“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.”
…Until you actually realise how much words can actually hurt.

I’ve been wanting to watch The Anthem of the Heart (心が叫びたがってるんだ。/Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda.) after hearing that it was from the creators of Anohana. I loved Anohana, and I was hoping that I’d enjoy their new movie too. I finally had the time to watch it last night, and I must say that it didn’t disappoint.

The heroine of the story, Naruse Jun, used to be a cheerful girl who loved talking. She dreamed of attending a ball at the castle on top of the hill one day. When she saw her father driving out of the castle with another woman one day, she happily told her mother about it, not knowing that the “castle” was actually a love hotel, and that she had caught her father having an affair.Her mother repeatedly mentioned that Jun talked too much, and told her to never speak of what she had seen again. Her parents eventually divorced, and when she asked her father why he had to leave, he told her that it was “all her fault, since she’s such a chatterbox”. Thinking that it was her words that caused her family to break up, Jun decided to seal away her words to prevent further tragedy from happening. From then on, she would get a stomachache every time she tried to speak.