"Your Lie in April" made me cry a lot despite the very clichéd and predictable plot. The only refreshing thing here is that compared to 君が望む永遠 (an ero animé which I watched while an undergraduate student, this one is about young teens who are just at an age when they are exploring love while doing their best in their fields of interest. And so here we witness pure and innocent love, something that is not manipulative nor needy nor anything of the sort, just the simplicity of liking (or loving a person) to the point that you give a part of you to him or her with no conditions.
Arima Kousei is your typical aloof main character who two years ago from present timeline, gained renown for his uncanny ability to play with such high accuracy that he was given the title "human metronome". (If I were like him I would be very happy as I always have problems with timing. I always end up playing a piece AS I HEAR IT, and not as how it is meant to be played LOL... which I would realize after watching this animé that it is okay no matter how you play as long as you enjoy the music and share that enjoyment with others.) You see, Kousei was under a lot of pressure because his mother was dying. His mother was so worried about her son's future that she put him under strict piano lessons so much that his playing didn't seem to satisfy her one bit. After a piano competition, Kousei told his mom that he wished she would die which happened not soon after. Overcome with guilt and grief, Kousei shunned the piano.
Present storyline: Kousei met a bubbly (but sometimes violent) blond-haired violinist named Miyazono Kaori through his childhood friend Sawabe Tsubaki. Kaori pushed Kousei hard to accompany her to her violin performance which surprised many people because it had been a while since Kousei last performed. However in the middle of the performance, what Kousei feared happened--- he was suddenly unable to hear the notes he was playing. He described the feeling as being under the sea, seeing and hearing nothing with only the void enveloping you. Towards the end, he was able to bring himself back to the performance thanks to Kaori's guidance.
And then in the middle of the series, many more characters turned up which were helpful to Kousei face his past. There were his mother's best friend Seto Hiroko who eventually became his mentor. There were the two competitive pianists Emi and Takeshi who were so moved by Kousei's piano performance years earlier that they, too, entered the piano world. As Kousei was preparing for his piano competition where he is to face these two "rivals", Kaori was battling her own sickness in the hospital. No longer able to walk nor play the violin, she pushed Kousei to play for her before she dies.
The whole story is very predictable as I have said. I was right when I correctly guessed that apart from Emi and Takeshi, Kaori was also part of the audience when Kousei was then known as piano prodigy. But instead of choosing the piano as her instrument of choice, she asked her parents for a violin instead, so she can one day accompany Kousei on the stage. At that time, she developed a crush on Kousei until their fateful meeting wherein she pretended to like Kousei's friend Watari Ryota.
Did I still cry even with the simple plot? Yes, A LOT! One great strength of Japanese films and animé is that even with a simple story, the execution is always so damn powerful and subtle that at a certain point you don't know what hit you but you just know that it is something really beautiful. The use of Rachmaninov's Liebeslied and Liebesfreud was such a fitting accompaniment to how Kousei moved from "dark" love to something that is warm and full of light. This effectively makes this animé a top choice when talking about the its overlap with classical music.
Arima Kousei is your typical aloof main character who two years ago from present timeline, gained renown for his uncanny ability to play with such high accuracy that he was given the title "human metronome". (If I were like him I would be very happy as I always have problems with timing. I always end up playing a piece AS I HEAR IT, and not as how it is meant to be played LOL... which I would realize after watching this animé that it is okay no matter how you play as long as you enjoy the music and share that enjoyment with others.) You see, Kousei was under a lot of pressure because his mother was dying. His mother was so worried about her son's future that she put him under strict piano lessons so much that his playing didn't seem to satisfy her one bit. After a piano competition, Kousei told his mom that he wished she would die which happened not soon after. Overcome with guilt and grief, Kousei shunned the piano.
Present storyline: Kousei met a bubbly (but sometimes violent) blond-haired violinist named Miyazono Kaori through his childhood friend Sawabe Tsubaki. Kaori pushed Kousei hard to accompany her to her violin performance which surprised many people because it had been a while since Kousei last performed. However in the middle of the performance, what Kousei feared happened--- he was suddenly unable to hear the notes he was playing. He described the feeling as being under the sea, seeing and hearing nothing with only the void enveloping you. Towards the end, he was able to bring himself back to the performance thanks to Kaori's guidance.
And then in the middle of the series, many more characters turned up which were helpful to Kousei face his past. There were his mother's best friend Seto Hiroko who eventually became his mentor. There were the two competitive pianists Emi and Takeshi who were so moved by Kousei's piano performance years earlier that they, too, entered the piano world. As Kousei was preparing for his piano competition where he is to face these two "rivals", Kaori was battling her own sickness in the hospital. No longer able to walk nor play the violin, she pushed Kousei to play for her before she dies.
The whole story is very predictable as I have said. I was right when I correctly guessed that apart from Emi and Takeshi, Kaori was also part of the audience when Kousei was then known as piano prodigy. But instead of choosing the piano as her instrument of choice, she asked her parents for a violin instead, so she can one day accompany Kousei on the stage. At that time, she developed a crush on Kousei until their fateful meeting wherein she pretended to like Kousei's friend Watari Ryota.
Did I still cry even with the simple plot? Yes, A LOT! One great strength of Japanese films and animé is that even with a simple story, the execution is always so damn powerful and subtle that at a certain point you don't know what hit you but you just know that it is something really beautiful. The use of Rachmaninov's Liebeslied and Liebesfreud was such a fitting accompaniment to how Kousei moved from "dark" love to something that is warm and full of light. This effectively makes this animé a top choice when talking about the its overlap with classical music.
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