March comes in like a lion (3-gatsu no Lion): Episode 1 Review

March comes in like a lion episode 1 was pretty good, in my opinion. I wasn't expecting the art-style to be so rustic but I think it could grow on me, especially since it really goes hand-in-hand with the slower pacing. Basically it looks more "sketched" like in a manga, instead of having the fine crisp lines of the usual anime. The coloring of the animation is pretty good.

Artistic! I would categorize this anime as one of the more artistic types that gives some "good feels." I'm guessing, having watched only episode 1 so far, that the anime will be a Your Lie in April and Barakamon mix. I think the protagonist (Rei) will warm up through his experiences (with the three sisters and maybe rekindle his old friendships) and step past this lonely slump he is in right now.

Also, I must mention that though there is a slower pace, there are some humorous scenes that fit well with the storyline.

By the way, here is the plot summary of the anime, if you are interested in getting more background on it:

Rei Kiriyama is a 17-year-old boy who recently started living alone, financed by his salary as a professional Shogi player. Despite his independence, however, he's yet to mature emotionally, and his problems continue to haunt him in his daily life. His relationship with his adoptive family is strained, and he has difficulties interacting with his fellow high school students. Meanwhile, his professional career has entered a slump. Burdened with the heavy expectations placed on him as the fifth to become pro in middle school, his wins and losses are fluctuating as his record and progression into the ranks begin to stagnate.

Acquainted with Rei are the three Kawamoto sisters: Akari, Hinata, and Momo. Unlike Rei, they live happily in their modest home, which they warmly welcome Rei into as if he were one of their own. Despite his reservations about becoming too close to the family, he frequently visits, interacting with them and receiving the kind of care and affection he never quite had while under his foster home.

This is the story of Rei's triumphs and failures, relationships new and old, and his growth as a person.

Lastly, I really think that the artistic style of the anime makes pretty good wallpapers, as you can see :)

Thanks for reading <3

The Good Dinosaur

So, it looks like Pixar/Disney released another movie, hooray! I finally got around to watching the 2015 movie The Good Dinosaur and I thought I would share my thoughts on it (potential spoilers ahead).

Okay, basically this a great movie because it's simple enough for little kids to understand and it's funny (cute, light humor). I would that the whole movie can be blanketed around one motif/moral,which is: Once you put in your best effort to persevere in life, you can make your mark on the world. The movie sends this message quite literally in the course of the movie.

Of course the movie itself is extremely fictional, I mean really, in Ice Age the humans and the animals can talk, fine.... but in this movie the dinosaurs live like people and the humans live like dogs (and I mean this literally).

The movie starts off with a corn-farming family of dinos, with Poppa, Momma, and their three children. You have Buck the big jock-like one, Libby the clever sister, and little timid Arlo who seems afraid of everything (though I don't know, those dino-chickens are pretty scary hahahaha). Lots of happy feels.

Now everyone in the family in the family except for Arlo make their mark by doing something good on their little dino-farm. Poppa builds a corn silo and puts his mud paw-print (tada literal mark) on one of the rocks along with Momma because they have made their marks already. Then each of the children is expected to persevere at their chore on the farm. Buck got his for being strong enough to rip out the trees to "clear a field" and Libby got her mark for then plowing the entire field. Alro is the smallest and wimpiest of the children, but he too is trying to "make his mark."

Anyway, life is all good on their dino-farm but they seem to have a "critter" problem that is eating their corn crops. Since everyone in the family made their mark in the family except for Arlo, the critter problem is up to him.

The critter is a human boy around 6yo and gets caught in a simple trap and its up to Arlo to smash him like a bug, but alas he cannot commit such a violent act and releases him, Poppa finds out that he let the human critter escape and they run off after him into a storm *cue the Lion King!!!* and as they run along side a river and a mountain, a flood comes and in a tearful goodbye Poppa throws Arlo up a cliff ledge before being swept away.

Change scene to Momma and Alro collecting the harvest onto their back and Mamma falls down from being overworked and 11yo Alro states he will make it all right and he will be strong too (like Poppa *tears*).

