-sPoiLeR WaRnInG & UnPoPulAr OpiNioN-
I'm going to go over most of the plot in this review to unless spoilers make you want to watch the show more (like me) then you should probably go watch the show and then read this. If you can't handle unpopular opinions you should also probably leave :) (this is also my first review)

Also, this review is mainly for people who have already watched this show so I can share my opinion about it

I hate this show. I hate it with all my heart, might, mind and strength. Your Lie in April is literal garbage. Now before you immediately go to dislike this review just because you have an emotional and spiritual connection to YLIA just wait and hear me out.

On a positive note, I will give props to Your Lie in April for one thing. I am a piano player who hates playing the piano with their entire being. I'm forced to continue playing it due to my parents but it's always been an instrument I despised. I always wanted to create music that made the people listening feel something and I never really felt like the piano could do that. I was a piano player who played exactly to the music score. This was the way I thought the piano had to be played, and I have to thank Your Lie in April for introducing me to a new way of playing the piano. I did find a lot of impact in this show for how it taught musicianship and musical interpretation. In fact, it did an amazing job of portraying this. I connect to Arima who was stuck playing exactly to the score. I didn't know there was "another side" of playing an instrument. Now after watching this show, I have found much more joy in playing the piano. I just participated in a Piano Festival where I submitted my interpretation of the piece instead of playing exactly to score like I usually do. So I do have to appreciate this at least a little for how it helped me.

One last good thing before I tear this show apart into tiny pieces and then feed them to the incinerator... I love how this show used character development. However not on any side characters but specifically the MC. Throughout the show, Arima struggles with the same problem. He can't hear the music (specifically the music he is playing). And although it gets both boring and painful to watch Arima not improve at all throughout the show the way his struggles were portrayed was almost refreshing. Real human beings don't struggle to face a problem where they have a 1-minute flashback to a moment back in time, remember something an inspirational person said and POOF character development! and they never struggle with the problem again. Your Lie in April does a great job of showing human development in an honest light. Seeing Arima go through the same problem over and over again is extremely painful to watch. Not just because we as an audience have begun to love Arima as a character, but because we understand how hard it is to overcome our challenges. We don't overcome our problems on one try but it's a series of trying and failing. And You Lie in April does display this surprisingly well.

Now...The fun part

Your lie in April is an anime that I could understand was "supposed" to be sad but it failed to make me feel any emotion. If anything I just felt intense anger for the first time watching anime. Now as an emotionless human being I don't often cry watching shows or anime however I'm good at understanding when something is sad and a lot of the times I associate a sad anime with "I wanted to cry" but because I am emotionless I didn't actually shed a tear. Honestly, I don't understand how anyone can actually cry from watching this, and while I understand that the premise is supposed to be sad, the execution failed in actually completing that task. We will begin with the worst part of the show :)

The comedy.... deep breaths

What the heck was that slapstick comedy going on the entire hecking show. There would be these beautiful sad moments where I was starting to feel something and understand these characters' emotions and then it was shattered like an elephant running through a skyscraper of glass while simultaneously launching nukes at nearby countries. I mean why ruin these beautiful moments with decently good art and animation with this horrendously obnoxious slapstick comedy that didn't even make me smile god forbid laughing. I mean can't every person that watched YLIA just mutually agree that it was a mistake from the very beginning. And to be honest I'm fine with a little slapstick comedy here and there. But it was just so excessive it was practically unbearable to watch. And to make it worse they put it right smack in the middle of these meaningful moments and as soon as the slapstick comedy elephant was released, the entire atmosphere shattered along with it.
Comedy when used correctly can have an important impact on a story but what this show does surprisingly terribly is its placement and use of comedy. Comedy is not... 'Girl slaps boy and yells bAkA.' Also, I don't think the "comedy" in the show can even be labeled as "comedy." It wasn't even funny. It was only cringe.

the abuse -20/10

Okay, one of the main factors that made me mildly despise this show was the abuse. First of all, I was distracted the entire show because I was just thinking constantly "where the cops at?" Like Arima's mom straight up drew blood and literally no cops. Arima is being overworked and bruised in front of adults and his friends and still no cops. In fact, the show has the audacity to try to tell the audience that Arima's mom was a good hecking person. Like wut?
Now shows handling abuse always need to be careful of how it's portrayed. And shows that portray abuse correctly can be some of the best shows out there. It takes careful planning, study, and execution to be able to accomplish this. And this show fails at all of them. However, I'm mainly going to focus on the end conclusion this show decides to make which is "Arima's mom was a good person." First of all, anyone who abuses their child gets no right to be considered a good person no matter the amount of other good deeds they have done in their life. It's sickening that the end conclusion of this show is that a clearly abusive parent is a good person. What I am most worried about in this message is toward those currently facing abuse. This show is basically telling people "Hey when you're parents beat you, it's okay. In fact, they are a good person for doing so and you should appreciate the sacrifice they are making for you." And that's first absolutely incorrect and just straight up disgusting.

Art and music 7/10

Ok, the art was pretty good, I think it complemented the atmosphere they were trying to create well and it was generally pleasing to look at. The music too. As a piano player who hates the piano watching this show made me actually WANT to practice for once. The music was pleasing and I think they did a fairly good job with the inner monologue while the characters play except after a while it felt repetitive as Arima was basically going through the exact same inner conflict with no improvement for basically all of the show.

Characters

Arima is a pretty decent and thoroughly built character. He has interesting internal conflicts and his backstory is interesting as well. I honestly have really no complaints with Arima as a character. My real problem is with basically every other character in the show but specifically Arima's friends.
Arima's friends are some of the worst people and characters I've ever seen. The entire show they are pressuring and bullying Arima into doing something he has already said multiple times that he doesn't want to do. In fact, He has said multiple times that it only brings him pain. Now to an extent, I think that pressuring someone to do something they don't feel comfortable doing can be good. Like making your friend talk to the McDonald's employee to get an extra ketchup packet. There are times when well-placed pressure can encourage someone to try new things and improve as a person. However, the way this so-called "encouragement" is done is more abuse than soft pushes of encouragement. It's sickening to watch these characters completely pressure Arima until he basically has no choice but to play the piano. Kaori straight-up emotionally manipulates Arima by crying because he won't accompany her. And again this show glorifies these actions. It's not okay to relentlessly pressure your friend to do something. They know themselves better than you know them no matter how long you have known them.

I could probably go on for hours about all the problems I see in this show and all the problematic messages it glorifies and promotes. I honestly can't understand what people see in this show that gives it an 85% I mean bruh.

Well have a good day :)