I have been a musician for over 20 years, and have performed at a professional level at many points in my life. I also hold two degrees in music (one in performance), so the idea of an anime about a prodigious pianist seems like it should be a perfect fit. Let's just say... Your Lie in April is one of the first anime I have dropped in a very, very long time (I got to Episode 9, and had the rest explained to me by a friend). This review is going to be pretty short, because as my mother told me when I was growing up, "if you don't have anything nice to say, it's better to say nothing at all."

The music in the show was nice! They had selections from Chopin which I appreciated, and they were performed fairly well (it sounded like a lot of the music was recorded specifically for the show). The sound design was also executed fairly well, with prominent uses of low-pass filters to set the mood during scenes where the sound is being drowned out. The art was also really pretty, barring the scenes where there were people playing music but had no animation.

... That's about all I've got for the good. The story is paced extremely poorly, and the writing is abysmal. There are endless scenes of characters monologuing to you, to the point where it feels like the dead horse has been beaten for hours. The story shows its hand extremely early and there are nearly no surprises - it's almost entirely black & white. (Like Piano keys... Eyy... Eyyy?)

The characters suck, except for the baseball girl. The main character had me so frustrated that I had to pause the show and walk away sometimes. I had no ability to sympathize with him at all, because he is supremely unlikable. Beyond him being unlikable, as I mentioned, I am a musician who plays to a similar level as these characters, and seeing him go "ahhh nooo I caann'ttt dooo itttt" for five episodes in a row had me rolling my eyes into the ceiling. If he had been one of the musicians we'd approached to hire for a gig, it doesn't matter his skill level, he would have been fired immediately for his attitude. Sure, I've been there, buddy - I've been to the point where you've gone through great loss and don't know if you should continue, or if you're good enough; but at some point you've gotta just suck it up and do it rather than whine for weeks on end. Violin girl was annoying. Soccer dude was annoying. Baseball girl was endearing, and I liked her character, but she gets treated like crap at the end by piano guy, so even the best character they had to work with was treated terribly.

I had the ending explained to me, and though melancholic, it's basically exactly what I had predicted. That's about it, not profound - just predictable.

I really don't have much else to say about Your Lie in April other than I really, severely disliked it. I can't say it was objectively a poorly made anime - the art was nice, and the music was pretty good; but I cannot recommend it at all. It's too poorly paced, meandering, poorly written, and frustrating. For romance-y anime, you're better off watching something like Yuri on Ice; or if you want to cry a bit, watch Clannad.

I rate Your Lie in April: 1/5

B2112's Anime Reviews: Episode 0