Castles Filled with Flowers and Other Stuff... (Reviewing Anohana)

It has been a while since I have had the privilege of watching anime. Last week I had a week long leadership course (best week of my life so far) and then I spent the last few days recovering from sore bones only to end up turning into a fountain of snot and tears...
Let's talk about Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai.
Or, as it is also known, Anohana -just to make it a bit easier for myself.
(Optional drinking game: every time a character name is used, take a shot of whatever you want. Don't worry, I've highlighted them all to make it easier to see.)

Anohana is the story about a group of six childhood friends who called themselves the Super Peace Busters. But after the sudden death of Meiko "Menma" Honma, the group slowly drift apart and go their separate ways. Ten years after the accident, the leader of the Super Peace Busters, Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi, becomes a shut in, ignoring the outside world and refraining himself from any social interaction. Suddenly on a hot summer day, the ghost of an older looking Menma appears in front of Jintan to ask him to have a wish of hers granted so she may pass onto the afterlife. At first, Jintan is reluctant as he believes Menma only to be a hallucination. Jintan eventually becomes able to gather his reluctant childhood friends, who are unable to see or hear Menma like he can. They then reform the Super Peace Busters, all in the aim of fulfilling Menma's wish. Old wounds that did not heal resurface and hidden feelings reveal themselves as the group try to help Menma move on, only to discover that they too find it difficult to move on.

Anohana checklist:
Cute animal(s), check!

This is the second time I have watched this anime. The first time was when I first started this little hobby of watching anime -around the age of twelve/thirteen. Ahh, I remember it so well: I was bored waiting for the next Bleach episode to come out (at the time, Bleach was the only thing I watched) and then I saw Anohana. I don't think younger Kaaro was mature enough to fully appreciate the brilliance that is this anime...

"What did I like about Anohana?", you ask. Well let me enlighten you:

The animation style and the music which coupled it was beautiful. The colours used created a range of feelings, from warm and inviting to sad and longing for fulfillment. The soundtrack emphasized so many teary-eyes scenes so well that it would bring me to hug my pillows as I tried to lull myself out of such emotion. Anohana has one of the few anime openings that I do not skip, simply because it made me smile each time I watched the next episode.

Friendship is such a beautiful thing, right?

Nostalgia was a definite factor which made Anohana so enjoyable. It was not my personal nostalgic feelings from having already previously watched it, but the sense that the characters within Anohana were all experiencing the joys of reminiscing their past before Menma's accident. The recurring "You have not changed at all..." alongside the facial expression which suggest recalling happier times reconfirms my hope that friends will always be friends, no matter how different they may look or where they head off to. It felt like the Super Peace Busters were actual friends and not just a mishmash of varying individuals.

I'll just leave this here for your imaginations.

And that brings us to a prefect segue onto characters. Together they were the Super Peace Busters, a group of close friends who loved each other as if they were family. Yet apart, they seemed so... individual. No two characters were the same- each had their own distinct strengths and weaknesses. I particularly like Poppo. He was big and strong, yet so caring and fun loving.

Now onto the things I did not like, which is actually going to be pretty difficult.

To find the truth, you must first find yourself.
Well done, Menma.

One big issue I had with this series is that Menma is supposedly a ghost who apparently has the ability to interact with the living world as she is shown to be able to cook food for Jintan and play with his old video games. Even if we are lead to believe that Jintan is the only one able to seeor hear Menma, surely the others would have been able to see random floating objects at least on one occasion before her big reveal. I do admit it was fun watching Jintan squirm when trying to convince his friends of Menma's ghostly presence though...

The other issue I had was this guy:

Atsumu "Yukiatsu" Matsukuki
What a dick.

This is probably just a confirmation of how I really liked how individual all the characters were made. However, I did find it difficult to like Yukiatsu, partly because of that little smirk of his, partly because of his manipulative manner. I did feel empathy for him though: his story is probably one of the more tragic ones that was told.

Overall, reliving Anohana was probably one of my better decisions when it comes down to anime. Now that I have matured enough to (try to) understand the way people feel and think, I believe the story of Anohana is one I would not at all mind watching a third time. Or forth. Or fifth. Maybe not the fifth... 

Nostalgia is the key word here. It is okay to look back sometimes as long as you are still moving forward.

I give Anohana a rating of 8.5/10 castles filled with sweat, tears, and other sorts of man juices (ew). 

If you want a good reason to cry, you should so try this out. Be sure to have something to wipe your tears on hand. And if you didn't cry... Well, something is very wrong here.

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On the next installment of Kaaro Watches Anime, Kaaro checks out Mawaru Penguindrum in the search of the elusive penguin.

Have any other recommendations? Leave them in a comment below and I'm sure to check it out!

And also, when did you have your last good cry? Answer in the comments down below.