Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
AstroPenguin
This anime could have been only 12 episodes long, it has many useless repetitions of scenes, even inside the same episodes and is also veeeery slow paced... The love story is almost not-existent, and is also overly dramatic (in a cheap way...).
Female characters are pretty annoying because they act violent all the time for no reason at all.
I appreciated how they decided to talk about the trauma of the protagonist, but only until episode 5. After that, they kept repeating over and over agian the same concept until almost the end of the anime...
I forced myself to finish this anime, I don't recommend it!
4/10
Read at the sourceCynicalLOL
I don't get the love behind this show. Your Lie In April is a romance with a neat concept. A kid who used to play piano, not wishing to anymore, suddenly finding a girl that completely changes his view on piano and life in general. However, this show is poorly executed and a lot more plain than it looks. If you're watching this show for the art and soundtrack, then you'll come back completely satisfied, as those are the two things that Your Lie In April excels at. Other than that, this show fails in almost every other way.
Story And Pacing - Your Lie In April has a huge pacing problem. Despite being 22 episodes, it fails to develop the characters and ideas in any way than the typical 12 episodes of a romance/slice of life anime. The times where the piano competitions begin and end take fo…
Read at the sourceblairthewitchcat
This review has spoilers so if you haven’t watched Shigatsu yet, just scroll down to the bottom for the (spoiler-free) pros and cons section. If you do decide to read all of it, then you’ve been warned, it’s pretty long.
I would start by explaining the plot but I’m sure you know what it’s about by now. If you don’t know, go read it and come back. Did you read it? I don’t know about you but its premise to me sounds amazing. In fact, before Shigatsu aired, I thought it would be the easiest 10 I have ever given a show. However, I was quite wrong and I’ll tell you just how bad this show actually turned out to be.
This is a romance and drama anime, and in shows of these genres the cast of characters is the most important aspect. There’s a lot to say about them but to summarize our cast in j…
Read at the sourcealphacompton
Spoiler free but one could infer things based on my reaction.
Shigatsu is an anime that had me torn in so many places. I think the plot , the music and the artwork are the best you will see recent memory. That said, the melodrama between the big events of the series is absolutely excruciating to watch especially for a modern anime. I had to constantly remind myself that the main characters are junior high students and not high school students to give some meaning to the unrealistic drama that unfolded. I will describe why I feel that this melodrama was so horribly written and executed and why I feel it ruined an incredible piece of art that is Shigatsu.
The "lie" is supposed to be a plot device that allows Arima to have mixed feelings and give him a drive.
This worked out fine story wis…
Read at the sourceAmphetamine
This series is overrated. It peaked my interest when I saw it on the front page at the highest rated anime on this site. I thought to myself this was worth a watch, I definitely won't be disappointed since the top rated anime here pretty much deserve to be there. How wrong was I.
Let me first start by saying this series is melodramatic, slow-paced and cliched as hell. We have Arima Kousei, a depressed and traumatized 14-year-old pianist prodigy who lost his abusive mother two years prior to the story. The anime may come off as an anime that focuses a lot on music, but music is merely a sub-genre here. If you're watching this anime just for the music, you will be disappointed more than me. I couldn't symphatize with any of the characters in the story, it was pretty much predictable all the…
Read at the sourcedefunctmaluser
It would seem that feeling some modicum of emotional involvement whilst watching/reading something is all it takes to make a masterpiece these days. Whilst emotional involvement is always a great thing, it's not enough to excuse problems that a particular work in question has. On another note, it irks me when people say they "got the feels" from watching something because more often than not, it was something stupid/cliché/melodramatic. Maybe I'm a heartless sociopath or maybe it's because I've been through a lot worse in life, but I can't help but scoff when people tell me they cried like a baby whilst watching stuff like the first season of Clannad. Then enters Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, an anime/manga series that plagues me with cognitive dissonance because there's a lot of stuff I truly…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
"To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable." - Ludwig Van Beethoven
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is about a child prodigy classical pianist named Kosei Arima, who gave up playing due to crippling depression following the death of his mother. Even though he won many competitions back when he was still playing piano, his playing was always very "by the book", mechanical, and lacking in passion. This was because of the extremely strict way in which he was trained by his late mother. After hearing the very passionate and innovative performance of a brilliant young violinist named Kaori Miyazono, Kosei is able to rediscover his love for music and learn to play with heart.