Cue critter boy and Arlo meet again where Arlo does the usual "You killed Poppa, it was all your fault" etc. and while rushing him, they both fall into the river (I bet the plot is wonderful for children, I just have seen it all before so at this point, I thought "man they really should put a fence right there on the river-side as it would solve a lot of problems"). Anyway to speed up, they fall and end up lost~

Being alone in the wilderness together, they warm up to each other and have a fun adventure back home to their three-pointed mountain home. We also find out that the human boy's name is Spot (woooow real clever). They also meet some interesting side characters on the way too. The pterodactyls are the main bad guys in the movie and the T-rex (ugh I hate how I can't put an --s at the end of rex, anyway) are surprisingly (no really, I was not expecting it, so it made me pretty happy) buffalo-herding ranchers (and here I thought I had seen it all hahahaha). Really they way they run is super cute/funny, its like the T-rex are running on their own feet, but in a weird side-way sort of way that makes it look like they are horse-back riding ranchers. I can't really describe it, you will have to seen it for yourself :)

Another funny thing I found that I wanted to point out is only in a fictional movie can a 6yo human boy run off and bring back an iguana in his mouth~ I was like WHAT~~~ and then he rips a giant bug's head off with his teeth. Boy, I never knew our human teeth were that strong ;)

Anyway, it's an adventure, Alro overcomes his fears and in the end saves Spot (the human boy, sigh that name though... like pfffft he doesn't even have spots). They also have a touching (another tear-jerking moment) where they show their families and we see that Spot is a little orphan boy who lost his parents while Arlo lost his dad. So they totally bond and we get little teardrops of feels as we look at those family circles~

Continuing on, at the end of their journey, right before they get back to Arlo's dino-farm, They hear (aka the humans howl like wolves?) and then see a family of foxy white-haired with black tips HUMANS with a mom/dad/two kids (boy and girl) --- the picture of a nuclear family---- they come up and are like: oh yeah, we will totally take you in orphan Spot, we will all just stand here together staring at you while you say your goodbyes. 

AWWWW, tear-jerking #3 of them parting ways and Alro goes back home, finally able to put his mark on the corn silo.

Fin.


So yes it's a pretty cute movie, if totally predicable, but totally full of laughs and good feels that the little kids would probably really like (errrr I think it will keep K-5th grade entertained enough, if not just for the laughs). Like it's probably safe to say that kids up to 11yo would like it (afterall, ding, the MC is an 11yo). If the people are Disney/Pixar lovers, they will also probably sit through it well (I know I did, even if I was mentally poking fun of it at times, but all in good spirits). The animation is really pretty too, with lots of beautiful settings and a dash of glowing fireflies on top~

 OH and look at these little character blurbs I found:

We have the MC-Dino

We have the MC-Human

Don't Lion King Poppa, nuuuuuu (TT^TT)

the quarterback brother (though the are the same age)

she has freckles, GASP I didn't notice until now

Wow she really doesn't get many lines

Awww, my favorite bunch of the cast

they so nice too

can you believe this big old softy didn't eat anyone, awww

Ha and here are all the villains of the cast (these gave me a deranged surfer dude kind of vibe)

 and these villains gave me a hillbilly kind of vibe

and this guy gives me the just insane kind of vibe

But really, my villain describing vibes aren't kept to be mean, they are just ... well literally (I guess stereotypically) portrayed that way along with the rest of the cast. WHICH I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH aka child-development and all that. You know, children (really really small children) don't really have the world's gray-zone figured out, they don't understand the in-between stuff. Therefore, I completely agree that they need examples of black and white "good" vs. "evil" as "gray" is literally still too hard for them to comprehend. This movie gives the little kids three examples of "bad" aka bad is:

Pterodactyls -- at first they are nice and helpful as they call you "friend," but alas they then do something violent, and when you start backing away, they are all like "Where ya going, friend?" you are not leaving mwhahaha *the main villains of this movie*

Raptors -- mean people who steal your stuff and start fighting you when you try to take it back

Pet Collector -- I don't even know how to describe this category, those really weird people who talk to talk to themselves and behave off and are probably a danger to themselves and others? Meh, yeah, that sounds about right.

