Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day - Reviews

This melancholy story is moving and fun to see. I would definitely recommend it. Seeing as it is so short, why wouldn't you watch it?

Pros: The characters are very fun. The Animation is pretty. The story is good. Really it is very well done all around.

Cons: Maybe the ending was just a touch rushed.

Pedirko asked me why i gave Anohana such a bad rating this is my reply :

Apologies, I have not logged on in awhile, so I was not able to see your comment until just recently . Also side note I am not proficient in spanish so I advice you to  use Google Translate. Anyways back to the topic and question, why did I give Anohana a .5/5; I did happen to look at your rating of Anohana which you give it a prefect 5/5 rating, and wondered if I was to harsh on giving the show such a low rating ( it has been a few years since I watched the show), I give the show a .5 rating from what I remember how the show was . So I when back over the weekend to re-watch, watch again, the show to validate my past assetment.After doing so my new conclusion that I have come to is the same .5/5, and if I am feeling generous at the most 1/5 . If you continue to keep reading I will explain how I have come to such a conclusion; warning in doing so I my ruin your interpretation of the show, or you can remain closed minded, I have to remind you that a .5/5 rating and my interpretation of the shwo is my opinion and everyone is entited to their opinion .

The way I grade shows is through the following: Picture / Sound, Story, Characters, prue enoyment, and Morality / Symbolism .

Picture / Sound - now if you take a look at my profile I have watched plenty of anime or atleast attempted. However have only successively watched 120 / 2771 .  I will not watch a show if it does not have good picture or sound , in this case Anohana did have a good enough picture and sound for me to give it a chance and watch the series in its entirely .

Story - I found the story to have so many holes, that I had to speculate and create my own theories ( which I will explain shortly, further down in my reply)

Characters - Now the characters were nothing short of all pathetic, even during the show you will find them calling each other pathetic through the show from the first epiosde to the last. But the main reason why I disliked the charaters was that they all behaved in a unbelievable and realistic manner. I will also describe each character in detail further down in my reply .

Pure Enjoyment - Now the genre this show is filed as slice of life and is supposed to be a tear jerker  and tug at your heart strings. However I found the show more of a tragedy and corny, especially the ending as corny, I was no were near tears . No I would not want to watch this show again .

Morality /  Symbolism - Now I'm guessing the show was going for '' your life is important to someone '' as their punchline, however after watching the show over again i saw it as '' everyone see life in a different view '' I will explain shortly what I mean by that, just be patient .

How the Anohana wanted to be protrayed

The show was suposed to protray a boy in first person point of view who at a young age (6 years old ) faces a traumatic death of his mother and his lover ( a 5 year old ) . Fast forward 10 years later, the boy is now 16 years old, and suddenly the ghost / spirit of this lover appears but not as the image of a 5 year old but a 15 year old. Spirit Menma then gathers all her old friend to reuite and reveil all their sercet in order to restore harmony between them all.

How I saw Anohana

The group all used to hang out together at ages 5 and 6, without supervision; they would run around in the wilderness,collecting insects ( which I never met a girl ever was interested in bugs ) build rockets / fireworks, and one eventually dies in the process. In episode 7 Jinta's father  says '' we believe in laissez - faire ,  you know ? ... I just let him do whatever he feels like . So it's okay. '' That is just bad parenting and just not caring anymore . So Menma dies, she is the beloved member of the group, which everyone want to be with ( boys )or who just wants to be ( girls ) . Her death cause the group to split and break apart . Fast Forward 10 years later Jinta is 16 years old grade school drop out with no job , when he hit puberty, it is summer vacation, there is a knock on the door, who is it? It is Anjou a old member of the group, she is also now 16 years old, her body showing signs of development, and there Jinta starts to lust over the female autonomy. Anjo is there just to give Jinta his summer assignments, because he dropped out he did not pick them up, but she gives it to him iwth only two days left in summer vacation. Jinta does not really care about the homework, he was just happy to see a female.  Then out of nowhere Jinta startes to fantasize and imagine his dead 5 year old lover, but no not as how he remembers her or how she was when she died, but recreating her  as a 15 year old sexually boosted ghost / spirit ( by the way how can 5 year olds really understand romantic love is unrealistic; personality I didnt not develop those feelings until my teenage years) . And instead of befriending Anjo again, I believe Jinta actually stalked her because show indicates that the members drifted apart and was no longer in communication, however in episode 6 Jinta reveals extremely personal information about Anjo to their classmates on his first day back from school ( which supposedly Menma's request, but I think it was just Jinta wanting to get closer to Anjo) causing them to believe them to be acouple ; because on that very same day Anjo was reported to meeting a boy at a love hotel , put one and one together. So basically I believe that Jinta hit that age where he finally became sexually interested in females ( example episode 1 - 3 when he imagines Mena literally hopping on his crotch and in nothing about a bath towel) and started imagining the closetest female he has ever got to , his 5 year old lover ; and his second choice is his old friend Anjo, who is the school's big floozy ( I will explain shortly ) .

Characters in my Interpretation

 

Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi -

Pathetic grade school drop out ( who did return to drop out again later in the story) with no job ( who did get a job just to build a firework for his imaginary Menma , but not to help his father and house to provide for the household) . Ten years later Jinta imagines a 15 year old Menma to fullfill his sexual fantasy.

