Anohana: A Tale of Worthless Friends

Music used: Prod. Lee - Summer Night

While the subject matter of this video might be towards the more negative side of things, I really like Anohana. I don't think it's bad in the slightest, but the overwhelming praise I heard for it definitely boosted my original expectations for it.
Also, while rewatching this anime for the video, I decided to try it in the dub. It was a whole lot better than I thought it would be, and, I honestly like it a lot better than the original voices. It all works so well.

I post bi-weekly, usually during the week. If something comes up to delay me, or if I run ahead of schedule, I'll post about it on my other social medias.

#anime #Anohana

I don't own any of the clips and I do not hold the rights for the series within the videos. All rights are reserved for the copyright owners. The only things I personally created were the script and thumbnails used for the video.

[triedforthis]

i agree. i finished the anime and felt nothing. i just felt how terrible friends they were. and i felt disappointed that i wasted my time.

[alexjohnson]

It just wasn’t sad as everyone say it was

[aleppo]

I absolutely agrees with you. This was rather a really disappointing anime for me after hearing so much good shit from it.

[skygoomysteatime]

These personalities are just like real humans. It is only logic that they are like this after a trauma.

[artytoons]

The character that hits home in the series was Menma's mother and her emotional breakdown in seeing the Peace Busters gang as teenagers and asking why did they grow up and not her own daughter. It was a pivotal point that made the Peace Busters gang see the light. The loss of a child is devastating to a parent and made the group see the full impact of the death of their friend outside of their circle. The Peace Busters group were too young to really feel the loss of their friend as kids and still don't know how to react or how to be sensitive to each other's grief and struggling to get over the loss in a right time frame as teens up to that point. The story might hit closer to home for anyone who lost a personally known, close loved one than for viewers fortunate enough not to experience such a loss up to the point of viewing this anime for the first time.

[aeron]

i disagree on the point that anaru is the cause of menma´s death, i´m pretty sure it was said that yukiatsu and anaru both devised a plan to expose jintans feelings. Although anaru was the one who initiated the conversation that ultimately resulted in menma´s death, i guess what i´m trying to say is both yukiatsu and anaru are the reason for menma´s death. However i do agree on most of the other points and enjoyed hearing someone call out how they resolved things in anohana between the friends was hollow and unrealistic not to mention like you said it´s almost guaranteed they´ll eventually come to dislike eachother again. Still enjoyed the show for what it was though in spite of what i see as shortcomings


 i´ll be sticking around for future content :D

[CozyCouturier]

I do agree with you on your last point though, that the groups overall connection is frail at best without Menma, and really a more mature approach would be to reconcile with each other, and accept the role that they used to play in each other’s lives, and then move on. It is in fact troubling that they all could be friends despite having little to nothing in common, and either treating each other with disdain, or distancing themselves from each other for nearly ten years. One of my complaints was why was the trauma of Menma so impactful in the first place? Especially since they were friends at 5 years old, friendships at that age tend to be simplistic and not very meaningful. I’m not saying that you can’t forge a deep connection with someone when you’re younger, but more often than not, deep connections take time to form, and this happened at a really early stage of development in their lives. Not to mention the fact that by the time of the events of Anohana, it had been ten years since Menma had passed away. The even weirder part of that is that both Jintan and Yukiatsu still harbored romantic feelings for a child. Even though they are well on their way towards adulthood. It’s a bit disturbing when you think about it. Anaru is also shown to still harbor jealousy towards a 5 year old Menma. I know some people take time to process grief, but at what point do you move on? I really feel that a lot of these feelings stem from the individuals of the group never being open and honest with each other, and holding onto resentment and anger towards each other, which ties into what you said about the Peace Busters never really being friends to begin with. But anyways, that’s all I have to say about it now. What do you think about what I said?

[MoJaKF]

Bruh many people told me that it's really good but I got bored after just 2 episodes

[rainyclouds]

This is a really late post for a 3 year old video, but I think a different perspective is worth mentioning.

