Things I Don’t Like About AnoHana

Poppo is a retard.

When he realizes Menma is in the room, he gets up and does what I did on my road test.  There’s no instructor in the passenger seat this time, so you don’t have to shake your head wildly and look in all directions at a Stop Sign.

Also he wears lots of Hawaiian shirts.  Like my Biology professor.

That one repeated scene

Young boy talks crap about girl he likes.

Girl smiles.

-skip ten seconds-

Girl dies.

Shoe next to river.

Maybe she swam away and became a water elemental.

In any case, this scene is played over and over again, to the point where I’m getting nightmares about it.  It’s almost as if Yadomi & co. have no other memories of Memna.  Maybe holing yourself up inside your room doesn’t do wonders to your memory.  Crossdressing doesn’t help either.

Anyway, who could like this ugly scen-

It’s too good

Everything else about the show is excellent.  I can’t believe this is original material – it’s so damn good.  I semi-marathonned the first five episodes, and was prepared to be disappointed after a week’s worth of waiting for episode 6… yet I can’t help but love this show.  It has everything I’d ever want in an anime.

I believe in the anime that believes in strong characterization.


24 Comments on “Things I Don’t Like About AnoHana”

  1. 2DT says:

    “Maybe she swam away and became a water elemental.”

    This made me laugh out loud.

    • misaki says:

      Think of an awkward-looking asian guy saying stupidly funny lines like that nonstop, and that’s me.

      modest (wc?) version:
      Sometimes I have brilliant moments. Other times I have school.

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  3. TheBigN says:

    Poppo’s actually one of my favorite characters. He’s too free-spirited compared to the rest of the characters, but that’s probably why I like him more. It feels like he keeps things in perspective better than anyone else there.

    • misaki says:

      I agree with you on that, though I still wish they would have him stop looking around so much when the topic of Menma comes up.

      He’s living the life we all wish we could live: barely making it by, but doing what he loves as a result. Although Poppo’s the only character who isn’t in high school, his personality and his lifestyle make him a very attractive character.

  4. pp says:

    what is this i dont even.?..

    why is misaki blogging? have you cured satou or you gave up committing suicide ?

    damn everyone’s watching anohana. i should start too =/

    • misaki says:

      AnoHana is an awesome show. if you like character development, you should give it a shot.

      misaki is expert at blogging. misaki can give perfect advice about anime to anybody.

      • pp says:

        <3 misaki's recommendation. love ano hana

      • misaki says:

        Ah, that’s nice to hear. I’d hate to recommend something you wouldn’t end up liking.

        I’ve been living on the internet for the past week, and so far I haven’t seen anybody having large issues with AnoHana. People are griping about the pace and Memna being annoying, but it seems that the general opinion is favorable!

  5. Eri says:

    I think that the idea: “Original anime = Crap” is just a superstition… I find a lot of original anime are great. Some of them are even in my Top 10

    • misaki says:

      There are a lot of believers in the power of original anime. My roommate is one – he complains all the time about manga and light novel adaptations without watching them while praising original anime.

      Though imo, original anime will always be at a disadvantage. While adaptations only have the problem of meeting their manga fans’ (or light novel fans’) expectations, original content is written not by a mangaka but [usually] by a screenwriter. While this makes the story and characters more suitable in animated form, it’s much less…. how do I put this – story-like.

      You can see this with even a series like Madoka Magica. There were a lot of great ideas there, but parts like the flashback episode were awkwardly placed, and the ending was flat-out deus ex machina (not necessarily a bad thing, but a relatively easy way of concluding the series). Code Geass and Evangelion have been called glorious trainwrecks. The latter is an amazing example of how poor planning can kill an ending. More recent shows like Fractale and Occult Academy have had very intriguing concepts but have failed to deliver in the execution of those intriguing concepts.

      Don’t get me wrong, though. There are some original anime that I love, and so far AnoHana is one of them. I’ll have to see the ending of AnoHana before I make a verdict on its effectiveness as OC.

      • Eri says:

        Like I said, it’s not that I am defending original anime here. What I am trying to say is that an original anime has as many chances as an adapted one to be great/awesome/epic/FTW. Thus, I hate it when someone thinks that original anime are one step below adaptations by default.

        Also, I think that in most cases it’s the screenwriter’s fault for not taking into account what you mention above, coherence and consistency that is.

