Piano
[Score: 83% = Buy-. Other recommended Silent Drama animes: Haibane Renmei, Uta Kata, Asatte no Houkou, Aishiteru Ze Baby, Binbou Shimai Monogatari, Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto]
- Drama: Low/Med (developing slowly throughout the show)
- Comedy: Low (if any)
- Action: None (it's just normal school kids)
- SciFi: None (plain old earth, normal people)
- Ecchi: None (clean and pure, recommended for teenagers)
One of the "silent" slice-of-life stories I like a lot in anime: Nothing offensive at all (no fighting/violence/mecha, no nudity/fan-service/ecchi), and nothing supernatural, magic or science-fiction. Not even a lot of comedy but a slight dose of drama, just as everyday life happens to be. Which can be a refreshing experience once in a while.
The Art is fine, not too childish and not overly kawaii; Animation is very good (e. g. no blunder in any of the piano scenes although every piano player will instinctively look at Miu's hands whenever she's playing). The Music contains mostly light tunes easing up the atmosphere, supplemented of course by classical piano tracks (Chopin, Beethoven etc.; even the OP is instrumental piano). The Story isn't that special and the narration speed rather low; while the first half looks a bit episodic the different story lines get connected later in the series. And the ending is where it belongs in a Japanese story - not where you might expect it. Some questions are better left unanswered.
Character interaction and development is the focus of this series but going into details would be spoiling the best part of it. The protagonists are:
- Nomura Miu (a shy girl with playing piano being her only remarkable attribute)
- Nomura Hitomi (Miu's mother, a caring housewife)
- Nomura Seiji (Miu's father, often working until late at night)
- Nomura Akiko (Miu's big sister, working as overseas tour conductor)
- Shirikawa-sensei (Miu's piano teacher, always sad and grumpy, a friend of Akiko)
- Matsubara Yuki (Miu's best friend at school, a tomboy and track&field athlete)
- Takizawa-senpai (track&field athlete, Yuki's crush)
- Takahashi-senpai (track&field athlete, Miu's crush)
All in all this is a scenario like in Whisper of the Heart put into a series structure like Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto - some down-to-earth shoujo story about a middle school girl growing up, her family, her best friend (and the first romantic feelings of these girls for their senpais) - and her piano play, with the perspective of participating in some public recital.
Last updated Friday, June 06 2008. Created Monday, November 21 2005.
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