AnoHana, or otherwise known as it’s long-ass name, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai was produced by A-1 Pictures and was released from April 15, 2011 through June 24, 2011.

When I first watched this show, I was a pretty early anime fan. I’ve barely watched any Slice of Life, so I was used to giant robots bigger than the universe fighting each other or a Scottish version of the grim reaper in the middle of a fight between the government, colored gangs, and angsty teens. I watched ten episodes of it, and then put it on hold for about a year. Last weekend, though, I finally got to watching the last episode.

Let’s get this review started.

Now, I have 5 factors I rate anime on: Characters, Story, Art, Music, and Enjoyment. I rate each one out of 10, and then do a final score. Okay? Okay.

Story
The story is about how six friends go their separate ways after one of the friends, “Menma” dies in an accident. About ten years later, the leader of the group, “Jintan” lives apart from everyone else, and is rejected socially. One day, the ghost of “Menma” appears before him, asking for a wish to be granted that she cannot remember. Apparently, she cannot pass on if this wish is not granted. Over the course of the story, “Jintan” gathers all six friends back together to solve this issue, not only to get rid of her problems, but their own as well.

Notice I have been using their “group names”, because I think that normal names are boring. Hey guys, we should have group names too! I propose that “TehVict” shall be known as “Victtan” and “JesseRoo” shall be known as “Gorilla”. What do you think…? No? Yes..?

Anyways, the story concept is very interesting. It’s extremely sad to see the characters try to overcome themselves, yet I will go over this later on. The story may sound great, but like half of the entire anime itself is boring. This is the main factor why I stopped watching for about a year. Sure, there are some great episodes that heavily outweigh the bad ones (Episode 11).

Overall, I give the story a…

8/10

Characters

Jinta “Jintan” Yadomi: The recluse of the series. After spreading apart from his friends, he becomes extremely awkward socially, and usually just plays video games or browses the internet 24/7. He’s basically a perfect reflection to everyone in this group. He doesn’t go to school anymore, mostly because he’s not interested in his studies or doesn’t want to be bothered with actually talking to anyone. He’s become this way with the death of Menma, and his friends leaving him. Not to mention Menma died soon after his own mother did.

Meiko “Menma” Honma: The “kawaii” type of the series. Seriously, she looks like lolicon bait. Anyways, as mentioned before, she died in an accident on a summer day. She loves all of her friends and wishes that they come back together, and eventually they do. She appears before Jinta as a ghost, and will not pass on into the afterlife until her wish is fulfilled. The only person that can see her is Jinta, no one else. Not even her family. She wears the dress that she wore the day that she died.

Naruko “Anaru” Anjo: Naruko is the “tsundere” of the series, secretly loving Jinta and hiding it back. She is heavily influenced by other people, and will usually blend in with the crowd. The problem that she’s been having is that, she thinks that she was secretly hoping for Menma to die, so that she could have Jinta to herself.

Atsumu “Yukiatsu” Matsuyuki: A very successful highschool student. Atsumu is the most distraught-like character over Menma’s death. He’ll try anything to fill the hole in his heart left by Menma’s death (INCLUDING CROSSDRESSING). His problem is that he can’t move on after Menma’s dead. He was in love with Menma, but never got to express those feelings with her.

Chiriko “Tsuruko” Tsurumi: Basically, Atsumu’s female equivalent. Chiriko is in love with Atsumu, and the two are the only friends who haven’t broken apart after Menma’s death. She rarely talks, and only helps out Atsumu because she’s in love with him. She seems indifferent about weather Menma returns or not, but they were still good childhood friends.

Tetsudō “Poppo” Hisakawa: The ‘amazed about everything’ type of character. After Menma’s death, he traveled across the world. He skipped school entirely, and lives alone in the base he and his friends used to hang out in. His problem was, he was the only one who actually witnessed Menma’s death as it was happening, causing him to lose track of himself, traveling the world in hopes to forget about Menma.

In total, most of the characters were complete dicks to each other for most of the series. When they become friends again, the series gets much better. My favorite character was a tie between “Poppo” and “Menma”. The character variety is very interesting. I really liked every character, but I only liked all of them for the last three episodes.

OVERALL, I rate the characters of this series a..

9/10

Music
There’s not much notable music in this series, so I’ll get this section over and done with. The only two notable tracks are of course, the opening and ending. Both of which are amazing. There’s nothing that really sounds ‘bad’ in the show, the music changes to fit the situation perfectly. I give the music in this series a…

7.5/10

Artwork
The artwork of the series is remarkably beautiful. A-1 Pictures did a great job with it. Some of the episodes, especially the opening reminds me of ‘cell-shading’ in video gaming. For example, Nintendo’s “Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker”. There’s not much to say, other than the artwork was perfectly done, and was some of the best in anime that I’ve seen, even though there’s not much to look at for most of the series.

I give the artwork a…

9.5/10

Enjoyability

I did not enjoy this show for most of the episodes. I found it boring, as stated earlier. The episode I enjoyed the most was the last one, and it actually made me cry. This is a sad anime. It’s the second anime to make me cry (The first one was Angel Beats!). Overall, the good destroyed most of the bad. I really like the show, even though I didn’t for six or seven episodes.

I give the enjoyability factor a…

8/10

Final Thoughts

Ano-longname is a great series. I definitely recommend it. Even though there were some bad parts about it, (long, boring episodes and CROSSDRESSING) I still think it was a great show. I’m gonna give it a…

8.5/10