This probably has the longest title of any anime I've seen in quite a while, and that's because it's a full sentence: We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw that Day. For obvious reasons the title has been shortened to AnoHana by fans and 4chan, and for that reason I'll just refer to it as that. The airtime of this series is inversely proportional to its title's length: 11 measly episodes. But, as it turns out, the fast pace of the anime has so far delivered in terms of providing me enough plot and delicious character development to keep my attention (a difficult feat, no doubt).
We've never seen this before, right?This is how I believe a slice-of-life/romance/drama should play out: rather than little pointless excursions to encourage character development (including the obligatory anime beach episode, and maybe even a shopping episode), we have direct confrontation with the issues at hand. While some may complain this seems unrealistic, and doesn't provide a full story, AnoHana manages to properly develop the characters regardless.
I really like the fact that this is anime original. Adaptations seem to be the norm in the anime industry today; no one wants to waste money on a potential commerical failure. Anime-original stuff is quite rare, but when it's there, it generally gets its share of high production values. In the past few season we've already seen the likes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and this season we also have [C], and all of the above are above average, or even excellent anime. We really need more of these. Add to this the fact that we can't get spoilers over some asshole reading ahead in the light novel, and 4chan then blows up over this fact and goes on overspeculating. I saw this happen with Madoka, and it's happening again (but to a lesser degree) with AnoHana.
The story involves a group of six children, with a crazy hexagon of one-sided relationships that eventually result in the death of one of them. Fast forward to the present, when in high school, the death continues to affect the remaining five. In essence, everyone has their own form of PTSD and the arrival of a ghost of their dead friend allows them to confront their past regrets.
In addition to this tangled web of lies, secrets, and whatever else goes through 10-year-olds' heads, we are given some nice animation. Just like Fractale from last season, A-1 delivers bright, beautiful animation and detailed backgrounds. Then add the soundtrack. I particularly like the OP ("Aoi Shiori" by Galileo Galilei). Quite catchy, and the lyrics make perfect sense in context. We also have many, many references, including your neighborhood WcDonalds and plenty of video game references: in fact, the second episode is basically nostalgia over Nokemon (guess what that is). I still remember messing around with link cables as a little kid.... good times.
Damn link cables.Now, this is a Noitamina show, and you might be saying that this is moe, and while it definitely is, the moe is clearly not the focus of this anime. I've definitely seen much worse, and in some sense Menma's cuteness adds humor to an otherwise serious anime. I personally think the animation style highlights the lighter nature of the anime, while still allowing the more serious undertones to be portrayed nicely.
Clearly.
Whatever. The point is, the story is great. In the past five episodes we've seen multiple sides of each character, and have explored much of the backstory and issues surrounding at least three of them. In the remaining episodes I hope A-1 will make an awesome ending, otherwise I'll be really really disappointed, given the amount of potential I see in AnoHana.
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