AnoHana:* MAL, Hummingbird, Anime-Planet, AniDB, Anilist, Animenewsnetwork.Introduction: I know AnoHana already has a WT!, but it was a little too short in my opinion, so I decided to write one myself. Hopefully I can motivate some of you to watch it, as it is one of my all time favourites. For this feel trip you should have a few boxes of tissues ready. The TL;DR is on the bottom.What is AnoHana?AnoHana (full name Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.) is a 2011 Slice Of Life - Drama with a little supernatural touch, produced by A-1 Pictures Inc. Its story revolves around the Super Peace Buster, a group of six childhood friends. Or that's what they used to be at least.A few years prior to the present events in this anime, a girl from the Super Peace Busters, named Meiko Honma, died in an terrible accident. After this the remaining friends split up. Especially our main character Jinta Yadomi starts skipping school and just loiters around at home becoming a loner. But now Meiko appears as a ghost in front of him (or is he hallucinating?...), telling him she wants her wish granted. To do that he needs to get the old group together.The Cast: The cast is really small as this anime mainly focusses on our six friends. You will see how the death of their childhood friend affected each of the five other friends, how they feel about themselves and how they feel about one another. The developments and the struggles of the characters are the focus of this show, which I feel the show handled that superbly well.Meiko "Menma" Honma: Menma is one of these lovely and cheerful characters that you just have to love. She is a little naive but still the person everybody loves. She was seemingly the glue that kept the Super Peace Busters together and her unfortunate death is what gets our story rolling. Her death had a different impact on everybody due to their different relationships with her. Now, years after her death, she appears in front of Jinta and wants a wish granted. But what is that wish?Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi: Jintan was the leader of the Super Peace Busters but as he really liked Menma her death hit him really hard. To make matters worse his mother died around the same time, so he already had his fair share of grief and loss in his young life. He does not go to school and just hangs around in his room the whole day, displaying an unmotivated attitude. But this changes as Menma appears before him as a ghost with a wish, but is she really there or is he hallucinating?Naruko "Anaru" Anjou: Anaru is my waifu one of the three girls in our group of friends. She attends the same school as Jinta is supposed to be, and is his classmate. She really shows some harsh behaviour towards Jintan but under that surface she is worried about him as she cares for her old friend(s). As opposed to her rather shy and unobtrusive behaviour as a child she has grown into a girl that likes to go out and cares (too much) about make-up and clothing. She still has a big collection of manga and video games though and works in a part-time job.Atsumu "Yukiatsu" Matsuyuki: Yukiatsu seems to despise Jinta nowadays. Menma's death has taken its toll on him too but, on the surface, he seems to be over it. But as soon as she is mentioned he gets angry pretty easily. He and Tsuroko still see each other as they are both attending an elite school, so they are the only two members of the Super Peace Busters who are in contact on a regular basis, even years after Menma's accident. He is tall, good looking and really popular with most girls.Chiriko "Tsuruko" Tsurumi: Tsuroko attends the same school as Yukiatsu and seems to be a really serious person. She displays a cocky, phlegmatic and sometimes even cynical attitude. Especially Anaru has to endure some seriously harsh and unfriendly behaviour by her. Tsuroko and her connection to Yukiatsu is really non-transparent. They even have been mistaken as a couple but there are no feelings in between them or are there...?Tetsudou "Poppo" Hisakawa: Poppo was the smallest kid of the Super Peace Busters, overexcited, friendly and always loyal to Jintan. He hasn't changed much, besides his appearance, as he has grown into a huge guy. He didn't go to school for years as he rather travels around the world while making some money with part-time jobs. He is the first one to believe Jinta that he can see Menma and so he becomes Jinta's first ally in his quest to reunite the friends and fulfil Menma's wish.There are some more characters like Jintan's father, Anaru's it-girl friends or Menma's family but as I said earlier the focus is on these six characters.Animation: If you have seen Ao no Exorcist, OreImo, Magi, Fairy Tail, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso or Sword Art Online you should know that A-1 Pictures is capable of awesome things and AnoHana is on the very same level. The characters and backgrounds look awesome, especially the character's emotions which are very well done animation-wise. Also A-1 Pictures is one of the few studios capable of making characters look really cute without making them too moe or even moving to a fan-service direction.Sound: The AnoHana soundtrack is hands-down one of the most fitting soundtracks you will ever hear. There wasn't a single point were the soundtrack wasn't perfectly underlining and highlighting the mood and emotions of the scene. If you are looking for big orchestral pieces, this isn't your soundtrack. This soundtrack mainly uses the piano and some acoustic guitar in a really gentle and calm way.The voice acting was splendid in my opinion and the voice actors of our six friends all delivered flawless performances.The opening and the ending are each in my personal top 5 of all openings and endings and I cannot tell you how much I love both! There is no English dub thus far.Why should I watch AnoHana? Summary: If you are looking for an anime where the characters are mainly stereotype-free with exquisite character development this is your anime.If you are looking for an anime where the soundtrack and animation work hand in hand to perfectly highlight and underline every single scene, this is your anime.And most importantly if you are looking for a feel trip that will make you cry your eyes out, a feel trip in the same league as Clannad: After Story or Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, a feel trip which also has some warm and very light-hearted moments and is not just depressing, this is your anime.AnoHana handles some huge and difficult topics like friendship, death, grief and overcoming grief, jealousy and love. These are handled perfectly with a lot of sensitivity and delicacy. There was no reaction that felt unnatural or forced.Also I want to say: This anime has one of the most beautiful ends I've ever seen.TL;DR: AnoHana stands out as it perfectly handles some difficult topics with a lot of sensitivity. The characters and their developments and struggles are the main focus of the show and the show handles that perfectly. The animation and soundtrack both are awesome and fitting and I promise you this show will take you on a feel trip with an beautiful and satisfying end you won't forget. WT!Personal notes and final thoughts: There is also a movie which is mainly re-telling the story with some additional scenes. I recommend you watch the movie a few months after the anime as it maybe is a little boring if you watch them successively.I am aware that there are some people that dislike some parts of the anime and I am not saying it is perfect.People often say Jinta is stupid because he does (or doesn't do) things they would have done in his situation, as those things are the obvious things to do (in their opinion). I think you always need to consider his back-story and what that boy already went through in his young age.So if you watch it for the first time after reading this and you don't understand or like Jinta, you should wait until his back-story is revealed properly and then you should try to understand his struggle and pain as well as his decisions.I guess to really enjoy this anime you need at least a little empathy and I guess not all people have that attribute.If you are still here and not already (re)watching AnoHana I want to thank you for reading all of this. As this is my favourite anime in the 10 - 30 episodes area, it would mean a lot to me if I can get just a few people to watching it. I'm really looking forward to your comments. As I'm not a native English speaker I want to thank /u/Mega_Nerd for helping me out and counter-checking for mistakes.As soon as I was finished writing my WT! yesterday, I submitted a post here asking for help with the counter-checking. But not just Mega_Nerd but a lot of fellow redditors offered their help there so thank you to all of them. You just reminded me again how awesome the community of /r/anime is! http://ift.tt/1L3OhEV
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