Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso: Kousei's Journey

"I met the girl under full-bloomed cherry blossoms and my fate had begun to change.” Kousei Arima.

Your Lie in April (四月は君の嘘) is about a pianist’s journey to become a fulfilled person again, how he discovers love and music, and how those two combine to become his love for music.

Ever since his abusive mom passed away from a slow and painful illness when he was young, he developed a fear towards the piano and stopped playing. His life drastically changed when a girl entered into his life and coloured his dull and monotone soul.

The anime shows a journey to maturity, to realising a dream, and developing resilience. It shows the ups and downs of life, between deaths, new friendships, wins, losses and how people cope with these situations.

The journey he took involved a lot of influence and realization. His inability to play the piano without having a mental breakdown was blamed on his ‘mother’s curse’ and the emotional triggering of his thoughts on his past.

This was portrayed with a piano being flooded with water, the keys bubbling and producing no sound that led to the helpless, hard pounding of piano keys as his anxiety grew over on why the sound of the piano was mute.

Fortunately, he realizes that this ‘curse’ was a mere, lame creation from his interpretation. His mother dearly loved him but abused Kousei by physically hurting and forcing him to play a piece until perfected, which created a harsh relationship between them as time was running out for her.

The anime sported great uses of techniques on many aspects and a vividly beautiful art style.  His life is portrayed in his own image as grey and monotone, but suddenly changes to a life bursting with colour after the journey with Kaori.

The amazing classical music and OST of Your Lie in April  used in the anime provided both a great diegetic and non-diegetic accompaniment that ran parallel to Kousei’s journey. The music provided gave greater definition on the emotions that were casted by the characters. The first 8 episodes had a happy and lively OST as Kousei admit love for Kaori , but towards the end, the OST turned into a grim and discontent musical style as Kousei finds out that she was about to die.

Kaori helped Kosei return to the music world and show that it should be free and mold breaking unlike the structured and rigid style Kosei was used to.  Her soul was established in Kousei’s mind, and lived on his heart forever after her death..

Even though Kousei started out in a horrible state following the death of his mother, he perked up with his newfound friendship and love with Kaori. This relationship inspired him to continue and dream to be a better musician. It doesn't make coping with his past any better, but the story shows him that there's more to life than he thinks and some people are happy with the lives they've lived.