AnoHana: The Flower We Saw That Day (anime series)

Wow, this one season anime is a guaranteed tear-jerker that will hit you right in the feels.
In a nutshell and without spoilers, AnoHana (full title: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai) centres around a teenage boy, Jinta Yadomi, who drops out of school due to depression but embarks on a slow, painful rise back to normality. All helped along by the ghost (or imaginary hallucination) of his childhood friend who drowned many years prior. Along the way he teams back up with his old childhood friends, all whom have long grown apart and gone their separate paths.

What makes this series stand out for me is the wonderful character building. You get a real sense of the internal pain suffered by the main characters. The series explores what it means to handle repressed feelings of grief, guilt and regret. For young adolescents growing into adulthood, these are tough emotions to deal with.

It's not all doom and gloom however. Quite the contrary. There are many lighter moments - nothing too goofy and out of place, but definitely several lol moments and in general it's entertaining to see Jinta interact with his invisible friend.

One cultural issue that had me a bit confused were the scenes where the older teenagers slip into using their childhood nicknames. It was shown to be a big faux pas and something one must never do. I'll have to ask about this. Is there a Western equivalent to such naming formality with kids-younger adults?

Inevitably for a teen based series, there is much coverage of love interests between the characters. You can't help but want to give some of them a bit of a talking to given how blind they are to someone else's obvious feelings. But then again, being utterly self centred is what being a teen is all about.

Add caption

I see there's also a movie of the same. I'm not sure if a movie will add anything to the story but I'll probably see it anyway.

Available on Netflix in some territories.

9/10