Your lie in April

I did like it quite a bit but not as much as I thought I would. I am a sucker for the stories of youthful romance stories. Your lie in April fits the bill. However, I do have some complaints about its narrative around explaining the music. I think all that explanation and exposition about the music were bit overdone, especially in the beginning. I am not a classical music buff but I have studied music and theory. In my past experience, classical music and its ability to narrrate and emote have always been limited for me. It is usually very subtle but the show kind of blew that way out of proportion, more so than what I could relate to. Of course, it is really hard to show the impact of music.

The other thing I didn't quite like was how much melodramatic moments there were. I prefer a more subtle way of story telling. I prefer the story being shown rather than narrated. For example, in Tsuki Ga Kirei, all the subtle emotions were shown through very little words. When I saw the animation, facial expression, I immediately understood what was shown. In your lie in April, the writers relied too heavily on explicitly telling the emotion which detracts the emotional impact at times in my opinion.

Now to the good parts about the anime.

What I really like about the show in terms of its themes is its way of handling grief and death. The mother was portrayed as evil in the beginning only later to reveal her human side. The reason she was so strict was that she was running out of time. Her frustration and her helplessness in guiding Kousei further materialized into strict parenting. That only made her all the more human. Really try to empathize with her. What would you have done? You are dying and you have couple of months to live and your son is so young to know anything. You know you can't protect him further and see him grow up further. How would you feel? You love your son and you want your son to be strong and be independent but there's very little, so little that you could have possibly done for him further. The only thing that you could do is to teach him all you know - playing piano. That's the only thing that you can leave him with. What would you feel at that very instance? How would you feel at that instance? Even as I am writing this, I cannot but feel that sheer amount of helpless ness that she was going through. Life sucks man. Life really blows sometimes. The mother's strict parenting was misunderstood by Kousei who couldn't deal with it. It became his guilt. All these nuances were very natural and relatable.

The second theme I really like was how the show explored the helplessness people go through. Kao chan was beautiful and we all want to see her and Kousei together in some way shape or form but because of the inevitability of her illness. We weren't able to see that in the show. Something is lost and felt not satisfying but something beautiful was born at the same time. I don't know how to put that in words but given their circumstances, it was the most beautiful rendition of how the story should be told. Imagine if Kao chan was able to be saved or she and Kousei were able to be a couple before the show, none of the alternatives in my imagination would do the couple justice. None of these other options would feel as beautiful. When Kao chan was able to live on further in Kousei and help him elevate and discover his music, that's where the show hit the perfect note. It was sad that Kao chan had to pass away but beautiful because they were elevated to a higher level of existence, a spiritual one. That was so good.

Overall, I enjoyed it.