Your Lie in April
The manga series originated from a one-shot comic that Arakawa entered in a competition; he based the series on it and drew inspiration from similar works, such as "Beck" and "Nodame Cantabile". A-1 Pictures adapted "Your Lie in April" into an anime television series that was aired on Fuji TV's Noitamina block from October 2014 to March 2015, and an original video animation (OVA) episode was released in May 2015. A live-action film adaptation of the same name was released in September 2016. The series has also been adapted into a stage play , a light novel, and a musical that is set to premiere in May 2022. "Your Lie in April" received mixed reviews; several critics praised its plot and characters but criticized the artwork. Critics largely acclaimed the anime adaptation for its plot, animation, and soundtrack. Plot. Fourteen-year-old piano prodigy Kōsei Arima becomes famous after winning several music competitions. When his mother Saki suddenly dies, Kōsei has a mental breakdown while performing at a piano recital; this results in him becoming unable to hear the sound of his piano, even though his hearing is otherwise unaffected. Two years later, Kōsei  has not touched the piano and views the world in monochrome. He does not focus on excelling in any activities and often spends time with his friends Tsubaki Sawabe and Ryōta Watari. Kōsei meets Kaori Miyazono, an audacious, free-spirited, fourteen-year-old violinist whose playing style reflects her manic personality. Kaori helps Kōsei return to playing the piano and shows him his playing style can be free and groundbreaking. As Kaori continues to uplift Kōsei's spirits, he quickly realizes he loves her, although she seems to be interested in Ryōta. During a performance, Kaori, who is anaemic and  needs routine testing, collapses and is hospitalized. She invites Kōsei to play with her at a gala but she does not arrive. Her health deteriorates and she becomes dejected. Kōsei plays a duet with a friend, which motivates Kaori to attempt a risky potentially deadly surgery so she may possibly play with Kosei once more. While playing in the finals of the Eastern Japan Piano Competition, Kōsei sees Kaori's spirit accompanying him and realizes she has died during the surgery. At her funeral, Kaori's parents give Kōsei a letter from Kaori that reveals she was aware of her  impending death and became more free-spirited, both as a person and in her music, so she would not take her regrets to Heaven. She also says she had been in love with Kōsei since watching him perform at a concert when she was five. This inspired her to play the violin so she could play with him one day. Kaori fabricated her feelings towards Ryōta so she could get closer to Kōsei without hurting Tsubaki, who also had affections for Kōsei. Tsubaki comforts Kōsei and tells him she will be by his side. Kaori also leaves behind a picture  of herself as a child, coming back from the concert that inspired her, with Kōsei in the background. Kōsei later frames this picture. Development. Manga. When Naoshi Arakawa first wanted to be a manga artist, he entered a one-shot comic, which featured a male and female violinist performing together, into the Monthly Shōnen Magazine Grand Challenge. Arakawa later serialized "Sayonara, Football", a manga focusing on association football. After completing the series, he got tired of sports manga and wanted to try something new. For ideas, Arakawa returned to the one-shot. Despite the rejection of his previous music-manga  pitch, he settled on creating a music manga. Concerned about competing with the popular manga series "Beck", which focuses on rock music, Arakawa decided his new manga would focus on classical music. To differentiate it from "Nodame Cantabile", another classical-music-themed manga, Arakawa focused on a single instrument. Arakawa interviewed musicians Akinori Osawa, Masanori Sugano, Kaori Yamazaki, and Rieko Ikeda to help his descriptions of classical music. He also used his experience with Kendo to inspire his depiction of the tension at competitions. Arakawa also read books about music and asked his editor, who had violin experience, for help . Arakawa decided to focus on the violin after seeing a female violinist perform on television. Arakawa originally wanted to include a male and female violinist but found scenes with two violinists difficult to draw, so he chose a violinist and pianist. After the manga's third volume was published in Japan, he received an offer to develop it into an anime. Arakawa was unsure about the ending of his story but the anime's director Kyōhei Ishiguro liked the ending so Arakawa did not change it. Anime. Around the time of the release of the manga's third volume, Aniplex  producer Shunsuke Saitō offered Kensuke Tateishi at Kodansha an opportunity to produce an anime adaptation of the series for television. The original offer was for an eleven-episode series but Tateishi rejected the offer because it would not have been a complete adaptation. Saitō changed his offer to 22 episodes, which Tateishi accepted. Saitō offered the role of director to Kyōhei Ishiguro because he had worked with Ishiguro on the seventh episode of "Wandering Son" and left a strong impression on him. Because Ishiguro wanted the anime series to appeal to people who did not normally watch anime, he chose  the bands Goose House and Wacci to perform the opening and ending themes respectively. Ishiguro wanted to use a song that had a "colorful melody" to match the animation's theme and chose the band Coalamode to perform the theme. Ishiguro used real locations to represent some of the series' settings. Arakawa had visited several locations along the Seibu Line, such as Ōizumi-gakuen Station, so he showed scenes of the manga to operators of the Seibu Railway Company and officials at the Nerima Ward Office, who helped Isiguro choose appropriate locations. Media. Manga. Naoshi Arakawa wrote and illustrated the  manga series "Your Lie in April", which was first serialized in the May issue of Kodansha's "Monthly Shōnen