This probably is the moe-est show that I’ve ever considered as my favourite of a season. I mean, I have enjoyed teenaged drama romances before and all, but not to the point where they were done this well in such a short time. More than any other series this season, this series really nails the feelings of its lead characters and it continues to push their relationships forward. This episode was slightly special, though: for once it focused especially on Jinta and Menma.
Instead, I can only see this episode as a build-up red herring. That’s nothing bad, by the way. Some of my favourite stories use these red herrings. Rather than pointless, I love it when done well, they are excellent in fleshing out the characters and story, and the same pretty much happened here: the whole rocket story has nothing to do with Menma’s wish and all, but this episode really stressed the bond and the memories that the main characters made with each other.
By the way, it’s great that Noitamina has been pretty much consistently amazing for the past five seasons here: for the past five seasons and eight series since the timeslot turned into an hour long, there pretty much has been an amazingly well written series on, with the best still being Spring 2010. 2010 was overall a mediocre year, but THAT was the best season that Noitamina ever had). Heck, pretty much the only mistake during this period was Fractale. As for Anohana, I’d probably put it somewhere in the bottom of the top 8 of my favourite Noitamina series. Where exactly entirely depends on the ending.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I’m a bit worried about Menma getting burnt by the lamp. Perhaps foreshadowing that her ghost can die?
The best of the series in my opinion is the direction. So many small details in the way the characters behave yet so important for their development. Weird to see this kind of things in anime.
I like how this anime has subtle messages about a lot of things related to life. It might not be intentional on the anime staff’s part but it’s pretty easy to see. It addresses things like being a recluse or getting yourself out into the world, something along those lines. It might not change lives much, but it is certainly interesting to see anime take on a form where it can spread lessons and messages like this.
I would love to see an excellent ending for this series. I really would like to see a show prove that it could build believable, interesting characters, and deliver a complete story in a single course. I’ve seen it done well before, but the general opinion seems to be that you need two courses to accomplish anything, so stories are often abandoned in the first course for character “development”.
Just shows you moe doesn’t mean anything by itself. It’s only a style. It doesn’t mean they can’t attach a really good character study on top. Kind of like how some shows use yaoi-styled thematics and go from there.
Just shows you moe doesn’t mean anything by itself. It’s only a style. It doesn’t mean they can’t attach a really good character study on top. Kind of like how some shows use yaoi-styled thematics and go from there.
Why did Menma’s mother called her “onee-chan” in the end? Doesn’t that mean sister?
@Sapphire. That is because it wasn’t her mother. It was her older sister.
@Sapphire and Scruffy: Actually, Menma’s mother uses “onee-chan,” because Menma was an “onee-chan” to her younger brother. Japanese will sometimes refer to their family members by their roles in the family. The most common example of this is when husbands and wives refer to themselves as “mama” and “papa” and such. ^^
Fractale is one of Noitamina’s biggest mistakes.
Well,even Madoka or Level E is more suitable to Noitamina in last winter.