Kousei Arima the male lead is not the male lead I grew up knowing in Goku in the 90s when Dragonball Z was the hottest thing. His battles aren't to save the world, and to get into fistfights with villains.
Kousei's battle is with the depression he has sunk into that has led him from being a premier pianist to not being able to play in the slightest. And despite the encouragement from his friend Kaori, Kousei does not simply break out of his depression from the first instant. He still struggles with it. I was honestly expecting him to go back to playing the piano in episode 3 and play it masterfully. It's a cliche that was subverted in this series, at least.
This struggle plays out over 22 episodes which lead up to a huge tear jerker by the end, but is so worth it.
I did not know what to expect from this show from the first episode. It wasn't until the second episode where the female Kaori puts her bow to the violin and there is a tremendous leap in the quality of the animation that I was simply blown away. Coupled with the use of color, and the music the sequence is truly a piece of art.
And then Kousei's thoughts in the next scene echoed my own. This is like a movie. A good one that I would gladly pay the price of admission to see.
The one thing that dragged it down a little for me was the attempts at humor. A lot of it involves Kousei getting injured in some ways. The initial impact of a baseball to his head, which draws blood in episode 1 really did not work for me. This is the only reason that I do not give this series a 10. If it had humor that wasn't at the expense of Kousei in such a brutal manner, then I'd have rated it that highly.
Shigatsu wa Kimi no uso has my favorite opening of all time in Goose House's Hikaru nara. The animation of the opening set against the background music is just breathtaking.
