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(This post has spoilers up to episode 4)
I was very conflicted about Your Lie in April. This week’s episode was supposed to have been the deciding episode as to whether I would continue watching this series or drop it. And right now, my answer is the latter.
I’m not a person who understands music; I can’t read sheet music, I don’t really listen to classical music (been getting into it recently though), and I definitely don’t understand the intricacies of music as a whole. I still do love music anime though, because they’re able to sell the message of music being the glue that connects people together, that drives them to improve themselves, and also because I love seeing passionate people at work. Your Lie in April though, is a different story. Its main narrative involves Kousei growing out of his past, abused self by overcoming his weakness through the ‘help’ of Kaori and friends.
I have some other issues with Your Lie In April, namely the cheesy internal monologues and unfunny comedy (which extends to the larger problem I have), but my main problem with the series lies here – I don’t believe he’s being helped. I believe he’s being abused by his friends who are so self-important that they never truly consider Kousei’s feelings, and the show lets them get away with it.
There have been inklings of this since the beginning of episode 3, when Kaori and co. first ask Kousei to be her accompaniment. Kaori and Kousei are at the cafe, and Kousei is forced to play the piano because he is ‘not allowed to embarrass her (Kaori) in front of the children’. Later, he stops because he stops being able to hear the notes on the piano. Kaori proceeds to ‘comfort him’, i.e. tell him that he’s weak and that if he can’t play, he should just play! Yes, it does not make a lick of sense. It’s like telling a person suffering from depression to ‘stop being sad’ and to ‘get over it’. She even tells him that his trauma is just an excuse so he can give up on the piano. She’s discrediting his suffering, and this is incredibly insensitive, aside from Kaori’s already awful personality.
Then, Kaori and Tsubaki agree to get Kousei to do the accompaniment together. Great minds think alike, I guess. They literally force the poor boy to do it; they put the sheet music everywhere and invade his personal space, they hit him with a baseball and force him to listen to the music he doesn’t want to. Then Kaori and Tsubaki have a chat on the bus, where Kaori finally has the decency to question her actions. Tsubaki promptly says that “she wants him (Kousei) to be able to play music on his own terms”. This angered me greatly. When exactly does he get to do anything on his own terms when they’ve been forcing everything on him? How is that ‘playing on his own terms’? It doesn’t make sense for them to assume they know what’s best for him and force him to act when he should be able decide for himself. This is especially so for Kaori. How does one understand someone else in such a short time? She’s barely known Kousei.
You can also argue otherwise, that sometimes people really do need a push to get going. Yeah, they need a push. A gentle one. Not a baseball to the head that causes them to bleed. Not an invasion of privacy, and certainly not friends telling them that they’re weak for not being able to get over their problems. Your Lie In April puts Kaori and her friends on a pedestal as if they’ve been doing the right thing, and that they’ve been selflessly helping Kousei, when they have not done anything truly with his well-being in mind. The series does not provide the consequences of their actions on Kousei, and acts as if he can be cured of his suffering and trauma with some force. Which is clearly not very healthy for the boy. Sure, maybe he does want to play the piano, deep down inside, and get rid of the guilt he has, but then the series constantly criticizes not Kaori, but Kousei, for being weak. For not being able to ‘man up’ and for ‘running away’ when he had every right to.
In episode 4, when Kousei stops playing the accompaniment because he can’t hear the notes anymore, he is alone, suffering. Not because of his own wrongdoing, but because his friends put him in that vulnerable position. Yet the series had the cheek to get Kousei to apologize as if everything was his fault, and we see the audience criticizing him, saying that he’s awful at piano (which I can still accept, given that the audience may be unaware of the situation he’s in). Then, we get a line from Watari that is just absolutely ridiculous.
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WATARI: What are you doing Kousei? Are you going to make Kaori-chan play by herself?!
I felt nothing but rage hearing that line. They called themselves his friends, yet put him in that position. Now they’re even getting angry at him when all he did was listen to them.
Now, I know people are going to disagree with me on this. You might think it’s OK for them to act like they do, after all they’re only fourteen. Teenagers being stupid as hell is like a universally accepted truth. That I agree with. Yes, they are all stupid (clearly) and yes, fourteen year olds can act like self-important, prudish little pricks with no understanding of what it means to be a little sensitive towards the feelings of others. But that can only fly when the series’ writers themselves understand this fact, and do something to show that they KNOW these kids are wrong. It doesn’t.