Menma’s death took place when they were roughly around 10 or 11, young kids who’s brains weren’t fully developed and ultimately allowed their feelings to lead to a situation none of them were capable of handling. As the characters grew older they still hadn’t fully figured out a way to process their trauma. I don’t think this anime is hollow or trying to justify their actions. I think it is an expression of raw emotion, the characters struggle to work through their emotions, and each one blames themselves. They are selfish and sometimes close minded, but they eventually work through the events together. The ending isn’t perfect and maybe not realistic, but no part of the anime was ever attempting to be completely factual. Putting the blame on one or two of the characters isn’t fair, they were kids who made a terrible decision, but claiming they are bad people is inaccurate, everyone is selfish at some points in their life, especially childhood. The overall message is that people aren’t perfect sometimes they are objectively bad, but you can live your life full of hatred and regret or you can try to forgive.

I didn’t write this to disagree, but rather explain an alternate point of view. I agree the characters aren’t always like-able and maybe the ending could’ve been tackled different.

[GoldCaliber]

Couldn’t agree more. It was honestly the crappiest excuse for an anime I saw yet lol. Prolly worse than Sword Art Online imo

*_Funny story:_* The only reason I bothered checking out Anohana was because after I finished Angel Beats, I was hit so hard, that I literally suffered full-on depression for the next 48 hours. It was just so sad (for me), that I literally can’t cry at Titanic anymore and I failed to cry at Black Hawk Down 😂😞

I then checked some online reviews to see what others think just to see how hated Angel Beats really is. The most commonly said stuff were *_Lel it wasn’t even sad I laughed the whole time cuz it was dumb_* or *_It’s a butchered and rushed mess_* or *_There were too many characters who weren’t even special and were very bland_* and tons more. Another thing some people said was *_Watch Anohana instead cuz it’s actually good and it’s actually sad._* So I checked it out because why not. Holy gawd it was awful. The characters were annoying in every way possible, they weren’t special or memorable, this Menma especially got on my nerves, they were crappy friends, etc.

If any anime had too many characters, characters, it’s clearly Anohana since it had almost just as many. If any characters weren’t special it’s clearly the Anohana characters and if anything wasn’t sad it’s clearly Anohana. I honestly never really felt sad watching it nor did I ever break a tear. Well the only thing that prolly made me cry was prolly the pain I received from how much the anime annoyed me lmao. If Angel Beats is bad, Anohana is even worse.

[CozyCouturier]

Also say what you will about the other characters, but at least they have substance. Menma is nothing but a caricature, there’s literally no flaws to speak of in this character other than that she cares too much for other people, and I suppose that’s to be expected since she was only a kid when she died. But even then, none of the other characters were that flawless when they were kids o why is she seen as a paragon of goodness, she’s honestly nothing but a plot device with the personality of a piece of wood. I actually despite her character the most because there’s no growth to be had with a character that’s that perfect. Her mere presence in this show is just to kickstart the plot, but I honestly feel that it would’ve been stronger if she hadn’t been there. At least then, it would give Jintan and the other characters some agency, and they wouldn’t have to rely on Menma to always try to do the right thing. It would also make them more likable as characters if they personally made it up in their mind to amend things with old friends, instead of waiting on everyone else to do it.

[CozyCouturier]

I understand where you’re coming from, but personally I don’t see how Amaru should be held responsible for Jintan’s and Menma’s actions. Yes, Amaru’s question did kickstart the events that led to Menma’s death, but how was she to know that her actions would’ve led to that? It’s not like it was premeditated, let’s not forget that it was in fact Tsuruko’s and Yukiatsu’s idea to reveal Jintan’s feelings for Menma, fully knowing that it might embarrass him. Also, it’s implied that Poppo literally saw Menma drown, yet he did nothing to save her, so in actuality the other members of the Peace Busters Club did much more damage than Anaru. I’m not sure why her asking the question means that she’s responsible for Menma’s death, seems a bit far-fetched. But even though they all had a hand in the events that occurred, I wouldn’t personally blame any of them, they’re just kids after all. It’s unthinkable to blame a 5 year old kid for the death of their own friend. Also, just to be clear what I meant earlier is that Jinta and Menma both made their own decisions in that moment. An argument can be made that if Jintan hadn’t run off, Menma would’ve never run off after him, so if you rely on little details like that, then Jintan and even Menma herself could be to blame. Like I said before, this is not the reasoning that I think of the situation with, because they are only 5 years old, none of them had the foresight to understand the effects that their actions could’ve had on each other.