Manga Review: Your Lie in April

I met the girl under the full-bloomed cherry blossoms and my fate has begun to change.

That was the catch phrase or the English title or whatever, basta of the newly ended manga series that made me feel again of what I feel on Clannad, AnoHana, Angel Beats! and all the anime who made me feel like riding a roller coaster of emotions.

This is purely my personal opinion of the series so read at your own risk. If you find some grammatical and clerical errors, well, sorry, grammar nazis, I'm not perfect but I'm doing my best in expressing myself in this language. Hahaha.

If you haven’t watch or read Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, I am warning you, this blog entry might contain spoilers that are bad for your heart.

----SPOILER ALERT----

The PLOT/TEASER:

The story is about Arima Kosei, a piano prodigy at a young age who always wins on all the piano competitions and every child musicians knows him. But when his mother died, he had a mental breakdown and suddenly stops playing at the middle of a piano competition. After that he hadn’t played the piano ever since. The death of his mother resulted him not to hear music anymore even though his ears are perfectly fine. It’s like he psychologically acquired a hearing illness.  Years later, he still didn’t played the piano but was contented with the companionship of his friend Tsubaki and Watari not until she met the girl under the full-bloomed cherry blossoms that changes his fate—Miyazono Kaori!

Kaori is a lively, pretty, free-spirited violinist who plays the violin the way her personality reflects her. She made Arima played the piano again and led him back to the world of music and discovered that there is more to playing the piano, following every notes written on the score but rather playing by your heart and how the audience wants to remember you while you are on the stage being you.

HOW AND WHEN DID I FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SERIES?

So basically, I found out Shigatsu when the summer animes were almost done, I’ve read it on the Fall 2014 charts and thought to myself that the plot is quite interesting.

MY REVIEW

The first episode was so entertaining. The art is so awesome and Kaori is just so pretty. Plus, the opening is one hell of a catchy song! I was like, ‘Gosh, this is like Nodame Cantabile young version’, but it was nothing like Nodame in the next few episodes, very different. The idea of comparing the two said series might came from the idea that the two series involves classical music, piano and other instruments. But whatever, as usual the agony of waiting for the next episodes is a very tedious cycle, so I decided to read the manga in advance.

MANGA READING TIME!

It was after the fifth episode that I decided to read the manga. It was so awesome because it updates every week. The advantage of making Shigatsu into an anime is that we have the chance to listen to what these certain classical pieces are, I mean when I was reading the manga, I can’t really fully sympathize with the characters on how sad Chopin’s works are or how lively Mozart’s pieces is, vice versa, not all are musically inclined or loves classics, some might even thought that classical music are boring or just for lullaby purposes only. Though, in my case I have little knowledge about it because of Nodame Cantabille and all the music anime out there and from my MAPEH class in high school. It really feels so good listening to these pieces on the anime played by the characters.

NOT SO SPOILERS AND MY VIEWS

If I’m not wrong (somebody correct me!) the manga ended at Chapter 44 and the anime right now is on episode 20. I’m guessing it will be a 24 to 26 episodes and I’m sure it will be until the last chapter of the manga.

It was so good! I’m sure I will be crying again when the last episode of the anime comes out. It’s a worth-reading series. It’s like an endless roller coaster of feels! I like how the transition and the back-story of of how Kosei became a piano genius with the help of his perfectionist mother, who was like a bit villain-ish to me. I really hate the ‘Death Flag’ scene(almost all of the fans and readers hate this too), when Kaori suddenly falls and there’s blood, the ‘Death Flag’. It was the turning point of the series for me, it’s like meeting the future of Shigatsu, I knew this scene. I keep screaming in my head the word no. This can’t be happening. Though, after reading the last chapter, I still can’t accept it, even if deep inside me I knew that it was meant to be, that it was all part of Naoshi Arakawa-sensie’s plan.

And then there’s this letter Kaori wrote, a bloody tear-jerker letter! Heck, why did Kaori wrote a damn letter? Why not say it to Kosei personally, huh? Drama? No!

I really like Tsubasa’s character too, she was a well planned character for me and most of the time I can see myself in her. She’s a tsuntsun but not so, she is quite pretty too but the boyish type and I know she will take good care of Kosei. Watari is awesome at some ways but he didn’t leave me a certain impact, I think Aizawa Takeshi and Emi Igawa was cooler, aside from they were voiced by my favorite seiyuus! All the other characters are awesome.

Kaori will forever stay in my heart; her character will be my inspiration, how she changed Kosei for the better, how she led her back to light.

So my personal interpretation of the Title, Your Lie in April, is that it all boils down on the lie Kaori made to Kosei, not only to him but to everyone else, in order for her to get close to Kosei. And that lie is in Chapter 44, read it. It was a heartbreaking lie, why did you lie Kao-chan? It could save up all the tears and the paper where you wrote the letter, nah, kidding on the paper. Truly, love changes people.

I just think that it will be good if there’s a bit of straightforwardness in the characters but I guess it was all planned out and it will never be that awesome if something happened out of hand, well, everything happens for a purpose; nevertheless, it was a 10/10.

LESSONS LEARNED

I always write what I learned after reading or watching a series. I get irritated a lot when people say that what otakus usually do is wasting time. Well, the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. And we really learned a lot from watching and reading.

So, I learned in this series that always be yourself. Play or do things with all your heart without minding the people around you, never do things half-heartedly because you really don’t know what might happen, what if the chances of redoing it will never come. Live everyday as if your last day because you will never know what tomorrow brings. Cliché but it’s true. It really reflects on the anime.

Do what you love, there’s no excuse in doing what you really love. Ika nga, kung gusto may paraan! No matter how frail you body is, even if your body is giving up but your mind and soul are pushing you, move forward.

One heartbreaking scenes in the manga is when Kaori said to Kosei this lines while pushing herself to stand up and played air violin (because she wasn’t holding a vioin at all, like air guitar, playing imaginary guitar),

“Stop, looking down… Look, you’ll have your miracle soon.”

So, that’s it, sorry if it was a bit like ranting already but whatever, I enjoyed writing this, finally I can let go of the feels this series gave me, err, maybe not!

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I managed to finish reading the manga before the anime ended. It was a good idea for me as I felt more ready to experience the ending. I accepted it wholeheartedly, though, it was more surreal in the anime because it's 2D plus all the music. Have you guys read Your Lie In April guys? What's your" thoughts?

Disclaimer: This post was originally posted in my first ever BLOG. Migrated it here to keep it organize. I was the one also made all the gif images. ha! those day. This was posted last March 2015.