Anyway to conclude, I guess I would say its a 9/10 movie for little kids :)
Also, it's an pretty-okay movie for everyone else, with lots of G-rated humor it's great family movie, might bore the parents a bit though, but not too bad, as the graphics are really nice!    


Thanks for reading <3

Leviathan Series by Scott Westerfeld

Hi everyone!

       

I had randomly come across this book series quite recently and I must say that the story is amazing! First off, this is a trilogy book series with the titles being: Leviathan, Behemoth, and finally Goliath. All the books are out, so you could marathon them all right through to the conclusion with no waiting around!

I actually ended up listening to them on audiobook while driving and whatnot and so I can recommend listening to the series too because there is a great cast voicing each of the characters, which only gives more personality to the development of the characters. Speaking of which, the character development is wonderful! The two lead characters happen to be Aleksandar Ferdinand, the prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Deryn, a girl who disguised herself as a boy to join the British air-service under the guise of being Mr. Dylan Sharp. If you haven't noticed by the Ferdinand reference above, Alek is indeed a fictional son of the Archduke and that Archduke is the very same one whose dead had started the catalytic beginnings of WWI aka the Great War of the time. Now this isn't some boring historical book (Hooray) but it does take the plot of the time, the alliances and the relations between all the countries of the world. That being said, Alek wasn't a real person but purely made for this alternate history. Also, another great thing is that this book series is actually not only blending history with fiction but also *drumroll!* STEAMPUNK and BIOPUNK~

That's right, it makes it much more interesting as the Allied Powers, are the biopunk Darwinists (the British Darwinists are the MC country here) against the steampunk Clanker Central Powers of Austria, Germany, etc. Basically the Darwinists have fabricated chimeras big and small to use as their weapons, while the Clankers have mecha machines/robots at their disposal.     

Anyway, so far I have finished the first two books (starting into the third one right now too mwhaha) and there are so many positives! The books are very high paced and they never get boring or lose your interest. The perspective usually switches between Alek and Dylan as both of them struggle to get through this war. Alek is the heir of Austria-Hungary and so the Germans are always chasing him because he is the key to stopping the war that Germany started by killing his parents. "Mr. Sharp" on the other hand is trying to work as a midshipman on a flying whale-like war ship (called the Leviathan and therefore makes the title of the first book) without being discovered as a girl. Okay, side-note, Dylan/Deryn is quite successfully pulling off Mulan amazingly well with her quick-thinking and bravery. She isn't going to save China maybe but already she has saved her crew, Alek, and helped win major battles for her country Britian and for the Allied Powers. AND **little spoiler** she has a thing for Alek but he doesn't know that she's a girl (yes~ my personal favorite plot from Mulan is also in this series, what can be better then that!).

The plot moves through from forest to frozen Swiss Alps to aboard the Leviathan to a revolution in the Ottoman Empire in the city of Istanbul and then I'll say no more because I don't want to spoil anything more!

In conclusion I give this book series a 10/10 as it's completely engrossing with action, plots, secrets, humor, alliances and even some love (and by love of course I don't only mean the romantic kind as there is also the love and loyalty between crewman and best friends. And in war-time that takes the priority with our strong leads of the book --- so nothing is dreadfully gushy about the series). Thus you would have to be a "ninny" not to read it ;)

Jupiter Ascending

Hi everyone,

Okay so I watched the movie Jupiter Ascending today and can I say that it was very much confusing (okay lets be real for a sec, I was also making cookies so maybe I missed a hidden cue here and there). Anyway, the movie was actually released on February 6, 2015 but it took a while for me to get around to watching it (and so I redboxed it). Also on another note, the movie's rating on IMBd is a cringe worthy 2.5/5.0 stars but alas I really wanted to watch this movie. Why? Well because I saw the trailer before and read its plot synopsis, which made me think that it was totally ripping off the Lunar Chronicles, therefore I needed to see it.

