#fandf

Today I want to put on my English Major boots and talk about metaphors. Specifically, I want to talk about how visual metaphors, or symbolic imagery, can add meaning to a piece of visual media. We’re going to talk about the 2014 anime Your Lie in April and how its consistent use of visual metaphors establish mood, helps readers made connections between events and characters on a thematic level, and foreshadows the whole god damn ending right in the OP.

Before we get started though, we need to define what visual metaphors and symbolic imagery are. This gets a little technical. A visual metaphor is an object or image that represents something else.   Symbolic imagery are images that are not descriptive in a literal sense, but are intended to express an abstract idea in concrete form. There are shades of difference between these terms, though they sound very similar. A girl giving the person she loves a locket turns that locket into visual metaphor for their love. If the person loses or breaks the locket, we, as readers, know that their relationship is in danger. Visual metaphors are generally diegetic objects, meaning real objects that exist in the story, that have a metaphorical importance in the narrative. A lightbulb appearing over a character’s head when they make a plan is symbolic imagery. It is an image that does not describe a literal object, but an idea. Symbolic imagery is typically non-diegetic, meaning they are not literal objects in the world of the story, and is used to convey abstract information. Your lie in April uses both of these techniques. -

If you have never seen Your Lie in April, be warned. There are a lot of spoilers in this video. Big, massive, end of series spoilers. Also….go watch Your Lie in April. It will break your heart beautifully.

Your Lie in April came out in 2014 from A1 pictures. It is 22 episodes long and can be found on both Crunchyroll and Netflix. And it is devastating.  It follows the story of Kosei, a teenager who used to be a piano prodigy. After his abusive mother dies, he stops playing completely, unable to hear the music over his own panic attacks. Two years later, in the spring, under the cherry blossom trees in full bloom, Kosei meets Kaori. Kaori is blonde and beautiful and plays violin and has a crush on Kosei’s best friend, Watari. Kaori drags Kosei back into the world of music, and he quickly finds he loves her.

And SPOILERS for the end: Kaori dies. Its horrible and tragic and she dies. And we find out that she had been sick all along, and that her liking Watari was a lie so that she could meet and befriend Kosei.Because she loved him. That’s the lie in april.

And then you just cry forever.

Your Lie in April has a pretty straight forward plot. The only real “twist” happens right at the end and, as we will discuss, is pretty heavily foreshadowed. The show takes on a great deal of depth with the use of its visual metaphors though. Today we’re going to talk about 3 of them. The deep ocean/shallow sea, the black cats, and the cherry blossom tree. -

Let’s start with the deep ocean/shallow sea. This is a pair of symbolic imagery. The deep ocean appears when Kosei is unable to hear himself play the piano. It symbolizes the crushing anxiety and fear and pressure he feels that leaves him unable to play. This image is, of course, non-diegetic, and the same basic information could be conveyed without the image. You could imagine the scene of just Kosei sitting at the piano, shaking, unable to play without losing any of the plot. But this image of the deep ocean allows the viewer to more fully understand what this emotion would feel like. It is crushing.

It also draws a direct connection and contrast to the shallow sea image. Kosei is in the shallow sea, surrounded by the sky, when he is playing with Kaori. By having this be a pair of related symbols, we know without question that what has changed, allowing Kosei to play, is Kaori being with him.

- Then there’s the black cats. There are two main black cats in the show, and they are easy to confuse if you aren’t looking for them. There’s the yellow eyed cat and the blue eyed cat. It’s important to note that as a Western viewer, we see a black cat and all of our cultural training makes us think “black cats are bad luck. They work with witches. They bring bad things in stories.” And this is not true in Japan though. Japan, while it has adopted the idea of black cats having an association with witches (pause for kiki, flying witch, and sailor moon), they don’t associate black cats with bad luck at all. In fact they are often associated with GOOD luck in Japan. But the symbolism goes deeper than just that.

