Your Lie in April

Fuck, I just re-watched this whole series for the second time and I was uncontrollably sobbing during the last episode. This anime is brimming with cliches, and there is a lowkey harem vibe to this whole ordeal. However, rather than being timid about the maudlin aspects, the creators just fucking go full-out with the melodrama and it sticks most of the time. Child abuse? Terminally ill love interest? PTSD? Depression? Unrequited love? It's all here, and gorgeously animated with killer music too.

Gets a little bogged down with several screentime-hogging new characters in its back half, but overall a lovely combination of music, teen romance and gentle dramedy that kept me pulled along and even misty eyed at a couple points.

internal monologue: the show

SUPER emotional and romantic, breathtaking visuals & music, and great voice acting. With a little bit of editing (cut out a few repetitive flashbacks and internal monologues) this would be perfect.

When it shoots for the moon, it hits it. It gets bogged down a little by typical anime tropes (i.e. internal monologues, mood whiplashes, comments from other characters I don't give a fuck about) to reinforce the melodrama, but the big moments feel earned and they do sprinkled a lot of little moments all throughout to make it all worthwhile. This probably reads like damning with faint praise, but I do think this anime is great and absolutely worth watching.