Magazine" on April 6, 2011. It ended serialization in the March 2015 issue, which released on February 6, 2015. Kodansha published fhe first "tankōbon" (bound volume) of "Your Lie in April" on September 16, 2011; the final volume was released in a regular edition and a limited edition on May 15, 2015. Kodansha USA translated the series was translated into English for a North American release and published the first volume on April 21, 2015. A spin-off manga titled "Shigatsu  wa Kimi no Uso: Coda", was bundled with the Blu-ray release of the anime series and was published in "tankōbon" format on August 17, 2016. It retold the events of Kōsei's past from the perspective of his friends. Yui Tokiumi wrote a light-novel spinoff titled "Your Lie in April: A Six Person Etude", which was released in Japan on November 17, 2014. Vertical published it in English. The light novel retold the events of the main series from Kōsei's friends' and rivals' perspectives. Anime. The anime television series of "Your Lie in April" that A-1 Pictures  produced was aired from October 10, 2014, to March 20, 2015, on Fuji TV's Noitamina block. The first opening theme song is by Goose House and the first ending theme is by Wacci. The second opening song is by Coalamode and the second ending theme is by 7!! Kyōhei Ishiguro directed the series, Takao Yoshioka wrote the scripts, Yukiko Aikei designed the characters, and Masaru Yokoyama composed the soundtrack. An original video animation (OVA), titled "Moments", was bundled with the limited-edition release of the manga's eleventh volume. Most of the staff and cast from the television series  reprised their roles in the OVA, which retells Takeshi's and Emi's childhoods and their rivalry with Kōsei. In North America, Aniplex of America licensed the series and streamed it on various platforms. The series in licensed in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Anime Limited, and in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment, who streamed it on AnimeLab. Live action film. On August 24, 2015, the website 'kimiuso-movie.jp' was registered by Toho, a Japanese film production and distribution company, leading to speculation a film adaptation of "Your Lie in April" was in development. Speculations were confirmed in  September 2015 when the live-action film's main cast was announced, with Kento Yamazaki as Kōsei Arima, Suzu Hirose as Kaori Miyazono, E-girls member Anna Ishii as Tsubaki Sawabe, and Taishi Nakagawa as Ryōta Watari. Takehiko Shinjō directed the film, which was written by Yukari Tatsui and was released in Japan in September 2016. While the original manga depicts the characters in junior high school, the film was set in their second year of high school. Stage adaptations. In May 2017, a stage adaptation of "Your Lie in April" was announced to be in production, with its release  set for August of the same year. The play was staged at AiiA 2.5 Theater Tokyo from August 24, 2017, to September 3, 2017; and at the Umeda Arts Theater in Osaka from September 7, 2017, to September 10, 2017. Naohiro Ise directed the play and Kaori Miura wrote it. The play included live musical performances from Yuta Matsumura on piano and Shuko Kobayashi on violin. The main cast was Shintarō Anzai as Kōsei Arima, Arisa Matsunaga as Kaori Miyazono, Misato Kawauchi as Tsubaki Sawabe, and Masanari Wada as Ryōta Watari. On October 10, 2019, Toho and Fuji TV announced  a musical adaptation of "Your Lie in April" would be staged at Tokyo Tatemono Brillia Hall from July 5, 2020, to July 29, 2020. Frank Wildhorn composed the music, Tracy Miller Schell and Carly Robyn Green co-wrote the lyrics, Jason Howland arranged the musical, and Ikko Ueda directed it. The adaptation starred Yuta Koseki and Tatsunari Kimura as Kosei Arima, Erika Ikuta as Kaori Miyazono, Fuka Yuduki as Tsubaki Suwabe, and Koki Mizuta and Takuto Teranishi as Ryōta Watari. It was planned to tour the musical nationally following the Tokyo premiere but all performances were indefinitely delayed due to  the COVID-19 pandemic. A concept album was released on December 25, 2020, in place of the performances. In July 2021, it was announced the musical would be staged in May 2022. Reception. Manga. The "Your Lie in April" manga received mixed reviews. Some critics praised the plot for its realistic portrayal of relationships between the characters. Rebecca Silverman from Anime News Network (ANN) was more critical and said the plot is not as emotional as Arakawa intended it to be. The characters were also given mixed responses. Some critics praised Kōsei's relationships and the adult characters for being more  developed than adult characters in similar works. Others called Kaori mean and said her actions toward Kōsei are difficult to interpret. A few critics gave the artwork praise for representing the music well, while others said Arakawa had difficulty drawing characters' faces. The series won the award for the best "shōnen" manga at the thirty-seventh Kodansha Manga Awards. It was also nominated for the fifth Manga Taishō. The first volume was ranked in the Young Adult Library Services Association's 2016 list of the top 112 graphic novels for teenagers. Anime. Unlike the manga, critics largely praised the anime  adaptation. Many critics praised the plot; Chris Beveridge from The Fandom Post stated; "plainly said, [the series] moved me" and others called the series a masterpiece of storytelling. Theron Martin from ANN noted the plot may not be emotional to every viewer. The anime's characters also received praise, with several critics calling them enjoyable and realistic. Many critics called the animation beautiful and full of emotion, and Richard Eisenbeis from "Kotaku" called it "utterly superb". Critics also praised the soundtrack; Allen Moody from THEM Anime Reviews gave the series a higher score for the soundtrack. Critics also praised the  voice acting of both the original Japanese version and the English dub. The series received the "Yomiuri Shimbun" newspaper's 2016 Sugoi Japan Award in the anime category.