Just after “Your Lie in April” concluded, out came their OVA. This is a rare OVA, in that you have to see the series all the way through before you can honestly watch the OVA. The entire OVA is referenced throughout the series and it makes a caliber of sense when you see this, as you were given all the clues. I am assuming it is about four years earlier, so everyone is 10 or so, although the picture may give an indication of being eight. It’s hard to tell. We have the three main players on that bench, each noshing on their favorite treat.

Left to right, Emi Igawa, Kosei Arima and Takeshi Aiza, are all the same age and are all tremendously gifted pianists, but everyone takes a back seat to what Arima does. He is the Human Metronome, in that he plays the music perfectly. There isn’t much color or spark in what he does (unlike his rivals), but the judges look for technical perfection and Arima has that in spades. Here’s the funny thing: Arima is in competition against himself, trying to win over the love of his dying mother, who is as rough as they get. Emi and Aiza are chasing Arima and always coming up short. For the most part, there are your medalists, so to speak, as the rest of the competitors are left with scraps. (more…)

I actually had a chance to view this about six months earlier, but the capsule description seemed a bit uncertain and I’m not a fan of music shows. I find they are in the area of sports shows, where we end up focusing too much on the performance and the show loses something about the people. But then I heard that this was a really romantic series, the best in the past few years. On Free Comic Book Day, one of the offerings was a manga sampler, of which the first chapter of this tale was shown. Well, with all these promotions, I had to see it.

The show is “Your Lie in April”, known in Japan as “Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso” (“April is Your Lie”) and tells the story of piano prodigy Kousei Arima (glasses up there). He dominated the world of piano competitions and became famous among child musicians. His mother, who was also his instructor, was a very tough taskmaster. She died and he had a mental breakdown while performing at a piano recital at the age of eleven. As a result, he was/is no longer able to hear the sound of his piano even though his hearing is perfectly fine, and he completely disappeared from the scene. (more…)