Your lie in April

Episode 11

Well, after two spectacular episodes, it's kind of inevitable that Your Lie in April would have to cool its jets sooner or later. This episode wasn't a disappointment, but it definitely was a step down from the emotional high of the previous two weeks. It's a transition between this material and the next, as it introduces new characters while resolving others' places in the story, and steps up the foreshadowing of Kaori's terminal illness. (Can we even call it "foreshadowing" at this point?)

That's mostly a good thing, because I certainly wasn't going to keep enjoying this show so much if it left me emotionally drained week after week. I needed a breather as much as the series' creators did. Yet, in achieving that, Your Lie in April fell back into some of the bad habits it had left behind recently. Specifically, its unfunny comedy: one of the pluses of switching firmly into drama territory was that the show had no room for it. Kaori's slapstick would have seemed wildly inappropriate next to Kosei's flashbacks of his mother's actual physical abuse. The fresh memory of those moments means that its return to the slapstick well still sticks out, in spite of the differences in how each are framed. The episode also has some odd tonal shifts that don't quite land. For example, when Kosei's former piano teacher Hiroko finds him collapsed on the floor by his piano with bruises on his face, there's an initial moment of shock and drama, reinforced by the direction and music. It's immediately blown apart by Kosei waking up to say he's fine, in the round SD style of the slapstick scenes. It comes off as even more tasteless after all the attention spent in previous weeks on the actual bruises Kosei's mother gave him.

Some of the characters' development also felt a little inconsistent. Kosei's found his reason to play, and it makes sense that he'd be glowing about it. It seems a bit off from everything that's been established about him that he wouldn't be fazed at all by his failure in the competition, though. As emotionally intense as a great performance can be, it doesn't erase deep-seated anxieties like the ones Kosei has about his mother and her perfectionism. A crush doesn't do that either, even a crush as powerful as the one he has on Kaori. On that note, I seem to recall Kosei outright stating that he was developing feelings for Kaori in an earlier episode. It feels inconsistent that he denies that's what it is now, instead insisting that he's just "grateful" and Kaori is just "the girl who likes his friend." At least that can be excused somewhat by teenagers' general cluelessness and capriciousness when it comes to matters of the heart.

On the flip side, Takeshi and Emi's reactions to Kosei's downfall feel very realistic. You might expect them to gloat and cheer upon finally beating their long-time rival, but considering the circumstances of his defeat, they're more upset than anything—especially Takeshi. He gushes about how he once saw Kosei as a superhero, and that he let Takeshi down by "failing." This makes sense to me, remembering the complicated emotions I had toward my own adolescent musical rivals. The bond is like a mix of idolatry and jealousy, so it read completely true to me that Takeshi would feel cheated and disappointed about what happened, rather than joyful.

On that note, there were some very powerful sequences that keep my overall impression positive, in spite of this episode's serious drawbacks. I already really like Hiroko. Kosei's childhood piano teacher introduces the possibility for a more positive authority figure in his life, someone who can look after him now that his mom is gone but who understands him far better. She's more easygoing and understanding (supportive even of his goal to be a "really weird pianist"), to a degree where I have to wonder if she knew anything about how his mom was pushing Kosei too far. Kaori also gets a lot more focus here than she has in the episodes focusing on Kosei's competition, and it results in one of the series' more inspired sequences not related to a performance. Kaori and Kosei go chasing fireflies at night, and Kaori remarks that they're "ephemeral and weak" but still "shining" with all their might. It's pretty clear how we're supposed to see this, with even Kosei noticing how fragile Kaori looks these days. Yet, it didn't feel that way. It felt sweet, as a chance for these two to get a romantic moment together before the inevitable tragedy starts rolling.

This was a muddled episode, where neither its highs nor lows were too extreme. It failed to achieve the transcendence of previous weeks, but it keeps the series chugging along, fulfilling its role as a transitional episode. A "meh" episode of Your Lie in April is still better than great episodes of most anime, so it's hard to dock this one too much for just taking a week off from its usual emotional rollercoaster. It's clearly set up to get back on track in the coming weeks, and I can't wait for it to rip my heart out anew when it does.

Rating: B-

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.