[Anime] Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

Title: Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない)

Genre: Drama, Slice of Life, Romance

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Episodes: 11 Episodes

Songs:

Aoi Shiori (Opening)

Secret Base – Kimi Ga Kureta Mono (Ending)

Plot:

Yadomi “Jintan” Jinta, Honma “Menma” Meiko, Anjou “Anaru” Naruko, Matsuyuki “Yukiatsu” Atsumu, Tsurumi “Tsuruko” Chiriko, and Hisakawa “Poppo” Tetsudou are childhood friends and formed a group called Super Peace Busters with Jintan as the leader. But after Menma’s death due to an accident, they started to distance themselves from each other. Ten years later, on a summer day, the older looking Menma appears to Jinta and later he realized that he’s the only one who can see her. Menma asked him to grant her wish so she can go to the afterlife. Since she didn’t remember what her wish is, Jinta has to gather all of his childhood friends in order to help him grant Menma’s wish. However, all of hidden feelings for the past ten years after Menma’s death, internal conflict from their childhood, also Menma’s family that still can’t let her go make the process complicated as they struggle to help not only Menma to go to the afterlife, but themselves have to move on as well. Because later revealed that they still have so many things unresolved because of her death.

Personal Opinion:

Well, I cried a lot when watching this anime because the story is very touching. If I must say, the production did a great job to make this anime. All the episodes can bring you to feel the emotion of each character. As the story revolves around a group of friends which one of its member has died, the anime brings us a good character development because we can understand clearly what they felt, what they think about, their internal conflicts as reasoning for their action. The animation and settings was very good, the production knows how describe the situation very well, so it can’t be help that many people cried a lot when watching this. Even so, there’s one or two things that I want to be developed more on the story, like relationship between Yukiatsu and Tsuruko. But it’s not a big deal because the anime is still well made. My favorite part is the ending. It was brought beautifully, I feel like all things are in its place. You will feel touched and happy on the same time with tears on your face when watching the ending. Two thumbs up for the ending! Last but not least, I suggest you to watch this anime alone, if you don’t want other people to see your tears :p