Emotional, uplifting, tragic but also a film of hope, “anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day: The Movie” is an animated film that will captivate you and a Blu-ray release that I highly recommend!
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TITLE: anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day
YEAR OF FILM: 2011
DURATION: 11 Episodes (256 Minutes)
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, Japanese and English Linear PCM Stereo, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: Aniplex
RATED: Suggested 13 and Up
Release Date: July 15, 2014
Director: Tatsuyuki Nagai
Script: Mari Okada
Music by REMEDIOS
Character Design: Masayoshi Tanaka
Art Director: Takayoshi Fukushima
Art by Takayoshi Fukushima
Chief Animation Director: Masayoshi Tanaka
Anime Production: A-1 Pictures
Featuring the following voice talent:
Ai Kayano/Xanthe Huynh as Meiko “Menma” Honma
Haruka Tomatsu/Erica Lindbeck as Naruko “Anaru” AnjÅ
Miyu Irino/Griffin Burns as Jinta “Jintan” Yadomi
Saori Hayami/Erica Mendez as Chiriko “Tsuruko” Tsurumi
Takahiro Sakurai/Ray Chase as Atsumu “Yukiatsu” Matsuyuki
Takayuki Kondou/Kaiji Tang as TetsudÅ “Poppo” Hisakawa
Aki Toyosaki/Abby Trott as TetsudÅ (child)
Asami Seto/Michelle Ruff as Yukiatsu (child)
Kaoru Mizuhara/Cherami Leigh as Haruna (child)
Mitsuru Ogata/Kirk Thornton as Atsushi Yadomi (child)
Asami Seto/Michelle Ruff as Atsumu (child)
Mutsumi Tamura/Tara Sands as Jinta (child)
Yui Makino/Brianna Knickerbocker as Aki (child)
“Jintan? I have a wish I want you to grant for me!â€
The critically acclaimed drama series anohana returns with a brand new English dub written and directed by Patrick Seitz, now on Blu-ray for the first time!
Jinta Yadomi and his group of childhood friends had become estranged after a tragic incident split them apart. Now in their high school years, an unexpected surprise forces each of them to confront their guilt over what happened that day. They must overcome the burdens of their past, and come to terms with years of shame, hard feelings, and heartaches.
It was one of the saddest anime series to debut back in 2011, the series “Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai” or “Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day” debuted on television.
An 11-episode series produced by A-1 pictures and directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai (“My-HiME”, “A Certain Scientific Railgun”) and written by Mari Okada (“AKB0048”, “Vampire Knight”, “Black Rock Shooter”, “Black Butler”), the series revolves around six childhood friends that drifted apart after one of them dies in an accident.
A novelization by Mari Okada was released in 2011, a manga series adaptation was released in 2012, then an animated film was released in theaters in 2013, followed by a live action television drama series was released in September 2015.
While the animated film was released in the US back in 2014, the anime series will be released as a complete series on Blu-ray in 2017.
The animated series begins with an introduction to Jinta “Jintan” Yadomi, a teenager who looks as if he was hanging around with a girl named Menma.  When his childhood friend Naruko arrives, Menma tells him that no one can see her.
We then realize that Jinta is a teenager who has not gotten over Menma’s death. He has not gone to school and he has not had any contact with his childhood friends since.
Jintan sees Menma’s ghost (or it’s his imagination) as he tries to piece together things in his mind about her death and then suddenly, he begins to remember the things he wanted to say to Menma on the day of her death.
As he runs into a forest area, it happens to be the old clubhouse (their secret base) where he and his friends used to hang out. He then sees his old friend Tetsudo “Poppo” Hisakawa and tells him that she is able to see her ghost.
We then start to see each of these individuals start to see each other but circumstances have changed, friendships lost and not all of them get along.
And with each individual, they have a tie to the past that they regret and we start to see glimpses of the past and how Menma’s death changed everyone.
We learn that together with their friends (which they are known as the “Super Peace Busters”) included Naruko “Anaru” Anjo (who had a crush on Jinta), Atsumu “Yukiatsu” Matsuyuki (who likes Menma and looked at Jinta as his rival for Menma’s feelings), Chiriko “Tsuruko” Tsurumi (has feelings towards Asumu) and Tetsudo “Poppo” Hisakawa (always looked at Jinta as “cool”).
