Ranked #257

La Corda D'Oro ~primo passo~

La Corda D’Oro ~ primo passo ~ was a quite enjoyable anime to watch. It combines a bit of comedy, fantasy, romance, and drama all in one. Not to mention, this anime is a reverse harem.

What I liked:
What impressed me the most in the anime was the theme songs it had which was (personally) very enjoyable to listen to. Also, while watching this anime, I was exposed to a wider range of music and more general musical knowledge in the little segment at the end of the show and during the show itself. The show itself had quite a bit of drama and twists too. There was also something that made me quite addicted to it for some time (or maybe it was just me?)

What I disliked:
Although I do like the personalities of some of the characters, some of them are a bit typical and predictable. The main character / protagonist has her good and bad points, but enchants and changes all the other characters in a good way. Another main character is a genius violinist too, but is cold and harsh and only thinks of winning. There are many more typical characters like this in the anime.

The anime also gives out an equal amount of time between the protagonist and other characters, but this makes the storyline a bit boring the middle. In the middle of the anime, there were also a few irrelevant episodes that do not seem needed for the main story, but just adds some comedy and romance in between.

I would recommend this anime to amateur musicians such as myself, those interested in music, or those who would like a bit of romance and comedy with a music theme.

All in all, this wasn’t a bad anime, maybe with some quirks, but it was still enjoyable.
The source I used was www.crunchyroll.com I hope this review helped!
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This anime was very good towards the music area. They showed a very good display of instruments and classical pieces such as the canon or Salut' d amour. The animation was decent overall, at some points it was really well done, some werent so flattering. But the story line is very good and the characters you'll fall in love with! ^^

Remember to give any sort of criticism as possible, good, bad, constructive, useless, and even harsh, I accept It all! From the first two I even learned a few things! I'll try to keep spoilers as LOW as possible.

First Comments: This show is one of the very few music based animes that I REALLY enjoyed. The music was great, the sound was also great. The story though needs a bit of critic and the art was good but there's always room for some critic.

Story: The story is somewhat clichéd. All these events that somehow and suddenly lead to spectacular events that seem; somewhat not believable. Luck I might say and a bunch of it too. No matter how many times I look back on it, it seems too good to be something within normal "naturalness". The addition to some magic in the show does somewhat counteract the unbelievable part, though I adds some childishness to the story. Which I thought was kind of silly. Though It did add some comedy into the mix. Even though it's kind of clichéd it's also rare somewhat. Reverse harems seems little to none these days. I really enjoyed the addition of reverse harem to the story because It made it seem more unique and interesting. Though it's plot might not be solid and fool proof, It's still very well executed. Even though I'm not too big of a fan on school dramas, it was one those that I enjoyed. The flow of the story is a little different than I expected, not in a bad way though. The exposition just seemed to smash into me, giving me a lot of background information with it along with the rising action. It even made me excited or reacted somewhat at the climax! This all coming from a musical anime!

Art: The art is very good, though I still wonder about the hair colours... Not a problem though, it was just like a rainbow :P The art style is a bit more "mature" not cartoonish or kiddy. It gave it a bright happy look to it. But sometimes when the time was right the sad and melancholy settings are just perfect along with the character's emotions and the music. The background overall was good, though I really couldn't pay too much attention to it due to the fact my eyes and ears were mesmerized by the animation of them playing those instruments and the sounds flowing out of it. The faces of the people seemed to change though, I really enjoyed that actually! Since it made it just a little more realistic, because in real life, no one looks exactly the same, everyday... The best part I have to say about the art is the animation when they play the instruments. Like I said before it really feels like you're getting absorbed into it.

Sound: What can I say? It's a musical anime, of course I have high expectations for it! La Corda handed it too me nearly flawlessly. Though there might be some mistakes some people might say, it's all really hard to point out. Due to the fact that the main music hides all the background music and makes you literally forget all about it. Also since I'm a big fan of classical music, it might be a LITTLE biased. Nonetheless it's still very well done. There was one problem though. Even though the main music attraction was great, big, and epic. It just had that problem. It overpowered the rest of the little music in the background. Though I might be contradicting myself, it is true. Using some none music animes like Chobits as an example, I can clearly remember all or most of the background music. This is a musical based anime though, so the music should be the main attraction; even though that is true they should have made the background music more "rememberable" is how I'll put it. Even through those it's still quite hard to point out mistakes. I only gave it 9/10 due to one thing I learned. Nothing in music is perfect, there is always room for more improvement. (yes I due play an instrument and somewhat to quite well as a matter of fact)

Character: The characters were very well planned out. From the hair colour suiting their feeling and emotions to the instrument they chose to play, it all matched up very well. I don't have much to say here due to that fact the only problem I had was with the way they were set up. It might sound confusing but, the way they almost all appear at school or within the area, then they suddenly know each-other and become friends. Also the romance is a bit stereotypical type of romance inside anime. The main character lead also is a bit clichéd type of person. It might be just because I've watched so much anime that it seems that way, but overall the characters were very good and somewhat "believable". (my favourite Kazuki and no I am not gay, I just preferred his instrument over the rest *hint**hint* :P) You can also see why the anime might be more focused on the female population ;P

Enjoyment: It was very enjoyable actually, though I doubted it at first when I say the genre was Shoujo, not saying that there aren't any good ones just saying that I didn't think it would be so exciting! The main points of excitement would be any time they play their instruments, like I said before, it makes you flow into it and listen to it with your um... "Second ear" meaning you get a deeper richer understanding of why they chose that song, how it suits them playing it, and the theme they're trying to play/show. If you're a music lover like me you could even just close your eyes and listen solely to the sound (though it would be quite hard if you weren't literate or understand Japanese. I don't either. I'm jut saying it's just that enjoyable)

Overall: It was really hard to pick out a lot problems with the story, the sound is really where it captured me, so I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone, especially classical music lovers. read more