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Your lie in April
Episode 22

by Rose Bridges,

Your Lie in April has had its ups and downs over the course of 22 episodes, but shows can be forgiven for a rocky road if they begin and end well. Your Lie in April did both of those things—but especially the second one. Even if the actual content was not too unexpected (Kaori died, and it turned out she always loved Kosei), the presentation made up for it in spades. It tied up every loose end, satisfied every emotional need, and left us on a hopeful note while also not giving any room for more.

This show's episodes typically follow a binary structure, but rarely are both halves equally satisfying. The "performance" part was possibly the best fantasy sequence in the entire show. (You can tell they were saving their animation budget for this.) It also communicates Kaori's death in a way both more and less devastating than if it had simply shown it happening in the hospital. We got shots of her during surgery, but nothing to show the end result. Instead, we see it through Kosei's eyes at the concert. He comes to the realization that he has a larger support system, so the sky won't fall when Kaori dies, but he's still really going to miss her. Even if he can't have one last performance with her for real, he can have one in his imagination. The sequence calls back to both OPs, with the two of them playing in the sky, and the watercolor-style still portraits that appear when they're really into it. It's dramatic and heartfelt, but fleeting. Soon, Kaori fades away, just like she does in real life. She goes out in a vibrant blaze of glory, and Kosei must say goodbye through his tears.

It felt like the show went out in that blaze too, by giving us one triumphant last performance—one of the series' greatest. That brings up another topic though; we're listening to Chopin yet again. Now, I love Chopin as much as the next classical music fanatic, but this is emblematic of a larger problem. Your Lie in April could have been far more creative with its music choices. It uses the most cliché "student piano pieces," and while that's true to life, this series' audience doesn't know or care about that. There's no reason not to vary it up a bit. The moments where it did shake things up—with Debussy, or Scriabin, or the Fritz Kriesler pieces that meant so much to Kosei's mom—were among the series' best. It would've been nice to see more attempts to tie the musical choices into the characters' moods or journeys. Considering how much time the early part of the series spent on Kosei's selective deafness, you would've expected more Beethoven. There's an eerie similarity between Kosei's scenes of struggling underwater and how Beethoven sawed the legs off his piano and slammed it against the ground to hear the notes. However, other than the overused Moonlight Sonata and Kaori's early performance of the Kreutzer, there's no Beethoven. He's a cornerstone of the piano repertoire too! That's just one of many examples. A series focusing on music should be far more inspired in its use of it.

At least this episode did a nice job of bringing back the original ED. On that note, let's get to that second half. I thought it was an inspired choice to leave Kaori's backstory—and what exactly her "lie in April" was—for the tail end of the show. Having her narrate from beyond the grave while we watched Kosei adjust to a life without her pulled at the heartstrings that much more. Now that we know she always liked him (not a huge surprise, though it is surprising how far back it goes), it hurts that they never kissed or got together! Maybe it was odd that it took so long to "sell" us on the idea of their relationship, or the truth of Kaori's character, as in how selfless and understanding she is after all. Their relationship pushed forward because of the tragedy in their individual characters, and the apparent inevitability of it all. I think that it still wraps a nice bow on the end, and makes it more meaningful than if we'd known everything earlier. It also reverses many of the clichés associated with this type of story, particularly the idea I brought up in my first review of Kaori as a "Manic Pixie Dream Girl." She was hurting as much as Kosei, and he helped bring light and excitement into her life as much as she did his. They both needed and supported each other, but were able to grow beyond those earlier signs of unhealthy codependence. They also connected each other to a larger support system, one that made a future for Kosei after Kaori's passing.

I like how the episode ends with Kosei and Tsubaki walking together, but not with any clear movement toward a relationship. Having them hook up so soon after Kaori's death would appear insensitive, as if she died off to shove them together. It would be like having the cake and eating it too, and the death of someone like Kaori should mean more than that. Instead, there's just a single ray of hope, possibility, and understanding. Kaori revealed Tsubaki's feelings in the letter as a way of giving her blessing, because she was a compassionate person after all. Kosei blushes when he sees Tsubaki because he knows how she feels, but there's no indication that he returns her feelings yet. He could, and Your Lie in April leaves hope for the future. The last thing Kosei sees before the episode closes is a black cat, the series' ongoing metaphor for the people he loved and lost in his life. There will always be more cats, and there will always be people worth reaching out and connecting to in his life. The background visuals (lush as always) also reinforce this with the same street changing through the seasons. It's a snowy winter when Kosei goes to Kaori's grave with her parents. It's spring with cherry blossoms falling from the same trees as he reads her letter. It's autumn in Kaori's flashback as a tiny girl. To everything there is a season, and life keeps rolling as they change.

Your Lie in April leaves hope for Kosei's future life, but not for a sequel. The story it meant to tell came to a firm and satisfying close. The final episodes built up to it well, and the last few minutes felt like an exhale. They slowly released all the thematic and plot tension of these 22 episodes. It may be little more than a teen melodrama with a classical music coat of paint, but Your Lie in April is as good as that genre gets. Especially in an episode like this one, with none of its tonally clashing slapstick. This is a story about teenagers wearing their big, messy hearts on their sleeves, and the show does that too. If that's what you want from an anime, it should leave you fully satisfied.

Rating: A

Your Lie in April is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a musicologist who studies film music. She writes about anime and many other topics on Autostraddle.com, her blog and her Twitter.


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