Your lie in April

Episode 10

This episode is largely an "Act 2" to the previous week, building on its ideas and digging further into Kosei's head as he continues his performance. It could be considered a third part to what began in episode 8 with Takeshi and Emi's performances, but last week was such a stand-out episode that it almost wiped away the memories of previous episodes, despite building upon their momentum. This week continues that tradition. Its imagery of Kosei's memories are all the more terrifying after last week's revelations, proving that the series wasn't about to drop or undermine them like I worried in my previous review. Instead, it pushes the envelope further, making Kosei's mother and his memories all the more terrifying with its sound design and original score. Kosei's psychological moments remain fresh episode after episode, as the series further plumbs the depths of his despair and scales the heights of his hopes.

This episode was also careful to verbally distinguish Kosei's problems from those of his friends and rivals. This reached its apex in the scenes between Kosei and Watari, where the soccer star demonstrates just how much he doesn't understand his friend and remains divorced from his struggles. He makes jokes about how "setbacks come with being a star" while thinking about his future soccer career and the more glamorous "setbacks" that talented people appear to go through—nothing like what Kosei has experienced and bottled up. To a lesser extent, this was also the case with Emi and Takeshi this week, as their agony over their childhood hero's technical imperfections contrasts sharply with Kosei's turmoil onstage.

For a series so heavily focused on its characters' diegetic performances, Your Lie in April does a lot with its background music. It alternates between minimalist piano music for the series' more serene, contemplative moments, and low percussive sounds for showcasing the dark depths of Kosei's soul, among various other effects. The creepy musical accents in Kosei's visions of his mother punishing him really stuck out against the ambient melodies of his moments watching the stars with Watari earlier in the episode, or his visions of Kaori later on. The show also adds background instruments to the characters' performances that wouldn't be present in the scene, to great effect. Your Lie in April communicated the energy of Emi's performance last week by backing it with drums, and this episode it showed Kosei's crescendo in emotional intensity by adding strings to his solo Chopin etude (of course, the strings also symbolize Kaori's importance to him). Many shows about musicians are spartan in their original score, often rightfully so, but it's great to see a series that uses it inventively.

One of the most interesting things is how often performances do or don't match the audience's impressions. Even to my conservatory-trained ears, Kosei's Chopin performance never sounded as shaky as the audience heard it. Unfaithful to the score yes, but still very engaging. It was an interpretation of a piece I don't agree with, not a trainwreck (though it is "full of anguish", as Emi put it). It only really sounded muddled and poor in Kosei's visions, where he was underwater and the notes all slurred together into a discordant mess. You have to wonder if this is intentional, either to keep the anime's audience engaged in a way they wouldn't be for an actual bad performance that went on that long, or to skewer its persnickety judges. This week's episode was a powerful argument for Your Lie in April's thesis that music is about the emotions it stirs in you, not about competitions or precision. Kaori's influence has taught Kosei to bring out his true feelings when he plays, for good or for ill—and one thing he's realized is that for now, his music is all about her.

I wonder if Your Lie in April is going to address how that's not that much healthier of a place for him to be in than playing for his mom. As much as Kaori is a more positive influence on his love of music than his mom was (and not abusive, meaningless slapstick aside), he's still defining himself around another person rather than finding his own goals. Of course, Your Lie in April is a romance, so that's kind of the point, but since Kaori clearly has her own issues—clearly suffering from some terminal illness—this can only come crashing down on Kosei in the long run. Luckily, Your Lie in April is proving more and more each week that it does have the maturity and thoughtfulness to fully address these issues. It's a show whose creators clearly understand what it's like to be an abuse victim like Kosei is, and the damage that can do to a young mind and soul. Since Kaori's not all right either, they support each other, but hopefully not in a way that leads to codependence.

Your Lie in April continues to be a masterfully written, directed and scored look into the lives of a handful of teenage musicians. If it can fully understands the seriousness of their issues, and healthy ways to work through them, it will definitely stick the landing. The odds look better every week.

Rating: A-

Your Lie in April is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a graduate student in musicology, who has written about anime and many other topics for Autostraddle.com and her own blog. She tweets at @composerose.