Meiko Honma -

At age 6 Jinta calls Menma ugly, that he could never like anyone as ugly as her. In episode 11 , She then promises Jinta's mother in sercetly ( alone in a hospital ? who supervised or drove her to the hospital? And why is visiting someone who is unrelated to) to make Jinta cry, bwhahaha  ( evil laugh ) . only problem was she could figure out how to get even ''But... no matter how hard I though I could not figure out a away to do it...'' episode 11 . Now they say she deid in an accident but because this is supposed to be a children's show, but I honestly believe that she commited suicide. Also at the end of the series she forces everyone to reveal their darkest sercets between each other in order for her to leave to heaven ( I think not more like Hell, people who commit suicide dont go to heaven)

Naruko Anjou -

Now after ten years I do not think Anjo still like Jinta, but she is actually depressed and messed up turning into a nympo and junkie. In epsiode 5 a guy calls her '' loose '', she does not deny the fact, and is taken to '' Hotel Pink''. Although she says she is a virgin in the story, I do not believe it. In episode 6 Anjo moves into the old clubhouse / Poppo's home and states '' First I'm gonna scrub this place clean of all your so -  called man juice . '', now I do not know about you but no normal 16 year old runs away from home, drops out of school and moves into a 16 year old males's home with man juice that is not a bit floozy.I would not be surpised if their was some 3 way action going on between Jinta, Anjo and Poppo.

Tetsudo "Poppo" Hisakawa -

Ah Poppo the most unbelievable of the bunch who moved into the old clubhouse ( I'm guessing he ran away from home , since he show never talked about his family and why he really didnt live with his parent and decide to move to the clubhouse, other then the fact that he wanted to) . But Poppo is basically a hobo the clubhouse has no electricity, and no plumbing; so he basically pees and shits out in the woods and takes a bath in rivers and lakes. Poppo is introduced,again, as another grade school drop out like Jinta and Anjo; the three seemly get along the best because they relate to each other since they are all 3 losers . It is also worth noting that Poppo is a part time worker, that somehow managed to travel the world, how you may ask ? Now my theory is that Poppo is actually a drug dealer, and that is how is has made it by eating fast food everyday and traveling all over the world. Also through out the show it is shwon the gang comes over tothe old clubhouse / Poppo's home to drink ( alcohol ) and perhaps do drugs . oh also I had always wondered why Poppo did not move into Jinta's household to help support the household financially and in return he would get electricity and plumbing; maybe Jinta and his dad were afarid Poppo would eat all thier food.

Atsumu "Yukiatsu" Matsuyuki -

Now in the show Yukiatsu is protayed as the cross dresser attempting to fool the group, however it would actually make more since that Jinta was the cross dreser. I find it hard to believe that Yukiatsu is still stuck on Menma since he is protrayed as the pretty boy with brains and other girls find hot. Its hard to believe since he has options , he would be stuck on a 5 year old dead girl.  It would make more sense that Jinta would be the one that is stuck on Menma because he has to romantic options other the the schools' prostitute Anjo.

Chiriko Tsurumi-

She is protrayed as the unwanted one in the story, now in anime they make all female charaters peasing to look at, but my guess is that in reality that Tsurumi is ugly as fuck , making her the last resort. Behind the dead 5 year old, and the easy floozy THEN the ugly fat bitch.

Story

After hearing from friends how great this anime was, I finally decided to watch Anohana, and was somewhat disappointed. The first problems that came into my mind as I watched were 1) If the girl can interact with her environment, why doesn't she do that from the beginning to prove her existence? and 2) The first episodes really emphasized the distance that had formed between the friends, but suddenly, they are acting a bit nicer to each other. eg: Tsuruko is a complete b**** towards Anaru when she picks up her notebook for her, but then speaks to her in a somewhat normal tone later on. The second point isn't that significant because it only refers to a few of the first episodes, but the problem stuck in my mind for the whole series, so I felt the need to mention it.

I found myself bored at times, and glued to the screen at others. The pacing is all over the place, with some episodes full of plot progressing content, while other episodes are made up of break downs that take a bit too much time. The conclusion feels rushed and the last half a minute feels very cheesy. The climax wasn't that climactic either. The transition of the main character from hikikomori to normal person feels sudden, but it I'll excuse that, as it could be justified that the effect Menma had on him caused great change.

Animation

As usual for A-1 Pictures, the animation is pretty good. Motions are generally smooth, and backgrounds and characters are detailed. There's nothing spectacular that stood out, but the style fits the story and mood.

Sound

The opening doesn't fit that well in my opinion, but they probably wanted to give the show a little lighter atmosphere. The ending fits very well on the other hand, and the mood was never been ruined by it (Don't you just hate episodes where something dramatic and sad happens at the end, and then a cheerful j-pop song comes up and ruins it for you?).

Background music wasn't that memorable.

Voice acting was good overall (lots of crying scenes to show off the VA's shouting, screaming, crying, despairing skills).

Characters

Most of the characters are fleshed out well, and I got to know them pretty well, save Poppo, who was a basic character for most of the time. There is nothing extremely complex about them, but their thoughts, actions, reactions, and speech are realistic and relatable.

Overall

I think I've mentioned quite a few good points about the series, and going over them myself, I ask myself, why did I give it a 6.5/10? That's because of the story. As great as it was to listen and watch Ano Hana, the story just wasn't that interesting (perhaps unique is a better way to put it). There were moments where I felt as sad or angry as a charcter did, but in the end, that's all it really is: a constant prodding of the viewer's emotions. For a large part of the show, the plot feels like a long sob story. Sometimes, I just wanted to hurry up and get over with watching the show. These kids (and that mother) needed psychologists. No matter how I think about the show, I just can't give it anything higher than a 6.5 (At one point, I'd even considered giving it a 5.).

I, myself, want to believe this show is better than I percieve it to be (considering its popularity), but I think my review (or at least my general impression of it) is accurate. Please take into consideration that I just finished watching this today, Feb 10, 2013, so I may come back and reconsider/edit, after rewatching parts of the series and thinking about it some more.

This was a super good anime! I really enjoyed, even though i was reduced to tears! Haha!!

Is there any way to give this thing 6 stars, because this is as perfect as an anime, hell, any story told in any medium, can get.