“Elohim, Essaim… Elohim, Essaim I implore you”
The masterpiece is a confluence of facts and feelings. We can argue that the masterpiece rest on the power of supress the time/space that the show are dived and so transcend all the essencial aspects of the charactes, sound and ambient for the soul/heart of the watcher.
But, with ours fallen eyes we can not surf on the waves of simbols, or dive on the ocean of salvation, redemption, punishment and love. So, to conect these abstract things (things that are more than concret on our intelect) with our desire (a legit desire, tell yourself in passing) of good sounds and good imagens, we create a masterpiece and this masterpiece has a name: Your Lie in April.
In this review the main point is to answer some "critics" that i hearded for my friends, and consider other minor true mistakes.
Your Lie in April shows the story of Arima Kousei, a promenient kid on piano whose after a series of traumas lost the power of hear the piano, diving his world a black/white scenario. Then he knows the violinist Kaori Miyazono , a beatifull girl , whose Kousei best friend (Tsubaki) introduce to the popular Kousei best friend (Watari) in a "double date". Could that girl with a burning soul, return the colors back to Kousei life?
On the first seeing YLA (Your Line in April) sounds cliche and predictable, and after a few episodes the feelings(of some) is so dramatic that looks plastic. But, we have to make some consideration on this two critiques, so we could consider the true problems of YLA and how the whole show supress those mistakes.
First, is important to note that the plot, that is, the speed at wich the facts and narratives are exposed, rests on the characters development. The narratives are full of "psycological time", so we can have a entire episode inside the own time of the character. Characters and plot are almost the same thing in YLA. We can say that the characters has the " reins" of rhythm of the story. This point is very hard to reach, on a normal show the desire to give a conclusion on the plot, devour the characters development, like a wolf, the plot eats the time and the beauty things that only a well developed character can provide.
Said that, we can keep going on.
NO, YLA is not cliche/predictable, yeah, you can predict some MAIN FACTS (the important one in the EP 4-5), but this mains facts are only one piece (the more superficial and material piece) on the constitucion of the castle called masterpiece.
For a masterpiece, like YLA, the spice of a big surprise (or, a good plot twist) is just a acessorie. There is no reason to create a web of wierd facts, or a plot line that rests on a big surprise on the grand finale, because ,as i said, the reins of YLA are on the characters hands. This characters shows themselfs for us with a perfect transparency, like a friends that every day (in this case, every episode) reveals more and more of his feelings, his fears, his past to us. In the end, the characters of YLA (the true commanders of the plot line) could not built a reverse or a conspirancy in the story, because they are very honest with us (and with themself). So, argue that you can predict the finals events, without predict the beaty path to this end, is more like yelling to the wind than a criticism.
Marching to the second point. The point that YLA is "too dramatic, too exagerated, too serious business for the characters ages, in other words, YLA is more like pile of plastic feelings than like a masterpiece". When I was watching YLA, I was reading " The Republic" of Plato, on the perfect government (the aristocracy of phylosophes) the children chosen to be leaders had music education, because the fine arts (like paiting, sing, play instruments and music theory) refine the spirit (intelect) and provide a "efemined" nature to those whose praticed it.
"And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument
than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward
places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making
the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful" (Plato)
I have to admit that the selection of words, and the description of feelings, has some uncommon weight for a modern man. But, the beauty rests on it, I'm not advocating the cause of the "this is so hard to catch that have to mean something deep", I'm saying that the plot premisses (musicians and their dramas) creates a refined world that must be explored with unsual words, deep feelings and dramatic descriptions. We are talking about kids exposed to the uniserval languague (that can compilate all symbols) of the music since the tender age (don't underestimate this central point).
But... Why so young character ? Could be possible that 14 years humans have that "psicologic deepness" or that "self-knowledge" ? Yes, even these gifts of the intelect can be learned in a habitat for it, we are talking about young painists, whose play the piano since a very young age, the contact with this high culture (the classical music) produces the personality of almost all the characters of YLA (I will come back to this central point after), I cannot deny (or ignore) Plato information about music education and the effect of it.
Those are the two major point that my friends told me about YLA, I consider the second more relevant than the first one. But now, I want to expose orther point that I notice on the show.
I said before that in YLA the kings of the story are the characters, in YLA we, theoretically, have four main characters (Watari, Tsubaki, Kaori, Kousei), but it isn’t totally true.
We can divide the arcs of each character, the first 12 eps are the Kousei arc, the reborn of the pianist spirit (the repainting of a black-white world) and the Love-Romantic arc (or the Kaori-Tsubaki arc, on the last 10 eps), the “battle” between music, childhood, love and friendship.
