About Your Lie in April
Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, literally 'April Is Your Lie') is a romantic drama manga written and illustrated by Naoshi Arakawa, serialised in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Magazine from April 2011 to February 2015 and collected in 11 volumes, with an English edition from Kodansha USA. It won the shōnen category of the 37th Kodansha Manga Award and had more than 5 million copies in circulation by June 2017. A-1 Pictures adapted the whole story as a 22-episode TV anime directed by Kyōhei Ishiguro, with scripts by Takao Yoshioka, character designs by Yukiko Aikei and music by Masaru Yokoyama, which aired on Fuji TV's Noitamina block from October 2014 to March 2015. An OVA, Moments, followed in May 2015, a live-action film in September 2016, and the story has since been staged as a play and as a musical with music by Frank Wildhorn, which reached London's West End in 2024.
Kousei Arima was a piano prodigy, drilled by his mother to play with such mechanical precision that he was nicknamed the 'Human Metronome'. When she died, the autumn he was eleven, he broke down on stage, and ever since he has been unable to hear the sound of his own playing. Two years later, at fourteen, he has given up the piano and sees the world in monotone, spending his time with his childhood friends Tsubaki Sawabe and Ryota Watari. Then Tsubaki sets Watari up with a girl from her class, Kaori Miyazono, a violinist who ignores the score, plays exactly as she feels and has audiences on their feet. Kaori makes Kousei her accompanist and will not let him hide from music, and the series follows his return to the stage, his old rivals Takeshi Aiza and Emi Igawa, his new teacher Hiroko Seto, and growing worry over Kaori's health.
Critics were divided on the manga, but they largely praised the anime for its story, its animation and its soundtrack, as well as the voice acting in both Japanese and English, and it won the anime category of the Yomiuri Shimbun's Sugoi Japan Award in 2016. Much of the music the characters play is real classical repertoire, from Beethoven's 'Kreutzer' Sonata and Saint-Saëns's Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso to Chopin's études, Kreisler's 'Love's Sorrow' and Chopin's first Ballade. It is a story about grief, first love and growing up, and it does not look away from loss: Kaori's illness becomes central to the second half.
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What the Your Lie in April Quiz Tests
Our Your Lie in April quiz covers the 22 episodes of the TV anime. It uses nothing from the OVA Moments, the live-action film, the stage shows or the manga's extras. Easy questions cover the basics: who made the series, the four friends, their instruments and sports, the first opening theme and the opening episodes. The middle levels follow the story in order, through the violin competition, Kousei's return to the piano competitions, the gala concert, Nagi's lessons and the school-festival duet, with several questions on the classical pieces the characters play. The hard questions are for people who have seen the ending: what happens to Kaori, the letter she leaves and the lie of the title, and small details such as the sound that steadies Kousei before his last performance and the snack he shares with his rivals.
Key Characters
Kousei Arima is a gentle, self-doubting boy who was once the 'Human Metronome' of junior piano competitions, and his slow return to the piano, through grief for his mother and his feelings for Kaori, carries the series. Kaori Miyazono is everything he is not: impulsive, bold and short-tempered, a violinist who plays to move people rather than to please the judges. Tsubaki Sawabe, his sporty next-door neighbour, has looked after him since they were small and only gradually understands what she feels for him, while Ryota Watari, the soccer captain everyone likes, turns out to be the friend whose throwaway advice hits home. Kousei's old rivals Takeshi Aiza and Emi Igawa, who both took up the piano after hearing him play as children, push him on stage; Takeshi's younger sister Nagi becomes his first student; and Hiroko Seto, his late mother's friend and one of Japan's leading pianists, becomes his teacher and guardian. Take the 'Which Your Lie in April Character Are You?' quiz to find your match.
Available Quizzes
Your Lie in April Trivia
50 hand-crafted questions across 5 categories. 10 levels of increasing difficulty.
Which Your Lie in April Character Are You?
Answer 10 questions to discover which Your Lie in April character matches your personality!
Random Mix
Questions from all 70 anime including Your Lie in April. The ultimate challenge.
Characters
Kousei Arima
Kaori Miyazono
Tsubaki Sawabe
Ryota Watari
Takeshi Aiza
Your Lie in April Fun Facts
- The violin and piano in the anime were played by real musicians: Aniplex of America's staff list credits Yuna Shinohara for the violin performance and Tomoki Sakata for the piano, and the Japanese official site lists the two as the series' model artists.
- The anime was first offered to Kodansha as an 11-episode series. Kodansha's Kensuke Tateishi turned it down because that would not have been a complete adaptation, so Aniplex producer Shunsuke Saitō came back with an offer of 22 episodes.
- Director Kyōhei Ishiguro wanted the show to reach people who do not usually watch anime, so he picked the bands Goose House and wacci for the first opening and ending. For the second opening he wanted a song with a colourful melody to match the animation, and chose Coalamode.
- Several settings are based on real places. Naoshi Arakawa had visited spots along the Seibu Line such as Ōizumi-gakuen Station, and Seibu Railway staff and officials at the Nerima Ward Office helped Ishiguro choose the locations.
- The series grew out of a one-shot about a boy and a girl playing the violin together, which Arakawa once entered in a Monthly Shōnen Magazine contest. He kept the idea of a duet but made the boy a pianist, because pages with two violinists were hard to keep visually interesting.
- Arakawa and many of the anime's staff were unsure about the story's ending at first, but director Kyōhei Ishiguro liked it, so Arakawa left it as it was.
Your Lie in April Quiz — Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes of Your Lie in April are there?
Twenty-two, in a single season, aired on Fuji TV's Noitamina block from 10 October 2014 to 20 March 2015. An extra episode, the OVA Moments, came with the limited edition of the manga's final volume on 15 May 2015; the official Japanese site lists it as episode 23, but it is a side story about Kousei's childhood rivals and is not counted with the TV series.
Is Your Lie in April finished? Will there be a season 2?
It is finished. The anime adapts the whole manga, which ended in February 2015 after 11 volumes, and there is no second season: Wikipedia lists no further TV series, and the most recent news on the official Japanese site, from February 2025, is about a new Kaori figure. The story has been retold elsewhere instead, in a 2014 light novel, A Six Person Etude, told from the point of view of Kousei's friends and rivals, in the 2016 spin-off manga Coda, and in the 2016 live-action film and the stage musical.
What order should I watch Your Lie in April in?
Watch the 22 episodes in order; that is the whole story. The OVA Moments, about Kousei's childhood rivalry with Takeshi and Emi, was released afterwards and is best watched after the series; in Japan it is included with the TV episodes in the 2020 Blu-ray box. The 2016 live-action film is a separate retelling that moves the characters up to their second year of high school, so it is optional.
Where can I watch Your Lie in April?
Aniplex of America licensed the series in North America and simulcast it on Aniplex Channel, Crunchyroll, Hulu and Viewster, and it has released the English dub on Blu-ray. Madman Entertainment holds it in Australia and New Zealand, where it streamed on AnimeLab, and Anime Limited in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In Japan it was rebroadcast on Tokyo MX and streamed on GYAO! from November 2019. Availability differs by country and changes over time, so check your local services.
What is Your Lie in April about?
Kousei Arima, a former piano prodigy, has not been able to hear his own playing since his mother died, and at fourteen he has given up music. Then he meets Kaori Miyazono, a free-spirited violinist who plays exactly as she feels, and she makes him her accompanist and drags him back to the stage. It is a coming-of-age story about grief, first love, friendship and music, set among a group of junior high friends and the young musicians Kousei once competed against, and Kaori's illness becomes central as the series goes on.
