Lost Song

Lost Song is by no means a revolutionary anime that's going to change the game forever. That doesn't mean that it isn't still unique and surprisingly enjoyable. In fact, I would say it's that surprise itself that lends a hand to my enjoyment of the series overall.

I went into Lost Song with low expectations, given from the first few episodes it seems to be a standard fantasy era war show without any interesting gimmick that made it stand out. Only reason I kept with it was because I watched with a friend and we wanted to predict what would happen.

Predicting what will happen in Lost ... Song is a feat that proves much more difficult than you would expect. As I said, it was the surprise of how much we couldn't predict what would happen that made it so enjoyable. Partway through, the series pulls off one of the best plot twists I've encountered for such an unassuming series, and it's how discreetly packaged this show is that made it such a wonderful, delightful surprise.

That isn't to say it's only the surprise that makes it interesting. You find that groundwork had been laid out this entire time, and unbeknownst to you, a well crafted and clever series had appeared beneath your feet before you knew what you were watching.

All I can say is to give Lost Song a chance, and it certainly won't disappoint you. I wish there had been just a bit more time for better pacing to give a few more characters some spotlight or unfold a few more threads they'd lead with and tied off loosely at the end, but all in all, it's still satisfying and a very fun ride until the very end! The art is decent at worst and great at best, the music is enchanting, and the two protagonists are the characters who really sell the story. Lost Song is the hidden gem of its season.

My favorite part about anime is when music, specifically singing, is a main focus. Japanese voice actors work tremendously hard to deliver their lines as realistically as possible, so it's a real treat when I get to hear their characters sing on top of that. That's what I was most excited about when I happened across an anime titled Lost Song on Netflix one day while I was cooking. The narrative told by the synopsis proved to be very intriguing as it described a setting in a fantasy world where two women are blessed by the power of song in a land where war is ... about to break out. Captivated by the apparent uniqueness of the story, I pressed play without hesitation. Across the twelve-episode journey, I quickly found that the anime wasn't as great as I intended it to be.


Story | 2/10
Lost Song tries and fails in many aspects that are more successful in other popular anime. It plays with drama, comedy, and suspense. The problem Lost Song has with these tropes is that the story is so poorly configured that the tropes hardly work together in a seamless manner. Plot twists are tossed around from left and right in the midst of dramatic moments, each with an introduction that acts as if they're these huge, surprising discoveries that should be completely unexpected to the audience. I, however, found each plot twist to be entirely predictable due to the fact that the foreshadowing of events was less subtly hinted and more obviously thrown in your face through character interactions and expressions. For example, when I heard a line such as, "Don't ever sing the Song of Mortality," it became detectable to me that the song would be sung anyway at some point, because why mention the song and how dangerous it is if no one is going to sing it in the future, right? That kind of dialogue, while sometimes can work in favor of foreshadowing, is used a lot in this anime, making it too easy to guess what will happen later on. This is a problem I noticed as a recurrence throughout the first half of the anime, and I was extremely disappointed because being able to predict future events in a show takes away the excitement involved. It also proves that not much clever thought was put into the story as a whole.

On the other hand, the various bits of comedy that were included only seemed to be added as a means of preventing a moment of awkward silence, or as a means of slowing down a scene that was becoming too dramatic. The delivery of these jokes also felt forced instead of natural, and none of them really made me laugh either. Having a character scream out, "There's food!? Where? Where's the food!?!?" ever so often when another character randomly mentions food is not funny. Having a character attempt to explain why something isn't scientifically correct while the other characters interrupt him with, "We don't care," isn't funny either. If anything, these types of lines are childish and cringy, and there's nothing funny about an adult or teenager acting like a child. Plus, I've seen these exact same jokes before, so these aren't even original. I know comedy isn't a huge focus within Lost Song, since it isn't even listed as one of the genres, but there are hundreds of other anime that EXCEL in delivering good comedy when the focus also mostly revolves around drama and suspense.

