(L) Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope)

[karice67]

Originally Posted by Bern-san

Brother Jun what happened to you? I know university is very stressful finals are coming... and sometimes you have depression but... *sigh* Brother Jun is also human so there's nothing we can do about it.

Er...when people say 1960s, which major political movement(s) should come to mind?

As has already been mentioned in Hyouka: student movements. Japan was no exception, and universities were one of the focal points of this movement. (There were also protests about the U.S.-Japan security treaty, which might be relevant for Sasebo where this story takes place, but they apparently weren't the focus of the year that Apollon is set (1966/7).)

Now let's see if we get the details about how Jun was involved in all this.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Btw, it was kind of weird that they included the cut with little Kaoru finding a letter in the letterbox - without any reference. ^^;; (I guess it's obvious, but still, the missing setup was a bit weird.)

It was there - in the last episode when they met Seiji at the beach...

edit: ninja'd

[ThereminVox]

Chills. Five fucking stars.

With that out of the way, I really wish we could have gotten more information about what specifically happened to Jun, since that was the tease last week. I guess we'll know more soon. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a heavily compressed version of the story, and that's why they rarely dwell on anything like that. I have to say though, distilling this story down to this format hasn't hurt it a bit. If I want a more expanded version of Sakamich no Apollon, I can always read the source material. For now, I'm happy to experience the narrative in this format.

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Btw, it was kind of weird that they included the cut with little Kaoru finding a letter in the letterbox - without any reference. ^^;; (I guess it's obvious, but still, the missing setup was a bit weird.)

Didn't they set this up last episode with the empty mailbox flashback? I guess they didn't reference it this week, so maybe some people missed it, but I recognized it immediately. EDIT: Damn, corked by two much faster posters

[Kirarakim]

What a great episode. I love how this series tricks you into thinking you are watching a story about romance at first but it turns into a story of epic friendship instead...I just love it.

The musical scene was definitely my favorite of the series so far with a perfect way to end the episode. Just awesome (although I do wish there weren't so many still shots of the audience).


I am also very interested to learn what is up with Jun, so I do hope they diverge more details about that.

[AvianWing]

Yo guys, I'm gonna hold down the fort till power gets back. Not steal the show or your drummer or anything like that.

=)

[Grifis]

So last episode Sen and Kaoru had a lovers quarrel at the end. This week's ep started with them having a cold war thing going on until near the end when Kaoru expressed his true feelings for Sen through his piano. Sen in turn responded and showed the shape of his heart through his drums. The couple made up in the harmony of their duet. It was then that Sen realized all the more that Kaoru is the only patana for him, his one true love. Like a knight in shining armor from a long time ago just in time to save the day, Sen took Kaoru's hand and pulled him toward the direction of his castle far away. They eloped down the slope and into the sunset.

I say that was beautiful and romanchic. Who knew it would be this romanchic.

[LKK]

I assume that everyone figured out why The Olympus were wearing those particular uniform styles for their festival performance, right?

[novalysis]

In Apollon, life transcends genre.

Anyway, I initially thought we were heading for a dramatic trainwreck... until the denouement in the last half.

[gianna]

Originally Posted by ThereminVox

Chills. Five fucking stars.

With that out of the way, I really wish we could have gotten more information about what specifically happened to Jun, since that was the tease last week. I guess we'll know more soon. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a heavily compressed version of the story, and that's why they rarely dwell on anything like that. I have to say though, distilling this story down to this format hasn't hurt it a bit. If I want a more expanded version of Sakamich no Apollon, I can always read the source material. For now, I'm happy to experience the narrative in this format.



Didn't they set this up last episode with the empty mailbox flashback? I guess they didn't reference it this week, so maybe some people missed it, but I recognized it immediately. EDIT: Damn, corked by two much faster posters

Given next week's preview it's safe for me to say that you'll find out what happened to Jun (and make more clear the romantic interests that are possible and those that will not happen)
And I would say that the cuts have been more moderate than heavy (mainly Sen and Kaoru developments)
Only last week did I think they cut a little too much but again there's the original material that anyone can read if ever they want

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

What a great episode. I love how this series tricks you into thinking you are watching a story about romance at first but it turns into a story of epic friendship instead...I just love it.

