01/03/2020 - Anohana

Anohana - Anime - TV

Originally Aired Spring 2011 - Studio A-1 Pictures

Anohana was a show that I had heard great things about but put off watching because of its reputation. It's a tear-jerker. I kinda had this idea that because many people said it made them cry, that it would be a downer the whole time. But like most things that really earn that emotional response, Anohana really builds to its climax. I could tell from the first episode that this was the approach the show would take. It was also quickly made clear that the show would have its intended effect. I did cry at the end, but as I write this having just finished bingeing the show, I'm not sad. The resolution of the show leaves it's characters much better than we found them.

A disingenuous summary of Anohana would be "What if you suddenly found yourself haunted by the ghost of your childhood friend who had unfinished business, but instead of tormenting you, she's just a happy anime girl?" More accurately, it's a story about Jinta who is visited one summer day by his childhood friend Menma who we quickly learn is supposed to be dead. She tells him that she is there so that he can help her fulfill her wish, but she can't remember what the wish was. She also says she needs their old group of friends to fulfill it, but that's a problem too, because that group of friends haven't really been friends since the day of her accident.

Anohana is a story about grief and the guilt that people hold on to as they deal with loss. It's about how holding on to guilt causes people to change for the worse and puts a rift between relationships. But it's also about how true friendship is strong enough to last through the way people change, and how forgiveness can remove that guilt. As the show moves along, we learn about the guilt that each of the friends had been holding onto since the day of Menma's death and how it causes them to change. We also see the specific ways that guilt has driven each character apart. It's kind of interesting that by the end of the show, we are never shown or told exactly how Menma dies, but we know what each character did before the accident and how it affects them in the years after. But the beautiful thing is that, through Menma coming back, these estranged friends are all brought back together. These high schoolers who can't really express themselves through most of the show are able to communicate the guilt they've been holding and understand each other. And in that great climax scene, Menma, who had only been visible to Jinta to that point, is able to leave a letter for each of her friends telling them what she loves about each of them. Then they are all able to give her a proper goodbye before she finally moves on. That's why this show that can make cry isn't really a tragedy. These friends are able to get closure for the loss they suffered and they leave their guilt and end in a better place than they started.

Verdict: I really liked it. I didn't need to wait as long as I did.