あの花

 

I watched the first episode of「あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない。」, or simply "Anohana". Anohana is about a group of childhood friends, led by main character Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi, who drifted apart after one of their members, Meiko "Menma" Honma, died when they were children. Menma's ghost follows Jinta around, and Menma guides Jinta to their old friends in hopes of bringing them back together. The art style of any show is what draws me in and keeps me watching, and Anohana doesn't disappoint. Its clean, classic anime style compliments its wholesome, heart-wrenching plot. I'm excited to see how the characters develop as I continue watching the show.

On the 日本語 side, one thing that I learned was just how striking the difference between name suffixes can be. In this episode, there's a scene where Jinta and Menma run into their friends Atsumu "Yukiatsu" Matsuyuki and Chiriko "Tsuruko" Tsurumi. Menma calls the two by their nicknames, Atsumu and Chiriko refer to Memna using her first and last name, and Chiriko calls Atsumu "Matsuyuki-くん". My understanding is that if you are close with someone, you can call them by a nickname or [first name]-chan. So, hearing Menma get the first and last name treatment makes it feel like they want to distance themselves from her because of the trauma they suffered by her death. Furthermore, the use of -kun between childhood friends also strikes me as distant, but maybe a girl is supposed to call a boy by [last name]-kun, and -chan is only used between people of the same gender.