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Your lie in April
Episode 19

by Rose Bridges,

I really hope that Your Lie in April knows what it's doing by reintroducing Takeshi to the plot. Obviously, he's relevant again as Nagi's older brother, but when his revelations are more about Emi and Kousei than his sister I get antsy. In the first cour, their rivalry added a fun flavor to Kousei's return to the competition world. Now, it's a distraction. We're getting down to the wire with Kaori's fate, and Kousei's relationship with her and Tsubaki. It's teasing to dangle cliffhangers about Kaori's surgery, and then switch to an irrelevant character for the rest of the episode. It's not good teasing, either.

That becomes the central problem with Your Lie in April in its final episodes. How much can it tie up its many loose ends? It doesn't even have that many characters, but its "performance as WINDOWS TO THE SOUL" thesis means that it developed all of them. They each have depth and resonance with the audience. So, who will the show prioritize? All I know is that it shouldn't be either of Kousei's rivals. Neither are as interesting as our main four, Nagi, or Hiroko. Watari actually knows and has feelings for the dying Kaori, but got barely one episode focused on his development. Why are we zooming off-course to the rivals again?

All the same, it's nice to see Emi and Takeshi as Kousei's friends now. Perhaps they'll be part of his support system when Kaori passes on. Still, the resolution feels a little unearned. I can't remember anything setting up for this new friendship the last time Takeshi+Emi were the focus. I don't know if the show actually failed to set it up, or I just couldn't remember because it's been too long. Neither is a good sign. So I'm really hoping this is their final resolution, and then we can move on to everyone else.

What a resolution it was, though! Takeshi's piece here is Chopin's Etude Op. 10, No. 12, also known as the "Revolutionary" Etude. It's one of the most passionate pieces from a composer known for his passion, full of sorrow and yearning. Takeshi's emotional cadences mirror the music's own. It is strange to hear his teacher gushing about the "composer's intentions" though. Chopin was in despair when he wrote this, but over Russia's attack on his native Poland during the 1831 November Uprising. That doesn't have much to do with Takeshi's life, or at least, Your Lie in April doesn't make any connection.

What's frustrated me throughout this series is that, for a series about classical music, it rarely uses it as well as it could. The concert piano repertoire is rich and varied, with expressive pieces for every mood and struggle, but Your Lie in April mostly chooses to play it safe. It sticks with the most famous and frequently-performed music, regardless of how well it fits each character's journey.

This didn't matter at first, when the direction and animation were enough to sell these scenes. Now, the performance scenes are turning repetitive and stale. I'm still waiting for a classical-music BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad, that captures the experience of performing and integrates the actual music as masterfully.

This all sounds negative, but there was still a lot to enjoy about this episode. The resolution it creates for Kousei and his rivals may spring out of nowhere, but it's both cute and kind of powerful. Rivals help each other more than they hurt, by pushing each other and "curing loneliness." That idea first popped up with Takeshi's first appearance, and it's an idea I largely agree with from my own experiences. Watching Takeshi and Emi finally realize this as they share snacks with Kousei was really sweet. It took more of the series' painful and tired slapstick to get there, but the payoff was worth it.

I'm just not sure why this had to happen here and now. How is this more worth our time than Kaori, especially with the mid-episode cliffhanger about her surgery? Why sandwich this between the powerful Tsubaki-Kaori scenes? With so much to resolve in the series' final episodes, this feels like an unnecessary diversion. At least it wasn't an unpleasant one.

Rating: B-

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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