How many times did we have to relive this melodramatic, traumatic moment in little Kousei's life? The answer: Pretty much every damn episode.
This wasn't a terrible show. In fact, I quite liked it, but I can recognize that it was very flawed. Very, very flawed.
The storyline: The story was decent. I thought it was light-hearted and emotional. However, it dragged on and on. This could have ended much earlier than it did and the amount of flashbacks had me confused on whether I was watching Shigatsu or Naruto. Some points were just meh, but others were really good. It was tedious and slow. I do agree with the other reviews in that the comedy vs. the seriousness didn't mesh well. The comic relief was misplaced and ruined a lot of could-be touching moments.
Art: The art was extremely visually-appealing. The way the cherry blossoms flew with the breeze and the piano sparkled slightly, even the blue of the main character's eyes were all delightful. The art was definitely the best part of the show.
Sound: I watched this in English because it was on Netflix, so that was easier than searching for the Japanese version. I liked the characters' voices. None of them really seemed to annoy me. The one thing that was really, REALLY agonizing was their crying. Who scream-cries every single time? I understand it's a drama, but jesus christ, that was dramatic. The music was fine. To be honest, I'm partial to classical music, so it was rather enjoyable to me.
Characters: The main character Kousei was gentle and sweet, but rather annoying at times. Mostly because we had to keep hearing about his sob story over and over. He moped and practically drowned himself in his own self-pity, but to be fair, he progressed in the character development department with flying colors. Now Kaori was fun and happy, but her random bursts of rage were usually out of place and unnecessary. She was also bossy and manipulative, but she wasn't terrible. As for the other characters, some of them didn't really seem necessary to be included in the story. Most of them didn't develop at all.
Overall: I gave this a 7. I may have ranked it higher had it not dragged on for 22 episodes and the scream-crying. OH, GOD, THE SCREAM-CRYING. It's a good show. It's also a bad show. It's both. I would recommend it if you're bored and can't seem to find anything else.