I’d argue that the black cats BOTH represent Kosei, but different emotions Kosei feels, parts of his psyche.  

The yellow eyed cat often appears while Kosei is trying to playing piano and speaks to him, making him a symbol  rather than a real cat. This cat strongly resembles the cat Kosei owned as a child, which scratched his hands and is taken away, forever, by his mother.  He often mocks Kosei or talks down to him during performances. In the last scene we see the yellow eyed cat, Kosei overcomes his anxiety and is able to play the piano for his competition

All of this together paints the yellow eyed cat as a symbol of Kosei’s inner turmoil. His self doubt, his regrets, his guilt, all the things that hold him back are embodied in this cat. So when he is able to play again, the cat doesn’t return.

Then we have the blue eyed cat. The blue eyed cat is definitely a REAL cat in the show, and only shows up a few times. It first shows up when Kaori appoints Kosei as her accompanist. She lifts up the blue eyed cat and cradles it, surrounded by cherry blossoms. If we go along with our idea that the cats represent Kosei’s inner self, this cat is the part of him that is drawn to Kaori, his growing love for Kaori. And that Kaori lifts and cradles the cat, feels like a hint that Kaori really loves him back.

The next time we see the cat, it is right after Kaori has been hospitalized. And Kosei finds the cat, hit by a car on the side of the road. He rushes the cat to a vet, but...it’s too late. The cat dies. And it’s hard to not see that as foreshadowing that Kaori’s hospital stay will not have a happy ending.

We do see the blue eyed cat one last time though- or at least, another cat that looks very much like it. It’s possible this cat is related to the dead cat, or maybe isn’t a real cat at all, but a vision like the yellow eyed cat was. It’s not clear. So, Kaori has died. Kosei is in despair. But he sees this cat- the symbol of his love for Kaori, of the hope Kaori gave him, and he decides to read her letter to him. At the very end of the show, Kosei sees the blue eyed cat one last time, on the other side of the train tracks. There one second, and then gone, like a ghost, the next. Even though Kaori is gone, the love and hope Kaori brought to Kosei’s life still exists.

- And if that isn’t devastating enough for you, we have one final metaphor. The damn cherry blossoms. If you’ve watched any amount of anime in your life, you’ve seen the cherry blossom trees in an anime at some point. They are pink and pretty and rain down around characters during dramatic confessions of love. They represent spring, and new beginnings, and new love. Even a western viewer can pick up that much from context.

When Kosei first meets Kaori, she is surrounded by cherry blossoms. When she makes Kosei her accompanist, she’s surrounded by cherry blossoms, in both the first AND second OP, Cherry blossoms surround Kaori. So, this one seems easy, right? Kosei loves Kaori. She’s young and pretty and the love interest. No problem.

Except.

Except there is a double meaning to the cherry blossoms that 1) doesn’t always come up in anime and 2) isn’t as well known to westerners.

You see, Cherry Blossoms only bloom for a very, very short amount of time. So if you google “Cherry Blossom symbolism” nearly any site will tell you the same thing: Cherry blossoms symbolize spring and love and...the precarious nature of life and how life is fleeting. Intense beauty and untimely death. They are beautiful, but only for a short amount of time.

Kaori is the cherry blossoms- sweet and bright and lovely and gone so so quickly.

And show show just! Tells you! This! Right here! Its right in front of us all along!

-heavy sigh- shit. -

Ok, I’m ok.

So. That’s a quick-ish run down of some of the major symbols and metaphors in the show. So, why? Why does this matter?

Well, having metaphors and symbolism like this adds an extra meaning for the viewers. It can help us understand a mood, or make an implied connection. It gives the text and extra layer of depth for viewers to dig into.

I don’t think that every single anime or tv show or movie needs to have this level of symbolism. No one is begrudging Dragonball Z for not having more complex visual metaphors. But I do think that this kind of writing is what takes Your Lie in April and moves it from a sort of run of the mill drama, to a memorable story that sticks with people.