The story development in general isn't the best either. Pacing fluctuates between harshly rushed to push out as much information as possible and agonizingly slow as a consequence. Rinse and repeat. On top of that, the anime takes a drastic and questionable turn at the halfway mark where the story becomes way less predictable and a LOT more confusing. I can understand that the creators of this anime wanted to inflict shock within its audience by making such a sudden change in the story, but to me this change was too much for the type of setting presented in the beginning and felt as though the same idea could be accomplished with a change that was toned down a bit. Essentially, it seems like the story presented in Lost Song is trying too hard to achieve a ground-breaking plotline. By attempting to wow its watchers with such drama, heartbreak, and unexpected events in its twelve-episode time frame, the anime ends up tripping over itself and instead showcases a chaos of ideas and characters that aren't deeply explored.

A last point I would like to mention before moving on is that Lost Song tries desperately to appeal to all audiences. On the surface it looks as though the anime is aiming for a younger female demographic with its shoujo-like art style and lack of raunchy themes, but with added gore, profanity, and a female character with breasts so big they look like they're about to spill out of her clothing, it seems like the anime is also trying to bring in an older female and male audience as well. This desperation to create an anime worth watching by all was so obvious that it was infuriating and distracting to the narrative trying to be told.


Character | 2/10
Throughout Lost Song, the story switches point of views between the two main characters: Rin and Finis. Besides their ability to control the elements with their songs, there's nothing about these characters that really stands out. Rin is optimistic and kind-hearted, and Finis is a naïve damsel in distress. For the two characters that are supposed to carry the whole story on their backs, the types of personalities they were given are ones that are extremely overused and boring. The goals they have are also entirely lackluster, and they give off the impression that the only reason these motives exist is only to advance the story. Rin's character in particular wants to find her true purpose in the world, which isn't a goal that encourages character development. Thus, Rin doesn't really develop at all due to the fact that she's already a "good guy" who has almost no reason to change or redeem herself. Finis, on the other hand, goes through a rapid development once her goal is hindered by the enemy of the anime. If done correctly, I might have thoroughly enjoyed Finis's sudden change in character considering it was probably the most interesting thing that happened. Unfortunately, with Finis's development came the unsatisfactory warping of the plot. The added confusion alongside her change really made it hard for me to appreciate the only piece of character development that was delivered.

As for the abundance of supporting characters, it was easy to see not much thought was put into them either. This part of the cast is one full of stereotypes; the glasses character is the smart guy, the knight is the savior, the ugly guy is the villain, etc. so there's not really anything interesting about them. Over half of these characters are added with zero purpose to fulfil the plot other than using them to make conversation when things slowed down. All of these useless characters could have been cut from the anime entirely, and their screen time could have been replaced with scenes that explained the plot better or improved the pacing. Some anime do a great job managing a large cast of characters, but this isn't one of them.


Art | 2/10
I really hate judging an anime for its art, especially the older ones, but the art presented in Lost Song is utterly amateurish for the era of its release. It's 2018. Earlier this year we saw Violet Evergarden, and only a few weeks after Lost Song ended came Banana Fish. Compared to those two, the art style and animation of Lost Song looks as though it was released in the early 2000s. Multiple times throughout the anime, the movement of the characters felt really choppy and the least bit smooth. This was especially a problem when the characters were walking. It's clear to see that the animation budget was almost entirely spent on the animation of the characters singing, because it was only during those moments where it felt like the animation was somewhat up to par with other 2018 anime. It hurts me to say this, but I also didn't like how the character designs looked at all. Besides the villain being purposely made unsightly, I didn't find the rest of the cast to be pleasing to look at either.


Sound | 2/10
The music within this anime was what I was most excited for and most disappointed with. Lost Song features several insert songs that each represent their own power. There's a song of fire, water, Earth, wind, healing, and mortality. Some songs were more catchy than others, but none of them really stood out to me as exceptional compositions. Though the characters looked like they were having a blast singing their songs, I couldn't say I felt the same way while watching them. Rin's voice was tolerable since her character is a bit younger, so it makes sense for her voice to be higher pitched, but I wasn't particularly a fan of Finis's voice. Her singing was extremely nasally, and it was clear to see that she was trying to hide the fact that she couldn't really hit the high notes by making her voice go softer. The softness in her voice also takes away from the power of the song, which is incredibly unfortunate considering Finis is the one who sings the most powerful song in the anime. Moreover, when both Rin and Finis sing together, their high-pitched voices tend to blend in with one another instead of being distinctive. I really think that they should have cast a VA with a bit of a deeper voice for Finis, like Saori Hayami (VA for Yunhua in the anime Kanata no Astra, she also sings in this anime on two occasions) for example, not only because she could probably hit the notes better and make the songs more powerful, but her voice sounds a lot more mature for someone like Finis. Either way, for being the selling point of the show, the songs in this anime failed miserably at meeting my expectations.


