Story & Characters: 7, respectively
My main beef with this anime comes from its story and characters. Honestly, this is Clannad with a violin. Hear me out before strangling me: the storyline follows a boy who sees the world in gray. His parent was not that great of a parent and left him with some emotional scars. He meets a girl in spring who starts putting color back into his world in a flash. The heroine of the story is also very sickly (not to mention her prents run A PASTRY SHOP). We got the jock best bud who plays soccer, and a tomboyish friend who has some groovy feelings about this main guy.
The fact that these kids are in middle school really drags me out of the story. They are saying some incredibly deep stuff - like, really really deep. I don't think their maturity has to be low for them to be accomidated in middle school, but the writing should accomidate the age gap. This definitely felt like it was written as a high school anime but changed because they might be overdone. If this was written fromthe standpoint of say, "Honey & Clover," and carried a bit more weight as the kids began to prepare for graduation, I would've found myself more understanding of their situation.
There are a lost of unnecessary chatacters thrown in for the sake of narrating to the viewer and being a plot device. The audience member who watches Kaori's first and second performances tunes in on every detail, explaining how fantastic she is. He also knows about Arima and plays off their pairing as "natural vs. robotic." The dude disappears halfway through the anime. His sole role was to give the audience a technical play-by-play, which is fine until he's replaced by the teachers of the series. He is outrightly replaced by Hiroko, if you want to get technical. Arima's father is just a plot device to acknowledge Arima still has some income to support himself. I don't know if this is addressed in the manga, but I sure hope it is.
The good side of this story is that it is an amazing way to talk about music and emotion. Even sound itself and emotion. Because these characters are young, they can appeal to a wider range of audiences because any age can relate to the characters. Their age also makes Arima's suffering way more compelling because these deaths keeps happening at such a young age. His reactions are almost appropriate for his age because his emotions had to mature faster.
Art: 8
I really do like this anime style, and this art section is more subjective than anything. It's much harder to critique artwork. I will say what can solidly give this an 8 whether you choose to accept it or not is the animation itself. If this were the manga, I'd probably give it an average 6 or 7 because it's pretty. That's really it. But the animation is absolutely fantastic, ranging from extremely fluid and character bending to very soft, and then to awesomely jarring. It's extremely appropriate for a music-based anime because it plays off the sound perfectly. Kudos especially to episode 4 when Arima begins to lose confidence on stage. I remember my breath etting choked up in my throat as Arima started to get enveloped in silence and water with only the patter of keys ringing in the dark. The way the animators conveyed this anxiety was incredible and worked perfectly. The animation takes the artwork to a next level.
Sound: 9
The soundtrack for this is damn astounding. From the backgrounds to the insert songs, and all the way to the pieces chosen for the characters to play, they fit the theme perfectly. You can tell these were hand crafted by a team and carefully chosen by the writer. Even the first background song really blew me away. The way they fit classical with synthesizers and pads, blending them together was a big plus, in my book. Only downside is that some of the songs sound a little too similar that I kind of lose which emotion each song is tied to. Sadly, this makes a lot of the songs forgettable simply because they sound too similar. But I can totally get past it as long as the score still fits the moment, and they do every time.
Enjoyment: 8
I liked this. Plain and simple. It's trying a little too hard to be grown up in a middle school world, however it's unapologetic in addressing it's clichés. The characters have no problem calling their own clichés out, which I appreciated. The story is predictable and isn't really doing anything new; however, if you turn off your radar and just let it take you on a journey, you may walk away with something to remind you of it (how's that for cliché?). The animation and music are more than enough of a reason for me to give this a pass. If you don't enjoy the anime, I know for a fact most of these songs are gonna stick with you... Or maybe not.
Overall: 8
