“What, you haven’t watched Your Lie in April? You call youself a weeb???” is the reaction I get when I shyly proclaim that among the 200+ anime I have watched, the highly rated Shigatsu no Uso wasn’t one of them.

For good reason, really. I guess, I forget ? Anyway, putting all that aside, I went into Your Lie in April with high expectations, with my main judging criteria being how they set up the atmosphere for emotional scenes.

Atmosphere

Yeah, that’s right. I’m reviewing an anime first and foremost by it’s atmosphere, rather than its story, audiovisuals or character building. I want to explain that it’s due to the anime being of the “Drama” genre, but honestly, it’s mostly because I was bombarded with opinions stating how “emotional” the anime is.

In my (not-so) humble opinion, atmosphere contributes greatly to the “feels” of a scene; atmosphere is comprised of audiovisuals, pretext, and silences. Your Lie in April is an excellent example of setting up atmosphere.

Characters themselves give poetic pretexts, using similes, metaphors and symbolism to express their feelings. Sometimes their feelings are compared to the sea of stars, sometimes to the flow of time, and sometimes to the vibrancy of colors. During the climax of the emotional moment, the audiovisuals turns the poems into visible/audible images, which is enhanced greatly by the classical music playing in the background, until - silence. In a sense, the atmosphere matches perfectly with most classical music pieces, as the ample silence in most pieces becomes more deafening than the music itself, building time for the audience to breathe, and to take it all in.

An example of atmosphere | Source: Pinterest

It’s a little hard to put into words, but imagine composing a poem while looking at the stars, with someone playing slow tempo piano music at the side - it is bound to trigger some emotions. In a nutshell, Your Lie in April is an excellent example of setting up atmosphere.

Character Building

This is good stuff. You will see a lot of character building in Your Lie in April. Take my word for it, explaining it will ruin the story for you.

Story

Your Lie in April is very predictable; but the predictability is also its charm. It is because you can predict the events, that the scenes become more so emotional; to put simply, surprise is an element that overrides most emotions, and it should be used sparingly in a Drama-genre anime.

Conclusion

I get why people scorn me for having the audacity of calling myself a weeb when I haven’t seen Your Lie in April. This was a great watch, and something that I’ll remember as a fundamental and reference for future drama anime. Place it at the top of your “to-watch” list if you haven’t already watched it!

Happy Coding

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