Enjoyment | 1/10
This was not a fun anime to watch. The plotline and characters are packed full of generalizations and stereotypes, and the whole premise of the story just jumps all over the place. Honestly, if someone told me that a child wrote the script, I would believe it. As a female approaching my 20s, I saw no appeal for this anime beyond what I read in the synopsis. So much could have been done to improve everything we were given, but with the evident low budget this anime seems to have, I can see why it turned out this way. Lost Song was a one-and-done for me, so I have no plans of ever coming back to it.

When i found this anime, i looked its trailer and i was instantly captivated by it so i decided to watch it. And it was a good choice! I loved the art style and the story in this anime a lot. It was different in story wise that i usually watch but i found it enjoyable and interesting.

About mid-way they put in a plot twist that was best i have seen so far and it just made me want to watch this to the end.

There was little confusion in the last few episodes that could have been put a little better but still the ... story was clear and the ending was kinda sad but hopeful.

I love this anime and i will rewatch it defo.

When I first started this Anime, I wasn't sure what to expect. It was pleasing to the eye, but at the same time I noticed that some of the art had been more 3D than 2D. Skeptical, I continued to watch and boy was I surprised!

The story itself was one that I hadn't been expecting. For such a short Anime you would have thought that the story would be nothing special but in reality it was more than special! So many different plot twist and the story was lighthearted but explored deeper concepts. So many mysteries explained in ways that I would have never expected ... them to be! Even a few hidden characters that were hidden in plain sight!

Following Finis go through her story was, to say the least, breath taking. You start to connect with her on a level that is beyond anything you could have ever felt before. Seeing her connect with Rin added something to the story that was more of a surprise, but a sweet one.

The art style was, as I had stated before, pleasing to the eye. I think they did a wonderful job with designing the characters and the backgrounds. Yes, there were a lot of different elements such as medieval like settings with a bit of a magical and futuristic aspect with the clothing and the inventions and such, but they complimented one another instead of one overpowering one another. It was never to harsh on the eyes, and they were paired together nicely. I stated before that there was a lot of 3D art involved with the 2D art, but I was surprised that never once did they interfere with one another.

They actually went well together, and the 3D was done so well that most times you couldn't even tell that something was 3D. Of course there were things that were obviously 3D, but they weren't too bad.

Being that this is an music based Anime, it's no surprise that the music was wonderful. The music in its own was powerful in it's own right. Everything had emotion coursing through it, and any song with lyrics had a deeper meaning to it than first looked over. In the end, when you hear the last two final songs, it was memorizing. The meaning of the songs, the feelings of the characters when they sing it, the feelings of all those around them, it becomes clear.

You feel like you are in the moment when you listen to it.

The characters were well thought out, different, and absolutely stunning. Instead of just having purely bad characters or purely good characters, there were characters from all places of the spectrum. You even had morally grey characters that made a large impact on the story. To see such a large variety of characters exist within the same universe, or as I would like to classify it, timeline, is something that feels similar to a breath of fresh air. The way that they interacted was realistic, and their reactions to things were realistic as well.

Overall it was a wonderful experience and I highly recommend it!

When I watch Lost Song´s first episode,I describe it as "If Disney and Netflix made an anime", because the first episode is just like that. (SPOILER BEGINS) Rin is a girl who has a "superpower" of making diferent kinds of spells just by singing, the power of singing. She lives in a town with his sister Mel, his friend Al and his grandfather, who doesn´t let Rin sing and use his power. One day, away from the town, Rin and Al find one of the best swordsman of the Kingdom, Leobort, who it has been hurt. Rin uses his powers to heal him, but one ... of the soldiers of the Kingdom hears her and informs to their superiors, who then traveled to the town to search for the girl who has the power of singing, and when they don´t find out were she was, they destroy the town, killing the grandfather and the sister Mel. Here is when the adventure of Rin and Al begins, with the objective of finding another woman with the same power of singing Rin has. (SPOILER ENDS). The story is not something we´ve never heared of . The artistic part is great, with a dedicated animation expected from ONA. The soundtrack is very good, expected from a anime of singing. The characters are good, but they could be better, but I´m only at episode 7, so the show must go on. My personal enjoyment was a very good experience, specially when the show evolves (and omg episode 7, what a crazy episode). And now, for Overall, I give this anime an 8. The show starts very slowly, for like 3-4 episodes, but at this moment, in episode 7, i can just say, (SPOILER WARNING): HOLY SH*T IT´S RAINING METERITES!

