ebba.crona - 2013-08-03 08:15:33

Ano Hana is a one of a kind anime, it really gets you empathizing for the characters which is very important as who wants to watch a story with characters which you don't care for. It is a slice of life with aspects of romance, comedy, and drama.

The story doesn't keep dragging on yet it isn't rushed at all. It is about five teenagers who were childhood friends that were met by a painful past they had almost forgotten. The characters develop and change and we learn more about the characters and see them learning throughout the series.

The characters each have a story or secret to tell about their past which adds to the drama aspect.

The animation is also very well done as well as the opening and ending songs which really fit in the sense of style of the anime.

This anime should be a must-watch on you list of anime and although it is only 11 episodes, it is very well made!

nels.lang - 2013-07-28 15:33:28

Introduction

story

characters

animation

Music

Usually I sit down check out my anime list on iPod or laptop for a new anime that I plan to someday watch. However each time I find a anime I watch the first episode and I get really tiresome and the reason why isn't even because the anime is bad or boring. It's simply because I'm ADASR (attention deficit and spontaneously retarded) So halfway through the episode I usually stop watching and I play this strange game with myself where If I randomly think of an anime on the spot I'll close my eyes and scroll up and down on list of anime and click. If I haven’t seen the anime before I watch it. I played this game a week or so ago after watching another anime and the anime I landed was titled Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai. Or anohana let's find out as to whether I liked this series or if I absolutely loathed it and on that note Welcome guys to my review of....anohana

At the start of annohana we are introduced to Jinta Yadomi, A NEET who wakes up one morning aroused to see a silver haired girl with a white dress lying on top of him sleeping soundly.This girl is menma Jinta’s childhood friend, Menma is Jinta’s stress, his trauma and his personal shiro except shes not a crazy homicidal pshyco. She just a bit kooky and childish. Menma is also Jinta’s dead friend who has strangely been allowed back into the human world as a ghost that only jinta can see and has come back for her wish as a child to be fulfilled. The problem is neither Menma or Jinta knows what her wish actually was. I mean come on a childhood which could be anything and with Menma’s personality it could be anything ranging from peacekeeper assault rifle to world peace. That’s quite hard to achieve. Jinta and Menma end up reuniting with their other childhood friends who together called themselves the

In order to try and find out Menma’s wish so that maybe Menma will be able to reach heaven. The story is one that is very touching and brought me to tears more then once. Honestly it was s if I was also a super peace buster.

Speaking of feeling apart of something, AnoHana’s director Tatsuki nagai did a really good job in making you immersed in the story, I felt that for each characters emotion I too felt that same emotion – for the most part anyway. As characters start to develop further into the story you start to care more about them to the point where if the character was to break down or build up with happiness you’d actually care. The layout and overall presentation of anohana’s story was done very well meaning each moment is well placed and executed perfectly well making the anime hook and reel the viewer in so quickly you’ll find yourself trapped in a tank of awesome in minutes.

The only real issues I can give to the story of anohana is the fact that the choices of emotional scenes are little bit niche. Everybody has a standard of what they will feel huge emotion for and some people just cant feel the emotion when it comes to watching an 11 episode show. My standards are just that if I can grow with the characters for long enough, I’ll feel for them or if they characters grow away or towards me meaning there is a reasonable dynamic in their character I’ll definantly feel for the characters. I don’t really care about series length as long as the characters are done well enough.

Overall the story of AnoHana was written well and deserves a solid 4 stars

Jinta yadomi is the childhood friend of Meiko Honma, Naruko Anjo, Matsuyuki Atsumu, Tsurumi Chiriko, Hisakawa Tetsudō. And ws the leader of the super peace busters. But due to the death of both meiko and his mother he slowly islated himself from society and inturn his friends. Jinta slowly regains hi leadership and old attitude thoughout the series just making him one of the most developed and my personal favourite character in anohana

Menma is the cooky, enegetic and playful character of the show. She is one of my personal favourites for attitude and personality. She is definantly a flower to remember

Naruko "Anaru" A childhood friend of Jinta, Atsumu, Chiriko, Tetsudo and Meiko. She is also the tsundere of the show whom I actually like she has her reasons for the way she treats Jinta (other then the law of a tsundere) and she provides a good amount of reason as to why I should feel emotion towards certain scenes.

