Anohana - A Life-Changing Tragedy (Mother's Basement Re-Upload)

For nearly a decade, Anohana was my favourite anime of all time. Let's take a look back at the anime that changed how I watch anime, not to mention how I think about life and death.
This video was originally uploaded to Mother's Basement, but taken down due to copyright. This re-upload replaces all the music with royalty free alternatives. The original has been archived on my patreon: www.patreon.com/join/mothersb...
#anime #animeessentials
#netflixanime

[@suicidesquats9325]

I think I saw Anohana for the first time back in 2013 and the opening song always stuck with me. I just decided to rewatch it after 10 years.

[@kiro4279]

​@@RealTalk-ne4tqit requires money to put a copyrighted songs he has to make a living and if you really wanted to listen to the song that much why don't you just search it on KZbin or something?

[@ezbaek8541]

Even with "secret base" being cut, the mere memory was enough to bring me to tears. Really glad to have a reason to watch this video again after having now completed Anohana. Your original video was not only convinced me to watch what has become one of the series I hold closest to my heart, but got me to dive into things beyond the big shounen. I can't thank you enough.

[@Shadow1Yaz]

Honestly, same! 😭🥹👍

[@LordIronfist]

Yeah, me too.

[@asadplatypus3940]

Same

[@jemma927]

I watched anohana, when I didn’t think I’d need it, but I really did need it. At the time, about a year or so before, I lost both my grandparents around the same time I began a new school year. This was tough on my family and I didn’t know how to properly express my grief after a few months because I was expected to move on so I never had a healthy release of emotions. Popo is the character I see myself the most in, looking back and knowing the full details of how my grandparents passed because, emotionally, I ran away. In a sense, this show saved me and I think it also spurred my love for animation and the pipeline leading up to a final production. Currently, I’m in my final year of uni and hoping to go into storyboarding for animation. While I’m still grieving in my own way, nearly a decade on, this show and my grandparents will stay with me till the end, regardless of how my life changes I feel they will always be there for me.

[@woodssly675]

The scene when she gives the letters to everyone telling them why they love them just hits different

[@alicem6804]

'A man is not dead while his name is still spoken' -Sir Terry Pratchett This video and the series really helped me at a time when I was struggling with a close relative's dementia and realising I didn't really remember what he was like before, but so much of him and his personality is in us.

[@wulffenjohn7]

Just the reminder of the ending had me choking up even ages after I watched it. What an experience to try to explain to my coworkers.

[@brycecartwright2403]

Thanks a lot Geoff. I rewatched this a few months ago while sick and the finale made me cry but because I was sick my nose was so snotty that i couldn’t breathe or enjoy the rest of the emotions. I then proceeded to cry for 30 minutes after I blew my nose and took some NyQuil. 10/10 would highly recommend I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard after finishing a show

[@failurextreme7084]

God this show actually crushed me. Also secret base has me programmed to cry the same way that lost my pieces from toradora does.

[@Novashadow115]

For me it's the same as "I want to stay at your house"

[@failurextreme7084]

@@Novashadow115 bro big mood.

[@mikeydubbs8565]

Secret Base along with Dango Daikazoku and Te no Hira rips me apart every time

[@voidkeep3336]

So glad I'm not the only one week to those two in tandem 😂

[@angryoldcanadian3905]

This anime absolutely shattered me. I have never watched the ending without tears. I don't think any show hit me as hard in any genre as this show.

[@Flamne]

I still remember clearly how they weaponize the song at the end and me unconsciously shredding tears, This is still my tearjerker anime, No one can top this

[@Isthatthegrimreaper170]

This wasn’t the first anime to make me cry, but it’s the one that always makes me cry I rewatch it twice a year or whenever I’m really struggling and can’t produce the tears

[@machodgdon]

Great to have this masterpiece of a video back!

[@flashbang7910]

I went and listened to Secret Base (10 yrs later) on youtube and a comment with the contents of the letters was all it took to bring be to tears AGAIN. I though I was stronger this time around, but this show just brings it all out of me.

[@jaypeedelapaz6486]

This anime is really good. I'm just literally watching this video and when the scene when Menma was crying seeing her friends,I got teary eyed already.

