Clione no Akari

Clione no Akari probably wants to be an interesting and melancholy spectacle. It probably wants to impart some lesson regarding that to its audience, even though it fails on several levels. First of all, the narrative lacks any kind of intensity, something that would arouse any sort of emotion in someone like me. In other words, I could not sympathize with the main female protagonist and the other characters. Part of this show is spoiled because the whole of the narrative is chopped up into such short chunks, so it does not really have a chance to have any real impact. However, even so, it does not seem to be trying too hard. I could not really feel any of the main female protagonist's pain, and so I could not feel any sympathy for her. I could not see the effort and struggle of any of the characters enough to make a real difference, and so I lacked the desire to start rooting for any of them. A friendship gradually starts between the characters, even though that development does not really solve anything. To bring things to the desired conclusion, an element of mystery is introduced. In other words, some supernatural forces intervene in the lives of the main protagonists. However, as good as this might sound, even this element is not very convincingly incorporated due to the poor writing of the screenplay. I found the overall feel of this anime series was about the same as if a complete stranger just said, "Bullying is bad." to me with a serious face, without any real explanation of what that meant and just buggered off. I probably would have said to myself at that point: "Well, sure..." and not given it another thought. Well, if I ever needed to be convinced that bullying is awful, I would watch A Silent Voice again. Clione no Akari is not exactly a bad anime; I did find the animation quite amiable; I even enjoyed the soundtrack quite a bit in places too. It is just damn underdeveloped, and overall it just could not convince me in any real way. 4.5/10. (28.09.2017)