Forum - View topicREVIEW: Your Lie in April Blu-Ray [2016-06-06]
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DuchessBianca
 Posts: 562 |
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This series is one that I've wanted to see so long and the wait was unbearable but once the LE's released I was finally able to watch it and I must say this anime will go down as one of my personal favorites in anime history. I've always been a huge fan of classical music/piano/violin, sadly I've never been able to play any of them but I've often just loved listening to piano scores and never though I'd see an anime so perfectly suited for what I wanted to badly but I finally did
 Everything about this series I truly loved, the character design, the art style, the OST (God it was amazing <3) the emotional impact, the dub was absolutely amazing thank you so much AoA for it as I don't think I would have ever enjoyed this anime like I did if I couldn't watch it dubbed.
Probably not spoilers but will just to be safe spoiler[After finishing this anime it really made me think about my life, how precious it is and short it is, this anime hit me VERY hard even though I pretty much guessed what would happen in the end. This anime will remain a piece of my heart until I die and my life is probably very much enriched thanks to having seen it.] My only really quibble is like you mentioned I really wish they explained what exactly it was, I'm thinking about getting the manga because if I love a series enough I'll always get the accompanying manga but for someone who has read it does it go into any more detail about it? All in all this anime was one of the greatest animes I've ever seen and forever shall have a place in my heart, |
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AnimeFlyz
Posts: 377 |
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They never explained what her illness was? They didn't have to. Its pretty obvious that what Kaori had was Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS for short. The symptoms all match.
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John Thacker
Posts: 1010 |
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This is hardly a problem entirely unique to anime, rather it's often called a characteristic of Japanese society, including by the Japanese. Consider this guide for Japanese students studying abroad in the US, where in the section ガンの告知 it claims that in Japan in the case of cancer it's not entirely unusual for the patient themself not to know of possible cancer or even cancer itself. Instead, the doctor will first tell a close family member and then they will together decide whether the patient can take the shock of finding out that it's cancer. Especially if it's the case that nothing can be done, the patient might not be informed. It also notes that while there are definitely those who want to know or share, there are also even a lot of blood relatives who don't want to know the details when someone gets cancer and people who don't want to inform their relatives (and presumably this goes for friends as well.) The article notes that treatments for cancer have come a long way so it's not necessarily a death sentence, but even that phrasing raises the question of whether in Japan it is common for people to not want to know all the medical details when something is known to be fatal. The "US" side of the comparison rightly notes that this sort of attitude is completely unthinkable in the USA. With absolutely no room for discussion the patient themself must be informed first, as their life is their own, and there's no problem with anyone else learning the details. So I think in this case it really does seem to be a case of cultural differences. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5523 Location: Iscandar |
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I actually finished rewatching Your Lie in April a few days ago, and I continue to love it. I am also very satisfied with its English dub. I am surprised Theron gave it all those B's. I am not saying YLiA is a masterpiece, but an overall B grade is too low for all the great things this anime has.
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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She suffers from plot cancer, a terrible illness that often affects women & advances at a pace coincidentally very convenient to their male counterparts character progression. Also that letter she sends at the end was a big "oh fudge you, show" moment for me that put a dampener on the whole thing.
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Alabaster Spectrum
Posts: 528 |
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I never really liked this show once it stopped focusing on the music aspects and really in retrospect the cast never clicked that much with me either. I just can't really do Japanese Teen Melodrama of the kind this and a lot of other recently popular series seem to like to promote, but it obviously works very well for a sizeable chunk of the fanbase. I guess I'm either just getting too old, find it cheesy and overwrought and not in an amusing sort of way, don't really identify with a lot of the casts or all of the above. It's not like I'm emotionally dead, I just find a lot of what Japan does with it's melodramatic appeals to my emotionally faculties kind of cheap and cold and like it's all some series have to go with for their "impact". It always seems to be some sort of attractive female character that is the source of the tragidrama too which gets old for me after a while.
I don't know it's like it's half of Japans answer to everything scenario wise sometimes, just have some character go through some tear drenched ill defined tragic demise or in their eyes immense suffering over events is usually crammed into the final hours of a given series and that's supposed to make for the appeal of an entire show. I think part of it might just be Asian cultural since Korean stuff does this a lot as well and part just preference for a little more investment and reason to care beyond the look of a character before I weep for said character. Really I'm just kind of pleasantly surprised Theron pointed out that this might be the case for some viewers. Again he just strikes me as the most on point, organized and professional reviewer on the site, lacking the belligerence and/or just gung ho nature of the other ones that allows him to just actually do his job for readers well such that even if I can't always agree with his assessment of something I'm able to respect his down to earth and rational explanations of them. He should do more reviews and certain people should handle less, it'd help the sites profile a ton. |
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meruru
Posts: 476 |
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It all comes down to personal taste whether you like it, or feel like the tragedy was just too heavy handed. One of the things I personally liked about Your Lie in April was how the people around Kousei dealt with his situation, like how his friends, and he also, were all high school kids that had no idea what to do when one of their friends suffers from some emotional trauma, and end up bumbling through it, and even other adults see the signs, but don't know how to deal with it. That aspect I thought was really realistic and particularly well done.