On the day before “Menma” died, everyone wanted to know if Jinta loved Menma but being a child and embarrassed, he said he would never fall for someone like her. Embarrassed, he ran away. But when she tried to find him, by the time he went to look for her an apologize, it was too late. She slipped and fell into a river and drowned.
Fast forward into the future and Jinta has become depressed and anti-social after the death of his mother and Menma. But when Menma reappears as a ghost, at first he thinks it’s his stress manifesting, but when he starts to realize that she has returned, Jinta slowly reunites with his old friends to tell him about his visions of Menma.
Of course, not everyone believes him, as he is the only person that can see her. But some fans give him the benefit of the doubt and Poppo believes that she may be stuck on Earth because she has a goal that she must reach or a wish that she must fulfill. But as Menma hears this, she is not sure about her thoughts nor does she remember much.
But as these friends slowly reunite, we learn that not only does Jinta feel guilty about Menma’s death, each of them do for some sort of reason.
And as the eleven episodes delve into each character’s life in the present, they also share with each other their thoughts and the pain they have felt all these years and in many ways, allowing each to receive some type of closure in regards to Menma’s death but giving them the chance to say their final goodbye and vice-versa.
VIDEO:
“anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day” is a TV series that looks great in HD. Animation is vibrant, while character designs are shaded, the background art is well-detailed and for the most part, you are drawn with the many cut-scenes and flashbacks but the lush green and vibrant colors instantly grab you. There is a slight softness as one can expect from a TV series but I didn’t notice any artifacts or banding issues, while watching the series.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day” is presented in Japanese and English Linear PCM Stereo 2.0. This is primarily a dialogue and music-driven soundtrack, so one should not expect to hear a lot coming from the lossless soundtrack. If anything, the surround channels are more about environment and ambiance.
Subtitles are in English and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day” comes with the following special features:
- Audio Commentary by the English Dub Cast and Director
- English Dub Teaser
- English Dub Trailer
- English Dub Bloopers
- Web Previews
- Commercials and TrailersÂ
- Textless Opening and Endings
EXTRAS:
“anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day” comes with the awesome a slipcover case, a 60-page deluxe booklet.
Emotional, uplifting, tragic but also a film of hope, “anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day is an animated series that will captivate you but it’s also an emotional series that will no doubt make you cry.
“anohana” was an animated series that was one of the saddest anime series to come out in 2011 but one that made you watch because like all childhood friends, everyone drifts apart. But in the case of these friends, it was because one friend’s tragic death, everyone had went on their separate ways.
Some harboring guilt or feelings about their friend, Menma’s death that they have kept in their heart for so long.
And now as these young children have grown up to be young adults, they are brought together once again, because of their deceased friend. Menma has started to show up for some reason and only Jinta can see her.
The film is about child innocence but also holding on to emotions that were kept inside but never said. The film has a message of letting people know how much you care about them before it’s too late. And while most people don’t get the opportunity to tell that person how they truly feel, what if you were given that final chance.
I often think about films such as “Ghost” (the classic romantic drama with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore), where the film’s protagonist is murdered and comes back as a ghost and needing to fix things in order to go back to heaven. With “anohana”, Menma is somewhat a ghost but one that can be seen by Jinta and also one that is unaware of why she was brought back and not knowing if she would disappear if she was able to make a wish come true. She doesn’t know.
Of course, Jinta seeing the deceased Menma is hard to believe for some individuals until Jinta shares details that only they and Menma knows about. And to see everyone coming together, but also having these unresolved feelings… it makes for a dramatic and emotional animated series.
As for the Blu-ray release of “anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day”, the picture quality is vibrant, the character design is well done and the background art is fantastic for a TV series! While the lossless soundtrack is more dialogue and music-driven with ambiance played through the surround channels.
With the Blu-ray release, you get the an English dub commentary, trailer, teaser, textless opening and endings and of course, the Aniplex swag of a cool case and 60-page deluxe booklet.
Overall, “anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day” is an animated series that will make viewers easily laugh and cry thanks to its well-written storyline from Mari Okada. It no doubt stands out among the many emotional anime series that revolved around tragedy.
Emotional, uplifting, tragic but also a film of hope, “anohana – The Flower We Saw That Day” is an animated series that will captivate you, that will make you shed tears and a Blu-ray Box Set release that I highly recommend!
