Sing “Yesterday” for Me is an easy anime to love and, quite frankly, I fell pretty hard for it.
Plot summary
Rikuo’s graduated from school, but doesn’t know what to do with his life. Working part-time in a grocery store, he’s watching his friends leave town, one by one. Time just won’t stop ticking.
Is the Sing “Yesterday” for Me anime any good?
Sing “Yesterday” for Me is an easy anime to love and, quite frankly, I fell pretty hard for it. It’s about a bunch of jaded adults facing the reality that the world is indifferent to their needs, that we aren’t all destined to work our dream jobs, and that our childhood crushes will pass us by. Realising this is hard, but is also empowering, because if you can accept that there are no promises in life, you should understand that your life, your success, your love, is in your own hands. You have to make of it what you can.
Sing “Yesterday” for Me anime notes
- Crunchyroll translated Rikuo’s description of himself as a “loafer”, but I think “Freeter” is a better word for Rikuo’s life. Isn’t it interesting that Japan has a number of specific words to categorise struggling adults?
- Last summer, I re-watched Welcome to the NHK, which, if you haven’t seen it, is a much darker companion piece to Sing “Yesterday” for Me. The main character, Satou, is a hikikomori who dropped out to school and won’t leave his apartment.
- I recently read Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, which is about a young man of a similar age to Rikuo, torn between his love for two women. It deals with depression, suicide and coming to terms with life as an adult when there are no set paths to follow.
- The Sing “Yesterday” for Me anime will have 18 episodes (an odd number for an anime series, no?). It is based on an 11 volume manga that ran between 1997 and 2015.
How did you feel about Sing “Yesterday” for Me? Did it hit you as hard as it did me?