Yes! The main story here has always been about the friendship between Sen and Kaoru
lol That's why they get tested so much

spoiler for ot comment

Spoiler:

as this series has surely inspired some new jazz listeners I wanted to mention that with this Memorial Day weekend coming up there are going to be park performances and festivals in many states in the country
Just search "Memorial Day jazz festival (state)" and you may find something local

[Haak]

I didn't realise Sentaro had already guessed Yurika was into Jun, so I'm glad he can put two and two together. Don't fully know what the deal is with Jun but whatever it is, Yurika hs seen him at his worst so it could be a test for her to see whether she can still like him, but it likely shattered her image of him as the perfect guy for good. And that means YurikaxSentaro and KaoruxRistuko might be happening after all. To be honest, a part of me hopes it does turn out like that because all turns out well, but there's also a part of me that doesn't want it to happen for that exact same reason...

And Kaoru finding out about Sentaro's decision like that was a bit convenient but it's not enough to ruin that simply superb moment at the end when Kaoru and Sentaro played together. I've never been even remotely interested in jazz but man the songs they play are freaking awesome.

[Reckoner]

Well the thing is while it may seem convenient, you got to also realize how much time there was where he never did learn about what he really felt. It presumably took weeks or more for him to finally find out incidentally, and that's typically how these things go. Maybe not from the horse's mouth himself, but incidental stumbling upon of information.

Of course, drama can be played for subtle realism or for pure theatrical enjoyment. This episode exhibited the best of both worlds. Earlier we got to see the subtle moments between Yurika and Sen, and later we get the full blown our dramatic concert scene which was absolutely wonderful.

All I can say is this... Watanabe please make more anime .

[Archon_Wing]

This episode kicked a lot of ass, despite Seiji's attempts to ruin it, but he was kept under hold, so that's nice. A bit of drama that goes along with our plotline and one of the most awesome music performances in an anime ever! That just went on and on and it kept getting better. Now that's what you call a real music anime, unlike some wannabes that just claim to have music scenes and don't deliver. 9/10 for the subtle drama, Junichi's lol VA'ing, and for bringing out what this show is about.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by AvianWing

Yo guys, I'm gonna hold down the fort till power gets back. Not steal the show or your drummer or anything like that.

=)

Haha, yeah, he totally stole their thunder. I was pleased by Seiji's reaction, I expected him to get pissed but he took it pretty well. I guess he really is a good guy at heart.

[SQA]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_coltrane

He died in July 1967, so they've stuck to the timeline very, very well.

Awesome episode. The visual storytelling is just done so well here. But, we kind of expected that.

The Sgt. Pepper outfits was a good choice. Though the song kind of sounded like knock-off Monkeys song, though.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by SQA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_coltrane

He died in July 1967, so they've stuck to the timeline very, very well.

Awesome episode. The visual storytelling is just done so well here. But, we kind of expected that.

The Sgt. Pepper outfits was a good choice. Though the song kind of sounded like knock-off Monkeys song, though.

It's a song by The Spiders, which was basically a Japanese knockoff Beatles band, so yeah, I can see why you'd think it's similar.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Pretty bromantic and good episode this week. I think the jazz rendition of My Favorite Things just convinced me to pick up the OST for the show. This episode just oozes tension between the cast in just about every particular part of the complicated relationship. We've got Sentaro punching out Jun who's disappearance a few episodes back is sort of explained, but not quite fleshed out, we've got Yurika trying to find a way to apologize to Sentaro, we've got Kaoru snubbing Sentaro and Ritsuko just sort of having to watch powerlessly yet again. The episode basically highlights how badly Kaoru overreacted last time though in showing how Sentaro only ever planned on being in Seji's band for that one gig and to help him out with his dream. Speaking of Seiji he's a little less annoying this episode, but then he isn't totally played off as a comic relief goofball and actually has some story relevance.

Overall a great way to follow up what to me was a bit of a misstep last week that I figured wouldn't be the harbinger of a downhill slide. Interesting that it's the school festival episode that is one of a the better episodes of the series so far. Most of the time the school festival episode is just there to plug time and I don't know how many times I've seen one end up as a total throwaway...glad Watanabe and co aspired to higher goals with this one.

[kira-sama]

Oh my goodness, this episode made me chill with the jazz performances between sen and bon, love it!
just wondering why jun turned into like that "sigh"

[Kaoru Chujo]

Brilliant episode. The emotion, which some found over-wrought at the end of the previous episode, resolved itself slowly and surely. The tension worked. The resolution worked. Boy, did it ever work. For a sequence with very little animation, that jazz-reconciliation sequence was a memorable anime scene. "Chills" is right.

I myself loved the scenes of kids streaming toward the theatre. It was like something out of an old movie from the 50s or earlier. Slightly cheesy, of course, but big emotional effect on me, for one.

