Last post, I mentioned that I'm slowly but surely getting more and more into "slice of life" kind of anime.
I'm not entirely sure what's exactly pushed the change. My tastes used to be fairly conventional, with broad swathes of mecha and fantasy and the like. I still like those from time to time, but I find myself drawn more to looking for things that are somewhat different.
Now, this isn't entirely new. One of the anime that most truly hooked me on the form way back when was Kimagure Orange Road, and while it certainly had some fantastic elements, I wasn't even really aware of them at first. The local video store at the time had the OAVs and the first movie (which were all that had been published in English at that point.) In those stories, the wilder aspects of Kyosuke's powers didn't tend to have much of a rile. I mention KOR, because some of these shows are hitting me in some of the same ways.
A bit ago, I finished up one that's a kind of slice of life, but boy did it take some bizarre and unexpected twists. It's called
Myself; Yourself
I may as well warn you, I may let some spoilers slip on all the stuff I'm going to talk about here to the end of the post. I'm just kind of rambling, musing and reacting, so if you don't want spoilers, it's a good time to go read your favorite webcomic.
I honestly don't know what to make of this one. It starts with a fairly simple and interesting premise, and then it just goes entirely into the land of bizarre. Just huge turn after huge turn. In the end, I'd probably say overwritten, but compelling for it.
What is it? Well, the initial premise is simple and interesting. The first scene is a group of friends in elementary school who are having a going away party for one of their number, a boy named Sana. His parents are moving to a new town, so he has to leave them. After that first scene, we jump to 4 years later. Sana is moving back to the town, but he's going to be living alone. (He'll be staying in an apartment owned by the mother of one of the other kids.)
So, now he has to reconnect with his old friends, and all of that. As I said, fairly simple. Back in the "old days" he'd been closest to one of the girls, Nanaka, and she was the one he was looking forward to seeing the most when he got back.
Well, suffice it to say, he really got off on the wrong foot with her upon his return, and she started to have something of a cold streak towards him. So far, a fairly straightforward setup for a romantic comedy, and the first few episodes are diverting, but fairly normal.
Yet, as the show goes on, you begin to get a sense that there's a huge amount more going on under the surface than you'd ever think.
In short, pretty much all the major characters except Aoi (the girl whose mother owns the apartment house) is carrying some pretty epic baggage. You have characters abused by their parents, neglected by their parents, and that's just the beginning. Honestly, it's just overdone in so many ways. Twists and turns that have to be seen to be believed. A light and fluffy series ends up as one with half a dozen major characters who have pain oozing from every gland.
I know I said spoilers before, but I'm just not sure that I want to share some of the moments, They have to be seen to be believed.
How would I rate it in the end? Honestly, I think I'd give it something along the line of a 6.5/10. It certainly doesn't rate as an all time favorite, but it has some interesting and powerful moments. I certainly wasn't inclined to stop watching once I hit the bizarro trainride.
Now, lets move on to something a bit more cheerful. I mentioned it last post,
Sound! Euphonium
It's also a slice of life, but much more fun, and fluffier. In short, it begins with a Middle School band waiting for their grades in a competition. They're thrilled to find out that they got the gold medal, but then were crushed to find out that it was a "fake" gold. That is to say, while they scored gold, only the top 3 schools went on, and they were not in that top 3. It starts with two major characters. You have Kumiko, who is the main character, who plays a Euphonium (which I can relate to, having played the Baritone way back when.) Then you have Reina, who is an extremely good trumpet player.
When they hear the news about the fake gold, they have very different reactions. Kumiko isn't too disappointed, thinking they'd done pretty well overall. Reina though? She was entirely crushed, and got quite upset with Kumiko for not being as devestated as she was.
The series then jumps to High School. Evidently, Kumiko and Reina are the only people from that band who went to this particular school, and Kumiko actually went there to get away from band. Yet, she soon found herself in it, as was Reina (of course.)
From there, the story goes on, and we see a pretty interesting story of a very troubled band. The year before, it had broken down between people who wanted to work hard and push for high marks in competitions, and others who just wanted to have some fun, but not put in the effort. The scars of what was a pretty ugly fight are still hanging over the band, and it gets worse when a new teacher shows up. As you'd imagine, he's pretty unconventional (this is anime after all), but from there we have the story of the band growing together. I was glad to see that it is going to get a second season. Fun characters, a more interesting story than you would think that a High School Concert band would create. I'll give it 8.5/10
Ok, we've had one wierd one, and one cheerful one. Now, it's time to get to the last one, the one that's just plain hard.
Your Lie in April.
I honestly think that this is the best anime I've seen in a decade, and maybe even longer than that. I mentioned a bit about it in my last post.
The main character is Kousei Arima, and at one time, he was one of the up and coming prodigy child pianists in Japan. However, one day in a competition, he just entirely lost it, and from that time, was simply unable to play. His long time best friend is Tsubaki, the neighbor girl. She can sense that losing his music is something that has "stopped Arima" in place, and she has a bit of a scheme to break him out of it.
There's another girl in the class by the name of Kaori, who is a competition level violinist, and Tsubaki essentially tricks him into going to a tourney with her in it. Well, where his play had always been precise like a metronome, her play was wild, carefree. He was smitten on the spot, but he also knew that she had a crush on another friend.
Well, that's just the setup, and from there, the story goes on to how Kosei slowly but surely manages to come out of his long funk. (Actually, a better way to say it would be that he got dragged out of his funk.)
More and more, you see just what lies behind Kosei's problems, and you see the people who care for him trying to help him. However, the story takes some pretty hard twists and turns along the way, and before you're halfway in, you know that something seriously bad is going to happen. (That's all I say.)
Moving, touching, if so very, very hard. One thing I like about it is that the characters are very real. We see some generally good people doing some nasty things, and then you see the person most would consider the "worst" person in the show with some genuine nobility. (I don't think it remotely makes up for what they did.)
You have Arima, the human punching bag. Really, the most troubling thing about the show is how badly so many people treat him, especially those who care for him the most. I don't know if he even realizes that it's not supposed to be that way. Then you have Kaori, who is quite frankly, kind of two faced and manipulative at times. I could go on, but you get the idea.
That said, it comes with my highest recommendation. It is hard, it may well make you choked up (or worse), but it's a great ride. 10/10.
Well, I doubt anyone's actually going to read this, but it was a nice diversion to jot my thoughts down. Not a complaint that people won't read it. I pretty much gave this blog up years ago, and it wasn't exactly a big winner back in the day.