The company that animated ano hana was A1 Pictures. the same guys who animated ano natsu de matteru and is probably most known for animating shows such as fairy tail and blue exorcist since they were considered potential big three material. The animation of anohana is consistent throughout. Not once did I see afalter in quality in any scenes of the show. Unlike its ano natsu de matteru, AnoHana keeps a look that looks very computer animated as the colours used are very smooth and do not have any rough marks like it was drawn and coloured frame by frame by an artist and animated by a computer like ano natsu de matteru. although anohana keeps a very basic style of animation, I cant help but say that even so, the anime looks beautiful and calming. The reactions of eaxh character when they smile or frown looks so cute and with the greatly drawn backgrounds the anime realy shines in key moments in the series. The opening and ending animation pretty much the same type as the animation the actual episodes but once again the background makes them look beautiful and calming. AnoHana did a great job with their artistic work. This is definantly one of A1’s best productions and overall it gets good a 3 and ½ stars out of 5

As for the music goes, I can't say anything other than the fact that the soundtrack of anohana is absolutely amazing. When I get to writing a review a show I usually sit down with my iPod and listen to the soundtrack of the anime to refresh my mind and whilst doing so I just do what I would normally do around this time. On this occasion I was play Tekken tag tournament 2 online and I was getting destroyed by hoannang and lei. They were spamming me to the point where I might've cried. But I didn't, because in the background I was being relaxed by such calming and motivating music. The soundtrack for anohana suits the show immensely as in some of the tracks I feel like the composer; Jin AKETAGAWA was trying to tell us as the viewer to stop. Sit down relax there's no need for the stress just sit down and prepare move forward then staying stuck in the past.

I feel that as I heard each different track play it was very easy to fastidiously pick out which songs were targeted for very saddening or lovely moments and I really believe that the reason for this because each song had their own identity that really shun a bright light of emotion once properly introduced. And I have to thank not only Mr AKETEGAWA for making such beautiful tracks but also the director Tatsuyuki Nagai for placing the songs at the most appropriate and effective moments throughout the series. As you can probably tell I absolutely adore the soundtrack for anohana and although it does have some generic tracks for background music I feel it simply deserves a great 4 and a 1/2 stars

Anohana is a show full of happiness and can break even the most manly of men into man-ing down and tearing up. I will always hold anohana dear to my heart as a very touching show next to clannad and angel beats and I'm sure you will too.

To watch the full, refurbished video review, please checkout my youtube channel in which contains key changes to the script you have just read (the review will be out soon)

I hope you enjoyed

video reviewing channel

www.youtube.com/thefastestkage

dmurazik - 2013-07-22 23:32:48

Anohana follow the plot of the a group of teenagers that can't forget their childhood memories from long ago. My very first impression of watching this anime is that it is very well animated compared to other animes of 2011. Anohana is the a remarkable achievement of modern day animation, the backgrounds are very colorful and detailed and every character face looks and feels real to the core. A-1 pictures did an excellent job with anohana and made it feel reminiscent of Welcome to the Space Show. It was interesting to hear the ending theme as 'Secret base' because ironically i hear the song before i saw the anime and thought it fit perfectly in anohana. Though Anohana seems to do well in the art & sound category, it really lacks in originality when it comes to plot. The plot of Anohana is nothing short of new. I mean come on, a story where a couple of teenagers, that are childhood friends that did something many summers ago that they still remember and whine about it now? Come on, we seen this scenario countless times in animes like Kanon, and Elfen lied and what not. Even the part of Jintan and Menma's relationship as a human boy and girl ghost, reminded me of a manga called My lovely ghost kana, where the girl's soul is trapped on earth trying to get to heaven and instead lives in a guys house. Anohana don't surprises in the plot much, and really it emits the idea of how the story will end. Anohana even the plot is a bit rigid in my opinion, but it doesn't hurt the show, and is still very enjoyable to watch. Anohana has traces of comedy, romance, slice of life and lots a tragedy mix in. The plot if all is almost entirely character driven, nothing special happens in the story, but as the pllot progress, you get to see the characters revealed themselves, through constant (and necessary) flashbacks, and the conflicting problems with menma's ghost. Personally i think the show has a lot of potential to be a romance genre, with jintanXanjou exc, instead anohana primary focuses is all on menma and on many occassia gets a little annoying.