Which brings me to my last point – that the presentation of the series is flawed at its very core. The series has been actively excusing Kousei’s friends’ actions, and ironically by doing so they have been insensitive towards their protagonist’s own suffering. The series goes so far as to incorporate humor, which is OK, but considering the context it makes every single (unfunny) joke tasteless. They have been trying to make the audience laugh AT Kousei being pushed around, NOT at cute friends being happy with each other. They have been sugarcoating the issue, glossing over his suffering by putting cute pretty flowers and sparkles over everything. They’ve been using the ‘Spring is coming’ motif to push the audience towards thinking that the characters are all good-natured, selfless people helping their poor friend. They’ve been painting Kaori in bright colours, while Kousei is characterized in dark blue hues – treating her like a person the audience should idealize, when they clearly shouldn’t. This discrepancy, I think, is representative of the series’ hypocrisy and complete misunderstanding of its characters.
By all accounts, the performance in episode 4 should have failed. The series, at that point, should at least have the self-awareness and decency to understand the shortcomings of its characters. It didn’t. Back to re-watching Nodame Cantabile for me.
A point on slapstick comedy: There’s nothing inherently wrong with it. I quite like it, it can be used to great effect (Fumoffu? Nozaki-kun?) and when it is actually funny. But when Kimiuso tries to portray Kousei’s abuse as a far-reaching, severe emotional trauma I really don’t think it should ever become a laughing matter.
You bring up a lot of good points. I actually agree with almost everything you said, and it nagged at me too. At first glance everyone loves Kaori, the pretty blonde girl with nice legs and a bubbly personality. That drove me crazy from the very beginning. She was so sweet to Watari but borderline vicious to Kousei, yet everyone loves her the most and I even saw a comment on Youtube saying that “Kaori seems special.” (What?) But personally I can relate a lot more to Kousei. Naturally his friends can’t completely understand what he’s going through, and that might explain some of their insensitivity. (Not all, of course, just a little bit.)
And forcing Kousei to be Kaori’s accompanist–I’m ashamed to say that I started thinking it was all fun and games too, probably because it’s an anime and I disconnected it from real life–but after reading this post I thought about it. If I were in Kousei’s position, I would be upset beyond words. Kousei is psychologically and physically pushed to be Kaori’s accompanist. And even if you put that aside, his friends ultimately force him up on that stage, and it causes the trauma he’s been avoiding to come back in full force. In real life, the performance would have ended right there, with Kousei even further in depression, but this is a shoujo anime, so naturally they made a comeback.
I guess part of the reason I’m still interested in this anime is because I’m a violinist, so the music appeals to me. The performance itself (not all the drama that came with it) was really great, and reminded me of my days playing the Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso. But I’ll definitely be keeping in mind what you’ve said here. It really is upsetting to think how this would go over in real life. I guess that’ll determine how I react to further episodes..
I actually didn’t mention it in the post, but I didn’t like how Kaori essentially guilt-tripped Kousei into agreeing to play the accompaniment either; by crying her way through. It was kind of sexist, and a really cheap attempt at them trying to get us to look over her nastiness with her tears and whatnot. It’s alright if characters are huge dicks, it can be a sign of really good writing. But when the writers themselves seem to think that the dicks are nice people then some serious issues in the work will arise.
As for ‘not being able to understand what Kousei’s been going through’, I would be a little less harsh if the series didn’t already establish that everyone knows Kousei was abused as a child (people commented on his bruises and the amount of time he practices daily), and they ARE his closest friends, which means they’re actually in the BEST positions to understand Kousei.
Thanks for the comment!
I had actually started reading the manga a few months ago, and I ended up dropping it for essentially the same reason. While there were aspects of the story that I liked (mostly the idea of the musical aspect), this whole thing made me feel uncomfortable and took away from my overall enjoyment.
Yeah, it’s a shame. I really wanted to like this. Music anime are hard to come around, and this actually had the potential to be something really special if it weren’t for the fucked up worldview the author has.
Like Vange, I’m a violinist too so music shows really pull me in. I actually like this show, but I actually don’t really like Kaori all too much. When the girls were trying to get Kousei to be Kaori’s accompanist, it followed in the usual comedy. It was pretty cute, but then I also thought that they were being rather forceful, and they didn’t really understand WHY Kousei would refuse to play piano. Like, no one’s asking him why. I don’t think they know his abusive relationship with his mom and how much that’s affected him, so I didn’t think it was fair for Kaori to tell him “Just play!”
