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

[Marina]

I couldn't stop myself! ^^

Freebies:

[Soconfused]

Sooo good. I'm a big Jazz fan, and Yokko Kanno was the only reason I was gonna watch this, but it turned out to actually be pretty good. Started off dull, but once the music started, it was hard not to get excited. I had a giant grin on my face by the end of the episode. Damn this is gonna be good.

[creb]

Gorgeous in almost every aspect. Boring, but gorgeous. I can see it being the #1 slice of life show of the season, and possibly the year, though.

If only all this talent and budget were spent on some other genre.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by creb

Gorgeous in almost every aspect. Boring, but gorgeous. I can see it being the #1 slice of life show of the season, and possibly the year, though.

If only all this talent and budget were spent on some other genre.

Whilst I disagree with this statement since noitamina was very heavy josei back in its day (which ultimately meant "mature slice of life"), I can respect it. Indeed, we have had way too many mediocre slice of life shows, prerogatively called "moeblob shows" or "generic fanservice series" but really, this is not just one or two cuts beyond the norm for the genre ... it's as if I was comparing something like Game of Thrones to Guilty Crown (yeh yeh I know this is a dumb comparison... but I just wanted to portray something... extreme) . It's that much of a disparity and hence, I don't really care at this point, even though my philosophy in general is that a good sci-fi or fantasy or (non-"pure" slice of life in general) > good slice of life.

Are you following Space Brothers by any chance? That might interest you since it -almost- has the level of charm in the SoL department except it also contains sci-fi elements if you're bored of "pure" slice of life.

Of course, the fact that Sakamichi is only 12 episodes is a worrying fact, and can very much flop if not handled well... but I'm in such a high atm I'ma not even imagine the possibility (/Demisoda in denial)

[fertygo]

Originally Posted by creb

If only all this talent and budget were spent on some other genre.

Your point is irrelevant, because Kanno and Watanabe already doing that before

If anything this is something new that the enthusiast want to see from Watanabe.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by fertygo

Your point is irrelevant, because Kanno and Watanabe already doing that before

If anything this is something new that the enthusiast want to see from Watanabe.

True.

I lost count how many quality OSTs Kanno has composed and Watanabe needs no further proving that he can venture into whatever genre he pleases if given a budget since he's directed Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

I'm still strangely intrigued by that rolling blue yarn ball at the ED where it rolls around letting the string come loose. I'm still not sure what this is supposed to mean entirely, but it probably again has something to do with the red string of Chinese mythology. It looks like it wraps particularly specifically around Kaoru, Sentarou and Ritsuko...

And I also just realized that being titles Apollo is rather fitting as he is the Greek god of music.

Yes, that string of fate caught my eye too. Hmm.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by creb

Gorgeous in almost every aspect. Boring, but gorgeous. I can see it being the #1 slice of life show of the season, and possibly the year, though. If only all this talent and budget were spent on some other genre....

Lol. Enough talent and budget have already been wasted on those inferior genres of which you speak. For me, this show is ten times more interesting than some show based, say, on invented myths and violence. In any case, to me this is not slice-of-life, but more a coming-of-age drama.

[Blaat]

First episode of the season I watched in which I didn't want the episode to end... at all.

Originally Posted by Kanon

The Noitamina I know and love is finally officially back! What a change from last season's shows!

Hear, hear!

edit:
Haha why am I not surprised to see Japanese comments at the Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin' youtube video.

[LKK]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

In any case, to me this is not slice-of-life, but more a coming-of-age drama.

I thought I was alone in not thinking of this as slice of life. I saw it more as a general comedy-drama, but a coming of age drama is probably a better classification. Definitely not slice of life though. We've already seen too much in the first episode alone for a slice of life. A fist fight, panic attacks, an unpleasant home situation, a budding romance (possibly triangular), a developing rivalry friendship -- these are not the ingredients of a slice of life story.

[kuromitsu]

Some seiyuu-related stuff for those who are interested and don't follow the official twitter: visit the "Special" page at the official site.

The first video is the first in a series of "free talks" where Kimura Ryouhei and Hosoya Yoshimasa talk about their youth, in this case their highschool life. It doesn't have a lot to do with the anime but, well, it's entertaining? And for some Nanri Yuuka goodness, there's Rikko explaining various words of the Sasebo dialect that Sentarou, Rikko, etc. speak. And it's very cute.

[LC]

Originally Posted by Marina

I couldn't stop myself! ^^

Freebies:

I'd like to claim this one!

Awesome first episode, this season is really something!

[Triple_R]

I can somewhat relate to where creb is coming from. It's similar to how I feel about some KyoAni shows - A sense that this quality/degree of animation is a bit wasted on a show within a genre that is usually perfectly fine with more standard quality animation. It's kind of like going to watch a 3D Movie of a basic romantic comedy where the whole 3D effect doesn't really add a lot to what's there (unlike what it would for an action blockbuster).

But Kids on the Slope is different, imo. At a visual level, this anime does one particular thing well: It's visuals are top-notch but are very much in service to the narrative content, hence maximizing the overall impact of the work. In other words, it's not great animation just for the sheer sake of great animation. It's great animation to add just the right amount of style to the overall visual presentation, and to brilliantly accentuate the core narrative content on display.