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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When at its worst, Your Lie in April squanders its moments of delicacy or profoundness with monologues that can never hope to match the sheer poetry of its soundtrack. When at its best though, the same show provides visual sequences as breathtaking as anything I have ever seen animated. More specifically, Kousei and Kaori's haphazardly performance of Saint-Saëns' Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso had me literally gasping for air, my jaw agape. Individual features of the piece, such as the main theme alternating between the piano and the violin towards its end, were enhanced into thrilling moments that the subsequent plot never matched through its own accord. I almost believed that such qualities were improvisations unique to the episode's performance, until previous recordings sadly revealed otherwise.
I believe this indicates how this series scales the emotional peaks that it does: The occasion in which Tsubaki and Kousei discuss their feelings on a beach is tender only thanks to Debussy. The episode whereupon Kousei assists Nagi on stage speaks so forcefully of the bond between a student and her teacher only through Tchaikovsky's aid. What this anime achieves most triumphantly occurs when its score is used as a dramatic springboard to exceed what was possible strictly by the story's own merits. My only focussed criticism concerns its climax. spoiler[As we know, Chopin's Ballade No.1 ends in a desolate fashion despite establishing a triumphant theme during an earlier crescendo. This telegraphs what we can expect in the series' finale. From the moment Kousei plays its famous opening bars in the penultimate episode, we are able to anticipate exactly which parts of the theme will represent love and decline respectively, well in advance of when such representations are made explicit. A further disappointment, albeit a minor one in the moment of viewing, is that Kaori's affections during this scene are conveyed through a superfluous violin accompaniment that only mimics the piano's rousing melody. I grant that it is necessary for her to play a musical role in what is certainly a powerful scene—indeed a scene in which her own death is represented—though I can only wonder how else such a directorial challenge could have been approached.] |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18562 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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This is quite interesting, as I had never heard of it before. It certainly explains a lot about several other anime titles I've seen. (Rumbling Hearts immediately springs to mind. . .) |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1010 |
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Yeah, there's a lot of titles that just seem really odd until you learn about this, because it's just so utterly foreign to Americans and probably other cultures as well. The "America" part of that section is really, really emphatic about how there is absolutely no room for argument on this point. Multiple uses of words meaning "impossible," "inconceivable," and so on for not telling the patient first, or letting the patient know immediately if you should happen to find out first. It ascribes it to America's fundamental individualism, and says that the entire idea that someone, knowing something important about you that you don't, would concern themselves, adjudicate, and control your matter of life and death is indisputably completely unforgivable. (Using some of that "keshite yurusareru koto de wa nai to iu koto de aru" [決して許されることではないということである] that you generally only hear in anime.) It says that absolutely no one would doubt or oppose informing the patient in order to let the patient make his or her own decision. I can't disagree with that, because I certainly couldn't conceive of it before, and it's still shocking to me even though I've heard of it now. |
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Tenebrae
Posts: 494 |
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I saw this show recently, actually. Overall, I think it is pretty good. The animation quality remains surprisingly good throughout, and there's lots of nice piano play if that is your thing.
The show has its flaws too. There's no getting around that Kaori is a bully (though we wouldn't have a story without her coercion.) They also love to drag out things waaaaay too much. They could clip out a quarter without much impact. Refreshingly though Kousei's final meltdown is not stretched out much past it's welcome - or a cynic would say they're running out of air time. I agree that the emotional impact falls bit flat, much because of this needless feet-dragging. And for me the final twist felt really tacked on, unnecessary and only there because they wanted to give it a clever name. Another thing - which I think I may have mentioned before - is that I thought this series could well be a shonen fightan series. (This is not necessarily a bad thing.) The way the competitions are framed, the over-the-top commentary for each "attack" while they play, and the overblown way their piano play itself is presented. Also how the competitors carry themselves, and how some even have stage names like "the human metronome." These parts are clearly a battle show. Or perhaps a sports show; I haven't seen those but I would think they portray themselves in similar manner. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Is it fair to separate to scoring when it's as much a part of a TV show as anything else? Does the fact that the scoring is not original matter? Has anyone seen "The Importance of John Williams"? |
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Brian_FTP
 Posts: 88 |
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I loved how they pretty much saved every big revelation for the very end of the series; it had such an emotional payoff.
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2500 |
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It took me a while to even register that spoiler[the death] was supposed to be sad. All I saw was the tale of a boy who got really really bad with his guilt over his pillar dying deal really really well with that happening again, just after getting back up.
Then again that angle doesn't speak wonders of the character writing. |
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grooven
Posts: 1431 Location: Canada |
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I really enjoyed the show and the conclusion was the best part, but the issue I had was what happened in the middle. With the way Kousei's mother treated him, seeing him get hit for gag purposes really didn't work for me and felt ridiculous. The side characters weren't as strong/defined enough to quite carry to the show in between. I feel if they focused on a few they would've stood out more. However the musical elements were brilliant, along with the visuals, making the show a really great experience.
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