Piano no Mori (TV)

Title:Piano no Mori (TV)
Piano Forest (TV)
ピアノの森
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables:
Kai was born as the son of a prostitute and he's been playing the abandoned piano in the forest near his home ever since he was young. Shūhei, on the other hand, was practically breast-fed by the piano as the son of a family of prestigious pianists. Yet it is their common bond with the piano that eventually intertwines their paths in life.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


12-episode TV anime remake of The Piano Forest that premiered on April 8, 2018.
Animated by Fukushima Gainax.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 8 7 7 8 7 8 Ggultra2764 [series:3504#1552]
Some may recall that there was an earlier anime film adaptation of Piano Forest made over a decade ago in its focus on how Kai and Shuhei each view playing the piano. This TV anime expands on the plot of the film by retaining the story arc of the two boys in elementary school, and later exploring them in high school. The earlier arc plays out no differently from the film in plot layout, though has some expanded plot developments that provide some more fleshing out of characters than what the film reasonably had time for such as Kai learning to move on from using the piano in the forest and more fleshing out of piano teacher Ajino-sensei, who was a bit underdeveloped in the film. The elementary school arc offers the most engaging developments of this series since it expands on what the film had covered. The high school arc does suffer some in that it recycles some of the issues that characters were having from the elementary school arc, though allows Kai the opportunity to take his piano playing abroad in Europe for a Chopin piano competition that the series ends abruptly at, though it seems the storyline will be continued in a second TV season that will air in the Winter 2019 anime season. Another hiccup for this series is that the visuals are noticeably downgraded from the film with some loss of animated details, more faded colors, and the series choosing to rely on some rough-looking CG animation whenever the characters are playing piano. Overall thus far, this TV anime adaptation of Piano Forest is okay with what it adapts as it does expand on story elements that the film lacked the time to cover, though this format does come at the cost of the rich animation that the film format offered for the series. Still, I have enough interest in the series to at least see what it's second season will offer up come January.

Last updated Sunday, July 08 2018. Created Sunday, July 08 2018.

Other Sites
NameURL
Official Japanese Series Web Site http://piano-anime.jp/index.html

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