Post by samt on Nov 14, 2015 7:59:14 GMT
Hello its me again bringing you another anime series. Did you enjoy Galactic Heroes for its careful attention to details, characters, and context? Well prepare to get the opposite and a textbook example of what is wrong with many current anime. Here we go into the Hell Mouth.
If you only knew the hell you are stepping into.
Context is incredibly key in so many areas of literature and art. When you do not understand the context you will inevitably fail as you create more works. You Lie in April is a fascinating failure in understanding the basics of writings. This is not saying it is breaking the rules by trying to experiment but quite the opposite. You see You Lie in April is a series that neither understands the idea of tone nor the method to clearly convey its message.
The basic story plot is of a boy named Kousei who was pressured by an abusive mother to become a piano prodigy despite his lack of ability (being tone deaf) and fell apart after his mother died swearing to not play music again and blaming himself for his mothers death since he might have lived if she was not stressed over his lack of ability. Something completely out of his control but its understandable for a child to feel this way even if he/she was not in an abusive relationship. Then comes along a girl named Kaori who he is stricken with forcing him to open up further as she challenges him to grow beyond his introverted traumatized shell. That's a fantastic plot for a good romance/drama now how did they F it up?
Simple, by adding in funny slapstick at the main characters expense. The same main character who is a parental abuse victim... To add to this his "friends" think this is perfectly fine and jump on the bandwagon
This is all for the girl he is fond of to get her accompanist for a concert... Basically for him to play piano for her own personal gain which due to his abusive past, he is uncomfortable even seeing note pages for as it would imply he is supposed to play it... Understandably there is the defense that this was for comedy reasons and should not be taken seriously. But I would counter that this stays for the first half of the series and should not be in its own dimension. This is the equivalent of adding slapstick comedy scenes of soldiers being killed in a war documentary outside of propaganda. The bigger question should not be why should I be offended but how could I not be offended?
To add to this are lines that sicken me and make me want to slap the Kaori and Kousei's friends up the head and tell them to either leave him alone or to pull their stick out of their asses and get of their high horses. When Kousei tells them no and responds to their attempts and forcing him to work for them by blowing them off and eating lunch away from them Kaori says this, “You’re just using that as an excuse to run away.” F*ck you. This is also after Kaori and one of Kousei's friend discuss his problems and say this, “If he’s gonna quit, I want him to quit on his own terms. It hurts to see him like this.” Remind you this is after they tried to force him to be an accompanist with abuse.
And then there is the drama in the series. Honestly its not bad in concept as people can be serious about music and their own walk of life but they usually do not articulate it in thesis and poetry lines but rather in partial sentences and jargon. Like say "that was great" or "exhilarating". They do not say “Like a stormy sea, the waves of her emotions are surging unsteadily.” “Let it all out with a bang! Let your feelings reach them!”
This results in a series that lacks crucial elements for people to relate and sympathize with characters not to mention the complete lack of sportsmanship and moral scruples in the adults and children (see abuse). Oh did I forget to mention that your watching 14 year olds abusing an abuse victim which the show completely justifies and says they did the right thing? Silly me maybe I tried to forget about that to cope better.
The worst part about the drama is that your main characters are an abuse victim that is being abused and refuses to say no or talk about it and a group of teens that justify themselves as helping the victim when bullying him for their own personal gain. Again this would not be a problem if this was not their only key feature of their personality but it really is as the rest is focused on introducing side characters and dramatic situations for said main characters. With bad first impressions and lacking follow up, I felt apathetic during all the drama since I couldn't put the effort to care what happened even when a main character died.
Overall the show wanted to have their cake and eat it. They wanted to be a compelling drama, comedy, slice of life, and an intense competition based narrative for young children. Unfortunately that requires careful forethought, ingenuity, and talent to execute. Something that seems to be sorely lacking in this show and many other current anime.
Well anyways thank you if you read this far in your trip to anime hell. Don't worry there's always worse cause despite a certain quote even war changes just not always for the better
If you only knew the hell you are stepping into.
Context is incredibly key in so many areas of literature and art. When you do not understand the context you will inevitably fail as you create more works. You Lie in April is a fascinating failure in understanding the basics of writings. This is not saying it is breaking the rules by trying to experiment but quite the opposite. You see You Lie in April is a series that neither understands the idea of tone nor the method to clearly convey its message.
The basic story plot is of a boy named Kousei who was pressured by an abusive mother to become a piano prodigy despite his lack of ability (being tone deaf) and fell apart after his mother died swearing to not play music again and blaming himself for his mothers death since he might have lived if she was not stressed over his lack of ability. Something completely out of his control but its understandable for a child to feel this way even if he/she was not in an abusive relationship. Then comes along a girl named Kaori who he is stricken with forcing him to open up further as she challenges him to grow beyond his introverted traumatized shell. That's a fantastic plot for a good romance/drama now how did they F it up?
Simple, by adding in funny slapstick at the main characters expense. The same main character who is a parental abuse victim... To add to this his "friends" think this is perfectly fine and jump on the bandwagon
This is all for the girl he is fond of to get her accompanist for a concert... Basically for him to play piano for her own personal gain which due to his abusive past, he is uncomfortable even seeing note pages for as it would imply he is supposed to play it... Understandably there is the defense that this was for comedy reasons and should not be taken seriously. But I would counter that this stays for the first half of the series and should not be in its own dimension. This is the equivalent of adding slapstick comedy scenes of soldiers being killed in a war documentary outside of propaganda. The bigger question should not be why should I be offended but how could I not be offended?
To add to this are lines that sicken me and make me want to slap the Kaori and Kousei's friends up the head and tell them to either leave him alone or to pull their stick out of their asses and get of their high horses. When Kousei tells them no and responds to their attempts and forcing him to work for them by blowing them off and eating lunch away from them Kaori says this, “You’re just using that as an excuse to run away.” F*ck you. This is also after Kaori and one of Kousei's friend discuss his problems and say this, “If he’s gonna quit, I want him to quit on his own terms. It hurts to see him like this.” Remind you this is after they tried to force him to be an accompanist with abuse.
And then there is the drama in the series. Honestly its not bad in concept as people can be serious about music and their own walk of life but they usually do not articulate it in thesis and poetry lines but rather in partial sentences and jargon. Like say "that was great" or "exhilarating". They do not say “Like a stormy sea, the waves of her emotions are surging unsteadily.” “Let it all out with a bang! Let your feelings reach them!”
This results in a series that lacks crucial elements for people to relate and sympathize with characters not to mention the complete lack of sportsmanship and moral scruples in the adults and children (see abuse). Oh did I forget to mention that your watching 14 year olds abusing an abuse victim which the show completely justifies and says they did the right thing? Silly me maybe I tried to forget about that to cope better.
The worst part about the drama is that your main characters are an abuse victim that is being abused and refuses to say no or talk about it and a group of teens that justify themselves as helping the victim when bullying him for their own personal gain. Again this would not be a problem if this was not their only key feature of their personality but it really is as the rest is focused on introducing side characters and dramatic situations for said main characters. With bad first impressions and lacking follow up, I felt apathetic during all the drama since I couldn't put the effort to care what happened even when a main character died.
Overall the show wanted to have their cake and eat it. They wanted to be a compelling drama, comedy, slice of life, and an intense competition based narrative for young children. Unfortunately that requires careful forethought, ingenuity, and talent to execute. Something that seems to be sorely lacking in this show and many other current anime.
Well anyways thank you if you read this far in your trip to anime hell. Don't worry there's always worse cause despite a certain quote even war changes just not always for the better