Your Lie in April: I was lied to.

[Empire]

So usually I don't bother with romance anime for several reasons, but I was bored and DL'ing Shinsekai Yori.
-YLIA got a ton of good press and praise so I thought I'd give it a check.
(Obvious spoilers)

So here. we. go.


Your Lie in April starts out as straightforward as you can get. MC has illness, meets beautiful girl who cures illness, but his best friend is "dating" the girl.


What struck me as odd from the very start is the classic trope of "overly artistic musician", that is, when a musician lives in a completely different world because he can play music. This sort of super-depression that the MC has from the start struck me as begging drama, much like how Plastic Memories established that the androids can only be sustained for a short period of time but still have human emotions.


Later on in the show(episode 4) I find out that *GASP* the love interest is SICK. OH MY GOD. NEW ADDITION TO STORYTELLING PEOPLE, THE GIRL IS SICK.

What sickness does she have? Not important.
(because god forbid you have 20 episode long anime and they mention that her sickness is a real thing and not just a plot device.)


So anyway, the show progresses and the love interest does pretty much every standard romance anime thing but the show doesn't confirm she has romantical feelings towards him.



So this brings me to my biggest issue with the show: I was fucking lied to.


This show has nothing to do with romance. It's just some over-glorified "musicians are super emotional people" bullshit.

Nothing in this show is something I can relate to because no: I don't suffer from schizophrenia, I don't have the magical girl of my dreams standing 2 feet away but me being a pussy on it, and I don't have a childhood friend that is basically the best person you could ever ask for be a potential love interest.

Oh and fuck this stupid "sick girls are so romantic" shit.

If you liked this show watch: The girl who leapt through time, Toradora, or Wolf Children.

[Takatsuki]

I'll try to keep it short, but you know my posts.

god forbid you have 20 episode long anime and they mention that her sickness is a real thing and not just a plot device.

Could just be me not sleeping yet, but what exactly do you mean by this? It's rather obvious she's sick when she's constantly hospitalized and her body is super frail, on top of the large amounts of medication she had.

doesn't confirm she has romantical feelings towards him.

Flat out wrong. Of course, the execution was does poorly. Following her death we learned that she used Watari just to be close to Arima. Now, I'm not one to judge relationships like this because I've never been in a scenario where the girl pretends to like my best-friend, who also likes her, even though I like her and she likes me. Was it done terribly? Yes. Did they confirm she had feelings towards him? Yes.

Nothing in this show is something I can relate to

Well, you're not supposed to relate to every romance anime, or even every anime in general. Just watching a story of two people is what they're going after with YLIA. Most self-insert MC's are absolutely terrible to begin with, and I'm glad they didn't try to make this a self-insert.

Oh and fuck this stupid "sick girls are so romantic" shit.

Have you SEEN that smile?

[Empire]

Could just be me not sleeping yet, but what exactly do you mean by this? It's rather obvious she's sick when she's constantly hospitalized and her body is super frail, on top of the large amounts of medication she had.

I know she's sick but saying "she's sick" in the anime when so much of the anime is about her sickness really should be "she's got ______ disease."

Flat out wrong. Of course, the execution was does poorly. Following her death we learned that she used Watari just to be close to Arima. Now, I'm not one to judge relationships like this because I've never been in a scenario where the girl pretends to like my best-friend, who also likes her, even though I like her and she likes me. Was it done terribly? Yes. Did they confirm she had feelings towards him? Yes.

Yes but confirming through thoughts and not out loud is not confirming at all.

Also her "like" towards Arima was always "as a prodigy" and not really any romance.

Well, you're not supposed to relate to every romance anime, or even every anime in general. Just watching a story of two people is what they're going after with YLIA. Most self-insert MC's are absolutely terrible to begin with, and I'm glad they didn't try to make this a self-insert.

It's not the lack of self-insert that bothers me, it's the bullshit. The bullshit that surrounds and pads 20 episodes worth of pretty boring episodes.

From the start you know that this series has 4 endings.
1. MC + girl.
2. MC + girl, girl dies.
3. MC + childhood friend
4. MC + nobody.

Killing off the girl because of her surgery is just so bad tbh. Complications of surgery are common, but voluntary surgery......eh.......that's another matter. I'm honestly curious as to how they fucked up so badly.

[Reckonz]

Wow. I watched this show and only go to like first 10 episodes. I was hooked but also distant, but I read that she dies from on of you guy's post. (yikes) (It's cool lol I came knowing a spoiler would come you even said so) I never thought in that show they would kill the girl. Like dammm, as you explain the romance was well rather shit poorly executed. I've decided not to continue that lol, I'm a sucker for romance and then that happens. NTY lolol I probably would've had INC tears if I continued watching.

[Takatsuki]

I know she's sick but saying "she's sick" in the anime when so much of the anime is about her sickness really should be "she's got ______ disease."

It's supposed to be hidden from the MC, but obvious to us. He doesn't notice the medication(memory may be wrong) and as far as I also re-call, everyone was shocked to learn she was hospitalized before her performance. It's not a perfect depiction of her illness, but I think it just tried to be as dramatic as possible.

Yes but confirming through thoughts and not out loud is not confirming at all.

What? How is her confirming through thought not confirming at all? The watcher knows, but the MC doesn't. That is okay to assume, though you could argue Arima would figure it out eventually.

It's not the lack of self-insert that bothers me, it's the bullshit. The bullshit that surrounds and pads 20 episodes worth of pretty boring episodes.
From the start you know that this series has 4 endings.

I suppose, yeah. From a story stand point, there is no other options outside of the given. But, if we're judging the anime by just the end and not the journey(cliche, I know), then it's very weak.

[Empire]

It's supposed to be hidden from the MC, but obvious to us. He doesn't notice the medication(memory may be wrong) and as far as I also re-call, everyone was shocked to learn she was hospitalized before her performance. It's not a perfect depiction of her illness, but I think it just tried to be as dramatic as possible.


What? How is her confirming through thought not confirming at all? The watcher knows, but the MC doesn't. That is okay to assume, though you could argue Arima would figure it out eventually.



I suppose, yeah. From a story stand point, there is no other options outside of the given. But, if we're judging the anime by just the end and not the journey(cliche, I know), then it's very weak.

I know it's trying to be dramatic as possible, that's why I really dislike the "sick girl is sick" shit.

Confirmation in thought is worthless for romance anime. The protagonist from fucking To-love-ru confirms that he likes a girl, still doesn't go anywhere.

Your Lie in April has so much padding and slow scenes that it's amazing they even got the go ahead to make as many episodes as they did.

[Takatsuki]

Your Lie in April has so much padding and slow scenes that it's amazing they even got the go ahead to make as many episodes as they did.

I was okay watching it on a week-to-week basis, but marathoning it would kill me. I agree with pretty much everything you said else wise. Though, I can't lie; I cried at the ending. I still listen to the god-like OST daily.

[Hiroyuki]

I'll put my input towards what @Takatsuki & @Empire said; I am super tired and don't feel like typing until the morning.

[Takatsuki]

I'll put my input towards what @Takatsuki & @Empire said; I am super tired and don't feel like typing until the morning.

So....you make the post now?

[Hiroyuki]

So....you make the post now?

I didn't feel like responding to the top, I'm just out of the notion anyhow.

[Empire]

I didn't feel like responding to the top, I'm just out of the notion anyhow.

Wut..............

[Hiroyuki]

Wut..............

I am saying I was going to respond with my thoughts to your initial post and his first response but it doesn't matter at this point.

[rizky98]

I did come in for the romance and ended up with tears