        Moreover… I found both Fractale and Occult Academy amazing, Call me weird but I loved Fractale’s nonsensical sense of nonsense and I even more enjoyed Occult Academy’s sudden turn to geeky and stereotypic in the end. Plus, I found Occult Academy very nice built. In my opinion it was a lot better than a typical adapted anime.

        Finally, I see you’re a logical guy and so you’ll understand that I’m not trying to bring up an argument here. It’s nice having deeper thoughts and constructive criticism once in a while! These are the moments I blog for 😉

      • misaki says:

        Like I said, it’s not that I am defending original anime here. What I am trying to say is that an original anime has as many chances as an adapted one to be great/awesome/epic/FTW.

        My bad, then. I guess I just didn’t get that from your first comment.

        in any case, I agree that original anime do have many chances at being great. But I believe that because adaptations are already popular due to their good story/characters/boobage, they’re more likely to continue that good-ness in anime form whereas original anime have screenwriters who probably aren’t as good as top-tier mangaka or authors. There are a lot of well acclaimed original anime – Gundam and Cowboy Bebop come to mind as wildly popular original shows.

        I’m a Fractale fan myself. I watched the whole thing and thought it was good. Then I went on the internet and saw the hate and was confused. Occult Academy was pretty good. I didn’t have time to finish it (school, bah).

        Comments make the blog! More comments! Motto motto!

  6. Ellipses says:

    As much as I love this show, getting some insight into dislikeable elements of the show is somewhat refreshing. Reading this post reaminded me of just how silly the pre-death Menma scene is/was. Also, what a masochistic freak she was.

    Still, I can’t help but like her for what she contributes to the show. 🙂

    • misaki says:

      This post was on the first five or so episodes of AnoHana, but my opinion of the show hasn’t really changed that much. I think this anime has been presented and executed quite well, but there are still relatively minor areas that bug me. For example, Menma’s character is one-dimensional. She is nothing more than a symbol of the characters’ childhood, so it’s thus hard to relate to Jintan, who loves her (why?).

      If you want a much more fleshed out view, check out Moe Sucks. E Minor has been ragging on this show for a while, and he makes a lot of good points.

      • Ellipses says:

        I think Menma’s character is supposed to be one-dimensional, bearing in mind that her existence is not corporeal. Jintan’s love for her might be a result of guilt that built up since the incident. I can’t imagine a child’s fancy turning into love over the course of time in the absence of the person in question.

        And thank you for the recommendation, I will definitely check it out.

      • misaki says:

        I can’t say I agree with you on Menma’s character. It feels as though something’s missing. Menma is a ghost, but you’d expect her character to be explored at least a little – why is (perhaps more importantly, was) everybody so obsessed with her? She’s one of the main characters and all…

        Jintan’s love for her might be a result of guilt that built up since the incident.

        That sounds reasonable. In the end, it’s really all about that one day and that one flashback scene.

        Yet thinking about it a little more, guilt is a very thin thread that’s connecting Menma to all the characters. I’d still like to see an in-depth Menma who can charm the audience and make us relate to the other characters.

        P.S.: No problem. Moe Sucks is one of my favorite blogs, and I think their posts (well, most of them) contain some well thought out arguments. An essay writing hater like me can’t compete!

  7. […] post.  After a slew of really long posts, I wanted to go back to posting something in the vein of Things I Don’t Like About AnoHana, where my ideas came across in easily digestible bite-sized chunks.  And since I was watching lots […]

  8. Overlord-G says:

    I’m not a Menma fan and Poppo wasn’t too bad. as for my thoughts on the show…I don’t feel like making a paragraph to repeat my opinion so I’ll keep it short:
    Unlike K-ON! where it’s divided by two groups of either love or hate (No such thing as A tweener with this show imo), AnoHana is a show that defies rating, which is why I didn’t give it one. Every person who saw this show has a valid reason to either like it, dislike it or be a tweener. It’s a fav anime of 2011 for reasons I’ll explain later.

    • flomu says:

      Well, that’s an awfully vague POV – I’m not sure what you’re trying to say! In my opinion, everybody has their own thoughts about every anime. I liked AnoHana, but disliked Menma.

      I’m not seeing how AnoHana could defy rating… or what that even means!


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