yauer - 2013-07-17 04:09:59

Going into this anime, I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. Why? Let me explain.The characters are very good in this show. Some you may hate, some you may love, and some you may start off hating but love by the time the series is over. The show is very good at destroying first impressions. The characters are complex, they have good and bad traits, and seem very real. They are flawed, but understandably flawed. This was a nice change of pace from the usual characters I see in slice of life, and I really liked it.The music and animation are both fantastic, the music always enhanced the mood and the animation faired well throughout, but pulled out most of the stops during the final episode, which I 'll get to later. The opening and ending are both very nice, and fit the show perfectly.The story is very well written, very well executed, and very relateable. I can see the story hitting a lot of people hard because at it's core, the story of AnoHana is something I'm sure a lot of people have experienced at some point in their life. But there is one problem, ONE PROBLEM that keeps this show from being perfect, and that is the last episode. To be more specific, the last HALF of the last episode. It's clumsy, confusing and a bit overwrought as well. I won`t go into why for fear of spoilers, but watch it and see if you agree or not.Overall, AnoHana is great, really great. Amazing characters, an awesome story, and art that never fails to impress makes AnoHana a must watch. At 11 episodes, it`s definitely worth your time

carroll05 - 2013-07-08 06:23:17

It feels a bit weird writing a review after watching the whole thing, but here goes. And im sure there are many who are "experts" with this type of thing would disagree with me, so feel free to throw in some thoughts on my wall if you wish. But just keep in mind this Review is just an opinion. I honestly really loved the art, great character designs and great backgrounds. The animation was a bit choppy at a few parts, but i don't really think it matters considering it's genre.. (it's hard to spot anyways) Never really cared for the songs, but it was pretty good. Really enjoyed the intro song. Although the characters seem to have problems that seems exaggerated ( with all the "dealing with death" ), I believe the anime itself wasn't really trying to give character references to the viewers, so i don't see why that matters. Not quite sure if theres another anime with a similar story, but i thought it was quite original. With all the moeshit going on in most other animes, it's good to take a break with anohana. Basically what you're about to see here is a heart-warming story about friends drifted apart by time. At some parts it may seem overly sympathetic and overly dramatic, but it's nothing to go crazy about.. overall I'd say they did a pretty good job rounding up everything in just 11 episodes. If you're ready to drip some tears, then you're in for a treat. (or not lol) welp that's about it. I'm sure you'll enjoy this anime unless you have shitty taste and think naruto is the best anime in the world.

liana.waters - 2013-07-07 19:49:55

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, or just Ano Hana for short is an anime that took everyone by surprise this season. I was on another forum looking over the list of anime's that were airing this season and I came across Ano Hana. The plot didn't look too special, especially considering C's and Deadman Wonderland's plot synopsis'. But I decided to to check it out the following night in what would be one of the best first episodes that I have seen in a long time.The story starts out in the home of Jinta Yadomi. Jinta is a recluse and has stopped going to school. He's not just any recluse, though. Jinta(n) has the ability to see the ghost of his deceased child hood friend Menma. The story revolves around Jintan and his childhood friends (the super peace busters) attempting to fulfill her wish. The only problem is that they do not know what this wish is.The production value of this anime is very high. Both the ED and the OP are excellent. The ED in particular sets the mood perfectly as it often plays during the final scene of the episode and transitions into the ending credits. The music that is played during the episode is usually a soft piano which often goes unnoticed. You know the soundtrack is good when you don't notice any of it. The animation is also superb. The animators did a good job of making the characters look life-like by constantly moving during scenes. Another nice touch is the fact that the characters change their clothes and hairstyles.The characters in this anime were actually not that special. It didn't feel like any of them were original; they just seemed like old ideas that were rehashed. Actually, I shouldn't say that because nothing was wrong with any of these characters. It's just that there was not anything special about them. The only character that stands out to me is Yukiatsu. At first he is just your typical douche bag, but as you get deeper into the series you find out what a deranged individual he really is. The other characters have realistic motivations, but none of them really stood out to me. Though the characters do go through a good amount of development, the main focus of the show was to show that people never change. Which I thought was brilliant.This show wasn't any "fun", but I don't mean that in a bad way. This show isn't fun in the way that Code Geass is fun. There is no over the top action or ham-like performances. Ano Hana instead focus' on the main plot: Menma wanting her wish granted before she goes to heaven. This show is very melodramatic, and some parts even I admit I got teary eyed at. Despite it not being a "fun" show, I enjoyed it immensely. This is a series I would definitely re-watch in the future. The only complaint about my enjoyment is that it was too short. This series would have been better off as a 26 episode show.Despite my high score (and now that I will be reviewing anime I will be harsh on scoring), there are many things that stop this anime from being a true masterpiece. There was WAY too much crying, and a lot of the melodrama seemed forced as a result. The show really wanted to get their point across: this is supposed to be sad. But I feel like it would have benefited more if they had more character interactions because the episodes that did show character interactions were some of the best ones. Also, I have another problem with the show: the finale. It is in every way emotionally satisfying, and I admittedly teared up a little despite having a heart of stone. But I felt the ending could have been handled better. I won't explain as it may spoil it, but they could have did without the "shouting" in my opinion (among other things).Anyway, despite the many faults this anime has it is still a must watch. Hell, being so short may even be a good thing as you can finish it in no time.