It effectively marries its exceptional fluidity (in character movements) with equally impressive realism in character/setting design and character movements. What you get is a kind of hyper-realistic presentation that truly sucks you in and makes you feel like everything that you're watching is almost real. A lot of the credit for this certainly goes to the Director, but the animation work in general deserves top marks.


The central characters for this are well-written, and everything feels quite naturalistic here. Nothing feels overly forced, but at the same time some compelling character contrasts are neatly interwoven into the broader narrative. The clearest example of this is the pessimist/optimist contrast going on between Kaoru and Sentaro.

While neither of these characters are entirely defined by their general pessimism or optimism (they're both too well-written for that, as even this first episode alone makes clear), they do lean in opposite directions when it comes to pessimism vs. optimism, and that infuses their character interactions with a certain added sense of purposefulness and overarching direction. I already have suspicions that the two characters might have a bit of a leavening effect on one another, causing both to become more well-rounded (or, alternatively, Sentaro will simply bring Kaoru to where he is, if the anime decides to be very and consistently upbeat).


I found this to be a highly pleasant watch. It can be tricky for a life drama show of this sort to hit just the right notes between too lighthearted/fluffy and too serious/melodramatic. The key, I think, is to be like the anime equivalent of easy listening and catchy "cruise music" but still with "lyrics" that has some central themes or ideas contained in them. With that in mind, I think that Kids on the Slope have hit all the right notes here, not unlike Sentaro's handling of those drums.

If it can keep that up, we have a life drama classic here.

9/10 for Episode 1.

[Dr. Casey]

Originally Posted by DemiSoda

But the sad truth is, the Japanese otakus are not give a damn about this and this is probably gonna bomb as much as Wandering Son did. I mean at least Usagi Drop had a cute little girl (granted, it was in no way used as fetish fuel unlike the vast majority of little girls in anime out there), but this has nothing for them. Maybe... just maybe some fujioshi who thinking of dirty things to fanart about the two BROS. Ah dammit, now I'm mad.

I wouldn't use Wandering Son's failure as a reason to believe that this show will fail, necessarily... I personally thought the series was pretty horrifically boring, no offense (though I only watched the first two or three episodes), and its low sales might simply have been because others likewise just didn't enjoy the show in and of itself. The fact that it started later in the manga, making the early episodes fairly incomprehensible, probably didn't help matters either. I'm guessing this series will be reasonably successful, actually, that its sales figures won't be phenomenal or anything but that they'll be adequate enough to mark the series a success and make a decent profit.

[Master_Yoma]

Pretty good well im not a big jazz fan but it seem that there going to be some good music coming

[TinyRedLeaf]

I don't know what otaku want and there's delicious irony in thinking that we have better tastes than "nerds" in Japan. Them strange people, after all, are the ones who produce the stuff we love.

Inexplicably, 10 minutes into the episode, the first series that came to my mind was Blue Literature, specifically the first arc Ningen Shikkaku and the subsequent Kokoro arc. I put that down to the period setting. It's odd that, as someone who knows next to nothing about the 1960s, let alone '60s Japan, the period evokes a sense of nostalgia that plays well with me. Not just in this show, but also in a slew of anime from Kokuriko-zaka Kara to Omoide Poro Poro to Showa Monogatari.

I can only imagine what impact it may have for the Japanese, particularly the older adults who have grown nostalgic for those "simpler times", when rebellion — rarely socially acceptable — was just a bit more tolerable, because Japan itself was in a state of flux, on the cusp of emerging from a cocoon into developed-nation status. It was a time when being just that little bit more daring was perhaps OK, as the world itself was soon to be bruised by a far larger counter-culture movement.

By the later half of the episode, though — aside from being astounded by the rotoscopic quality of the animation and bopping along to dat swinging beat — I couldn't help but be reminded of the fire-and-water dichotomy of Mugen and Jin from Samurai Champloo. It couldn't be more obvious in the clash of personalities between Sentarou and Kaoru. The former doesn't care for rules and formality, a quintessential free spirit who could perhaps do with some taming. The latter, on the other hand, sticks to the rules in the vain hope of finding some stability amid constant change.

And then, there's the girl in the middle, Ritsuko/Fuu.

In short, a classic set-up. Let's see where this collection of talent goes. If nothing else, in the spirit of jazz, there's no such a thing as a mistake, only a failure to go with the flow.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Blaat

edit:
Haha why am I not surprised to see Japanese comments at the Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin' youtube video.

This is one of the aspect of this show I know I'm going to love: discovering or rediscrovering classic jazz pieces.

[hikarihikari]

Lupin plus this, is Christmas in April now?

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by hikarihikari

Lupin plus this, is Christmas in April now?

Also check out Space Brothers bro for a similar quality Slice of Life but with a sci-fi theme.

[Fevvers]

First episode was loooaaads better than the manga, though that doesn't really say a lot as I found what I read from the manga utterly boring and juvenile. The setting, jazz and crisp direction does make it different from other shoujo out there, hope Watanabe lets completely loose.

*goes off to watch Baby Love for some dose of Watanabe-inflicted original romance