[@Pantalaimon91]

I genuinely credit a lot of who I am today and how I see the world to Angel Beats! and Anohana. They both came into my life at the end of middle school for me. I'd spent those years slowly leaving behind the things I was involved in as a kid that either no longer interested me or that I didn't feel the desire to devote myself to anymore. I had no idea who I wanted to be going forward as I'd slowly drifted away from most of my friends from early childhood and I had already "given up" on most of my childhood dreams. As a result I'd slowly closed myself off from others in middle school and had a lot of trouble connecting with others and myself (adult me recognizes this period as the beginnings of my issues with depression but 13 year old me had no idea what to make of it). Both series hit me like a truck when I watched them. I'd teared up at sad scenes in a movie or tv show before, but I'd never had a piece of media break me so completely before. They helped me open back up to the world around me and their respective views and messages shaped my world view and my personality. tldr: Anohana and Angel Beats! are both amazing series that while they have their own flaws, they resonate with people in a way few media can. Also, damn you Geoff, because you didn't have Secret Base in the video I felt compelled to, of my own free will, go and look it up online and cry while listening again. Was this because I was uncomfortable with the fact that it wasn't even needed to make me misty eyed from the priming in the video? Yes it was but we're gonna ignore that.

[@OhHeyTizKei]

Hey, thanks for reuploading this. Watched Anohana and this video several years ago, and I loved it, but couldn't figure out why it hit me so hard. Went to therapy since then, and realized just how much trauma I had from a friend passing away in first grade. Rewatching this video essay now is such a different experience, and I have a whole new appreciation for this masterful work of art. Thank you a second time.

[@tigerlike7472]

I remember starting this series many, MANY years ago with a friend after a long night of drinking. We literally stayed up through the next day and watched the entire series. We laughed, we cried, we cuddled. Simpler times.

[@dusk616]

I rewatched Anohana a few years back with my girlfriend when we finally met up, even knowing it would leave me absolutely inconsolable. To quote her glowing review verbatim: "That shit hurted." It was seeing Anohana in your WIAOP series that got me to check it out the first time. So you made two lesbians cry, Geoff. I hope you're proud of yourself. /j ❀

[@coffeeismygod]

Geoff, thank you. I binged this this show today after the first few minutes of your video. I’m not sure I would have if you hadn’t recommended it. As someone perpetually trying to run from, or hide from my own darkness, it really hit me. Your work helps me, and surly others as well, find beautiful things. Much appreciated. Your fan, Elliot

[@zsedc4]

I got excited that I'd get to see Millennium Actress in theaters... only to realize it was an announcement from the original video four years ago. I was expecting to be emotionally hurt by remembering Anohana, not by experiencing fear of missing out four years late.

[@sass2836]

This was the video that introduced me to Anohana all those years ago, and when I watched the show, it still destroyed me, despite knowing what was going to happen. This video is a superb love letter to an excellent show. I hope the reupload introduces it to a new generation of viewers.

[@2am17]

anohana didnt have the insane effect on me that it did for many others when i first saw it, but upon a rewatch it had a much greater effect on me. i went through a similar situation of reconnecting with lost friends after a falling out, and we rewatched it together. such a powerful show especially for people going through certain circumstances

[@MonerLaine]

I love this series. I watched it not so long ago and realized those characters had my age when it came out and the 10 year old celebration made them my age again…it made me remember a small moment in my life, the most defining moment and it really hurt there were it hurt the most. It’s absolutely amazing.

[@Fata59]

Went back and re-watched Anohana after the beginning of your video. Makes me cry just as hard 10 years later. Keep up the great work man.

[@yuuichi4356]

Honestly, this was one of the first anime I watched, although I don't remember all of its events. Until I remember very well that the anime was very interesting, it is true that it had some negatives and things that I did not like, but they did not affect the quality of the story and the characters. And I remember very well that this anime made me cry in the last scene of the last episode. Overall this anime is really good and I give it 8/10.

[@goldhunterbob3280]

Thank you so much for re-uploading. This is my favorite M.B. Video.

