Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso - Review

Summary: Piano prodigy Arima Kosei dominated the competition and all child musicians knew his name. But after his mother, who was also his instructor, passed away, he had a mental breakdown while performing at a recital that resulted in him no longer being able to hear the sound of his piano even though his hearing was perfectly fine. Even two years later, Kosei hasn't touched the piano and views the world in monotone, and without any flair or color. He was content at living out his life with his good friends Tsubaki and Watari until, one day, a girl changed everything. Miyazono Kaori is a pretty, free spirited violinist whose playing style reflects her personality. Kaori helps Kosei return to the music world and show that it should be free and mold breaking unlike the structured and rigid style Kosei was used to.

Story

Like many music anime, they tend to focus on the character's involvement with the craft and how music helps each character -- whether that is personally or within a relationship. Probably the most interesting thing about Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is one of the main characters, Arima Kousei, starts out with a trauma about music and is entirely appose to participate in the activity. In a sense, this was a clear conflict that was establish right from the get go and makes the viewer curious as to how we will see Kousei make his way to actually enjoying music again -- if he ever does.

With an end point set, the anime needed to plot the course of getting to said end point. Since Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is character focused, most of the pushes toward the goal was through either the supporting or main characters, making each individual role feel like they had a purpose in the story. So even if the story was mostly revolving around Kousei getting back into music, the rest of the cast felt meaningful to each other and as well a Kousei.

The last rung of the story is the importance of music with a character who is actively trying to avoid it. Well this is where Miyazono Kaori comes into play. She is the one to spark Kousei's interest in music, as well as interest towards her. So this is where the fascinating relationship of the characters and how music ties them together. As far as I'm concern, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso does a great job in setting up the plot and establishing our four main characters that are either involved or experiencing the wonders of expression within music.

Art

The first thing that stuck out to me, when I starting watching the first episode of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, is how beautiful it is. You would think that a music anime would have art that didn't really stand out too much, because the focus would be on audio, but there was no punches held in the art department. There isn't a doubt in mind that probably most people were drawn to this anime because of its art -- and that doesn't bother me -- but the thing that made it stand out even more is the way this anime used it's color palette.

A lot of times anime tend to be very flashy with their colors, this isn't the case for Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso because it uses those brighter tone to draw the eye toward someone. For example, the first scene Kaori is in, she is high up on a jungle gym playing a Melodica and since she has blonde hair, there was this moment of awe. Also a lot of the scene with Kousei are darker and more monochromatic as he is in his head trying to deal with his trauma. I find this use of color and art direct extremely well executed and works well to convey the mood of a particular scene.

Characters

With the story being so focused on one character, there is this importance of actually making any other character as interesting and believable. In my opinion there are two real main characters and two main supporting characters in the story of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. I mentioned them before but Arima Kousei and Miyazono Kaori are our two musicians, the main focus, while Sawabe Tsubaki and Watari Ryouta are the non-musicians who support both of the musically talented. What I like the most about the relationship between Kousei and Kaori is the fact that they seem as close to equals as possible since both feed off of each other and make themselves stronger because of it. And the thing that keep them moving forward is music, whether that is the piano for Kousei or the violin for Kaori.

Now, having non-musical people in an anime such as this might seem counterproductive, however Tsubaki and Ryouta have importance. With both of them being jocks, where thing like sport are highly based on practice and talent, it allows the viewer to make parallels to music from a different angle. Also, since they are friends with Kaori and Kousei, we can get a second and third perspective from characters that knows them so well. These strong relationships make many of the character that much more real because others have opinions of them and character interaction has consequences.

Overall

It's really hard to actually find something I had an issue with while watching Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso but there is something that could have been eased up on. This being the inner conflict within Kousei head; sometimes they felt melodramatic, however we have to remember that this is a middle school student we a talking about, things tend to get overblown when you lack the emotional maturity.

Beside that stretch, I would consider this a must watch for those who like dramas or musical anime that will not hold it's punches. I feel like there isn't much to really complain about since A-1 studios did a great job conveying an expressive art like music within it's animations and sound design. I can see myself watching this again in the near future, plus English title -- Your Lie in April -- once you finish the anime you will understand the significance with all of its bitter sweetness.

Orginally posted to the now shutdown sekijitsu.com: Archived Page