I do understand that she wants Kousei to understand that playing music is freedom, the total opposite what he learned when practicing with his mother. But they’re just being too forceful. Like I said, they’re not trying to understand him. Kaori probably thinks she can help him, but his problem is actually a lot deeper than she thinks. When they hit him with the baseball, put the music sheets everywhere, and played the song over and over I thought this push would go a little too far, and instead of helping him, I thought it would backfire. But seeing as how this is anime, I knew that Kousei would agree to it eventually.
As for the performance, I think Kousei just kept playing because he didn’t want to ruin Kaori’s performance, which seemed so important to her. But Watari’s comments, and even the audience’s made me angry too. Like…hey, he stopped playing. What’s wrong? I hope he’s alright? It probably would have made more sense for Kaori to just stop and consider Kousei’s feelings, and realize that something serious is bothering him, instead of just playing by herself and then waiting for Kousei to play. Hm…the performance was really nice though.
These things always floated around in my mind, but because the performance was coming up I was too excited for that. As for her crying for him to accompany her, I just take note of what she said at that part of wanting people to remember her, so I still have that chronic illness theory to explain that, and I don’t think she was guilt tripping him. But, if it does turn out that she’s totally healthy, then yeah that could be guilt tripping.
Nah, I highly doubt she would be healthy. The scene on the bus in episode 3 (i think) had her get off at the hospital so I knew this was coming. This doesn’t excuse anything though? Why does Kousei have to help her when he’s got his own issues to think about? Didn’t he keep saying that her personality is awful?
I think the whole notion of ‘music being freedom’ is just really disgusting on the show’s part. He’s being trapped by music sure, but now he’s getting ‘freedom’ from…being forced (trapped?) into doing it again. That makes no sense to me. It’s not even a matter of whether the ends justify the means anymore.
When Kousei was all stressed up before the performance and ignored her, Kaori actually got angry. And she told him that ‘he keeps looking down’ and is ‘imprisoned by the sheet music’….when she was the one that made him look down in the first place. And then she tells him to ‘look at her’ – as if that’s enough to help anyone out of their trauma (Manic Pixie Dream Girl anyone?).
Kaori lacked any consideration for Kousei DURING the performance too. If she knew he lacked any practice, she should have at least tried to exercise some restraint to ease him back in to performing. It’s another issue of insensitivity.
I could go on and on about this show. I know there are many more bad shows I could be talking about (many worse than this), but somehow the pretty sheen of shoujo sparkles they put over everything really pisses me off. It has this really smug attitude to it that just screams hypocrisy and pretentiousness. At least like, Trinity Seven and Cross Ange are aware of how shit they are.
Classic example of overanalysing and dropping due to sad reasons
Not like i completely disagree with your points there, but its just out of the question to drop an anime so masterfully directed/presented. There are wayyyy worse shows out there with so many deeper, more inherent flaws, that this just seems to blow the wind out of them. This is amazing (having seen episode 5) and is probably the best series to have come out this year (i would list all the reasons as to why this is, but if you cant notice them yourself, theres no point in me listing them down)
It truly puzzles me (yes, still) why you would want to drop a show of this quality. Guess its about taste in the end but i certainly do want you to give it another try. Dont try to think so much while watching an anime, don’t overthink i mean. Its made for your enjoyment, not critical deconstruction. lol.
Oh and you gotta let the anime move forward, and it’ll answer your “how music is freedom” question 🙂 (its kind of obvious that they cant build up a proper scenario and then present a solution to it in just 4 episodes)
Yes there are way worse shows out there, but I respectfully disagree, this is definitely not one of the best shows out there, but it very well could have been- and you know what- maybe it still can be it if the characters can turn around.
But for now (for me), it’s the characters, that’s the problem. Before I watched Episode 5 I was ready to give it a chance and see where it goes. I was open minded, but then the gang’s response to Kousei’s performance happened. It’s not over-analyzing when you know for a fact, his “friends” knows of his trauma and abuse he faced, and how it is difficult for him to play- and then turn around and BLAME HIM for his incompetence and failing Kaori. That’s the problem. It’s the unacceptable treatment and I don’t know why they are making a joke out of it. It is not the first time we’ve seen hits and slaps be used for humor, but under these circumstances, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I mean, how does one even consider them as friends? Regardless of the fact this is fiction, I get upset for Kousei because he deserves better than that. I am all for him for recovery, but this is not the way to go. 🙁 I loved this show, I really did, but Episode 5 really ticked me off. The show is amazing with the animation and music, but unless they can turn the characters around, I can’t love it like the way I did.
