The Anthem of the Heart Review (Anime)
The Anthem of the Heart punched me right in the gut in its opening minutes when our young protagonist Jun Naruse, is blamed for a horrible, crushing event due to her being a “chatterbox”. With Jun’s happy demeanor now shattered, she now sticks to the shadows in an attempt to not be sociable.
She’s not able to have it her way though when she’s appointed to be both the lead role of a school musical and a member of the Outreach Committee Council. Now she’s forced to communicate with her classmates for the first time, and to do that she’ll have to come out of the barrier that she’s put up. She, nor the other members, actually want to be part of the council though. With everyone going into their new duty in a negative way, they all have to work together and put aside their differences not only for the school, but for themselves too.
The Anthem of the Heart punched me right in the gut in its opening minutes.
The Anthem of the Heart is an emotional, personal story about a group of children who aren’t the best at communicating with others, and are better learning how to with other like-minded people. Jun especially finds it to be a huge struggle to string together a sentence, and uses notes and her phone to communicate — she even gets stomach pains when she does talk. The two hour flick flies by, and there’s one person I’d like to single out for why this narrative works so incredibly well.
That person is Mari Okada. You might know her as someone who’s helped to pen the script for many anime including Toradora!, Hanasaku Iroha and A Lull in the Sea. Mari is also responsible for composing many of these series’ too which includes soundtrack, lighting, framing and scene arrangement, and she really has an in-depth understanding on how to perfectly portray personal stories. She captures the essence of youth, the awkwardness and the struggle to put feelings into words, and in doing so tells a touching, unforgettable tale that everybody should watch. Mari has a marvellous way with words, and she’s a name I personally look for in anime nowadays.
A touching, unforgettable tale that everybody should watch.
The Anthem of the Heart is now amongst A-1 Pictures’ best work, and they’ve proven that they were the right studio for the job — not to say others couldn’t have done it just as well, but A-1’s distinctive art is perfect for the tone and atmosphere of the story. Simple, yet detailed, character designs fit in with grounded story, and gorgeous, warm colours once again evoke those feelings of youth where you had only trivial worries. This film got me a little bit nostalgic having performed in school theater shows myself!
Music plays an important role in The Anthem of the Heart, and so it goes without saying that the music is wonderful. Takumi Sakagami, the lead male role, plays the piano, and so the piano is the primary instrument across the soundtrack. The tune to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” gets used a fair bit, along with a bunch of original songs — I’d have loved to have heard the musical songs played in full! Other classical songs you’ll likely be familiar with are used in their own unique arrangements here too. Many of the songs have pleasant vocals, and they’re nothing short of goosebump-inducing in the best way.
I managed to hold back the tears for a very long time, you know. I got to the last ten minutes and cried. This film is just so wholly beautiful, entirely engrossing and it played with my feelings as if they were the movie’s instruments. It stunned me and left me breathless. I could heap praise on this movie all day, and it’s one I’d happily watch time and time again. I was likely as emotive as an anime character whilst watching it!
The Anthem of the Heart is one of the best works put out by Mari Okada, A-1 Pictures and Anime Limited clearly have great taste when they decided to bring this fantastic movie to the West. This wonderful work of art should not be missed.
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