That sounds AMAZING right? An anime musical drama/romance that tells a heartwarming tale…
Read at the sourceMajeczuunia
WARNING!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Did it reach me? Well, in some parts.
Let's just say that Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is a very over-rated series. I understand why people say it's so great, because "omg, the art is amazing, the music is amazing, the end is so sad, oh no, i cried so much, best ever 10/10" Ok. The art was beautiful. The only word to describe the art in KimiUso is beautiful. I have not seen music being played animated so beautifully, since Free did that with swimming. The character design fit the characters perfectly. The music was also tip-top, as to expect from a music anime. I loved all the opening and ending themes, with an exception for the 1st ED, which for some reason, didn't buy me. Plot.... I was fine. I guess. The "deliquent, who meets a girl and suddenly his life starts to…
Read at the sourceJohan
"Will you forget?" - Kaori
Honestly, I have not written an anime review probably since Sword Art Online. I don't necessarily prefer writing reviews cause they're generally tedious & time consuming. However, There is only so long I can see such misleading, disrespectful, and uninformative reviews. Out of the well over 300 anime series I have seen, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is one of Seven anime I have given the perfect score to. And that is because this anime epitomises quality & perfection.
I came in to this show with moderate expectations. I followed this show weekly - watching it each Thursday as it aired alongside my other Fall 2014 & Winter 2015 shows. Episode after episode continued to raise expectations, to command attention & perpetuate interest. I've seen a relatively fair share…
Read at the sourcesampoopin4
Ok so, if you liked Your Lie in April for the inspiration and music aspect, then try Nodame Contabile. If you liked it for the drama, unrequited loves, and music, try Kids on the Slope.
These two shows did it way better than Your Lie in April.
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It's about a piano genius boy who has been mentally abused by his over controlling, psycho mom, and thus is dealing with issues regarding his piano/musical life. Meets a forceful girl who's to change all that. She literally just comes along and forces him to do things her way. Most of the story is just so unrealistically exaggerated. You just can't take it seriously. This show is drama, I understand, but this is melodrama to the next level. I couldn't help laughing at parts I should be feeling sentimental about instead. Speaking…
Read at the sourceLPGeneratorx
If you don't want to read, then there’s a tl;dr at the end, as well as a tl;dr for every section.
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, or Your Lie in April, is 24-episode anime that started airing in October 2014, and ended in March 2015. Since its end, it has been a subject of hot debate on this site. Usually there are 2 types of people for any controversial show, those who love it to no end, and those who flat out despise it. I personally am somewhere on the fence.
Now is it the best anime ever? No. Is it bad? Definitely not. Then what exactly is Shigatsu?
Well, at its core Shigatsu is a story about a boy(Arima Kousei) who used to be a fantastic pianist at a young age. Unfortunately, during his growth, he lost his mother, something that left him unable to hear the piano ever again. Or at least un…
Read at the sourceLancehot
TL;DR A not unenjoyable series with some fantastic musical performances, that unfortunately suffers from forced drama, shallow characters, a drawn out, surprisingly predictable story & a tendency to have characters talk at length about what the music being played expresses rather than let us listen & hear it for ourselves. If you're looking for a tearjerker that will do everything short of poke you in the eye to get those tears flowing, Your Lie in April (YliA) might be for you. If you're looking for something more, you might want tosearch elsewhere.
Music is the food of love. Something like that, anyway. It is certainly used by many as a means of expressing emotions in ways they cannot put into words. Indeed you'll find few things that people (at least teenagers) will identify so strongl…
Read at the sourceBikhal
"Did I reach you? I hope I did."
I nearly skipped this gem just because of the music tag. Not really big into music anime but somehow the art dragged me into watching the first few episodes. First episode was an average episode with few interesting plot lines. But the second episode was the hook. Irony. The tag that made me nearly skip this anime was the one that kept me in it. The music, the music... THE MUSIC.. what can I say? It was just right down my taste. Never in my life did I thought of "oh hey let's listen to some classical music" but this anime opened a new taste in music in me. And I'm grateful for that.
The first half and second half have clear differences with a very smooth pacing and objectives in mind. Some may say the pacing was slow and sometimes it felt that a point i…
Read at the sourceTozzy
Prepare yourself for a musical ride with Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie In April), one of the most talked about anime in the western community of late. The big question is whether the music-focused romance has earned its acclaim we’ve seen from the bulk of reviewers? I feel it’s both a yes and no, but mostly the latter. That’s not to take away from it at all. This artful, musical adventure is still better than your average anime by a long way and it’s still a show I’d encourage everyone to watch if they get a chance.
