Your Lie in April

Fuck, I just re-watched this whole series for the second time and I was uncontrollably sobbing during the last episode. This anime is brimming with cliches, and there is a lowkey harem vibe to this whole ordeal. However, rather than being timid about the maudlin aspects, the creators just fucking go full-out with the melodrama and it sticks most of the time. Child abuse? Terminally ill love interest? PTSD? Depression? Unrequited love? It's all here, and gorgeously animated with killer music too.

incredible series, beautiful soundtrack,. the first 6 episodes are meh. but after that it just gets better and better and better till the end. the ending is slightly disappointing which should of had a kiss

Gets a little bogged down with several screentime-hogging new characters in its back half, but overall a lovely combination of music, teen romance and gentle dramedy that kept me pulled along and even misty eyed at a couple points.

Way too much "romance" in this anime, imo. If you really like romance, this might be your thing. Heavy with the cheese. Charming, frequently. Good animation too. Sets a good tone.

Melodramatic wimps without much substance.

While the ending was very sad, and the piano/violin-artwork combo is wonderful, I can't say in good conscience that I enjoyed this show. I'm all for linearity, but it felt too linear; it just bored me more than anything at times.

When it shoots for the moon, it hits it. It gets bogged down a little by typical anime tropes (i.e. internal monologues, mood whiplashes, comments from other characters I don't give a fuck about) to reinforce the melodrama, but the big moments feel earned and they do sprinkled a lot of little moments all throughout to make it all worthwhile. This probably reads like damning with faint praise, but I do think this anime is great and absolutely worth watching.

This show uses every trick in the book to manipulate the viewer's emotions - and often succeeds. Good except for the final twist, which is ridiculous.

internal monologue: the show

SUPER emotional and romantic, breathtaking visuals & music, and great voice acting. With a little bit of editing (cut out a few repetitive flashbacks and internal monologues) this would be perfect.

Story and characters banal, but it played all the right chords to move me. Someone said there were climaxes all round, and it's true that the energy was high every episode (as in, "This is it!" kind of way) but it was certainly entertaining, and made me feel things. I really fell for Chopin's ballade 1 thanks to this.