Back to DELETEaccountNM's Profile DELETEaccountNM's Profile

At first AnoHana didn't catch my attention at all. I thought it was a plotless anime about a group of friends who spend their summer with each other. When I ran out of ongoing anime I could look forward to during my week, I decided to try this one. I realized that I had completely underestimated this show.

About the story:
Like I mentioned before, I thought that there was no real plot to this anime. The reason might be that the information on the website I visited to watch the anime wasn't complete. Well, I encountered an anime that made me tear up every single episode. ...
I like how the show describes various possibilitys on how different kind of people react to the loss of their dear friend and which impact it has on them, even after a few years.
Every character had their own way to handle Menma's death, but in the end it is shown that none of them has been able to be at peace with themselves. They are only able to do that once all of them have revealed their feelings regarding Menma's death.

I apologize for those vague statements, but the rules say that I am not allowed to write spoilers, which makes the rating of the story pretty hard.

About the art:
The art itself isn't really that outstanding. However, it accompanies the plot really well. Every place in this anime becomes familiar during the show and we can relate them to certain events.
Especially the group's 'secret base' in the forest is a constant reminder of old times and gives off a feeling of safety and home.
The character's personalities are outlined by their individual character design.
The artwork is pretty colorful, which supports the overall theme of summer and gives off a comfortable feeling.

Sound:
This one is probably the one thing, one can praise the most. I don't know about the background music, since I don't remember it. Well, that probably means that it mixed in so well with the rest of the anime that I didn't realize it individually.
However, what I want to praise is the opening and especially the ending theme.
The opening song 'Aoi Shiori' makes one start the episode with a relaxed, maybe abit nostalgic feeling, which -in my eyes- is a really important thing for this anime.
I am pretty sure that it was the ending theme, which made me tear up at the ending of every episode. It starts playing during the last few sentences and makes the whole thing a lot more sentimental. I also think that it was a really good choice to make the female main cast sing it.
The seiyuu cast in this anime show did a really great job. They transmitted the feelings of their characters really well. I have to admit that I didn't know most of them, excluding Takahiro Sakurai. The fact that one of my favorite seiyuu voiced the anime's male hottie probably got it a few extra points.

Character:
Because the story is about a group of friends, there isn't such a wide palette of characters. However, that was made up by the big character development.
Well, the next part is going to get hard again, since I don't want to spoil anyone, so I want to apologize beforehand.

Menma:
Menma died when she was a child, so even though she looks like she has become older, she has maintained the pure and innocent character of a child.
She does her best to make her childhood friends become close again.
I think that they did a really good job giving her that kind of personality. Her appearance was probably chosen to be that of a teenager, because she is a love interest. Since it's a show with a serious plot and just as many ecchi moments as needed with a male teenage protagonist, a prepubescent love interest would have been totally misplaced.

Jinta:
Jinta has become a shut-in because of Menma's death and the way his friends changed since then. He is the kind of teenager, who is angry at the world.
He wants to grant Menma's wish because he thinks that it is his fault that she died. However, he often doubts his decisions, because he often comes to the conclusion that his childhood friends won't help him.
In my eyes he represents teenagers who feel abandoned by their friends.

Anaru:
Anaru has always had a one-sided love for Jinta, which made her become jealous of Menma. She can't hate her, though, because Menma is her friend and has always been nice to her.
She is heavily influenced by her female classmates. She wants to be part of a group, so she adapts herself. She has an inner conflict, because she likes Jinta, who is an outsider, but does not want to be one herself.
She represents teenager, who make themselves fit into a group, even if that means that they won't be themselves anymore.

Yukiatsu:
Yukiatsu is handsome, smart and charming to his classmates.
He suffers because of his one-sided love for Menma and treats Jinta in a bad way, because he is jealous of him.
I like the fact that despite the characteristics mentioned above, he is not perfect. As he said himself: ''I'm hot and I'm smart, but unfortunately I'm lacking a bit in the strength department''.
He represents the misjudged teenager, who is idolized or envied by others.

Tsuruko:
Tsuruko is a quiet, smart girl. She seems to be pretty apathetic to the things that happen arround her, which is proved wrong later during the series.
She represents the misjudged teenager, who seems think of him/herself as superior.

Poppo:
Poppo seems to be the only one from the group who hasn't changed. He is the first who believes that Jinta can see Menma and is pretty desperate to help her. the reason is mentioned later in the series and would be considered a spoiler.
He represtent the kind of teenager, who acts like a happy person around others even though he doesn't feel happy.

Well, so in the end all kinds of problems that teenagers can face are represented by this set of characters. That's why everyone who watches this series can be sure to find a character whom he/she can identify him/herself with.

Because of everything mentioned above i think of AnoHana as a really enjoyable anime and I would recommend it at any time.

At the beginning of the anime I wasn't really full with expactations, since the bit of information I had read about the show didn't really stirr my interest, the only reason for me watching it was me being bored.
Seeing a boy like Ryuugamine Mikado at the very beginning made my head scream "please, no timid protagonist!!!". However, seeing Orihara Izaya in the second episode made my expectations jump high, but I'll explain more about that later.

So I went on watching the show until episode 8 or something like that.
I have to say that at this point it seemed to me like there was no real ... plot to the story, just some people living their not so normal life in a city called Ikebukuro.
So I stopped watching the show.
At some point I ran out of anime with good characters and i remembered a guy called Izaya, so went on watching Durarara!!.
that was when I realized I had stopped watching just before the story was about to begin.
Seeing as there is a wide field of interesting characters to explore, they had to be introduced during the first 9 episodes. That's when the real plot began:
i saw a heavy character development coming and I didn't want to miss it. I don't want to spoil the show (the rules prohibit it) so I'll try to express myself the best way I can:
There were lots of heavy decisions to be made by the characters and unexpected identities to be revealed.

About the artwork: it isn't really something that amazes you, at least not me. However, it does support the story very well, the different places give off the feeling, they should. For example the headquaters of the Yellow Scarves being an old building, maybe some kind of warehouse, since this is a gang founded by teenagers without the money for a bigger place and not some high class mafia, which makes it more realistic. As much as I know the places shown mostly do exist, excluding Raira Academy.

I have to admit, I don't really pay attetntion to the music in anime, movies etc.
However, that tiny bit I did notice was always fit to the situation. i want describe this topic any further since my intention is not the analysis of background music.

Alright, up to my favorite part of anime: the characters!
they were the sole reason for me watching this show. I have to say that I have a bit of a fetish for crazy, kind of evil anime boys. So I was really happy seeing a character like Izaya show up and not only a few times.
I think the wide range of characters presented in this anime has something to provide for anyone (I don't want to offend anyone or reduce poeple just to their looks in the following part):
A timid innocent boy with character development;
the happy-go-lucky kind of guy with a not so happy past;
a big busted, glasses-wearing school girl, who learns about the values of friends after a tragedy in the past;
a crazy informant broker with the hobby of making humans play into his plans;
an uneblievable strong bartender, who wants to live his live in peace;
a mysterious, mature female Dullahan, in search for her head;
a friendly, somewhat strange doctor; a stalker
and lots more!

I have to admit, that my rating was influenced by my love for many strange characters, but even if i didn't I had to say that all of the mentioned aspects play well together and create a unique anime show.
I was really content watching Durarara!! and would recommend it any time.