Aki no Kanade

A simple but superbly-done story about a 25-year-old Aki Miyagawa and the events in her life that brought her to pursue a career in drumming. The bulk of this short film is set in the past, seamlessly transitioning between different stages of her life to tell her story.

There are two main conflicts: one implicit, internal conflict about self-worth, and another explicit, external conflict between Aki and her father who's disappointed in her career choice. The internal conflict takes the helm of the story, but it's shifted aside rather quickly in favour of the other and it's a little oddly-done, though it's not necessarily a negative.

That ... sort of summarizes the flaws with this film, because it's basically just rough around the edges and holds up quite well otherwise. The same applies to the art/animation and characters. Aesthetically, the film is incredibly polished and vibrant, looking like it's straight out of Your Lie in April. Everything is beautiful. The characters are handled as well as they could've been within the 25-minute time frame. Many of them are fairly one-note but in a way that they each complement the story a bit without interrupting the flow or direction of the story.

There's nothing much else to say. It's a great film with a few small missteps here and there, but no pressing issues.

Here we are at the end of this year's film festival week. Aki no Kanade was created as a part of 2015's Anime Mirai project. For those of you who aren't familiar with what that is, it's designed to train young animators. Harmonie was also created as a part of it, just for the 2014 Anime Mirai. JC Staff headed the project. Yes, the Toradora, Azumanga Daioh studio. 

Story:

We open with a drumming performance. Then we cut to the performers having some beers and chatting. One of them, Aki, seems to be feeling down. Probably because all of them have to have side jobs. The next morning ... she gets a phone call from her former teacher asking her to return to her home town in order to teach the drums. She agrees and quickly takes the train back. 

The biggest flaw with this film is simply that it tries to do a bit too much. There's this ongoing theme about past traditions being lost. There's also quite a bit that ties into the difficulties of pursuing your dreams as an artist, specifically a musician in this, in the modern world. And all of that gets tied into flashbacks about how Aki became enamoured with the drums. And this isn't a decent length film. It's about as long as an ordinary episode of an anime. Which, basically, means that it can't handle all of those ideas in any amount of detail. So, we get a cursory handling of the topics that basically relies on them being immediately relatable. Which, to be fair, they are.

That being said, what we do get of them is really well done. You get enough of a glimpse of Aki's troubles as a musician to make it relatable. You see enough changes to convey the idea of traditions being laid to rest in the name of progress. And you see enough of Aki's journey as a musician to give you a decent idea of what the drums mean to her. And it's good enough that you want to see more. Seriously, I would watch a full anime that was just this as a more fully fleshed out narrative. It also does have a good amount of charm to it. 

Characters:

The main focus is on Aki herself. And she is a very strong character. Her arc of returning to her roots and regaining her passion is well handled. The characters around her are, fortunately, developed enough that they have verisimilitude. They might not be the most complex characters of all time, but they have enough to them to make them feel like real people. And they're probably the best you'll get from a twenty five minute film. 

Art:

I'll give the young animators full credit on this one. The film is well animated and the art just looks great in general. With nice backgrounds, good looking musical performances and characters that look pretty nice. About the worst it gets is that the driving animation is a bit hovery due to them not liking to show the wheels. 

Sound:

JC Staff got some strong actors. Satou Rina takes the leading role. Nakahara Mai & Kugimiya Rie take secondary roles. And they all deliver strong performances. The music is really good as well. There are some nice, traditional drum performances. 

Ho-yay:

Aki's friends, Megumi & Akane, hang onto each other in a way that's pretty homo-erotic.

Final Thoughts:

Aki no Kanade is a solid short film. For twenty five minutes, it does everything it needs to do and handles its themes as well as it can given the time constraints. I quite enjoyed it. Ultimately, I give it an 8/10. 

Story: 8
Art: 7
Sound: 7
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 6

Yeah that may be confusing, 3 out of the five categories are 8of 10 and the other three are 7 out of 10 but overall it's 6/10? Well that's because Aki no Kanade ruined its ending. Basically this pro drummer in Tokyo goes back to her hometown to revive a drum festival, most of the episode is a flashback to her old drumming days as a child and that's fine, actually I liked the flashback and it really made me like her as well. But the thing is that after she gets to her hometown, instead of building up ... and making the characters go through some sort of hardship to revive the festival, it literally just happens. And also there are some unresolved issues; this one guy who has had a crush on her for like four years straight and her father who didn't like her to be a drummer but just randomly comest ot the festival, their relationship was broken from the day her father had told her that drumming was useless and he never came to any of her performances, and not once did they show her and her father reconciling, instead they just skip it completely. Look, I know this was a competition entry of sorts and was only allowed to be 23 mins long, but with a few tweaks here and there it could have easily gotten an 8/10 from me whilst sticking to the given time limit.

All I can say is, if this was turned into a 12 ep anime, with its potential, it could have been great.