Back to initialogic's Profile initialogic's Profile

I pray that no one ever has to know what it's like to lose a friend at a young age. The loss is usually sudden, with no warning, and most are ill-equipped emotionally to process it. Causing severe trauma to be discovered later in life.

Anohana is a very good representation of such a thing. Yadomi Jinta, and his group of friends, reconnect and finally mourn the loss of their young friend Menma, who died several years prior. Through their mourning process, they rediscover their friendship and dig up old rivalries and love geometries that existed.

Our main character Yadomi Jinta shows all the signs of ... a young man who has experienced severe loss of not only a childhood best friend, but of his mother at a similar age. Wrought with depression, survivor's guilt, and regret, Jintan struggles to even go to school. With a father who is too scared to discipline him out of a feeling of guilt, He certainly is at his wit's end.

However, as fate would have it, Jintan can suddenly see his deceased friend, Menma, as she would be, if she were still alive. This main plot thread, carries forward through the story, with Jintan being cursed and blessed with this ghost.

The story being told here is enjoyable and well crafted. Being character-driven, the dialogue is critical to making a believable story. Fortunately, the dialogue is very well written and full of emotion. It gets so so much right in how a person feels holding in the emotion of a loss of a loved one for so long.

The characters themselves are also extremely well done. They seemingly try, and succeed, to cover every base with the group of friends. Yadomi, the leader turned depressed misanthrope. Anjo, who compensates for her sorrow by putting on a mask and having fake friends. Matsuyuki, who pretends to have it all figured out, and looks down on anyone different from him. While still being a broken-hearted young boy underneath. Tsurumi, who similarly pretends to have it all figured out, while permanently hiding her true feelings from her unrequited love. And Poppo, who has run away from his feelings and avoided them by traveling around the world.

They travel through the story, slowly developing and repairing the relationships with each other that they once had. In order to come together again, and finally mourn the loss of their friend.

Unfortunately, the praise stops here. The pacing has several very awkward moments, where I felt things were either out of place or seemed like they never went anywhere. There is a specific scene where Anjo initially tells her romantic feelings to Yadomi, and she is rebuffed with no response. Then when the scene changes, Yadomi comes home and he NEVER thinks about what she said or even acknowledges it. This same scenario happens several times in various guises. It just seems like Yadomi (who is the only one's thoughts we can hear) hardly ever thinks about anything around him and just thinks about Menma. If this is purposeful, it isn't obvious enough to me for it to be a positive.

The story, I feel, suffers from a slight case of confusion. It initially comes across to me as a character-driven, coming-of-age story, focused around the loss of a friend. However, it also includes elements of romance and romantic triangles. As well as drama and even situational comedy. There's even one, yes one, single comedic relief (equipped with anime sound effect) 3/4 of the way through the story.

Additionally, the dialogue also has a few points where it was awkward or 'cringe'. These I can give a pass, as they are teenagers, who are going through lots of stress, and just because I don't like it, doesn't mean it doesn't fit the story.

The characters have no glaring issues in my opinion, the only real problem for me was that I didn't know that the Menma that Yadomi saw was a grown-up version. I thought she was stuck in time (her mom literally says it) for this whole time. She has a high-pitched voice, and... ehm... isn't very well endowed. I just felt like they really should have made it more obvious, as it would have made a lot more sense why Yadomi still loved her even as a ghost. I could blame that on myself, but come on, she literally only changed in height. For a young girl supposed to be 15? Nonsense.

And for god's sake, the opening scene sets a completely irrelevant and mildly inappropriate stage for the rest of the story.

This story could have been perfect in my opinion, and it really gets so much right. But I just felt like it needed the fat trimmed, and the pacing straightened out. Overall though, it gets too much right and is too emotionally accurate to be any less than an 8.

P.S. Apologies for poor writing. I was never taught how to write properly.

Reminiscing on the past is something we all do. We hold nostalgia for the past. But when something is over, it’s over. When it’s done its’ done, and when someone is dead, they’re dead. You may think fondly on your memories with them. Even try to reconnect in some way. Some visit graves, some pray to gods. But at the end of it all. What’s gone is gone. In this novel, we follow Kimizuka Kimihiko. As the assistant to the World Famous Detective, they travelled the world for three years, and lived unforgettable memories together. However, by the time the novel starts, the detective is ... already dead.

Let me start by saying that this is certainly an amateur novel. But it’s a damn good one. It’s got a lot of unique traits that set it apart from many other light novels. It comes together in an unforgettable way, on a rollercoaster of an adventure.

It’s a bit of a stretch to call this a romance novel. It’s certainly a harem, and definitely a mystery. The mysterious parts are not laid out in such a way that you could ‘guess’ something from the beginning. It’s more of a mystery in the sense that the characters are solving mysteries. The novel also has quite a number of action scenes, and I would consider that to be a core feature as well. They are typically well described, and well explained. This book includes many genres, and as the author describes it, it’s a mashup of all his favorite ones, and seemingly someone liked it because they let him make a book.

The translation I read was OK at best. The first volume has an official translation that is perfect, as expected, but the rest are a little choppy. Not impossible to follow, and I never felt like I was missing details.

The story is very good. It has lots of twists and turns, some good action, and some very heartfelt moments. The author does a good job at describing emotions of characters, and evoking emotions from me while reading. The characters say some cliche one liners, sometimes, but it works well. The banter is very reminiscent of the monogatari series, and is of high quality. After translation, and without many dialogue identifiers, it can be challenging to know who’s speaking when. Although I personally got used to it after the second volume.

Flashbacks in the story are frequent, and easy to follow chronologically. It lends to very good pacing with the revealing of details being steady enough to keep you in suspense.

The characters are also quite good. They have nice depth, and are each given the reins at least once so you can poke around in their head, understanding their motives better.

This is a very unique story, and I would certainly recommend reading it. It tugs at some heartstrings, and also packs a punch of action. The banter is plentiful, and rivals the monogatari series in it’s quality.

Apologies for terrible writing, nobody ever taught me how to write.