Available on: Anohana is available for purchase on Amazon.Good for: People who enjoy coming-of-age stories, those who prefer shorter anime series, lovers of sad or bittersweet endings, and people who long to have their heartstrings tugged.While Your Name dealt with rectifying or even changing the past, Anohana touches on the idea of moving on and forgiving yourself.ĭirected by Tatsuyuki Nagai ( The Anthem of the Heart) and written by Mari Okada ( A Lull in the Sea), Anohana is a short, 11-episode series set in the lush, nature-filled area of Chichibu, Saitama. Jinta enlists the help of his former friends to put the ghost of Menma to rest, but they soon learn that letting go isn’t as easy as it seems. Menma refuses to leave him alone until her wish is granted, but unfortunately, she herself can’t remember what that wish is. Out of the blue, the former leader of the group, Jinta, begins seeing the ghost of their long-lost friend. Now in high school, the gang has grown further and further apart. Available on: A Silent Voice is available for purchase on Amazon or via YouTube and Netflix.Īnohana follows a group of classmates who suffer the tragic death of their childhood friend, a girl named Menma.Good for: Those who enjoy artistic anime or anime with a deep message.

If you’re in Gifu, you’ll also want to check out the world heritage site of Shirakawa-Go.

Set in a rural Japan inspired by Gifu Prefecture, there are many beautiful locations in Ogaki, Gifu that have become popular anime tourist locations due to the film. Ironically, the girl he once bullied becomes his closest friend and the light that roots him back into the world. Luckily, as he is about to step off the bridge, he hears firecrackers and is reminded of fireworks from his elementary school days and steps back from the ledge at the last second.Īfter coincidentally finding a notebook he’d stolen from Shoko in elementary school, he decides to return it to her. He is ultimately driven to attempt suicide. In high school, Shoya’s exile has turned him into a faceless and voiceless outcast.

A boy named Shoya bullies a deaf girl named Shoko - forcing her to switch schools - and ends up losing all his friends in the process. Gray-Man and Bakuman), A Silent Voice is a film about a school bully who falls in love with his victim. Written by Reiko Yoshida ( The Cat Returns, D. If you enjoyed the reversal of that theme, then you will definitely enjoy Koe No Katachi ( A Silent Voice aka The Shape of Voice). Your Name was unique in the subversion of that stereotype instead of a timid and quiet male hero we were given the heroine named Mitsuha, a girl forced into reservation by her role as the mayor’s daughter and the maiden of the family shrine. That loner archetype is then changed by the often upbeat or eccentric female love interest who storms into his world and changes his life. In most romance anime there is a common trope of the silent, sometimes geeky, but always reserved and always alone male hero. So if you’re an anime freak like me that needs something else to watch in the meantime, here are five truly moving romances to fill your Kimi No Na Wa void that can grab your heart as they have mine. While Shinkai teased in a vague tweet that his next film is set to release sometime in 2019, not much more is known about it than that. Now, over two years since its release, fans worldwide are going into anime withdrawal, itching for their next Makoto Shinkai fix. Released in 2016, Makoto Shinkai’s film exploded with critical acclaim and sold out box offices across Japan, eventually surpassing Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away as the highest grossing anime film of all time. One, in particular, that took the anime world by storm was Kimi No Na Wa ( Your Name). Whether in the form of novels, movies, manga, anime or other forms of art, they grab people in different ways. Simply put: stories help shape who we are and who we become. More than that, the stories that really touch us and the tales that we grow up with can become the foundations for our dreams and ambitions as adults. As a journalist and fiction writer, I believe stories can change people’s lives.

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