casper.clinton - 2013-07-07 05:22:50

I would have to say that AnoHana might be one of the most objectively perfect anime I have ever seen. Stellar animation, sound-design, writing, and direction. Only 12 episodes long and not a single second of any of them were wasted.

It is a story about love and loss. A group of friends that has to deal with the death of a loved one, and the harsh emotions that come with it.

I honestly wish I had more words to describe this anime, but I'm not so used to writing reviews. As I get more practice, I will probably have to come back and give this amazing series the review it deserves.

This is a very powerful anime. Do not watch if you are afraid of the feels. You will cry like a baby at least once (or almost every episode of you're a baby like me).

ferne39 - 2013-06-28 08:18:31

This Review is out of 100. 35/100 for Story, 35/100 for Characters, 15/100 for Sound, 15/100 for Animation. Story - 29/35 - It made me cry. In 11 episodes. Not many shows can say that. The story was a bit melodramatic, but the show did a really good job at not making it feel that way. There were definitely times where I was like "why didn't she do that?" or "why didn't he mention this?" so the storyline wasn't perfect. But the story went at a perfect pace and gradually built up more and more. As the show continued everything unraveled, from the characters deepest emotions to what really happened on that fateful day. The ending of this show had me in tears, even though I knew what was gonna happen. A very powerful, but short, story. Characters 32/35 - This is a great cast of characters. As the story progresses you find out more about each one and more about what they had to do with what happened on that day. Each one dealt with it in their own way, and each one felt guilty about what happened. For some maybe a bit too guilty. This cast delivered and nothing they said ever felt cheesy and whatnot. They were well rounded and worked well together. Sound - 14/15 - An amazing soundtrack. Good opening, good ending, all the music just fit. None of the soundtracks really stood out, which keeps it from a perfect score. But a job well done overall. Animation - 14/15 - Really well done for a slice of like/ drama. Everything was crisp and clear, with no still frames or anything. I also really liked the character designs. 89/100 - It didn't do everything totally right, but it didn't do anything wrong either. And for an 11 episode show, it was very good, especially the cast. A few tweaks to the story would have made this show perfect in my eyes. If you want a drama that is both short and gets most things right, this is the show for you.

lemke.marianna - 2013-06-09 00:38:19

If I had to think of a comparison for this anime, it would be Angel Beats!. They share a similar ability to elicit a strong emotional response throughout the series. The story follows the young Jinta, who has gained the ability to see his deceased childhood friend Menma. The animation quality is excellent, and the story is full of humor and symbolism, while remaining easily understood. It tackles the common theme of lost childhood friendship in an original fashion and ends up mirroring the real world where there is a perfect balance of sadness and happiness.

