The Anthem of the Heart - Reviews

From the makers of Anohana: The Flower We Saw that Day. Sold.

After being thoroughly disappointed by a hyped up anime in my previous review, I did temper my expectations a little bit this time. What if Anohana was a one hit wonder? What if the team didn't utilize their budget to the fullest potential and instead wasted it on making trains look pretty? These fears could be assuaged by one name, Tatsukyuki Nagai, whose résumé includes directing Honey and Clover II, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, and Toradora! Nagai and the rest of the production team should be granted the highest of praises for bringing new life to the competitive slice of life genre.

The story of The Anthem of the Heart is almost that of a modern fairy tale. A girl facing some misfortune meets a guy who encourages her to overcome her obstacles and find her true self, all while facing some crazy love triangle and/or other wacky life circumstances. Going into this movie you need to know that the story isn't one of the strong points. Not to say that the story is bad or even mediocre, but from a basic structure standpoint, it isn't much different than what we've seen before, especially in a manga that bears a striking resemblance to it, A Silent Voice. Rather than having a compelling overall premise, like many slice of life anime The Anthem of the Heart draws its strength from powerful individual scenes, the “slices” upon which it focuses. The most powerful scene in the film takes place in an abandoned love hotel, which has the perfect blend of atmosphere, voice acting, and character animation that makes it one of my favorite scenes in anime movie history. The ending was satisfying, not completely selling out for an idealistic conclusion, but still giving the viewer what they want.

While the story was the weakest point of the movie, the animation was one of its strongest. The colorful palette and sharp character designs brought a lively mood to the anime. The best parts of the animation were the characters themselves. The Anthem of the Heart has some of the most expressive character animation I've seen on film. The characters experience the full range of emotions, and between the voice acting and character animation, the viewer experiences a connection with the characters that is truly special. It's difficult to describe without actually showing it, but it must be emphasized how the characters bring their emotions to life in this movie.

Finally, another strong aspect of this movie was the sound design. The voice acting was incredible; as mentioned above it breathed life into the characters. What was unexpected though was the quality of the music. The musical numbers were some of the best I've seen in anime. While some anime contain songs, they are rarely utilized in a way that accentuates the themes and drive the plot in the way that they do in The Anthem of the Heart. Even the adapted public domain songs that were used for the students' musical were beautiful, sometimes tearjerking.

I love the slice of life drama genre. These days it is difficult to break new ground in a genre that is literally life itself. However, The Anthem of the Heart succeeds where others fail because it tells a complete story with strong characters and a satisfying ending. It's on par with Nagai's previous slice of life masterpiece Toradora! Certainly The Anthem of the Heart should be considered along with the other classic great slice of life works as part of what makes animation such an entertaining medium.

Story: It frist starts off great happy and fun but then bam it puts crazyness in to the mix, but the story was like are every day lifes to a piont I mean that not all of are lifes have gone down this road, but for most of us we can have this movie show us in a way how it was played out in are lifes. (PS I AM NOT SAYING THIS ABOUT ANYONE IT IS JUST WHAT I FEEL WHEN I SAW THIS MOVIE IN THEATERS TO NIGHT.)

Animation: Relly good job a again A1- Pictures there was some parts of the movie that were down in the drawings, but for the most part it was a great movie it see on the big screen.

Sound: the music was great love the soundtrack and the singing it made me cry a little great job on the sound with the characters when that where moving and talking hit that one on the mark guys thank you

Characters: The cast and Characters where great in this movie the feelings that they give and put in to the Characters where just mind blowing very nice job and the ending well I am just going to say I got me good and I am gald that it happend that way. Thank You guys for showing this in the theaters I can't wait for more to come.

I personally loved this movie. It was very sweet and cute. There was a lot of emotional scenes that really touched me and made me cry.

The animation is great. It reminded me a lot of AnoHana. (recommend btw)

The music was great. I loved how sweet and not in your face it was. It very much matched the movie.

The characters were meh. I loved the main character; she made the movie. I was totally into the love interest until the end of the movie ( won't give anything away ). The other girl / friend of the main character, did not like her from the start. The baseball dude was cool and I liked him; however. begining of the movie 8/10, end of the movie 5/10 ( once again won't give away why ). The main character's parents are both pieces of poop and I hated them; their characters are just awful.

Overall, the movie is a good watch. It's long though; so really buckle down and bring the popcorn.

I went into this movie without knowing anything about it besides the title and absolutely no expectations, and I think for the most part, this allowed me to enjoy it more than I would have otherwise. 

The story itself is rather simple with a lot of fairy tale elements and theme -- a story of a girl with a curse, and her prince who saves her. While simple and at times childish, it's the nuances in each detail and scene that really makes this anime. The atmosphere that is created through each scene gives it impact and meaning. And while the ending may be off-putting to some, it's the ending this story deserved and needed.

Wow! Simply wow! 

NO SPOILERS!

After watching this I can understand how some people might confuse this movie for a clique typical romance. However, this movie is just the opposite! For a 2hour long movie, I was definitely entertained, which was surprising since it didn't have any supernatural or mature themes (for ex. like your name. or A Silent Voice). 

The story appears at first to be a bland, classic, romance that is very common in the anime realm. However! The ending was vastly unique. I haven't seen an ending like that one, although one could probably expect it, it actually happening is another story. If you are a fan of love triangles then this movie definitely has one! 

One of the reasons why I adored this movie has to be the fact the main leads didn't always get their way. Something you see happening a lot in romance movies - where everything manages to simply work out - kind of like the plot was built around the leads rather than having a realistic free-flowing plot. I liked this because after watching the whole movie you could definitely imagine seeing multiple other movies that had a boring typical ending to the same type of story. <- This was my favorite part of the movie!

The animation was fairly normal, not super great, but not bad enough to the point where it disturbs the watch. Same with the sound, nothing out of the norm. 

The characters. Even though the personalities of the characters are somewhat recycled from other animes (the ex-lover, the shy girl, the unpopular/quiet boy, and the bonehead) - but I liked the way the character development worked. It didn't disclude the side characters and focused only on the development of the main leads similar to a lot of the big hits in romance movies. Although, obviously the main leads had the best development, in this movie it felt like the side characters influenced the whole story and definitely the ending. I believe the development is due to the storyline rather than the characters themselves. Adding on, I couldn't help but shrug off the feeling I've encountered the exact same characters but in another anime (they were overused) - I didn't like that. <- This was the worst part of the movie in my opinion!  

I would like to say the ending is kind of a cliff-hanger, but it gives enough closure to end the movie. I also would like to mention that this movie wasn't insanely emotional - it was more entertaining and shows a genuine, classic type of young love. 

Be warned! Its kind of a long watch, and might be boring in certain parts!