Hello Sam, thanks for the comment. But I did explicitly mention your point on the presentation being really pretty (I wouldn’t agree that it’s masterful though) – it’s part of the problem I have with the series. The series keeps trying to pretend Kousei isn’t suffering from abuse from his mom/friends by putting a glossy sheen over everything, saying bullcrap like ‘spring is coming’.
I won’t go into how this series lacks subtlety in its visual presentation, but what I’m trying to say is that you can’t pretend the nasty underbelly of the narrative doesn’t exist just by making the show look pretty. It’s the mindset the show has been using – ‘let’s make it all cute slapstick comedy and cute crying girls and lots of spring metaphors to hide the fact that Kousei is actually a victim of abuse!’ It shows a complete lack of awareness of the situation it has put its characters in, and it’s discrediting a character’s abuse; a plot point at the centre of the entire story.
You say I should give the series more time. I would, but the series has been so obvious about where it’s going with the story there’s really no point in even bothering. The only time the characters ever showed any intention in thinking about their wrongdoings (the bus convo) is immediately shot down by the show. They have not introduced a shred of self-awareness in their characters at all. The direction and intent of the story is crystal clear. It’s not something that can change if I give it time, the inherent flaws of the narrative cannot be improved on without the show doing a complete 180 – the performance in episode 4 would have been the perfect (and probably the only) time the series could have fixed its problems without becoming tonally jarring but it just made things worse.
Giving this show the benefit of the doubt would be lying to myself. I know there are worse shows out there but that doesn’t mean I have to like this show, neither does it excuse any of the show’s shortcomings. I’m not even ‘critically deconstructing’ anything (I don’t have the capability to do that, I think), I’m stating obvious facts that I think many people like yourself have been overlooking on the account of the show being ‘pretty’. Just because it’s pretty doesn’t mean I’m obliged to enjoy it. Enjoying a work of fiction should never involve you ‘ignoring’ its flaws, it should be you accepting the flaws in the work and YET still enjoying it. I can’t accept Kimiuso’s flaws. If everyone could just ignore the problems with everything, everything would be perfect. But it doesn’t work that way.
Oh and lets look at is this way
I already gave the example of Steins;Gate in my other comment, there are just so many instances where ‘abuse for comedic effect’ happens. Take Tokyo Ghoul as an example, even in the manga, which supposedly has a huge fanbase, and it is, admittedly, pretty deep, Touka is horribly insensitive to the newly turned ghoul Kaneki, she is so abusive, so demeaning, so horrible to him, yet people ignore that. Rightfully so because this isn’t what the anime focuses on. Its just part of the appeasement of female fans, or maybe its just there to please the dumb masses. You can not drop glorious masterpieces like FMA:B or Steins or even ZnT (zetsuen) just on counts of abuse-humour. The value and themes they propagate are far outweighing than those little moments which you seem so intent on focusing on. Similarly, the series is about music, friendship and other things. Its not about beating your friend bloody. Thats just comic effect. And it could have been way worse too. And even then Shigatsu would have been a masterpiece. Both of Kousei’s friends are nice to him through different ways too. The conversation he has about him being good at nothing except the piano with his childhood friend outside the hospital for example. And the instance where Watari tells him ‘don’t hold back because of me’. These are just glimpses of how good his friends actually are.
You tend to focus on the exaggerated abuse scenes while the anime does exaggerate them but doesn’t really focus on them.
You miss the point. The problem is that the comedy is central to the story because it reflects its characters. It’s not just a side-dish we can ignore if we don’t like it. If they can be ‘nice to him too’ that still doesn’t dismiss the times when they were asshats.
In TG I think it’s a different matter entirely, because the context is different. No one’s ignoring Touka’s behavior. The show isn’t pretending she’s a nice girl like Kimiuso is doing to Kaori, Sam.
