A boy falls in love and plays piano.

I’m generally not a fan of these kinds of shows, in which a boy evades multiple girls falling for him while simultaneously evading or attempting to evade his personal problems. Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso had its moments, but was still very frustrating to watch.

Everything about the music was particularly frustrating. For a show ostensibly about music… it really didn’t like music. Somebody would be playing piano… and some character in the audience would tell you exactly what the music was supposed to be conveying. And then they’d spend minutes and minutes talking about how the music speaks for itself and how musicians communicate with just music… while not allowing anything in the show to be communicated with just music.

Furthermore, all the concert scenes blended together and did little to distinguish themselves. Some character plays music, and talks about his feelings forever and ever. All the concert seasons knocked me right out.

Thematically, I found elements of the show disturbing. For example, the female lead asks the main character to commit suicide with her. While I don’t think they were actually trying to condone suicide, this idea just kind of popped up and never went anywhere at all. More disturbing to me was the main character’s return to music. He had been scarred by his mother who forced him to play piano, and no longer wanted to play, quivering in fear whenever he was forced to. So his friends trick him and coerce him into continuing to play. The insinuation is that if the main character doesn’t play piano again, his life is worthless and meaningless and the main character is a failure. Keep in mind that this kid is in middle school. This point of view is never refuted as far as I can tell.

It also feels like there’s a girl of the month format. Childhood friend and sick girl have a strong role throughout, but the others are tacked on haphazardly seemingly as afterthoughts. Especially the little girl. The main love interest is dying in the hospital and the show goes on this multi-episode tangent where the main character ignores her to teach this little girl piano and become a lolicon. They claim it’s so that he can ganbarimasu just like the girl in the hospital is but… come on… this is stupid. Ganbarimasu by spending time with your dying girlfriend, not going on a summer fling with a pre-pubescent younger woman.

• Storytelling – C – Too slow in my opinion, unfocused.
• Voice – C – Distinctively lame musical interludes?
• Characters – D – Didn’t bring me to care about any of the characters.
• Attention Grab – C – Dozed off in concerts but otherwise decent.
• Production – C – Meh.
• Overall – C-

Recommendations – Nodame Cantabile, Sakamichi no Apollon, White Album 2