|
I was debating with myself for the longest time on whether I should do an indepth review of this little series, since that would involve me thinking and analyzing its story, characters and the like. And the problem with that is that I feel it would make me lose the pivotal point of the series.
AnoHana is a show best watched with your heart, not you head. With your past memories, not your current expectations. Your unhealed emotions, not detached logic. The shows fee of entry is that you allow yourself to be submerged under all of the melancholic tones, to be carried away by the emotional flow without every resisting. It's a show that is asking the viewer to not think, but feel.
There is a lot of things I didn't like in this show. Menma to me was nothing more than a dressed up plot device that was poorly handled. The melodrama was ludicrous if not chessy many times, to the point where the finale made me laugh out load from all the crying, which was a damn shame since I actually cried back at episode 8, and had been chocking up many times since then whenever I watched this show. I was even ''in the mood'' to watch the episode, same as every past one, and I couldn't stand how overly dramatic it ended up being. I liked very few of the cast as characters, since not one of them really came across as likable. I could sympathize with all of them, but I loved no one. The writing was pretty tight, but I kept on wondering whether they ended up biting more than they could handle by having everything conclude in the last episode, rather than pace it so each issue was closed in the last two episodes separately rather than have everything warped in the final.
And perhaps my biggest issue with the series, it appealed far too many times to my own sentimentality. Sometimes it worked well enough, but I honestly felt like the show had been trying to wriggle additional tears from me or try to make me nostalgic even more so than I was. I would've threw this as being something that might have to do with me, but I noticed a lot of posters here and elsewhere where always bringing up their personal experiences that were similar to the show. It ended up lowering the show in eyes since it was a trick it didn't need to move me.
But ultimately, with all the faults, there is some powerful pros to offsets them far away. The characters themselves were an unlikable bunch, but I felt their pain, and understood their actions well enough and where each of their problems came from (even if I thought some were being idiotic, but that's beside the point). The story for the most part was well crafted and kept to a single tone without veering away from the central theme of the show, and each episode managed to bring more to the table, without a single one feeling like they had wasted time on it.
But most importantly, the show fulfilled the conditions it's given. If I allowed myself to not think about it too much, and simply allow myself to go with the flow of each episode, it did move me. So for all the problems I had, that point at least makes me able to put them aside to enjoy the show more.
AnoHana is a drama. That much is clear. It's a very good drama. That's even more apparent. Other than that though, I wouldn't be able to recommend it to anyone unless they are going through some emotional problems and/or love dramas.
Other aspects to note: I hold no love for Mari Okada, but I did gain a ton load of respect for Nagai Tatsuyuki for being able to handle her haphazard writing and manage to bring this story to life. The animation was competent for the most part, with some hiccups that I'm sure will be fixed in the BD release. The Voice Acting was great, and the score was pretty decent, fulfilling it's job on every scene.
Finale Rating: 8/10, since that's what I feel the series deserves.
|