Hold on a sec, what are these Lunar Chronicles and what do I think of them? Well its actually a four-book series written by Marissa Meyer and starts from the book Cinder, with another book preceding the main series by 20 years called Fairest, and yet another book being released next year in February that has a collection of short stories to tie any loose ends (umm its called the Stars Above). Anyway, the bottom line here is that I love the series and will write a review once I read the final book (Book #4: Winter). Super excited to read it ... actually I even pre-ordered it to get it this November and yet it's still unread (gasp, the horror.... what am I doing).

Anyway, back to the movie, I am pleased to say that it did not blatantly rip off the Lunar Chronicles even though they both have: extraterrestrial princesses (the Cinderalla type, who lived a hard life to get by on the planet Earth before finding out that they were secretly extraterrestrial princesses), extraterrestrial family drama over the planet (aka who would rule over Earth), and even a wolf hybrid super soldier without a pack. So yeah, totally different hahaha.

But really, Jupiter Ascending is said to be an original work by the Wachowskis, who also made the Matrix and Speed Runner. Errrr, I don't know if I would say it is a totally new and original concept, because it totally fits within a sci-fi theme. Also, I personally like this theme, so I really can't dish any negative criticism on the movie there. Not only that, but I can't even say they ripped off the Lunar Chronicles because I still don't know what I watched... cough, cough whereas the Lunar Chronicle eventually explains everything in the plot of the series to give a well build fictional world and cast f characters.

Sigh, the truth is that the movie is full of holes. It could be expanded out somehow to make more sense, but as a stand alone the screenplay was just random. It did not really have an end, other than the usual (my favorite ending) cheezy "and the MC lived happily ever after."

********Spoilers beyond this point, reader discretion is advised******** 

Okay but if you want the movie spoiled, read on :)

First off, wow this movie felt rushed. Literally, after the first ten seconds I had to rewind it back because I missed major backstory. What! The opening studio logo wasn't even off for more than a millisecond before rapid narration started about the main character's parents-origin-backstory, aka how her parents met along with the when/where/how/what. All of this was explained in what felt like 5 minutes. Speaking of which, the main character is named Jupiter. The origin of her name is also explained in that rushed backstory. Basically (though literally it's all the information you get) her father and mother were both professors in St. Petersburg, Russia and they met on one cold night while her astronomy-loving father practically froze to death watch the planets and stars on his fancy golden telescope. It fast forwards to them being married (maybe, it skips over this) and the mother is pregnant with Jupiter. The father just finishes telling his wife that she should be named Jupiter when, cue the stereotypical Russian mania, kicks their door in demanding for the money they owe. They proceed in grabbing some of the big ticket items, including the father's golden telescope, which he begs for them to leave behind (just don't take the telescope, anything but that) and ends up being shot in response. Therefore the father is killed for the telescope, so maybe its important? The mother is shocked/hurt/something and promptly moves to the US with her sister illegally by stowing away on some ship where she gives birth to Junipter (Jupiter is the one narrating all this, but again more plot-holes, like why can't the mother trust anyone but her sister, why did she flee, why was the cliche Russian movie mafia out to collect, what did she use that money for if she is some school professor???) 

The movie flashes forward twenty years and mother, her sister, and Jupiter are all now living somewhere and working as cleaning ladies for rich people. The only real clear thing here is that they have to wake up at 4:45am every SINGLE day (hahaha cue the repeated motif of turning off that alarm clock). Jupiter really hates her life. Afterall she was born, without a land or a home but exactly when the planet of Jupiter was ascending at 25 degrees (A-HA so there's where the movie title came from) and so her aunt believes she is destined for greatness. Yet, she is stuck cleaning toilets. ----- meh, it was played off a bit weak, as most of it is being narrated off.

Anyway, these three ladies/women are living with family??? Again, no real mention how they got to where they are or who any of the other family members are... I guess they are cousins and uncles and whatnot. 

Jupiter and maybe one of her cousins are planning for Jupiter to sell off her eggs to made a profit from it (ha actually it takes a while to even know what they are doing, as the characters are referring to it as "it"). Apparently the cousin will get 10 grand and Jupiter will get 5 grand. What! How did they even reach this point. Anyway, while talking, Jupiter is looking at an ebay-like site listing selling her father's magical golden telescope for about 4 grand and so she agrees with the cousin that she will go and sell her eggs afterall to get her 5 grand and ultimately buy that telescope.

