anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day

Meta

Anohana has no completely English title. In the original Japanese, the title is

あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない

with a Latin transliteration of

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai

and literally translates to English as

"We Still Don't Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day"

The title given is merely the title used by NIS America in their licensing of the work in North America.

Status

Anime: complete. (11 episodes subbed.)

Thoughts

This anime is my personal codifier for the six-student clique:

  • The Head: Jintan
  • The Muscle: Yukiatsu
  • The Quirk: Poppo
  • The Pretty One: Menma
  • The Smart One: Tsuruko
  • The Wild One: Anaru

Anyways.

Slice-of-life and a very touching story with a nice assortment of characters and interactions between them. I myself absolutely loved it upon first viewing, most especially because the (admittedly large amount of) angsting was (quite surprisingly) kept within tolerable limits, and it is only after some reflection that I demoted this anime in my tier lists. The reasons being...

  • First and foremost, Menma. She commands far too much of the group's attention and is basically a very nice example of the Purity Sue: flawless, innocent, beautiful...whatever. Jintan and Yukiatsu were head over heels for her, Tsuruko and Anaru were jealous, and even Poppo, the only guy not involved in the romantic loop, was distraught with guilt over her death. Such a character does not fly well with me when placed next to the (far more interesting) other members.
  • On that note, there was a little too much focus on romance. Sure, within such a group, with everyone getting close to everyone else, romantic feelings might develop...and then they might not. But Anohana gives us the impression that the group is all about romantic pairings, especially given that non-romantic interactions are very insufficiently explored (e.g. Jintan/Tsuruko), and Poppo (the only guy not in the whole romantic loop) is largely comic relief and clearly a secondary character to the rest of the group. If the characters find each other to be great romantic partners, more power to them, but it is, first and foremost, a group of friends.
  • Menma being a ghost is probably more than tolerable for the purposes of the story, but the thread that is one's willing suspension of disbelief is very thin; if you ever stop to think properly about the show (which would probably be after you're done watching), you will probably find yourself at least a little curious as to the logic behind everything.

So yeah, a very nice, touching short story, but if you don't watch it, you aren't missing out on anything.