Your Lie in April, or its Japanese title Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, is an emotional anime based on the manga by mangaka Naoshi Arakawa. The anime has 22 episodes and one OVA, and is in my opinion one of the best anime of this year. Of course, this can still change as there are still a lot of anime to come this year, but this one will be, without a doubt, in my top 3 at the end of the year.
The story starts off when Arima Kousei and Mayazono Kaori meet. Kousei is a young piano talent, who decided to never play anymore after he broke down crying on stage when his mother passed away. This is until his two friends, Tsubaki and Watari, introduce him to violinist Kaori a couple of years later. After hearing her play and with a lot of pushing, he finally decides to go back and play piano again. This doesn’t go as smoothly as he had hoped though.
During the 22 episodes, you will come to see a part of Kousei his life, that of Kaori, and of those that are close to them. You see them grow and develop in a way that is not usual for anime. Even lesser important characters get a chance to develop themselves, to make the watcher even more involved in the story. Everyone in the anime has their own past and their own motivations in life, which sometimes causes some conflicts. Difficult choices have to be made and they are sometimes brought in emotionally painful situations.
All these emotions are, not only conveyed by the beautiful music the anime has to offer, something that should only be natural for an anime about two musicians, but also by the outstanding animation. There are some filler scenes as well, where you can see they put in less details. But that doesn’t hinder the experience at all, as it feels like it’s supposed to be like that. These are the moments that are mostly relaxed and mostly not too important to the plot. When the more emotional scenes come into play, they switch from the vibrant colours to the somewhat more toned down ones to bring forth the heaviness of the situation. The only downside of this anime that I can think of, would be that there are a lot of repetitions around Kousei’s story and that it takes some time for the story to go on from there. This didn’t really bother me in the end as everything around that went on with a fast and smooth pace.
Everything in Your Lie in April combines into a fantastic anime. The pace of the story and the way the characters develop is done splendidly, and the way the music and the animation really let the watcher experience all the emotions is amazing. If you love anime this is definitely a series to watch. And if you easily tear up from emotional stories, I recommend keeping a handkerchief at hand when watching. And if you don’t, keep one close anyway as this might make you tear up after all.
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Started airing: 10th of October 2014
Rating: 95/100