Now at this point of the movie (like 20 minutes in) there have also been scenes of the extraterrestrials after they "harvested a planet". You see that there are three siblings, even though one brother looks young while the other brother and sister look old with wrinkles. The young looking brother comments that the sister enjoys wearing her wrinkles or something of that sort and they all have their chuckle. Okay, obviously they are harvesting the planets for preserving their immorality, yeah yeah yeah, nothing new there (unless this is the first sci-fi movie you've ever seen... which is exactly how Jupiter acts when she finds out any sort of information, cue the shocked face). Okay, maybe I've seen too many sci-fi movies but instead of touching on that, it would have been nice to expand and give more world building in the extraterrestrial aspects of the movie. Instead, each time they just brush over it, mention something that leads to more questions and continue on, never addressing it again. 

Now to give them names, the extraterrestrials are of the royal family Abrasax and the three siblings are Balem, Titus, and Kalique. Balem actually, as a side note, is the actor Eddie Redmayne who played Stephan Hawking in The Theory of Everything (it was a pretty good movie) and will be Newt Scamanderin the new Harry Potter movie: Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them. 

Anyway the siblings enjoy alluding to things in the movie without giving the watchers of the movie any substance for world building. Nevertheless, apparently, Titus made his "failure" work in his favor and Balem is the supposed heir to Earth, which they all see as a more "prosperous estate" than any and all of Titus's estates combined. Ah, plot-holes, I don't even know who is older.

That being said, later in the movie we find out that the sister Kalique is 1404 years old, while her mother would be celebrating her 9100's birthday were it not for the fact that she was murdered. Again, major plot hole is that they never really flat-out say which of the siblings killed her..... unless the psychotic ramblings/shouting of Balem on how he helped his mother end her life really meant that he killed her. Or maybe I'm just over thinking it, but you know, first the sister Kalique hinted at knowing more than she let on about her mother's murder and then Titus alluded to it too before using it and warping it to use on manipulating Jupiter. Sigh, basically, there's more that went down there, or at least that's what movie alludes to with its many plot-holes, the the point where a movie on just the Abrasax would be well justified.

Seriously though, it gave me a Marvel Asgardian vibe and as we all know (well okay if you watched Thor and then Thor: the Dark World), major plot twists can occur when you deal with somewhat-immortals. Like how Loki supposedly died in the Dark World, but really he was alive and ended up taking the Asgardian throne while disguised as Odin.

After that movie, I really can't just accept that Balem killed his mother (especially when she was like 9100 years old). Though the characters of the movie are a bit 2D, so maybe indeed he did. Fine, then did Balem really die after plummeting off one of his refinery towers on the Planet Jupiter after his ramblings to Jupiter as he tried to kill her because she was the reincarnation of his murdered mother and he wanted Earth. Hahaha, what a mouthful that is~ 

Alas, if he killed her, then he would no longer have Earth anyway because of the workings of the will the Abrasax queen wrote off to her future self... huh?

So the other brother, Titus, might have had a better plan (which he executed before Balem) where he wanted to marry Jupiter and then kill her off to get the claim to Earth. There you go, now that is just like the plot in the Lunar Chronicles, bravo Jupiter Ascending. And yet, poor Titus, made villain mistake #1 when he told Jupiter's wolf-hybrid-super-solider exactly all of his plans and then tossed him out of the air lock and into space for dead. Which the wolfy Caine Wise character used to his advantage (one hover boot round house kick out of his binds later) by getting rescued by an ally ship and then proceeding to crash the Titus x Jupiter wedding (the one Jupiter agreed to for the purpose of getting a metal alien pardon plaque for Caine's pardon). Anyway, no harm done as Caine crashed the wedding... when Jupiter had (already) "only" gotten half of the wedding band tattooed onto her finger and so the wedding with Titus was void.