[@stargazer7304]

It's funny. This reupload is what finally got me to make the time to watch the show. I've heard the name for years but it would drift back out of memory as the next of life's struggles took my attention. But the unrestrained sincerity of the first few minutes of this essay told me I needed to put off some busywork and take this in. I'm glad you cared enough to get this back out into the world in some form, in spite of arcane copyright nonsense. Thanks Geoff.

[@abragelboy]

Thanks for this video. I watched Anohana sometime in the last year based on your recommendation and it hit me hard, but not as hard as this video did. The way you talk about how the people we love and who love us carry us with them even after we die is something I'd unknowingly been worrying about, and you giving voice to those thoughts has helped me come to understand them.

[@knowledge3207]

Thank you for reuploading this, it means alot to me.

[@WonderChia]

I think this was the first video I watched from Mother's Basement and was so thrilled to find it. It's my favorite video of yours, Geoff!

[@wolfofdawn4053]

Shows like this are important. Whilst Anohana was not what I needed, nor was it at the right time, the end result is the same. Anime really has the ability to impact people, to bring out buried emotions and to help one come to realisations. Personaly it was the fruits basket remake that had that impact on me. I saw myself in many of the characters whom had suffered from horrible home lives as youth. That and a character from onepeice whos backstory forced me to stop my bindge for a week as it made me regain a memory id burried and needed to come to terms with. Even now im finding vinland sagas latest season to be incredibly relatable in a rather unintentional way. All that aside, I think the thing about finding relatable characters in anime is that you see how they handle the problem which may in turn show you what may be worth trying with your own. There are many incredible shows that tackle subgects like loss, trauma, rejection, hopelesness and much more. Of all of them though, I can certainly say Anohana is one of the best. Even if you cant cry at it, its ability to show character growth is incredible. Add that to the music, art animation. Its a must watch.

[@Ruby_Mullz]

I just watched the show and I’m not somebody who cries at media, I might have a tear in my eye, but this ending had me blubbering. Everybody has their time they must go, but nothing prepares you for when it happens and what you do after. Nobody wants to say goodbye, but all we can do is try to have no regrets when you have to. Say your feelings, enjoy the time you have with the people you love, there’s nothing worse than the last memory you have with someone be an argument or upsetting them.

[@chillaxbro107]

Im so glad to find this reupload. The original video introduced me to the show and it ended up being one of my favorite anime I've ever seen. The video is one of my favorite videos too. I love this show so much. Its so beautiful and moving

[@milkking2347]

thanks for the reupload, wouldn't have ever known about this anime without watching this video

[@tea285]

THANK YOU FOR THE REUPLOAD

[@jahsolamaru8098]

Thank you for reuploading this

[@Alakaizer]

I missed this video, and I'm tremendously glad that it's back! The replacement music was chosen well.

[@admiralthrawnbar4899]

I know this is a month-old reupload of a years old video, but holy shit thank you. Just that first 5-minute bit before the spoilers was enough to get me to binge the whole series in a few hours and I don't think I've cried that hard in years

[@martinx15]

Thank you for this. Honestly just remembering this show really brings me back to the feelings and need to remember sometimes to keep going forward. And even if just a sucker, I do actually listen to a lot and many of your thoughts and opinions do reflect mine, and anime you've recommended have become part of my life and I remember them so thank you very much, indeed there will be that part and it will stay.

[@TheIonicMan]

A year later, insomniacs after school did for me what anohana did for you. Thanks for that recommendation.

[@KeyExp]

I am glad this video is back.

[@mikeydubbs8565]

Popo prostrating himself at Jintan’s feet destroys me every time

[@Jarakin]

Hang on insert what now? Which song is that again, let me look it up real quick… oh right, it’s the one that just punches me right in the godamn heart.

[@robertfaulkkner5508]

I decided to watch Anohana two years ago, partly because it was the show’s 10th birthday. And partly because I wanted to finish this video for fear of spoilers. I finally finished this video after the final episode; coincidentally I saw that final episode followed immediately by this video on June 23, 2021. 10 years after the last episode aired. Was this planned on my part? Absolutely. Do I think it’s one of my favorite anime ever? Admittedly no, BUT it’s still a damn good one. Thanks for the reupload!

