There is a rare breed of show that exists. I would almost go as far as to say that this
particular breed is endangered because of how few of them we see coming out every year.
It’s a kind of series that only appears once in a great while.
Its entrance may be subtle, but its overall performance becomes anything but. It’s a
kind of show that I long for, one that I always hope will appear, like magic, and dazzle us
even if its time before us is fleeting and we must once again suffer the long wait for another series like it.
Today, I am going to be talking about a series that at this point is a year old. And it took
me this long to get to it because, as I mentioned, the time between shows like this is long,
and I’ve always preferred to survive as long as I can before once again beginning
that slog, so I’ve held off for a while. But I’ve known for a while that I would
be getting to it, so now is as good of a time as any. Ladies, gentlemen and others, my name
is Arkada and welcome to Glass Reflection today we are looking at the visually stunning 2015
series from A-1 Pictures, Your Lie In April. Let’s Jam.
Once upon a time there was a pianist, a child pianist, by the name of Kousei Arima. Considered
a prodigy by some and an emotionless robot by others, he was taught by his sickly and
abusive mother to play the piano and to always play it as written, with no passion, no emotion.
So he played, he played and played thinking that it would make her happy and thereby get
better, until we reach the tragic part of his backstory, when she died. The death of
his mother drove our prodigy Kousei into a traumatic shell that he could not break out
of, and he more or less abandoned the piano and music for good. Until one faithful day
when he is introduced to a girl by his friend Tsubaki. That girl is Kaori Miyazono, a beautiful
violinist who performs music with a fiery passion, but also with the grace of an angel.
Despite showing a romantic interest in his best friend, Kaori takes a particular liking
to Kousei, lovingly referring to him as Friend A as almost a continual reminder of their
relationship status. But it’s with her insistent and constant prodding that breaks Kousei out
of his shell, and helps him to recover from his childhood trauma and once again perform
the piano in a way that could move mountains. The drama that the series is known for is
this loving combination of humour, conflict, and of course heaping amounts of tragedy as
the story about these few years of the characters’ middle school lives are told. The drama is
the highlight, as the series has this way of keeping you on the edge of your seat…at
least when it doesn’t have you curled up in the fetal position sobbing uncontrollably.
We get to see a wonderful depiction of not just music and musical performances, but just
life in general as we watch this clash between the socially awkward boy and the much more
brash and carefree girl, showing us ranges in their personalities both on and off the
stage. And this constant drama and decent pacing keeps us interested throughout the
show. The romance of the series though is not generally
my cup of tea and the key romance plot is a love triangle between Kousei and the two
female leads Tsubaki and Kaori. While there are many people who can get enjoyment out
of watching a developing love triangle, historically it’s always something that’s depressed
me personally as I rarely see it end well. Even in the best of cases I always feel like
a love triangle will inevitably end in sadness for at least one character. The traditional
romantic relationship, you see, only involves two people. So at the end of the day, it’s
like the series is playing a game of musical chairs and there’s only two chairs left.
The music keeps playing and playing and as it does you start to think about the possibilities
of what will happen if these two, or those two, are the ones left at the end and you
start to make a mental note of which you prefer. But every time you think the music is about
to stop and you’ll know who has it, it just picks up again with another verse, so by the
time the music finally does end and the characters are seated, you are left wondering if this
was actually want you wanted. And speaking of music, despite that being
what this series is all about, I never felt like I really learned anything about music
while watching the show. The series doesn’t show us how music is played, rather it prefers
to just play us the music without giving us the details of how it’s being performed
or how that performance was properly conceived. Looking at Kousei’s performances as an example,
yes we may see him practice on a song for hours on end, day and night, but we don’t
see the development or his mental process on how he learns to play the music any differently
or better over time. Early on we see a competition where everyone is required to play the same
piece, but the show never tries to give reasoning or explanation on how a performer can stand
out from both their fellow competitors and also from what’s written on the page. So
if you are not extremely musically inclined and aren’t gifted enough to be able to just
tell the difference by listening to the music, then you have to take the show’s word for
it when those other characters created specifically for this purpose, explain how good a piece
is and how the characters are playing them. As such, those aspects of the show are told
through dialogue laid on top of the show’s score, leading to some of the major characterization
of our performers being told more than shown. To me, the show almost feels like it’s suffering
from the same problems that Kousei as a character was suffering. It’s telling this drama in
an almost textbook manner, not that there is a textbook for such things, but so much
of it feels like it’s just there for the sake of it and it feels like it’s missing
that particular something to make the story truly stand out. If this were a performance,
I would say that as Kousei initially did, this drama played out only what was on the
page. I didn’t feel like there was enough to make it differentiate itself from other
well-told dramas. Like those performances though, most people might not pick up on all
this, and in fact it might even be better for the sake of your own enjoyment of the
series to not even try to notice this fact. It’s actually quite easy to get into this
mood of enjoying the series, because even if at times it feels like it’s been constructed
rather than organically grown, I have to admit that it was done so wonderfully in many ways.
How the series goes over the feelings of loss and depression, how it can affect people and
mentally change their perspective is brilliant. Then, when the show is not trying to portray
those dark and suffocating atmospheres, it’s able to display this sense of splendour in
not just its music but also in the everyday lives of its characters. The visuals of the
show help this greatly. Your Lie in April is an example of just how
spectacular animation can be at times. Watching it is an absolute visual pleasure. It has
this kind of eclectic style that grabs your attention and holds it there. The colours
have such a wide palette that can range from beautiful bright ones to sorrowful dark tones
when the need arises. There is this careful attention to detail, from the attire, to how
the characters hold themselves when under stress, to the fact that these characters
actually have proper lips (which is admittedly a weird thing to bring up), and also of course
the other very plot specific details that become more relevant as the series progresses.