It is one gorgeously crafted anime from a technical perspective. While its animation doesn’t leap out at you, the character designs, background art and music are superb. Every scene is oozing with charm. The show is not, however, free from its flaws which come mostly from…
Read at the sourcepoormeate
Beethoven was a piano genius who couldn’t hear his own music because of his deafness. Arima Kousei is a piano prodigy can’t hear his own music because of the tragic death of his mother causing mental breakdown that casted a deep, dark shadow over music.
[Story]
Your Lie in April starts out as a colorful, and lighthearted anime, but all this contrasts the life of it’s main character, Arima Kousei, which is described as monotone, and dull. The lightheartedness is contradicted yet again as deeper, and much darker past is revealed as Arima falls deeply in love with Kaori. You get a large glimpse of his dismal past revealing the actual reason behind why he can’t hear his own music, but his conditions steadily improves as he ventures into his first love. Though only calling him “Friend A” Kao…
Read at the sourceSmugdear
There is much bitterness in life, but we have to learn that we must forget that and keep go on. Just like a rainbow in the rain, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso ends beautifully.
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is a story about Kousei Arima, a piano prodigy who is quite famous at his young age thanks to his mother who introduced him to the world of piano. Arima dominates all competitions he participated because of his perfect performance. One day her mother died. Arima feels shocked since then and got some sort of trauma that makes him unable to play the piano again. Kousei gave in to the world of music until one day he meets a young violinist girl named Miyazono Kaori who introduced Kousei the true meaning of music.
One of the oldest art forms in the earth is music, music has become a friend of mankin…
Read at the sourcechito895
My Thursdays won't be the same after finishing this anime. Shigatsu has taken me to a world of music that I will never forget.
Even though the story isn't anything new, the way it was written and directed make it feel like one. It is a story that revolves around music and how it connects people and how it affects them. It does not only affect them in a good way, but in a bad way too. And with that premise, a beautiful story about tennagers started.
Although there were some characters that didn't get a proper development to know and understand their own problems, motivations, and dreams, they didn't feel empty and meaningless. They all had a purpose and most of them where helpful to our main characters. They didn't feel cliché neither, even when we got some of them like the childhood frie…
Read at the sourceGlacialis
They say that when you fall in love, your whole world changes. The grey becomes colored, the dull becomes vivid, and the little moments become unforgettable ones. While there may be other stories that are written better or other productions that are animated better, Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie in April) struck a chord with me that I hadn’t felt with a show in a long time. Even with its flaws, I loved every moment of this show, both as a musician and as an ordinary viewer.
Shigatsu focuses on the journey of Arima Kousei, who was a brilliant pianist as a child, but is now just a shell of his former self, haunted by the tragedies of his past. However, one day in April he meets Kaori Miyazono, the wild and unorthodox violinist, and that meeting sets off the beginning of Kousei’s journe…
Read at the sourceLink_of_Hyrule
**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**
The latest romantic-comedy/drama to take the anime world by storm is a little project known as Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, or as many people know it, “Your Lie in April”. YLA has been the talk of the last two seasons as it has managed to captivate audiences around the world with its unbelievably bright colors and fantastic musical score complete with both famous classical pieces and original hits. However, if there is one thing about this show that people can’t help but gorge themselves on, it’s the melodrama. That’s right folks: a romantic show contains MELODRAMA! Try to contain your surprise! Since intense over-exaggeration is virtually the only way to make shows like this interesting, know that I’m willing to overlook melodrama to a certain degree… But not to THIS…
Read at the sourcehenyome
Hers was a white lie built on a grain of truth that snowballed as one lie after the other piled up. At first it was only hers, but then it became something that the two of them shared together – like a secret, a world upon which no other could encroach. He may have been “Friend A,” and she “the girl that loves my best friend,” but they were masquerading around a truth that neither one could openly admit because ultimately, the truth was much more painful.
Your Lie in April is a deceitfully masterful series that initially appears light-hearted and colorful, its palette boasting pastels that lend to the idea of it being another romantic comedy. Yet the moment we step past the disillusionment that it casts upon us by its false prefaces, we quickly realize that what we have immersed ourselves…
Read at the source