[@jburres94]

I've been looking for this! Commenting for the algorithm.

[@YB-dh1fu]

Glad to be able to see that video once more, it's one of my favorites.

[@BasementLifePodcast]

Mine too!

[@dabududu]

It was a mistake to start listening to this at work.... started tearing up

[@hakami360]

I watched this a month ago. I know the plot, what's happening. But still on the last episode, I'm still cry :""

[@animenations]

I just love this video and anime as whole this well said throughout the video constantly makes you feel sad.😭

[@shockmethodx]

That I know and tolerate? Nah, I am aware of and endure you. Keep up the good work.

[@tea285]

i love this video sm

[@andrewweber3286]

I came across this video a while ago and decided to return to it after the show. By the time I finished it, this video was gone. Really glad it’s back up. Though looking at these comments and hearing your thoughts, this show clear hit me much less than it did everyone else, which makes me feel a but like a heartless monster

[@LPTheGas]

>Mari Okada Having just gotten into Gundam with "Witch from Mercury" and then starting to catch up on the older shows, I KNEW I recognized that name when it popped up in the Iron-Blooded Orphans credits. ...oh god. Things aren't going to end well for those Tekkaden kids, are they? What happened when the big guy reunited with his long-lost brother was just a taste of what's to come, wasn't it?

[@RandomAnimeFighter]

Your original video made me want to try this anime again after gaining some wisdom

[@Sometimesare]

Finished "Anohana" recently over the course of about a week, and it had me crying like a baby by the end. Just an extremely emotionally affecting show, an utter masterpice.

[@lightfut]

Man, I gotta go back and rewatch this

[@R0SC0SM0S]

anohana was my best friend's favorite anime he always kept insisting i watch it but i kept putting it off after he passed, i decided to finally give it a shot, for his sake i think i cried every second of it

[@Magmafrost13]

8:09 jesus christ I forgot about that part

[@redthewifeyhunter4034]

I found this anime during High School. It was a time where i felt that I was the outcast at school… It was a time where i tried to find shows to help me emulate some sort of emotion that I would have if I was with friends or something. It’s how I got addicted to anime and found Anohana and shows like it… Kinda just helped me through one of my many rough patches And that’s the story about the day I discovered Yuri anime and how the fact that the main anime i watch is now entirely yuri. And as a guy irl…idk how to explain it…

[@taekonjudo]

I feel the same about the piano motif in Made in Abyss as you guys do about Secret Base. Not sure I can ever hear those piano notes without huge feelings of melancholy.

[@myoshi1979]

It's been a long time, but I feel inspired to rewatch this again. It was profoundly impactful to me.

[@kittenclaws5775]

I love for you to talk about Clannad! 💜

[@94miggee]

mentioning "Secret Base" in any context is such a trigger word/core memory that will bring any watcher to tears

[@Morekoalafied]

Omg this anime made me cry sooo hard 😢😢

[@saisibi6708]

This is the first piece of media ever to make me cry. I cried, not only because of how the show takes approach to the friends coping to loss, but also cried because I didn't have those friends. I never did. And this show made me want these friends oh so much. For this reason and also the lack of courage, I just never watch this show again. I just can't.

[@isabel3471]

Got the anime's name wrong before the 2 minutes mark 😆, but great video!

[@whymihere86]

I need to finish this series, but I found solace and comfort in the Sandman version of Death. I'm agnostic, but the idea of a person who's with you when you're born and when you die, who is there as a friend as opposed to just this malevolent force has helped me at least handle that bit of existential crisis even though I do fall into that spiral occasionally. My brother had a little boy who was born VERY prematurely and lived only an hour and a half so the chapter "The Sound of Her Wings" makes me cry all the time and stories like this kill me but at least the pain helps me come to accept it was real . But this is definitely on my list of things to watch. Also, I fell off of the anime wagon for a long time, but there are so many that hit me and I'm glad I rediscovered the medium, even if it was through Citrus which is my trashy soap opera series and I write fanfiction based off it. But man, shows like this and Sweetness and lightning, and everything make me want to slap people who say that animation is only for children.

[@LRCh_]

!!! I was worried you'd taken it down intentionally, for emotional reasons or something. This is fantastic!