My note : 10/10 : masterpiece.
It is difficult for me to understand why Lost Song have a so much low notation on MAL. The anime have several flaw, but it is filled with good idea, with good songs and with love. For me, it is sufficient to have a 10/10.

Lost song is, imho, very well writen, with many surprise and switch in the scenario (like in Steins;Gate or Madoka Magica for example) but more importantly every little details in the firsts episodes have a signification or are a metaphor, and after rewatching the anime I realized how well writen it is in its very little ... details, down to the choice of the title.

It is very surprising because Junpei to Morita (which seems to be a men duo of director) have not done a lot of thing in their career.

Moreover, apart from the writing, it is important to note the genius inspiration that they had in the choice of the actors : The seiyuus chosen here are not really voice actress, but rather singers known for great songs in a lot of animes openings etc. The choice to construct the scenario and all the anime around those two women, are a great idea. The result is some of the most beautiful song of the animation, embedded in the hearth of the anime scenario. Great !

Despite all this good points, the anime have some flaws : for example, there is some « naivité » in the beginning that could be repulsing and seems amateur, but truly, it is not.
One other problem is that, like in Steins Gate, the beginning of the anime is more or less designed to be « classic » to enhance the contrast with the second part. So, by design, it could be difficult to watch in the beginning of the anime.

But well, the very good points of the anime, from writing to songs are widely sufficient to put this away.

I strongly recommend to watch Lost Song, it is a masterpiece.

This is a spoiler-free review!

Lost Song has to be one of the best anime I have watched in a long while. It started off slow and, unfortunately, I dropped it in the middle of the third episode. I did, however, decide to pick it up the day before the final episode aired and I'm glad that I went back to it.

First off, as I said, the anime started off slow. If you're thinking of watching it, hang in there until episode 7. If you finish 7 and still think it's not worth your time, then go ahead and drop it. With episodes 7 and ... 8 your understanding of how things were happening is turned on its head. For that alone I loved it and, in the end, I decided to give the story a 10. It's not super unique, but unique enough that I think it stands out and I highly recommend it, even to people who aren't anime fans.

The art is 9/10 for me. The animation is very clean for the most part, but there's small inconsistencies from time to time. The character designs are rather simple, but I think that it helps add charm to the anime in its own way. The lighting is done well and the 3D that is here and there meshes very well with the 2D The backgrounds are beautiful and the animation for the opening and ending songs are great. The ending even has subtle changes in it if you pay close attention!

For the sound I give this anime a solid 10. This anime isn't a "musical" exactly, but it does have singing tied into it, obviously. There's a song sung about once or twice per episode, but nothing too overwhelming. The music and singing in this anime are top-notch-- even the minor characters that only join in on singing a few times have nice voices! If we manage to get the boxed set of Lost Song overseas with the OST, I'm more than willing to spring for it.

Characters I give a 9/10. They do typical tropes very well, but Finis was a great character and she's stuck with me as being rather unique. Some of the minor characters are even fun-- like an old man inventor with a parrot in a cage on his large backpack and a croissant on his walking cane that he randomly takes a bite off of while sitting in on a conversation.

Enjoyment of this anime and overall, my score is definitely 10/10. I loved this anime so much and I hope that it gains popularity in the West so that we can see it released on BD/DVD. Everything meshes together so well and the plot twist that I didn't expect made me glad that I decided to go back and pick up the anime rather than dropping it altogether.

TLDR: Give Lost Song a chance! Try to stick it through until the end of episode 7 and you'll be rewarded!

This show was handled rather well, especially in hindsight. There were some flubs which made the writing come across poorly if not actually so, but overall it worked with what it was doing.