On this Kousei arc the point is the past and the drama of Kousei, the rhytm of time is the rhytm of Kousei souls, and to guide us in this journey on Kousei souls in have our “main guide”: Kaori. It is very important how Kaori isn’t the focuses on this arc, but it shows a good part her soul on this arc, mainly, her funny and energetic side (AND THIS IS A TRUMP FOR THE LAST TWO EPS). Of course, we can’t forget the two catalysts of this souls encounter: Watari and Tsubaki. On Tsubaki we see the “opposite” of Kaori, we can see who her souls turns into a sea of doubts and fears (wich only intensifies on the second arc), in the Nao Kashiwagi (Tsubaki friend) words the “your eyes turned grey, Tsubaki”, even on the "Kousei arc", Tsubaki has a perfect "main-suporte" role, being a suport for Kousei (fewer than Kaori, I have to say) and been "main of herself".
The true problem is Watari. He is,in theory, the boyfriend of Kaori, but Kaori shines like a sun and, in the progress of the show we can only say that Watari is a funny guy, and worst than that, the apex of Watari soul is in the ep 10 (when he loses the soccer tournament and cries alone on the bathroom and talks with Kousei about the lost chance of been a star, leaving for Kousei the chance). I’m not saying that having one funny guy isn’t important, but it is important observe the gradually decreasing of the comedy on the anime, leaving the Kousei arc (12 first eps) Watari is almost , totally, lost on the story, mainly, because the romantic arc takes place on Kousei-Tsubaki-Kaori, that is, Watari become the true support character (note, that even on the Kousei arc , Watari rarely shines like a main, his soul, for me, remains incomplet).
But I have to admit that “Watari mistake” can not suppress the orthers characters development, and is very acceptable that Kaori eat the glory of Watari, she is the sun and the woman that can overwhelm every man (mainly, a man a little superficial like Watari). I read a critic showing that Kaori development was very postponed on the Kousei arc (I type of "Kouseicentrism"), but it is truly not real, as I said, the Kaori development on the Kouse Arc was perfect for conect with the Kaori of the last eps (21-22), this part of Kaori souls (the part the shines like a sun and that warms our hearts) reveal the show legacy(or the show essence).
Other thing in the characters wich are truly masterpieces are those “secondary characters” (Takeshi, Emi, Hiroko and Nagi), that truly shine. Takeshi and Emi reveals more about Kousei than I could expect, the way that they reflect two kinds of hero on him (Kousei) fits perfect with the two kinds of man that Tsubaki and Kaori sees on the young pianist. Hiroko was truly a safe port, she demonstrate a good way to represent a adult on this sea of confuse kids. And Nagi shows to us more of the musical spirit (intensifying the work of Takeshi and Emi) and the connection between musicians. I have to say that those “secondary characters” are truly gold on this show, without them YLA would not be this masterpiece.
I think that I don’t have to talk about the excellent dub cast, such sentimental character just can be dubbed by a good team. Risa Taneda (Kaori) were Mirai (Kyoukai no Kanata), Erina (Shokugeki no Soma) ,Saki ( Shinsekai Yori), Rory (Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri), her voice flexibility is marvelous, she reflects perfect the Kaori faces on the anime. For Kousei we have Hanae Natsuki, he were Kaneki (Tokyo Ghoul), Taichi (Digimon Adventure Tri.) and Elam (Arslan Senki), again in can see a good diversity of characters, all this characters works around “redemption” (mainly, Kaneki and this new Taichi) almost like Kousei. And for Tsubaki (Ayane Sakura) we see funny one, fitting perfect with her, characters like Haru Onodera (Nisekoi:), Uraraka ( Boku no Hero Academia), Moa (Show by Rock!!) and Iroha Isshiki (Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru).
And for a masterpiece we have to immerse on the atmosphere, and YLA made do this not only with good characters, but with a perfect art and a perfect sound. YLA uses the power of A-1 Pictures to create bright scenarios, use of strong and shine colors without a excess of information (different of the Madhouse show: No Game no Life), the harmony of the scene of focuses and the background is more than impressive (even the extras have singular faces, the use of CG is very rare), it is hard to use such brightness without fall in a “I want you to have Epilapsia” dilemma. The process of animation is from another world, on the moment that the characters play the instruments we can see the caution with the details, all the movement looks natural and vivid.
About the soundtrack... it is hard to end this anime and don't fall in love with Chopin. I don't have to say that classic music is, minimally, good. But the Original Soundtrack of the YLA is very underestimated, tracks like "Again", "Watashi no Uso", "Spring Melody" are things that your heart will remember (because it fits perfect with the anime scene, one thing to note is that all music and scene have some kind of natural sound, a spring sound, a colorful beat). Naturally, the two opening themes: Hikaru Nara (Goose House) and Nanairo Symphony (Coala Mode.) are music that will show the importante aspects of the anime, and will make you to hum for a few days.
I tried to explain some points of YLA, and lead you (and myself) to this conclusion: this show is a masterpiece. If I failed to prove this, sorry, it remains a masterpiece, but I'm too small to talk about such big thing. Kisses.