[@cainakubiaki]

Ok that's it I am cr... Watching Ano Hana again today.

[@allanolley4874]

Well I still need to watch Anohana but since I don't remember anything from this video from the first time I watched it, I don't expect watching this video again now will spoil anything. So I watched this again. I've put it on my watchlist anyway...

[@frozenandchosen]

I first saw AnoHana when I was 16 and it had a huge impact on me, I’m honestly a bit afraid to rewatch it because I’m worried it won’t have the same impact on me it did 7-8 years ago

[@sadib100]

I remember when you first mentioned this show many years ago in your list of anime that influenced you. Less than three minutes into the first episode, Menma sits on Jintan's lap and... Anyway, I skipped to the end of the series then, and thought the ending was emotional. I later watched the series the day before my aunt passed away.

[@Brahmsonite]

A few years back I lived in the next town over from Chichibu where the show is set. I don't know if they're still pushing it, but I'm my time they were happily pushing their local anime and you could see the characters, mostly Menma, on billboards and the sides of buses. When I wanted to take the train i first had to take a 45 minute bus ride over the mountains from my town and across a certain bridge to the station in Chichibu. I knew it was that bridge and not any of the others because when you pull up to the stop there you don't get the usual pre-recorded stop name. You get freaking Menma telling you I'm here sweet innocent voice to be careful because bridges are super dangerous.

[@malachiscreen2352]

This is a classic

[@HurricaneDDragon]

We’re doing this.

[@alechall7082]

Thank you so much for suggesting this. I just watched the whole show in one sitting. I'll watch the rest of this video tomorrow. Edit: and now I own a $120 collectors edition blu ray. See what you did?!

[@MyNameIsOclock]

Never saw the problem with Anaru before because in brazilian Portuguese we have the name Analu or as a nickname for Ana Luisa

[@KKristof100]

That's funny because the main heroine of the game Dragon Quest 10 is called "Anlucia" and voiced by Tsuruko 🤣.

[@duhalt]

NOHANA is is a show that everyone should watch it. i agree you need to be in receptive attitude due to the the mature (nature of the underline mature nature of the story). I had watched the show a couple of times and I have found new why i can understand new subletelies that won't be understandable on the first watch. This is a ¡n S show for me and be an atheist as well, this show is a gem. not a top 3, but a definitely a nice re upload of a show we both appreciate in a fundamental way. Great video man.

[@duhalt]

I hope you read this this comment Geoff

[@RosaDaniello]

Anohana is still one of my favourite anime of all time and not a single year passes where I don't listen to the OST sob

[@KKristof100]

Anohana is something more than an anime or any fiction. Yes, it's definitely a life-changing masterpiece. I'm living in Japan and watched the show in 2013, two years after it originally came out, but in a single day, after which I walked out of my room as a different man, in an absolutely positive meaning. Just as you say, "Secret Base" is like a sacred anthem in case you know Anohana. Anaru is my favorite because she seems the most humane character and also the ideal woman, as she so devotedly loves Jintan. I'd never felt a girl so attractive in any fiction and realized that a "life-sized" girl can outshine any "goddess-like" idol that a fantasy provides to fulfill your sexual desire. Falling in love with Anaru is like falling in love with someone in the real life, and at the same time, it was clear that even if we could exist in the same universe, I wouldn't expect her to love me because her most attractive part is how she loves Jintan and it would make me happier to see her ending up with him than with myself. So naturally I've also been curious about her relationship with Jintan, but watching the whole show and learning that Jintan and Menma were in love with each other, I couldn't expect a better ending than the epilogue where Jintan gives Anaru back her handkerchief (a clear symbol of a romantic situation, just like Yukiatsu and Tsuruko with the "Pocky"😂), also that she's still in love with him in the movie and looking forward to telling it properly. Seeing that you've used a lot of cut scenes from the movie as well, I expect that you've watched it, but from now, there's also a spoiler I'd like to talk about, it's the ten-year-after story which was introduced at the tenth anniversary of the anime in 2021. (spoiler below) . . . . . There's a voice drama written by Okada, performed on stage by the original cast and later released on a CD which tells what the Super Peace Busters became ten years later. It tells that Jintan started a company with Poppo which is mostly an import agency, Anaru is a dental hygienist, Yukiatsu was once a bank clerk in Tokyo but came back to Chichibu and now works for the City Hall (with some characters from "Her Blue Sky", if you know that anime movie - it was created by the same team and also takes place in Chichibu city, just as Anohana and "The Anthem of the Heart"). Tsuruko is living out of town (probably near Tokyo) as a web designer and once she was in a relationship with Yukiatsu but they broke up. Poppo has a wife named Stephanie he met during he traveled around the world and now has two sons. Anaru and Jintan are also in kind of a relationship which is slow but steady, as much as that when Tsuruko points it out, Jintan asks Anaru to marry him❤. And that was the second time my life had been positively changed by this show. Even when I first watched the anime, it let me help get over the trauma that kept me in the past for 9 years. It came back later because I had to face the same issue again, but seeing the "Busters" grown up at the tenth anniversary and learning that Jintan and Anaru are going to marry was when I could completely let my old pain go and live in the real world. I've translated the CD drama to English and uploaded to Archive Of Our Own, you can find it from the same ID I'm using here or among the "Anohana" stories (I can't put the link here since it's outside of YT...). Sorry for the long comment but I can't talk enough about Anohana and get really happy when I find someone doing it.

