Your Lie in April and a little more on Steins;Gate
While we were waiting for the second half of Steins;Gate to show up at the Library my lovely wife, M and I started watching Your Lie in April. M would probably try to take credit for watching it, but something about the banner on Netflix intrigued me so I take partial credit as well. It’s a pretty amazing show that has an absolute gut punch of an ending. That’s probably sort of a spoiler, but if you’re at all familiar with Asian cinema you can see the ending coming early on in the show. It’s still powerful when you actually get there.
The story follows Kosei Arima, a former pianist prodigy. He stopped playing after his Mother passed away and he could no longer hear the notes he was playing. His best friend, girl next door Tsubaki, wants to set their other friend, Watari, up with Kaori. But when Kosei meets her he instantly falls in love with her and she starts to drag him back into his old life as a pianist. She plays the violin and after squeaking by in a competition as the crowd favorite asks him to be her accompanist. From there the show is a look at teenage romance and friendship, the competitive world of music and what it means to live.
There is a lot of crying in this show. Most of it occurs on screen. There is also a lot of beautiful classical music. I definitely recommend it, but maybe know what you’re getting into. It’s a little niche, falls prey to some standard anime tropes, but that ending. It’s still haunting me. This one will stick with me for a while.
Which brings me back to Steins;Gate. This one has stuck with me also.
I’m currently playing through the visual novel and it fleshes out the series quite well. There are some truly harrowing sections. And a couple of the alternate endings... I really like how well thought out the ramifications of time travel are. Plus it’s just a great story. I like spending time with these characters.
I suspect both of these will end up in the same category as shows like Cowboy Bebop or Princess Nine for me. Re-watchable gems that hold up as the years go by.
