And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me
What They Say:
“Resonance”
It’s Kousei’s turn to take the stage, and everyone is waiting to see whether or not he will be able to play. How will he be able to perform with the memories of his mother still floating in his mind?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Your lie in April has gone down a much anticipated and very dark route. Beaten and bloodied, Kousei tells his mom that he wishes she would die. The mother, in the late stages of some sort of disease, does just that. Those are the final utterances from his mouth to his mother, a cruel demon who seemingly lived vicariously through her son. The father, out on business, has yet to be seen.
It’s the worst kind of child abuse of not just physical but mental and emotional abuse. The people watching in the concert hall recoil at her very actions, literally swinging her cane at the elementary grade Kousei. The cruelty lies not only in his mother’s actions, but in the inaction of the bystanders. One says they should get an attendant at the hall, but none comes. A single drop of blood falls to the ground and everyone, internally disgusted, does nothing in outrage. I am furious. No child should be made to go through anything like this for the sake of music, something that should be beloved.
Music, to Kousei, is not a thing to be loved but a thing to master. It’s a pinnacle to achieve because he is the mirror in which the music is reflected. Music is no longer an expression, it is a sickening game to Kousei’s mother that could not get any sicker. As she beat him down, I was glad when he finally spoke up. Someone spoke up on behalf of Kousei and stopped it all, for at least one brief reprieve. Beneath it all, music was never something that could be cherished and emotion never found its way through Kousei’s playing.
Even in his performance in the episode, it sounds perfect and feels hollow. The emotion that flowed straight from the hands to my heart of Takashi and Emi’s pieces was nonexistent in Kousei’s. After much anticipation for his piece, we get a character episode that focuses on why there’s no emotion in his playing. Kaori, with all her meddling, could do enough.
On a much less horrifying level in a human rights sense and a much more horrifying level of I care about these characters sense, there’s two shots I want to point out in this episode: The first is Kaori, medicine surrounding her in the bathroom as she hurriedly scoops it up and out of the purview of the other girls in there and the second is Kousei’s mother in the hospital, an even larger cocktail of medicine next to her bed, ever prescient in the shot. A sign of what’s to come, no doubt, and one I’m not looking forward to in Kaori’s future.
In Summary:
This episode was dark and disturbing as fuck. I was not looking forward to looking directly in the eyes of Kousei’s mother, but it had to happen eventually. The art of his mother never showed her face because Kousei himself couldn’t remember it. We’re constantly in his point of view, except when visiting other characters’ perspectives (Emi at the beginning and Kaori in the bathroom). It makes the effect even creepier and perhaps dehumanizes his mother. Forgiveness is not in her future though. Not from me.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV, LG NB3530A Sound Bar