[@FirstGentleman1]

This was the second Anime I've ever watched -not counting the stuff I watched as a kid like Pokemon or Heidi not even knowing it was japanimation - Anohana was the second and Code Geass was the first, so I got a really great start into the world of anime. Three years later, I am still hooked.

[@gilliganallmighty3]

Having first seen this show shortly after my parents died a few months apart from each other, it was probably more impactful to me then had I seen it when it was aired. The cathartic release allowed by this show can not be understated.

[@EvilCronos13]

I read secret base and the song started playing in my head...I'm not crying 😢

[@etabiansosin]

I watched this Anime last year and it was a good series almost mad me cry in some areas of the anime.

[@Animus_Altia]

I would love to watch analysis videos about one of my favorite underrated anime series, Magi. athe level of nuance and emotion buried deep in that Arabian Nights flavored world is something really special.

[@nubfairy]

Definitely one of my top 10

[@galacto8769]

Damn this video got me ugly crying

[@SpiritOfTheHeretic]

Essential anime request: Heaven's Lost Property A review of the manga after the anime ends is also requested

[@triomegazero]

Yeah, I guess I better go watch this. Gonna tear my heart out just like Clannad, I bet.

[@GamingWithHajimemes]

Sad the original song couldn't stay but shit man the replacement is still pretty damn good.

[@dundunna1802]

Anohana is incredible!

[@justincarrel7930]

Tolerate? Tolerate!? Are you kidding me, we don't tolerate you, we frickin love you man, we wouldn't watch all of these videos you churn out if we didn't.

[@DeconvertedMan]

great anime.

[@Piromysl359]

"Until we meet again, Menma."

[@paulmccool378]

It's okay, Geoff, I have Secret Base on my Spotify playlist...

[@mr.waffles8739]

I love/hate that you told me about this anime, it was fantastic, but I cried so damn much you heartless monster! Also, before this I had really only watched anime with action and fighting and stuff, this opened me up to watching more stuff, Dagashi Kashi, Ouran Host Club, Her Lie in April etc so thanks for that :)

[@kandikidzora]

Just watching the video and of course it’s no longer on Netflix….. so I’ll come back to the video once I’m able to track it down

[@stargazer7304]

It's on Crunchyroll right now for sure and also Funimation I think?

[@kandikidzora]

@@stargazer7304 sadly I don’t have either

[@JohnBoulden]

Sadly it's no longer on Netflix US. Perhaps it is on other nations catalog.

[@LPTheGas]

26:50 - "When does a man die? When he is hit by a bullet? No! When he suffers a disease? No! When he ate a soup made out of a poisonous mushroom? No! A man dies when he is forgotten!”

[@GrumpySylveon]

Welp, now I have to wait to watch this video so I need to watch this anime.

[@GrumpySylveon]

And I finished it