Secret Base | Ano Hana ED

We still don’t know the name of the flower we saw that day.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, or Ano Hana, is an eleven-episode anime which I can guarantee you one thing: it will make you cry. Now that I have finally finished it after a few months of stalling, I find it quite stupendous that I didn’t finish it earlier. I stopped at episode 8, and when I watched episodes 9, 10 and 11, I cried on every single fucking episode. I cry on some random parts of the episodes, but I always, always cry at the ending. It’s because of this song. It’s the perfect song to set up the mood, that even if I’m fucking trying to control the tears, then suddenly this song comes up, BOOM. Good bye self control. 

Ano Hana is, albeit its slightly supernatural setting, very realistic when touching on some issues such as friendship, family, love, jealousy and pain. The common synopsis for this series goes along the lines of one group of friends who drifts apart when one of them dies in an accident. Several years later, the group is brought back together when this dead friend appears to one of them, asking that her wish be granted so she can go to heaven. It’s such a simplistic plot summary. The synopsis didn’t even warn us that we had to prepare our tissues beforehand watching. Imagine watching this at the middle of the night comfortably in your bed and you realize you have to get up to get a tissue or a handkerchief. Not cool, man. You’re likely to settle for your bed sheets or sleeve because you don’t want to interrupt the drama. That’s what I felt, anyway.

What I loved most from this show is that the characters aren’t perfect, that even though Menma was somewhat perfect in her own way (even the voice acting for her is), her friends aren’t—that they aren’t capable of being not selfish even though they honestly want to be better. The guilt that they felt when the fireworks weren’t able to send Menma to heaven pushed them to admit their “sins”, and I was surprised that Poppo had one of his own. The character development in this show was flawless for everyone except Poppo at first, which is kind of sad since Poppo seemed to lift everyone’s spirit higher when things are looking down. It’s a good thing that near the end, Poppo’s character caught up when he admitted that it’s as if he could always, only watch. Like what’s happening to his friends now. Like when Menma died.

I tried to write several paragraphs on my feelings for each character, but as I assumed, I cannot put my feelings into words efficiently so I’ll scratch the idea. But please believe me, the anime executed the character’s emotions so well that 11 episodes, though seemingly inadequate, is strangely enough. The direct to the point lines always get to me, like when Jintan told Menma to stay with him forever by the river. The ending was the best though. Pretending that they were just playing hide and seek almost made my tear ducts irreparable. 

The bright and colorful visuals presented with emotions so raw—overall, it’s an anime that I will never forget.