Anyway, there were many many many action scenes and through the movie each of the Abrasax siblings sent assassins or retrievers (or both or ones that double-crossed the one sibling for another sibling) after Jupiter because she was the reincarnation for their mother because her genome was in the same exact sequence, which would make her the owner of Earth (the run-ons for my headache of a screen-write). They on the other hand wanted Earth for themselves because one pint of the immortality potion they bath in to make themselves young is made from 100 people. Since Earth has 7 billion people, all the more backstabbing and double-crossing. Not to mention that I'm still if-y on that supposed will, like why if Balem is heir to the estate of Earth, can the identical genome of his mother that resulted from the cultivation of the genes that they themselves introduced on the planet overwrite his supposed authority.... like if bees are supposed to know the true royalty of Earth, won't they react to any of the Abrasax and not just her... otherwise if they are only programmed for the mother, wouldn't it be impossible to will it away to anyone else. I think if she was their older sister it would make more sense... so maybe this is the "originality" concept of the movie in play.

Ugh, as you can see, everything just hits the fan and nothing is really explained in the movie outside of the cliche. Then how does this movie end??? Well after Balem plummets to his supposed doom, Titus and Kalique just maybe give up or something. Afterall, they never bother the heroine Jupiter again (Why??? They didn't have any problems with that before... though, the sister didn't even do anything but show Jupiter her magical immortality bath and a statue of the deceased Abrasax queen and aka Jupiter twin). Jupiter goes back to Earth and goes back to waking up at 4:45am to clean people's houses. Great? Well she sits down to eat with her family (of unknowns because half of them weren't even named) and her cousin brings out a gift. Guess what, it's her father's telescope, the one he died trying to protect, the one she almost died for while trying to sell her eggs at the clinic (only to almost be killed by Balem's "Keeper" aliens and then saved by Titus's hired Caine West to be kidnapped by Kalique's goons and so on). Well, does the mystery of the telescope get discovered as a reoccuring motif in the movie? NOOO! That's because she needs to leave now to go on a date. That date is with Caine (remember the pardon I mentioned before) well now that Caine is pardoned (I guess maybe Jupiter swiped the pardon at the wedding) he has his bioengineering eagle wings (because everyone in the alian guard gets wicked eagle wings no matter what genes they are spliced with, be it wolf or dinosaur or even elephant) back and so he can give Jupiter his hover-skating (imagine speed skating) boots and they can go flying through the city..... The end.

Indeed, that was where the movie ended... it had a lot of action and alluded to lots of world building and back-story (so many characters were introduced but I know so little about any of them). Thus, I can say that the movie was.... interesting... but the plot-holes make me sad. I kind of wish that there could be a book series to go with this movie because two hours and seven minutes is not enough time to execute a complex sci-fi movie. Hahaha, if my explanation was full of holes, you basically get the gist of the how the whole movie moves.

I would rate it a 6/10 because the characters had a lot of potential and I do like the genre, but I have seen better execution and I weep (okay not literally) for the characters not being elaborated on further. Would I recommend it? Well if you are not detail-oriented, it's an action packed movie with some romance on the side, something girls and guys would enjoy, something you could talk about. If you enjoy writing fan-fiction, I'm guessing you have enough holes to write a good 1000 pages on hahaha. If you are detail oriented and like picking apart movies, this might just give you a headache. So my answer would be that it depends on what you want to take from the movie.  

Now to give Filipino Michael Cinco his due, he designed the dress Jupiter wore (well okay, Mila Kunis wore it technically) to her wedding with Titus. I love it!

Pretty!!!! What a wonderful design.

Wow, that headpiece, I wonder how much it weighs~

Love the design, the 3D flowers really make it pop

Okay, that's a wrap~ 

~(^.^)~




    

Your Lie in April ~ Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

What a bittersweet 22 episodes! This was one of the most touching and wonderful animes I have ever seen. Each of the four main characters: Kousei Arima, Kaori Miyazono, Tsubaki Sawabe, and Ryouta Watari were portrayed with such caring love, but so were all the minor characters too.

For anyone who has not watched it, it is definitely a MUST watch. It was beautiful music (both violin and piano), it has laughs, heartbreak, friendship, memories and so much more. It's a whole ship of feels and it is quite realistic (a delicious slice of life... no pie, but there are desserts included). The animation's art-style is also breathtakingly beautiful and full of color. The opening and ending were stunning and enjoyable. There is also great foreshadowing, some interesting metaphors, and one wonderful ending (the finale of final episodes) that wraps everything up in the form of a letter!