As for everything else, as w/ my previous comment, if you don’t agree with it, it’s cool. No one is forcing you to think in any way =)
I just think that you shouldn’t be taking those scenes so seriously, because no, simply put, comedy is NOT central to the story nor does it reflect the characters. Having read the manga, i can affirmatively say that. But of course, to each his own i guess. Haha, i enjoy reading your reviews regardless 🙂
See, you’re not supposed to take those ‘comic relief’ or ‘beat-up’ scenes seriously.
Do you remember Steins;Gate? I’m sure you do. You need to watch it if you haven’t already. Now, back to the point, you know, in almost every anime, there are scenes like those, where the females would beat up the males just for comic relief even though they’ve been traumatised? Steins;Gate is a true masterpiece but you’d probably hate it too then. Okabe returns all traumatised to check up on Makise and Mayuri and frantically runs back to the lab from the shop. You know what Makise does? Beats him up. Lol
That is how anime works. You’d hate FMA:B too then. Winry beats the shit out of Ed and Al at serious points. Yoi have to deal with this. The ‘abuse’ isn’t meant to be taken seriously. And it isn’t abuse at all. Kousei doesn’t gush out rivers of blood every single time he drops to the ground, i hope you know that, it’s just an exaggerated technique.
However, there’s no point in convincing you with a giant paragraph if you can’t ignore those things by yourself
These endless paragraph-replies will go on forever
So, i guess, to each his own
Oh and Zetsuen no Tempest is another classic example of a brilliant anime. However Aika is one of the most abusive, violent girls out there. But meh.
Rarely I do take the ‘comic relief’ or ‘beat up’ scenes seriously (in fact, this is probably the first). It just that I find it more difficult to watch and to laugh along with it when it comes to Kousei because of his past and present circumstances. Even before I read this analysis I had mixed feelings about the humor because in the back of my mind, it struck me as something wasn’t quite right, I didn’t find it funny like I usually would- but I had chosen to overlook it and continue on.
I haven’t watched Steins;Gate yet, so please don’t jump to conclusions. Ultimately, at the end of the day, it all comes down to the viewer’s individual opinion of how much they enjoyed the show. If you love it, love it, if some hate it- so be it, sure they may be missing out but hey that is their own decision.
Nevertheless I will probably continue watching the show anyways, but the problem for me as I said earlier, are the characters. They really ticked me off, and for me, watching a show where I dislike/am angry at the majority of the characters makes be quite difficult to write an entry about on the weekly basis. So unless they can find a balance, I can’t see myself wanting to resume the coverage. If the characters can become likable/redeemable in my eyes, then maybe I will find the motivation in me to resume the coverage.
Personally the friends piss me off a lot, but not enough to make me drop the anime [yet]. But I wouldn’t call this anime “masterful.” It’s decent, even ‘good,’ but not one of the best. There certainly are way worse shows out there, you’re right, but there are also much better ones! And I wouldn’t consider this anime the best of the year, definitely not. Maybe in the top 15 or top 10? But Barakamon, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, and Zankyou no Terror–those were amazing. Especially Barakamon and GSNK, two of the best in their genres!
This is all my opinion, of course. I definitely recommend those ones I just mentioned though, if you haven’t seen them yet. 🙂
The director really knows what he’s doing – I’ll give him that. It’s why the music sequences are just so beautiful to watch – dynamic camera movement, swift, powerful cutting to create great tempo that matches the intensity of the performance. Everything else about the show is gorgeous too, I just think that the visual metaphors themselves are a bit too heavy-handed that it comes off a little forceful. And when the story is implying all these nasty things…….
I do appreciate the effort the animators have put in though. This is really a labor of love and it shows. It’s just that I cannot enjoy it because the heart of the series is not morally correct, in my opinion.
And yes, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is great. By far my favourite series from the summer season 🙂
How can you even compare Barakamon to this? Barakamon was pretty abusive at times too. One where Handa san’s mother started slapping people left and right just because Handa wanted to go back to the island. Gekkan shoujo is a comedy. WataMote was a wayy better comedy but its your opinion. Anyhow, i don’t think you should hate on Shigatsu just because it has those scenes. I have actually lost someone close to me who wasn’t exactly the most ideal figure. So i can actually relate. Not everyone will be sensitive always. There are times when you do need to get yourself back together. Some people do push like that. And for Pete’s sake, nobody has beaten me bloody and neither has anyone beaten Kousei. Those scenes are just there for comedic effect. I thought you all as an audience would be mature enough to get past that one bit. Oh and its strange how Natsuki Hanae always takes up mother-less roles (hikari, kaneki, kousei) lol
1) No one is COMPARING Barakamon/Nozaki to Shigatsu. We’re just saying we like one over the other. It’s not the same thing.
