The Anthem of the Heart

I like a lot of Mari Okada's work including Anohana, Maquia and O Maidens in Your Savage Season. However, I came out of "The Anthem of the Heart" with very mixed feelings.

It is a high school drama that feels a bit half-baked. The drama mostly revolves around the main girl, Jun Naruse, who cannot speak because of an event that occurred in the past. This is an interesting premise but the problem is that this is not the main focus as much as it should. Instead, we have a lot of romance subplots with other supporting characters that just aren't developed enough. The third act and even the ending felt incredibly forced as well. I do give props for not being predictable and being a decent message but the execution is kind of poor. This premise feels like it would be better as an anime series than a movie. That way, the supporting characters and even the romance could be more developed.

The movie does have great animation, character design and music. Unfortunately, if you wanted a good high school drama or romance, this is not it.

Interesting story and animation is pretty good.

This story is here to put us back to earth, because it's not a love fantasy we all have in our heads.

Frankly, ending came out of nowhere, because the whole time story was leading us in the wrong direction.

I'm not a fan of the ending, but that doesn't make this movie bad.

Anime gave us a really nice lesson: It's not our fault for pointing out other's mistakes. Not everyone who cares about us loves us romantically.

Just because I've watched some animes that are better than this one, I'm giving this one a 8.

It's definitely worth watching.

If you're emotional then prepare tissues. :-)

The first mistake we all make is to expect it to match with the type of films what Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Hosada and few others direct. I meant thematically; either sci-fi, fantasy or the drama with the teen or the tween characters in the lead. Because technically this was a wonderful animation, but I was not impressed with the story, otherwise as usual, my writing would have been very long with the film quotes and other discussions.

For the beautifully sketched characters like this, the film totally wasted an opportunity. Should have been a beautiful love story or a pure fantasy, but it was a bit of uninspiring school drama that I kind frequently lost interest while watching.

I remind who wanted to watch it that it was a simple story which was like some kind of a television episode. The fantasy parts were too small to notice and the love story was very boring to emotionally feel it. It might suit for those who're seeking matured contents in an anime fantasy-romance than a cute and quirky narration. My point is it is for adults than children.

Overall, it failed to reach my expectations, but the online film rating says many has liked it. So don't mind me if you're considering it, but my review causing confusion. Because you should not have to feel what I felt, everything I said in the review is from my personal viewpoint. So I believe your opinion might differ from mine.

5/10

This is living proof that an anime movie can be much better, making action movies, terror anyone.

Sometimes it is easier to express ourselves through art. The expression goes, "a picture says a thousand words". And since an animated picture, at 24 frames per second, has thousands of pictures, a movie can have a lot to say. Words can hurt. And as too many find out, once words are said, they can't be unsaid. Naruse is cursed to be unable to speak, but eventually finds other ways to communicate. She finds that the curse did not spread to singing, and creates a musical to express herself. This does have two things that bring it down. It has a tragic overheard conversation, and there was very little payoff from a big setup. But man, this film spoke to me.