A 10/10 show!

The following contains major spoilers!!!

  

 

Your Lie in April, as the title, was also very clever because in the last episode Kaori's letter to Kousei said, "I only told one lie that day we met and it was that 'Kaori Miyazono likes Ryouta Watari' but that lie has brought me closer to you." I'm gushing with feels!

She is so full of life!

Now of the four characters, Watari's feelings are probably the least exercised, HOWEVER, it is evident that a lot of emotions and thoughts go through him, so in no way is his character two dimensional in complexity. Indeed, it is what isn't showed that will give more meaning to what is showed.  Watari is no fool but he does keep his feelings in check more then others (one great example of that is when his team loses their soccer tournament game and he comforts his teammates. He puts on a smile and cheers everyone up. Then alone, he goes into the bathroom stall and cries full of sadness and anger for letting his team down. He has taken the task of shouldering both his team and his friends.).

Wise words from Watari.

  

And then we have Tsubaki, who has been in love with Kousei since childhood. Her feelings are complex in that she doesn't want to admit to herself what these feelings are. She is in denial through at least the first half of the anime, where she even dates the former baseball captain (who is in love with her). However they both come to realize that she could never love him as the only one that circulates constantly through her thoughts is Kousei.

She is thinking about Kousei

She starts crying and says she is sorry

The captain takes it with a good nature and asks her if they can break up

He thanks her for being his girlfriend

And then there are a lot of flashbacks to Kousei's life from Tsubaki's perspective because she was always been there for him, always next to him.

Who is she trying to fool... she can't even fool herself

Especially because every time he smiles at her, her heart feels like it will burst out of her ribcage!

Just joking around with her normally

The FEELS and the butterflies fluttering!

But with the addition of Kaori, a wall has been built around Kousei that Tsubaki is hesitant to cross, that she is afraid to cross through because of his apparent feelings towards Kaori. 

What can she say to him to comfort him?

She realizes that her time with him will not remain like this forever, that they can't be together like they were in their childhood, especially when he tells her about his plans for high school:

Flashback-time!

She runs away from him... away from her feelings

but it does matter...

unrequited love ~(T^T)~

 And then there is this scene:

Ugh, Kousei is completely clueless in her feelings for him.

How soul-shattering! She finally realized her love for him though!

So she gets mad, a natural reaction for her

she has said that to him before and yet, everytime...

Deja vu!

Kousei is talking here

still Kousei talking, btw

As a side note, but not really because there are so many flashbacks as Tsubaki is wafting through her feelings:

aww, the whole feet comparison and realization thing for Tsubaki is so cute

  

Tsubaki's realization:

unfortunately no...

Oh snap it's a bit of a love triangle though but even if you don't like love triangles for their cliche-ness (like myself) this love triangle is bittersweet all the way through out.... hmm, however it doesn't come full circle until the last episode so it really needs to watched to be fully appreciated. Again, a major spoiler!!! 

Lets go (yay, a confusing chain): Tsubaki has always loved Kousei but played it off like she loved him as her brother. Kousei needed Tsubaki to be there for him through his tough childhood and really opened up to her. Watari is there for both of them and he acts as a middle-man for all their relationships. Kaori supposedly likes Watari and they enjoy their time together. Watari really starts to care for Kaori but he can see that Kaori doesn't actually like him and likes Kousei, also he sees immediately that Kousei likes Kaori. He just doesn't say anything because he is waiting for them to come out with it themselves and plays the middle-man well, though he grows closer to them. Watari also sees Tsubaki's feelings for Kousei and tries to support her too. Kousei realizes that for the first time in his life he is experiencing love but he feels like he is only "Friend A" to Kaori and thinks Kaori only has eyes for Watari. However, in the finale, Kaori makes it clear that she has loved Kousei since the first time she saw him as age five and that she was always trying to become close to him but couldn't see any room for herself in the friendship between Kousei, Watari, and Tsubaki. Now Kousei knows that his love wasn't one-sided, but he can never be with Kaori because she has died. Watari is seen to be having relationship trouble with his girlfriend. Tsubaki finally makes her feelings known to Kousei and is more active in her love. Thus Kousei has realized that Tsubaki loved him all this time and throughout everything he has experience, he has finally matured. Kaori also reveals that the reason why she is a violinist was because she wanted to play along side with Kousei, which is why she switched over from the piano at 5yo.     