2) Not everyone will always be sensitive. That’s true. That’s because they’re not very nice people. If people truly had your interests at heart, they will ALWAYS consider YOUR feelings FIRST. The thing is that everyone else wants Kousei to play, not for his sake, but for THEIR sake. They just want to be able to see him perform, not see him ENJOY performing. Evidence of this is literally EVERYWHERE.
3) Barakamon isn’t whitewashing abuse like Kimiuso is. In fact, it’s made CLEAR that Handa is the problematic kid he is BECAUSE his mother is overly protective. It KNOWS her actions are wrong, even if they make slight jokes about it (which are not even about abuse as you seem to think it is!)
re: everything else. everyone else here including myself has already clearly argued our points. The onus is up to you to agree. If you like it, well, go ahead. No one’s /forcing/ you to think otherwise.
Personal tastes aside, the problem with Kimiuso isn’t that it has those scenes. It’s that it shows abuse from one person and depicts it as actual abuse and the source of Kousei’s problems – and then goes on to show the same type of abuse from another and depicts it as light-hearted, well-intentioned, and ultimately the correct way to solve Kousei’s problems with no harm done. That two-facedness and hypocrisy about the matter is why I think the slapstick in Kimiuso is different from shows like Gekkan Shoujo and Barakamon.
//…. and neither has anyone beaten Kousei//
It’s laid out in the very first episode, just after the 13 minute mark where Kousei talks about his mother’s treatment before she died. Kousei thought that if he played the piano the way his mother wanted him to, then the harsh treatment would stop. He specifically says: “…day after day, for hours on end. She would hit me… and yell at me… She wouldn’t let me off even if I cried.”. You get several shots focusing on her cane before the camera pans over to her face, and then you see Kousei’s crying face covered in scratches as he says: “If it’ll make you happy, Mother… If it’ll make you get well… Then I’ll keep at it.”
That was all depicted and grey and drab colours to show that was serious and that was why Kousei was messed up. But then it shows the abuse from Kaori and co. as slapstick and comedy in bright, vibrant colours like there’s nothing wrong with their actions even though they’re doing the exact same thing his mother did. They’re beating (complete with comedic splurts of blood!) and yelling at Kousei to play the piano because they want him to, screw whatever he says. And Kousei finally agrees, because it’ll make his friends happy and they’ll stop beating on him.
Kousei wonders in episode one, and again in episode five if he doesn’t have any merits other than playing the piano. Tsubaki says of course he has other merits!!!… but all they want from him is for him to play the piano because they want him to. Just like his mother.
They’re doing the exact same thing, but apparently one side is wrong and the other side is completely blameless. It shows that of course Kousei isn’t responsible for his mother’s death because he couldn’t perfect the piano quick enough, but then goes on to say that it’s completely his fault that he screwed up Kaori’s otherwise perfect performance because he couldn’t get over all his mental trauma quick enough.
TL;DR: If Kimiuso didn’t use physical and emotional abuse from Kousei’s mom as the source of all his problems that his friends “have to” fix with more physical and emotional abuse, then Kimiuso would be more of a light-hearted slapstick comedy, but it doesn’t, and that’s why some people have a problem with it.
Of course, there’s plenty of other things to like about Kimiuso, but that doesn’t mean the show’s hypocrisy should be justified away. You can still like the show and recognize that there are things they handle really badly.
Yes. My problem with Kimiuso is not that abuse EXISTS within the story, but the way it seems to be unable to distinguish between what is abuse and what isn’t. There are many things to like about Kimiuso I’m sure, but it has crossed the line for many of us regarding what is morally correct.
I will just say that if your (Sam) line is drawn much further down from mine (or anyone else that agrees with me), or if you’re able to completely look past the issue, then that’s fine. It’s not wrong or anything, so don’t take offense to it. At the end of the day, everything is subjective, and no one is forcing anyone to do anything here.
I’m glad someone agrees with my opinions on this show. There’s some good music, and an attempt at a good message there, but the show fails in the execution (including its complete lack of subtlety).
Also, your post was shared on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/2lqtp6/spoilers_a_criticsim_of_shigatsu_wa_kimi_no_uso/