Anohana is a very good representation of such a thing. Yadomi Jinta, and his group of friends, reconnect and finally mourn the loss of their young friend Menma, who died several years prior. Through their mourning process, they rediscover their friendship and dig up old rivalries and love geometries that existed.
Our main character Yadomi Jinta shows all the signs of a young man who has experienced severe loss of not only a childhood best friend, but of his mother at a similar age. Wrought with depression, survivor's guilt, and regret, Jintan struggles to even go to school. With a father who is too scared to discipline him out of a feeling of guilt, He certainly is at his wit's end.
However, as fate would have it, Jintan can suddenly see his deceased friend, Menma, as she would be, if she were still alive. This main plot thread, carries forward through the story, with Jintan being cursed and blessed with this ghost.
The story being told here is enjoyable and well crafted. Being character-driven, the dialogue is critical to making a believable story. Fortunately, the dialogue is very well written and full of emotion. It gets so so much right in how a person feels holding in the emotion of a loss of a loved one for so long.
The characters themselves are also extremely well done. They seemingly try, and succeed, to cover every base with the group of friends. Yadomi, the leader turned depressed misanthrope. Anjo, who compensates for her sorrow by putting on a mask and having fake friends. Matsuyuki, who pretends to have it all figured out, and looks down on anyone different from him. While still being a broken-hearted young boy underneath. Tsurumi, who similarly pretends to have it all figured out, while permanently hiding her true feelings from her unrequited love. And Poppo, who has run away from his feelings and avoided them by traveling around the world.
They travel through the story, slowly developing and repairing the relationships with each other that they once had. In order to come together again, and finally mourn the loss of their friend.
Unfortunately, the praise stops here. The pacing has several very awkward moments, where I felt things were either out of place or seemed like they never went anywhere. There is a specific scene where Anjo initially tells her romantic feelings to Yadomi, and she is rebuffed with no response. Then when the scene changes, Yadomi comes home and he NEVER thinks about what she said or even acknowledges it. This same scenario happens several times in various guises. It just seems like Yadomi (who is the only one's thoughts we can hear) hardly ever thinks about anything around him and just thinks about Menma. If this is purposeful, it isn't obvious enough to me for it to be a positive.
The story, I feel, suffers from a slight case of confusion. It initially comes across to me as a character-driven, coming-of-age story, focused around the loss of a friend. However, it also includes elements of romance and romantic triangles. As well as drama and even situational comedy. There's even one, yes one, single comedic relief (equipped with anime sound effect) 3/4 of the way through the story.
Additionally, the dialogue also has a few points where it was awkward or 'cringe'. These I can give a pass, as they are teenagers, who are going through lots of stress, and just because I don't like it, doesn't mean it doesn't fit the story.
The characters have no glaring issues in my opinion, the only real problem for me was that I didn't know that the Menma that Yadomi saw was a grown-up version. I thought she was stuck in time (her mom literally says it) for this whole time. She has a high-pitched voice, and... ehm... isn't very well endowed. I just felt like they really should have made it more obvious, as it would have made a lot more sense why Yadomi still loved her even as a ghost. I could blame that on myself, but come on, she literally only changed in height. For a young girl supposed to be 15? Nonsense.
And for god's sake, the opening scene sets a completely irrelevant and mildly inappropriate stage for the rest of the story.
This story could have been perfect in my opinion, and it really gets so much right. But I just felt like it needed the fat trimmed, and the pacing straightened out. Overall though, it gets too much right and is too emotionally accurate to be any less than an 8.
P.S. Apologies for poor writing. I was never taught how to write properly.