AND then there is the relationship between Kousei and his mother. It is so painful because Kousei ends up losing both his mother and then Kaori, which is all interconnected with the music he plays. How? Well, his mother loved music and Kousei, so it made her so happy to see Kousei start to play her favorite piano music. However his mother then got sick with a terminal disease, so her life was slipping through her fingers. She couldn't play her beloved piano anymore and became obsessed with Kousei caring her will on. Kousei on the other hand started to play the piano believing that it would cure his mother and she would get better. He played perfectly because if he wasn't playing well, it would put him mother in distress and she condition would get worse. Kousei finally had enough and wished for him mother to die and that he wouldn't play and afterwards she did die. So when he was playing in the final round of the competition, he subconsciously closed himself off from his playing and couldn't hear his piano music any more. This made him stop playing altogether until Kaori came into his life. She made him look up into the light and pursue music again. She was actually very frail though and also didn't have long to life. When Kousei realizes that Kaori is also close to death, he thinks that it is his music that is taking them away from him. Ironically that is how Tsubaki feels as music seems to be taking Kousei away from her. Anyway, Kaori makes him struggle and keep playing the piano, helping him embrace both if problems with his mother and then with her own illness. Kousei on the other hand makes Kaori keep struggling to live and not give up. They all help each other move forward through life!

his mother's favorite song

a happy memory of his mother

he can finally let go

how beautiful!

 

 Also, there are so many cute moments between Kousei and Kaori:

....and then come the many jabbing feels!

Wait, it's not all sadness of course, there is great humor too!

she's spinning

Saying "I'm a jackass" with a straight face and it is so touching

There is humor and there is the recurring image/motif of black cats!

Then there is there are several touching final exchanges between Kousei and Kaori:

.... but she left him

But it causes him to grow up:

Kaori says this

~I met a girl under full-bloomed cherry blossoms and my fate begun to change

How Great! It really grew on me and I loved how it explored such real themes, like our mortality, the feelings of love, loss, and the connections made with other people; the words said and the words left unsaid. It was quite beautiful and I recommend it to everyone (both girls and guys, old and young) so it is such a great story!


My final opinions on the characters (they are very opinionated):

Well with the foreshadowing the the fact it was called "Your lie in April" I excepted that the lie would be something like she only had a month to live and then she died afterwards, leaving Kousei after the month. So I was pleasantly surprised when the lie was actually pertaining to her love of Kousei. That she was actually with the gang for about half a year because she died in the winter. Then it was a great play on the title because after the winter, spring came and he finally read her letter in the spring, which made it a whole year from the time he had first met her. Of course it was interesting to find out that she had known him since she was five. Thus I did early on that she must have seen his performance because she was always so adamant about him playing the piano.

Then I'm really happy Tsubaki and Kousei can be together, not necessarily because they are childhood friends and then precisely because they are childhood friends. I think that Tsubaki understands Kousei best in a sense because she has seen him grow all her life, however she doesn't know how to express it to him in words. Kaori could because the two of them were connected through music though. Then again, it was only because of Kaori's terminal illness that she grew to realize the fullness of life. Thus I think Tsubaki will get there eventually too, afterall they are all in middle school.

Watari is like the third wheel and in a way I totally empathize with him. He is going down a hard road because he has taken a large burden on himself in a more supporting role, but this role has also distanced him from everyone else (I mean come on, they even call him Watari more often, as opposed to Ryouta). Anyway I really hope he takes some of the burden off himself and shares it with someone else.

I'm happy it ended like that because it gives so much possibility for all the characters, both major and minor to grow. You could even say that it set the stage for them. It is quite the uplifting bittersweet ending it needed!    
 

Thanks for reading :)