The title is: Your lie in April.
Ahem, so before i get on with the review, a few things you should know - the manga is complete, i've not watched the anime yet, very much tempted to though; must read on my list, like, right NOW. Like stop reading this post and go read the manga. Also, it's about 50 chapters, so pretty short. And... spoilers ahead, so don't blame me if i spoil your fun :D
Interesting title in my opinion, considering that this is a piece to do with musicians. SO our protagonist Arima Kousei, is basically a really sad depressed person who can only see in monochrome - like the piano keys he so loves yet seems to keep running away from for some reason.
We find that his world starts to change and i mean literally starts to change when he meets this girl Kaori. It starts off by him seeing color! I feel like its a bit cliche, but considering the kind of plot they're running with, it works pretty well.
Now Kaori is this really happy go lucky person who loves stuffed toys and sweet things. She's also a violinist! In any case, she decides that she wants Arima to play as her accompanist for her performance at some competition.
Arima says he'd rather not, reason being that he can't hear the piano. he says it feels like he's down at the bottom of an ocean, a deep dark ocean where he can't hear anything. The reason he became like that was after his sick mother's death. As the story progresses, we find out that he has this image of his mother and a cat that he had adopted some time in between as his tormentors - they prevent him from playing and for some reason, he keeps imagining his mother as hating him, telling him that this is his punishment.
However, in comes his mother's friend Miss i couldn't be bothered to remember, ahem, but she's a famous pianist and decides to tutor Kousei. Sometime around here, we find out that kaori is actually a really sick person (poor thing) and that she's in the hospital, not totally bedridden, but around there yes. Kousei finds this hard to cope with - her image and the image of his mother overlap and kind of create the stepping stone for him to 'advance' his music.
We find though that during one of Kousei's performance, he realises that his mother doesn't hate him, but that he created her ghost in that image because he was afraid and sad, but most of all, that he was guilty. finally able to let go of all that hinders him, you would think everything's going to go well now!
And it does, Kousei is finally able to admit to himself that he likes Kaori while his childhood friend realizes her love for him and it's like a love triangle. However, the whole time, Kousei never says anything because Kaori is already his other friend - Watari's girl.
In terms of character development of their interactions i would give a 10/10. i mean, it really captured how conflicted people feel, when you find that your world has changed, your horizons broadened, and the person central to all of that is with someone else, but you want to spend as much time with them as you can.
In any case, after all this great development happening and him meeting up with his competition that he was never aware of, things take a turn for the worse. Kaori gets worse. She's in the ICU for some time before she returns and tells Kousei that she's going through with the 'surgery'. now, don't ask me what surgery because i have absolutely no idea. i don't even know what's wrong with her.
But whatever, the date of her surgery coincides with the date of Kousei's final performance in the manga! Now, Kousei after seeing the death of a cat around the time he sees kaori getting worse, gets to him and he kind of reverts back to how he was when his mom died.
In any case, Miss what's her name drags him to the competition and we find that Kousei, instead of giving up or anything of the sort, says 'I have to play'. And this is surprising shocking and inspiring at the same time. and the whole sequence of panels that show his performance are absolutely mind smackingly beautiful and sad. I admit i cried a bit there and somewhere earlier too, it's just that it's so beautifully written and illustrated and the fact that it's almost like you're talking about any other person you know that makes it touch you in a more personal way - you can sort of relate to it.
However, we find that Kaori dies and she leaves behind a letter for Kousei. What's in the letter was shocking, surprising, made a whole lot of sense and kind of makes you look back on all their interactions and kind of go 'oh'. And her letter explains the title.
Trust me, you should read the manga, otherwise i can honestly say you're missing out on something amazing. And currently, it's my favorite manga.
Ahem, so before i get on with the review, a few things you should know - the manga is complete, i've not watched the anime yet, very much tempted to though; must read on my list, like, right NOW. Like stop reading this post and go read the manga. Also, it's about 50 chapters, so pretty short. And... spoilers ahead, so don't blame me if i spoil your fun :D
Interesting title in my opinion, considering that this is a piece to do with musicians. SO our protagonist Arima Kousei, is basically a really sad depressed person who can only see in monochrome - like the piano keys he so loves yet seems to keep running away from for some reason.
We find that his world starts to change and i mean literally starts to change when he meets this girl Kaori. It starts off by him seeing color! I feel like its a bit cliche, but considering the kind of plot they're running with, it works pretty well.
Now Kaori is this really happy go lucky person who loves stuffed toys and sweet things. She's also a violinist! In any case, she decides that she wants Arima to play as her accompanist for her performance at some competition.
Arima says he'd rather not, reason being that he can't hear the piano. he says it feels like he's down at the bottom of an ocean, a deep dark ocean where he can't hear anything. The reason he became like that was after his sick mother's death. As the story progresses, we find out that he has this image of his mother and a cat that he had adopted some time in between as his tormentors - they prevent him from playing and for some reason, he keeps imagining his mother as hating him, telling him that this is his punishment.
However, in comes his mother's friend Miss i couldn't be bothered to remember, ahem, but she's a famous pianist and decides to tutor Kousei. Sometime around here, we find out that kaori is actually a really sick person (poor thing) and that she's in the hospital, not totally bedridden, but around there yes. Kousei finds this hard to cope with - her image and the image of his mother overlap and kind of create the stepping stone for him to 'advance' his music.
We find though that during one of Kousei's performance, he realises that his mother doesn't hate him, but that he created her ghost in that image because he was afraid and sad, but most of all, that he was guilty. finally able to let go of all that hinders him, you would think everything's going to go well now!
And it does, Kousei is finally able to admit to himself that he likes Kaori while his childhood friend realizes her love for him and it's like a love triangle. However, the whole time, Kousei never says anything because Kaori is already his other friend - Watari's girl.
In terms of character development of their interactions i would give a 10/10. i mean, it really captured how conflicted people feel, when you find that your world has changed, your horizons broadened, and the person central to all of that is with someone else, but you want to spend as much time with them as you can.
In any case, after all this great development happening and him meeting up with his competition that he was never aware of, things take a turn for the worse. Kaori gets worse. She's in the ICU for some time before she returns and tells Kousei that she's going through with the 'surgery'. now, don't ask me what surgery because i have absolutely no idea. i don't even know what's wrong with her.
But whatever, the date of her surgery coincides with the date of Kousei's final performance in the manga! Now, Kousei after seeing the death of a cat around the time he sees kaori getting worse, gets to him and he kind of reverts back to how he was when his mom died.
In any case, Miss what's her name drags him to the competition and we find that Kousei, instead of giving up or anything of the sort, says 'I have to play'. And this is surprising shocking and inspiring at the same time. and the whole sequence of panels that show his performance are absolutely mind smackingly beautiful and sad. I admit i cried a bit there and somewhere earlier too, it's just that it's so beautifully written and illustrated and the fact that it's almost like you're talking about any other person you know that makes it touch you in a more personal way - you can sort of relate to it.
However, we find that Kaori dies and she leaves behind a letter for Kousei. What's in the letter was shocking, surprising, made a whole lot of sense and kind of makes you look back on all their interactions and kind of go 'oh'. And her letter explains the title.
Trust me, you should read the manga, otherwise i can honestly say you're missing out on something amazing. And currently, it's my favorite manga.