bkihn - 2013-05-18 10:39:35

I don't often follow currently airing shows. It's usually hard to tell which shows are genuinely good until the hype dies down a bit. But under intense peer pressure, I started following a certain series this season. That show is "Deadman Wonderland". To cut a long story short, it sucked. So to deal with the disappointment I decided to follow another series, the sleeper hit "Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai", which apparently translates roughly to "We Still Don't Know the Name of That Flower We Were Smoking When We Came Up With This Title". Something like that. With a title that long, no wonder everyone just calls it "AnoHana" instead.The reason I chose AnoHana is because while everyone around me was talking about "Deadman Wonderland" and "C" before the season began, those talk quickly became dominated by AnoHana soon after the season got under way. And as the show also looked like a drama that isn't bursting with moe juices, I honestly thought it was going to be awesome....but it's not.Which is not to say it's a bad, or even mediocre series, but while I definitely think the positives outweigh the negatives, I certainly don't think Ano Hana is a show that deserves all the praise it's been garnering.Firstly, let me get something off my chest: having recently been annoyed by the spontaneously violent, clingy, cheesily cheerful, hyperactive white haired girl Shiro from "Deadman Wonderland", I was dismayed to find a clingy, cheesily cheerful, hyperactive white haired girl in AnoHana too. If you extracted everything that's annoying from Shiro and put it into a new character, you would essentially end up with Menma from AnoHana.And unfortunately, Menma is one of main characters of the series. In short, AnoHana is about this exceedingly annoying ghost girl Menma returning to the world to make her childhood friends' lives miserable.Ok ok, I jest - it was only me she made miserable... her friends were already miserable to begin with, and her re-appearance just brings their problems into focus. These group of friends, who collectively called themselves the "Super Peace Busters", had drifted apart after the unfortunate accident involving Menma that left them all mentally scarred in one way or another. But her return succeeds in bringing them back together again, and in doing so opens up the old wounds that never really healed. Oh yeah, I should mention that there're a couple of catches in the set up. The first one is that only one of Menma's childhood friend can see her - and that's the main character Jinta (but this gets a satisfactory explanation). The other catch is that she apparently returns in order to get her wish granted... except she can't remember what it is (which smells like a bullsh*t plot device to me), and so they spend the series going on wild goose chases in order to make this unknown wish come true and thus help Menma achieve nirvana.This second catch helps to illustrate one of main issues I have with the series - though the concept itself is promising, the story is over reliant on convenient plot devices. In the short space of 11 episodes, I counted at least four or five major plot devices being used to keep the story on its intended track, resulting in some quite exasperatingly un-natural plot progression, not to mention some massive plot holes.The other problem I have with AnoHana is its melodrama. It may not have it by the bucketload, but it does have it in spades. The "Super Peace Busters" sure live up to their name, as whenever they come together, the peace is bound to be busted at some point. The dialogue and character interactions would often take up baffling turns that inevitably lead to lots of confrontations, angst and tears. I guess if you try hard enough, you can come up with reasons for why a character say this and does that etc, but at the end of the day, the way it all comes together just doesn't feel quite right to me. I can often feel the tug of melodrama taking the flow of conversations etc off their natural course.AnoHana's habit of overcooking promising drama into melodrama gives me the impression that the makers are a little insecure about the potential of AnoHana to move people, and so felt like they had to work it harder in order to cement its idenity as an emotional drama. But the thing is, I feel AnoHana a show with enough good material and interesting ideas that it doesn't NEED the melodrama to make it tick. A good example of this is during final episode, when the realisation regarding Menma's situation dawned on her friends. In all honesty, it was a great moment, perhaps the best one in the entire series... and then the girls started screeching and grappling at each other and completely ruined the mood. What the hell were the makers thinking??But while I was complaining to my friends about my disappointments regarding this series (as well as this overrated experience of following currently airing anime), I was struck by a sudden realisation: in spite of its shortcomings, I really WANTED to like AnoHana, and kept desperately hoping the show would get it right. It's a striking contrast to "Deadman Wonderland" where I couldn't care less what happens. Despite AnoHana's frequent heavy handling of drama, there's a sincerity about what it's is trying to achieve. Also, being a nostalgic person, the strong sense of melancholy about the show really speaks to me. The bittersweet joys of getting together with old friends and briefly re-living the carefree days of childhood, the aching sense of loss as you realise things can never quite be the same again... these are all feelings that the show manages to convey very successfully.The role that the background music plays in creating the poignant moments in AnoHana cannot be underestimated. While the show itself can be accused of trying too hard at times, the same accusation certainly cannot be levelled at the music. Simple, and yet quietly evocative, it barely put a foot wrong throughout the series. In fact it's hard to fault the music in AnoHana at all - the opening and ending themes are both very solid songs, which is quite rare in anime as at least one of them is a dud normally.Given everything AnoHana has going for it, it's a real pity that it isn't a lot better. Perhaps, given the length of the series, the makers made the decision to rely heavily on contrived plot devices in order to keep things moving along, and on melodrama as a shorcut to character development. But some things are not meant to be hurried, especially when some of the problems the characters have are quite bizarre, and the hurried execution just made them seem more random than anything else. However, it is a show that deserves some credit for its good intentions and powerful ideas. In some respects it reminds me of "Cross Game", as the two shows have some overlapping themes, particularly in the early episodes of AnoHana. "Cross Game" though, does it so much better.So yeah, this whole following currently airing show thing has proved to be quite a disappointing experience. Don't think I'll be doing it again in a hurry (unless I succumb to peer pressure again). On the plus side, finishing a show so soon after it airs did briefly make me feel like I was down with the kids for once...