I've read some good things about Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso and its not a harem anime so I decided to check it out. It is a beautifully drawn anime about a piano prodigy who lost his ability to hear music due to some traumatic events and this mysterious girl who drags the prodigy back into the world of music. Mystery girl also like to inflict physical violence on our main character. I am very worried about anime teaching the children of Japan that physical violence is ok.
Anyway, the first five episodes were really effing good and I thought this might be the new Welcome to NHK. Then the anime slowly started grating on me. Why? Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso became an over-explaining anime. Every single emotion and thought from the main characters has to be verbalised to the audience. It is a non stop boring monologue from the main character. Someone tell the freaking director non-stop monologues are interesting when they reveal things that cannot be shown overwise. The other exception is of course humour.
Its like playing those crappy games like Tiers to Tiara 2 or Itsuwari no Kamen where they spent more money on voice acting than the actual gameplay. I'm not just talking about during the performances. Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso commits the cardinal sin of way to much telling the audience and not enough showing. The main character has his issues but its repeated way too many times that he comes off as whiny.
The root cause of the problem is the number of episodes which is way too long to tell the story and things just drag. In some parallel universe, there is a 10 episode Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso with compact storytelling that stands alongside Welcome to NHK as one of the best anime ever. However, in this universe, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is a promising anime that turns into a radio play. Do not watch. There is no point. Better to just listen and turn off your monitor.
2 comments:
That's quite a harsh conclusion to be fair.
Yes, the monologues do drag on a lot but I think this added to the melodrama and gave the show a surreal feel. I don't think imagery alone could create the same tension that the voice actor does during those rants.
I agree there were times when it got ridiculous, but I can forgive that because this anime does what not many can. I haven't FELT so much from anime in a long time.
I completely agree. The girl hitting him was really grating. I couldn't understand WHY they would do that- Why would it be funny for him to get hit all the time by his friends who are supposed to help him recover from being hit all the time? Not to mention the cliche "we have to make this more tragic" storyline at the end with the girl.
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