his feelings.
Moving onto his feelings throughout the show, outside of the backstory, I felt like he was unrealistic as a 14 year old boy. He states that his entire life is the piano, despite having PTSD and severe mental issues from the instrument. You could not convince me that a pubescent teen boy does not have more than one interest, no matter what their upbringing was. You cannot convince me that he never once thought about doing something other than music, especially when he has the tragic past that would push him to do something else. His character in regarding the first arc of the story was not convincing in the slightest, and I found myself more than frustrated at his development.
Moving onto his friends, Ryota is the most believable. A hormonal 14 year old boy who dates many women and is good at soccer. That is all we need to know about him, and that is all we learn about him. His character was perfectly fine in my book.
Tsubaki, frustrated me greatly at one point in the series. She pushes Arima back into piano, despite knowing his past and despite knowing his mental issues surrounding the piano, yet she continues to push him onto it. Then once he is playing and is happy she is very upset because "the music takes him away from me." This was the point where I knew she was not thought out nor developed enough to be more than the classic childhood friend trope to bring about drama and have this overarching "oh you love him" plotline. Her character is the definition of generic, and my money says that if you watch any shoujo manga, or some sort of school romance manga, there will always be that one character who dates someone even though they don't like them only to discover their true feelings. It happens every time, and her character is not forgiven for this.
The two characters Takeshi and Emi could have been completely eliminated from the anime, and it probably could have been better that way. One has a hero complex that is never built on, and the other has a crush on Arima that is once again, never built on. Their characters never do anything aside from being a phantom crutch for Arima during his recitals. By "phantom crutch" I mean they looked like they were useful members of the cast, but in reality they offered absolutely nothing to Arima's character development. Takeshi yelled at him "you were my hero" and nothing changed. Emi did nothing, and nothing changed. These two characters although very cool individuals, were completely useless as far as the plot goes. (Possible Spoiler) Takeshi's little sister also offered nothing to the plot, and was really only used as a means for an excuse to distract Arima and make Kaori angry at him for not practicing. Once again, her character could have been completely skipped, because her development also never happens. We see she is the imouto, and nothing more. She used to idolize her brother (yeah ok where have I seen that before?) and she uses Arima to motivate him to be better. Takeshi didn't need any more motivation, and the entire arc surrounding her character was once again, useless. Arima teaching her didn't offer any development for his character, and once again, was only used to serve as a distraction. (end possible spoilers)
Arima's teacher was his mother's teacher in the past, and that's about it. You don't learn anything more than that. She pushed Arima's mother to make him a pianist, and somehow it's her fault his mom beat him? Completely unbelievable and the fact that she did nothing to stop his mother means she's an infinitely worse person than she seems. She had no reason to not report her to the police.
Moving onto the last, and best character we have Kaori. When I say best, I mean she was actually thought out as a human being, unlike most of the other characters. Her motivations were understandable because of her backstory. Her quirky nature being explained at the end made a lot of sense, and I found myself sympathizing with her plight. She had one goal in life and she did anything to make it happen. This is why she is the most believable: because her motivation made sense. She is a fun and happy character who explains why she did anything and everything she did, which makes her much more believable than her counterparts. Compared to Arima, whose backstory was lacking, and felt like i was being deceived, her backstory was much more solid, convincing, and she is the only redeeming character in a cast of lackluster human beings.
Outside of the characters, I found the art and sound one of the best I've ever seen. My favorite anime is Mushi-shi, which is in my opinion one of the best visually and audibly, and I would rank this anime up there right next to Mushi-shi. The art style is the reason why I watched it, and although I am no sucker for classical music I thought the sound design was extremely well done. However these were not redeeming factors for such a weak cast, and overall I give the anime a 5. I would give it a 4.5 if MAL allowed decimals, but a 5 seems appropriate. If you don't think about the ride too much you can enjoy it like I did at first, but I would suggest quickly moving onto the next anime so you don't have time to poke holes in the characters in the same way I did.