The only thing about the ep that I was disappointed in was the scene where Kaoru just happened to be walking by the house where Sen was practicing. Too much coincidence to not enough effect.

As for the flaming Seiji, I agree with Kaioshin: the tone was just too different, too jarring and extreme. He was acting too silly. Okamoto Nobuhiko does a nice job, but not for this show. I'm going to say that the director wanted it as it was, but I'm not sure. Perhaps he wanted to make it okay for Sen to ditch them and choose jazz. It may be off-topic, but this is my chance to post some of my favorite photos of Okamoto from a couple of years ago (click to enlarge):



I do think that Seiji's singing may well have been Okamoto, although he's not specifically credited. The musicians are credited, and Okamoto is credited as the voice of Seiji, so probably it's him. You can hear a bit of Okamoto's singing here, if you have or register for a NicoNico account.

I've liked Hosoya Yoshimasa's voice since his first starring role, in the underappreciated Denpateki na Kanojo. He was good in the third-rate Katanagatari. He was spot on as Nezumi in No. 6. Here, he just is Sentarou.

As for Suwabe Junichi, his voice is godly. I've loved it since he played Karin's brother in Karin. And Endou Aya's voice has a feminine sultriness to match his masculine sultriness.

Many people here have talked about this being a show about friendship rather than romance. Not so fast. Yes, the friendship is the centre of the show, but the romances are important, too. When Kaoru started playing, he was not just saving the situation and challenging/calling out to Sen, he was also expressing his love for Ri-chan, playing My Favorite Things, which she said in the last episode that she liked.

There was plenty of romantic development in this episode, especially in the way Kaoru and Ri-chan reconciled and perhaps even got closer, as they worked together. Remember her reaching for the cherry-petal in his hair a couple of episodes ago. Pretty significant, it seemed to me.

And Yurika feels that her relationship with Sen is such that whatever she did with/feels for Jun-nii was a horrible betrayal of Sen. My instinct says she slept with him and now regrets it, but who knows. (I watched the film of Murakami Haruki's Norwegian Wood yesterday, so perhaps it's just that I'm thinking along those lines.)

[Guardian Enzo]

That was definitely Nobuhiko-san singing. And I think the jarring was 100% on purpose - because that's how rock and roll and what it represented felt like to "squares" in 1967...

[ookamigirl]

Nishimi and Ri-chan do seem to hang out more lately.
It's kinda counterproductive since she rejected him.
At least he got more popular with the girls.
Sentaro is acting all weird too since Nishimi & him are on bad terms.
It felt like Sentaro betrayed them both.
It was nice how they connected again in the most unexpected way.

[Kirarakim]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Many people here have talked about this being a show about friendship rather than romance. Not so fast. Yes, the friendship is the centre of the show, but the romances are important, too. When Kaoru started playing, he was not just saving the situation and challenging/calling out to Sen, he was also expressing his love for Ri-chan, playing My Favorite Things, which she said in the last episode that she liked.

I am not saying that there is no romance in the show and I do expect the romance to be resolved but the primary relationship in this series to me seems to be between Kaoru & Sen. The romance is important too but I see it as more of the side focus to the story.

Heck in the episode when Kaoru visits his mom those guys even say it, friendship is the relationship that lasts. In the end the relationship that Kaoru and Sen have with each other is probably what is going to primarily shape them.

And yes My Favorite Things is the song Ri-chan likes but when she was listening she was affected by the fact that these two friends have finally been reuinited. The "romance" in that scene was entirely between Sen & Kaoru. It was a conversation between them.

Personally I am loving that both this and Tsuritama are focusing so much on friendship because lets face it, there are tons of series where romance is the main focus. It is nice to get not one but two series that have friendship as the main focus instead.

And Yurika feels that her relationship with Sen is such that whatever she did with/feels for Jun-nii was a horrible betrayal of Sen. My instinct says she slept with him and now regrets it, but who knows. (I watched the film of Murakami Haruki's Norwegian Wood yesterday, so perhaps it's just that I'm thinking along those lines.)

I guess I don't understand how Yurika can feel she is betraying Sen. The only way I feel that Yurika might have betrayed Sen is she didn't tell him sooner that she didn't have feelings for him. However I never got the impression that Sen and Yurika got very far in their relationship.

I am not sure if Jun & Yurika slept together but even if they did I wouldn't see this as a betrayal of Sen because the two were never a couple to begin with. The only issue is that Yurika was leading Sen on that he ever had a chance when he really didn't. It was only after this episode that Sen realized Yurika's feelings for Jun. At least that is the impression I got.