is a Japanese romantic drama manga series written and illustrated by Naoshi Arakawa. It was serialized in Kodansha's magazine Monthly Shōnen Magazine from April 2011 to February 2015. The story follows a young pianist named Kо̄sei Arima, who loses the ability to perform the piano after his mother's death, and his experiences after he meets violinist Kaori Miyazono.
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 the existence of musical manga, 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. Various stage play adaptations have also been produced.
In 2013, the manga won the 37th Kodansha Manga Award in the category. By June 2017, Your Lie in April had over 5 million copies in circulation. The manga received mixed reviews; several critics praised its plot and characters but criticized the artwork and emotional aspect. However, the anime adaptation was largely praised 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 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. He sees the notes fly off the sheet music and can only hear the thud of the keys coming down no matter how hard he plays the notes, 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 lift Kōsei's spirits, he quickly realizes he loves her, although she seems to only be interested in Ryōta.
During a performance, Kaori, who later explains that she is anemic and needs routine testing, collapses and is hospitalized. She invites Kōsei to play with her at a gala but she does not arrive. As Kōsei competes against Takeshi Aiza and Emi Igawa, two fourteen-year-olds who were inspired to play the piano after seeing Kōsei's performances when they were younger, Kaori's health deteriorates and she becomes dejected. Kōsei befriends Takeshi's younger sister Nagi and plays a duet with her, which motivates Kaori to attempt a risky and potentially deadly surgery so she may possibly play with Kōsei 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 confesses she had been in love with Kōsei's piano playing since watching him perform at a concert when she was five, the same concert that had also inspired Emi. This inspired Kaori 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 harbored affection for Kōsei. She then confesses her love for him. 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.
Characters
Kōsei is a former child prodigy in playing piano, dubbed the "Human Metronome" for his mechanical accuracy, a product of his mother Saki's strict method of teaching. When Saki dies, Kōsei becomes unable to hear the sound of his piano playing and he gives up on it. The only piano he plays is double-checking sheet music for his part-time job. Two years later, he takes up the piano again after Kaori Miyazono persuades him to become her accompanist. Influenced by her emotional and unrestrained playing style, Kōsei falls in love with her.
Kaori is Tsubaki's classmate, a free-spirited violinist who has been criticized by judging panels for her unwillingness to adhere strictly to the score but is popular with audiences. Kaori meets Kōsei when she asks Tsubaki to set her up with Ryōta. As their friendship grows, she eventually convinces Kōsei to play the piano again, first as her accompanist and later in a piano competition. Halfway into the series, it is discovered that she has a medical condition and has undergone multiple surgeries because of it. Kaori later undergoes an extremely risky surgery and dies during the operation.
Tsubaki is Kōsei's childhood friend and next-door neighbor, who treats him like a younger brother. Concerned by his inability to move past his mother's death, she encourages him to return to playing the piano. Having supported him through both triumphs and hardships, she believes he seemed more admirable when he played. Initially unaware of her own feelings, she gradually realizes she has fallen in love with him.
Ryōta is Kōsei's and Tsubaki's childhood friend. Kaori was his girlfriend, which makes Kōsei jealous. Kōsei later tells him about his feelings for Kaori; Ryōta accepts this and gives him advice.
Takeshi is a pianist of the same age as Kōsei; he has wanted to surpass Kōsei on the piano since watching him play at a young age. He sees Kōsei as a rival and was excited when Kōsei Arima entered the Maihou Piano Competition again; after disappearing from piano competitions.
Emi is a pianist of the same age as Kōsei; she decided to become a pianist after listening to Kōsei play at the age of five. She aims to reach Kōsei through her emotional playing style.
Nagi is Takeshi's younger sister who pretends to ask for tutelage from Hiroko to scout her brother's rival Kōsei. She eventually becomes Kōsei's student. She and Kōsei play a duet at Nagi's school.
Saki is Kōsei's mother who was once a former pianist herself. While she was still alive, she demanded that Kōsei practice the score to absolute perfection, and often beat him up severely for making mistakes or if he didn't perform well during his concerts: her teaching methods escalated to the point where she wouldn't allow her son to play with his friends. Saki did not at first plan to make her son a pianist but after she became aware of his talent and discovers she has a terminal illness, she decided to give Kōsei a strict foundation in piano playing so he can make a living after she dies.
Hiroko is a nationally renowned pianist and Saki's close friend from college. Hiroko discovers Kōsei's talents and suggests Saki trains him as a pianist despite Saki's initial disagreement. Blaming herself for Saki's brutal treatment of Kōsei and his psychological trauma from Saki's death, Hiroko distances herself from Kōsei. When Kōsei returns to play the piano, Hiroko becomes his guardian and mentor.
Hiroko's young daughter who usually clings to her mother's side and is adored by both Kōsei and her mother.
Saitō is Tsubaki's baseball-playing senior and her target of admiration. Saitō confesses his love for Tsubaki and dates her but suggests they break up after realizing Tsubaki's feelings for Kōsei.
Kashiwagi is one of Tsubaki's good friends, who often gives her advice. Kashiwagi succeeds in breaking Tsubaki's stubbornness and persuades her to realize and declare her feelings for Kōsei. She is on the baseball team with Tsubaki and they sometimes walk home together.
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 composer Akinori Osawa and pianist Masanori Sugano, and photographed pianist Kaori Yamazaki and violinist Rieko Ikeda to aid him in 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 without the panels growing visually stale, citing a lack of knowledge about classical music, so he opted for a violinist and pianist instead. After the manga's third volume was published in Japan, he received an offer to develop it into an anime. Arakawa, as well as many members of the show's production team, were originally unsure about the ending of the 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 the first (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. 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 format on August 17, 2016. It retold the events of Kōsei's past from the perspective of his friends.
In North America, the series was licensed by Kodansha USA, publishing the first volume on April 21, 2015.