Sure, the show also has this much less detailed art style that it switches too for comedy
purposes, that and also for one particular character’s face at all times. But while
it can occasionally be jarring, it and the vast majority of problems, even with the story,
get swept away under this whirlwind of colour, this frantic and wild torrent of emotion,
this runaway train of passion and sorrow that just captures you, for but a brief moment
before letting you go almost as swiftly as it arrived and leaves you reeling from what
you just experienced. The performances of the classical music pieces
are brilliant. Even if you don’t understand any of their significances, the series is
still able to make you care about them enough to get you caught up in the aforementioned
typhoon of feelings. If I was to criticize the music, there is very little that I can
actually touch on. I’m not a music major or anything and most of the time I can place
myself squarely in the position of not knowing much about music and musical performances
beyond the very basic high school level and definitely nothing competitive. That said
however, in terms of original music for the show, I was actually hoping for a bit more.
Sure like I mentioned, its classical score was amazing and performed as such, but when
I look back and try to think about what original tracks really stuck out to me, I can only
think of a scant number. This is a problem not with the show really, but with my own
expectations I suppose, as previously most of the romance dramas that I have watched
have always had this one track, this one song that when played on its own outside of the
context of watching the show, makes me recall all of the emotions from my original watching
of the series instantly. Your Lie in April didn’t really have one of those for me.
There is this one piano track that will be remembered in my head, as a really great and
stand out track from the series, but over the course of the show I felt it was played
far too often to be able to bring up any specific emotions and there was no singular moment
it was used that had enough emotion behind it to make that moment stand out against the
others. The show preferred to space out its emotion rather than let it well up for that
kind of thing, which is of course perfectly fine, it’s just my own expectations brought
disappointment. What I wasn’t disappointed in though was
the dub. I have a particular habit of mine when watching a show for the first time, to
decide whether or not I prefer the sub or dub of a series when I have both options available
to me. Usually I will watch the first episode dubbed, and the second episode with subs.
I do it in this order because if I happen to hit a dub that really just doesn’t seem
to fit well, I can quickly swap over to sub without too much trouble or as I sometimes
like to call it, voice whiplash. With this series though, it wasn’t until about episode
10 or 11 that I remembered, oh right I haven’t watched an episode subbed yet, because I was
enjoying the dub so much. Now that said, from that point on I completed the series in Sub
because I did want to see the ending in the same way many others have from when the show
was first airing, but when I did that switch from dub to sub it really surprised me just
how similar the English voices were to the Japanese counterparts.
It’s more than just another dub, or just something slapped on to help the series sell
to a wider English audience, and I could tell that there was still an immense level of passion
on the side of the English ADR team. The actors were well-casted and the director had them
perform so well. It was just great. It probably won’t be anywhere near enough
to convince dub haters or sub purists to convert, but if you are like me and do enjoy a well-produced
dub, this is most certainly one of them. Lastly I would just like too quickly mention
that the show’s first opening, a song titled Hikaru Nara by Goose House is amazing. In
fact Goose House in general is amazing and you should check them out, but I was just
really disappointed when I couldn’t hear this opening anymore after the first half
of the show. The second opening as also really good, but I just really attached to the Goose
House track. Anyways. Your Lie in April is a fabulous show. The
story it tells about this musician, and those who are affected by him, overcoming all of
their own kinds of grief and hardships is astounding to watch. It’s not a flawless
masterpiece by any means, and I would have loved to see more out of the supporting characters,
for example, than what we got. Perhaps it would have been much better if it was a full
26 episodes instead of just 22, but hey, like the music that the characters perform there
are ups and downs and not everything will be exactly to your taste. But if you enjoy
the kind of show that this is, I guarantee that you will find this worth your while.
Even if the story and characters don’t end up grabbing you as much as they have grabbed
others, the spectacle of the whole thing from the music to the brilliant animation is worth
the price of admission. As such, I gladly present Your Lie in April,
with the recommendation to Buy It. As with most shows that go beyond simply watching
it, this series is at times like a piece of art, and should you have the ability to, you
should proudly display it on your shelf. While it is an Aniplex release here in North
America and they are expensive, for those who can afford to, the Blu-Ray release of
this series is worth having as it makes the experience all the greater. That said however,
it is also available for streaming in multiple locations such as Crunchyroll (if you don’t
mind the sub) and Netflix if you are looking for the dub. Netflix had the sub as well of
course, but I’m just presenting you with your options.
For alternate anime recommendations, I cannot let you walk away without mentioning a series
called Nodame Cantabile, a similar musical series with a much more lighthearted feel
to it. It’s a whimsical series with a rather gruff and stiff musician who comes into contact
with a much more bubbly and carefree pianist, and together their relationship is one worth
experiencing if you have yet to. Second recommendation for those not musically inclined goes to AnoHana,
a drama about a group of characters who like Kousei need to confront their pasts and face
the sometimes depressing reality before them. If you are looking for another series that’ll
make you cry your eyes out, this’ll be it. So hopefully between those you should find
something to your liking. And that’s it from me. Please subscribe
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Viktor Ekmark, Calhounboy, Nicolai Grey, and Marc Robichaud for donating already. You guys
are awesome! And until next time, stay frosty!