Your Lie in April - Episode 3 - Inside Spring

Those facial expression...

Kaori has dragged Kosei to a cafe and she is fascinated by what she ordered.  She observes a piano and manages to coax Kosei to play with two small girls.  We get to see for the first time Kosei's mental stigma towards the piano.

After their meal, Kaori admits she knows exactly who Kosei is and that she looks up to him as a musician. Kosei tells her he can only hear the sound of the keys  but not the notes themselves. Kaori refuses to accept his curse and decides to make him her accompaniest for the second round.

Kosei tries to refuse but as the next day demonstrates, Kaori is not one to take no for an answer.  She proceeds to enlist Tsubaki's help to force Friend A to do it. The results are fairly comical. At one point the two conspirators talk about Tsubaki's relationship with Kosei, to which she replies that she views him as a kid brother.

The day of the competition, Kosei is nowhere to be found. As the competition begins, Kaori finds him eating egg salad sandwiches on the roof of the school and begs him to play with her, bowing her head and crying while she implores him to play. Our main protagonist relents as Watari and Tsuabki show up and haul ass on their bikes to get them to the competition in time.

Kaori's facial expressions are probably some of my favorite parts of the series.  She is so animated in everything she does, which is stands in very stark contrast to the soft spoken Kosei.  The reaction to eating the pastry is particularly amusing.

In contrast to that, her singing is quite awful and it's an awkward part in the show to hear the voice actress singing in very heavily accented English. I know one can counter "That's how she'd sound singing it," but its a strange moment and to be honest I can't fanboy everything.

The background theme with violin and piano, which will make apperances in various altered forms throughout the series is such an excellent framing device that helps all the scenes build.

Observations on Second Viewing (spoilers):

We now know very clearly why Kaori was actually crying. In one her realest moments in the series, where all pretense is dropped, she is begging the boy who she fell in love with years ago to play with her and fulfill her most deeply held wish. Knowing about both her limited time remaining and her history, the scene is so much more emotionally taxing than the first viewing.

It's also amusing to note how Kaori is also quite a manipulative person when you think about it.  Her trying to talk Kosei into playing at the cafe, playing the the classical piece for a week straight over the PA system, enlisting Tsubaki to harass him through posting the score everywhere (even his phone wallpaper)... all of it is quite an intense effort to get Kosei to play, though in retrospect I think we can forgive her. Seeing Kaori holding the black cat is also interesting since the feline serves as a representation of his mother's curse and his inability to play anymore.

The scene on the bus, when Kaori pushes for the stop to the hospital, is the first clue that something is wrong with her health.  I remember my wife point asking me "Does she die?" Sigh. Did you really need to ask honey?  Do you really want to know that answer?