Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

Ignatius Bagussuputra

Sunday, 16 August 2020

6 min read Share Edit

Days since last seen: 2 (14 August 2020)

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Synopsis

Kousei Arima the prodigious pianist, also called the human metronome that never misses a beat, falls into a downward spiral after the passing of his mother, rendering him unable to hear the sound of his own piano tunes (more info in spoilers section).

Two years later, after living in a monochrome world, his life changes drastically as he meets Kaori Miyazono, a beautiful and audacious violinist who stirs up his world and drags him back on a journey to face music again with his piano. Together with his childhood friends, Tsubaki Sawabe and Ryouta Watari, he’s starting to get back on his feet, and time that was once frozen started ticking again for him.

Based on the manga series of the same name, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso approaches the story of Kousei’s recovery as he discovers that music is more than playing each note perfectly, and a single melody can bring in the fresh spring air of April.

Highlights

9/10 | Story & Plot

The story makes sense, it’s not over the top, it’s not cliche either. Pretty predictable in a way, but it’s written better than most drama love story I’ve encountered before. In short, it’s original in its own way.

It’s mostly sad but they always try to follow up with something humorous to cover it up, but when it doesn’t, it really hits hard. It’s perhaps the definition of riding a rollercoaster of emotions. The plot is well managed too, it guides you from the beginning to the end smoothly and explains the story in a well-managed manner.

8/10 | Artwork & Animation

As expected of A-1 Pictures, great as always. Always been a fan of their works, and this is without a doubt one of them. My only complaints are when they only put a static image of with sound when a side character is performing. Aside from that, it’s scenes and backgrounds, especially when the performance is on, is absolutely beautiful.

10/10 | Sound

I have no complaints about the sound here. It’s a no-brainer for me, I love to listen to music and this show is dedicated to performing one. I love to listen classical music, it’s not really the listen-to-everyday kind of music, but if you don’t, fear not. The way they present it to you in this show is nice that you don’t really get bored by listening to it throughout the show. The opening and ending sequence are super nice too that I never skip.

8/10 | Characters

The characters are well-built. True to the nature of the genre, they’re humans, and they’re relatable as such. Their character development is visible and they makes us feel like we grew together with them.

Some minor things I’ll be picky about is they sometimes exaggerate some of the character’s trait too much to a point that it becomes tedious and repetitive.

Verdict

Your Lie in April was certainly that kind of show where you knew what’s going to happen in the end, yet you’ll still be “surprised” by it. It’s that type of slice of life, drama anime you’ll most likely just enjoy watching or re-watching.

The title itself makes me think about it constantly throughout the series, trying to figure out who’s perspective is “Your Lie” coming from and what lie is about. I highly suggest you don’t go wiki surfing and just watch it till the end as is. I always felt like that’s the best approach to watch a series, the journey and experience of growing with the characters is worthwhile by itself.

The final verdict from me is of course, highly recommended! You can watch it anytime you’d like, but by the time you’re done, you’ll probably want to re-watch it around April.

Soundtracks

[Spotify] OST Covers

Reference(s):

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Lie_in_April
• https://shigatsu-wa-kimi-no-uso.fandom.com/wiki/Shigatsu_wa_Kimi_no_Uso
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusia
• https://aminoapps.com/c/anime/page/blog/kousei-arima-the-struggle-of-ptsd/08tk_uKPrGbKX0dNxwn71BBop7BZ5q
• https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/23321/what-kind-of-illness-was-kaori-miyazono-suffering-from
• https://myanimelist.net/anime/23273/shigatsu_wa_kimi_no_uso