There will be partial spoilers in my quick summaries for each rating. I'll try to be fairly vague with that stuff tho

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STORY (9)

I feel the story it was aiming for was implemented well through-out and, especially in hindsight, anything that felt off made a lot more sense. But it takes until a major event for this to begin making sense unless you already know about it or are just ... that good at picking up the subtle hints.

Tho there were some things that didn't work quite so well despite that, such as if something repeats itself then it should never have been so similar as if it were the original.

And in regards to recanting memories after a big event, without them having to show everything, it was off-putting. Some serious liberties were taken to keep it interesting, concise, and simple. But the tone was off from the rest of the story and so I felt it wasn't done well and it still bugs me. I'm also not a fan of memories in which stuff not actually experienced was shown so, again, it wasn't done well and is a big reason I'd never give this a 10.

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ART (7)

There were moments where there were some animation issues never corrected after broadcast, such as chunky hands for a bit and face markings disappearing for one scene where frames weren't reused. Overall tho there's nothing so distracting it can't be overlooked.

Design-wise, I yawned far too frequently for. Some made sense given their character and their place in the story, but most I just didn't care for. It gave a nostalgic feel tho so it wasn't unbearable while watching. Just nothing I'd have watched the series for, which is probably not a good thing in regard to marketing.

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SOUND (4)

Honestly, for a story in which songs are so vital to the plot, they were seriously lackluster. While they had a style of their own instead of just throwing in some modern or retro sounds, there was so little that felt it was magical or even memorable.

There was nothing special or awful about the quality, sfx, or bkg music either. Other than Tamura singing tons.


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CHARACTER (6)

The sisters bored me from the get-go. Would've enjoyed it much more if they didn't just toss them in and kept them, as they gave the "one-off" vibe far too much even to the end. This forcing of a ~symphony~ honestly lowered the quality of the cast. Without them, it probably would be more along the lines of an 8.

The rest of the cast was fine tho. A good chunk of them actually grew through-out and very few remained static. There were many one-off characters but, given the adventure/traveling type plot, it was reasonable and didn't hinder anything.

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ENJOYMENT (8)

I could ignore the sisters being worthless to the story, and the annoyance of a kid genius, and even the random writing flubs.

The second I got the reasoning for some inconsistencies, I was constantly thinking back of them while finishing the show; the way memories (not flashbacks) were recounted allowed time to actually remember what I was binging.

The fact that the songs were so unremarkable - especially the duet - lowered this rating from a 9.

Konomi Suzuki and Yukari Tamura singing a duet together? LA is in!

LA saw Lost Song well the first half of the anime as a rather predictable music fantasy anime with all the cliches down pat, but the later half...well it was ambitious to say the least and that ambitiousness both confused and kept LA interested for the long haul as well as somewhat redeemed the cliched beginnings, key word being "somewhat".

Spoilers Ahead!

So the first half of the anime has MANY of the cliches in a typical fantasy medieval setting just with the twist that "songs" are incorporated into the fantasy setting, characters being cliched to ... all hell and back and seeing plot twists coming from a mile away. The plot was projected right down the step it had to be taken to say the least but this wasn't helped but the cliched characters, especially Prince Lood voiced by Yuto Suzuki being the jerkass prince towards one of the main characters and fiancee Finis voiced by Yukari Tamura and his rather stupid moments making him intentionally unlikable to every notion in the process. Character wise, the characters did as expected even down the simplest action at times and MANY TIMES LA predicted right what was happening. The character dynamic for the most part had a very black and white morality to it all, like Rin's growing company along with Finis and Henry Leobort were the good guys while EVERY ONE ELSE were evil and that just made the plot so obvious so much. Rin and Finis were the narrative focus and the main characters of the anime thus are good, Rin voiced by Konomi Suzuki was oblivious and was a glutton and loves to sing as her trait while Finis was the damsel in distress with no sense of direction. Henry Leobort voiced by Seiichirou Yamashita, Finis guard was the typical white knight and the perfect foil towards Lood. Rin's company, Al voiced by Misaki Kuno the gadgeteer genius, Pony Goodlight voiced by Chiaki Takahashi the alcoholic who doesn't want to be called old, and finally sisters Alyu and Monika Looks voiced by Asami Seto and Yuu Serizawa respectively as the genki talkative to the shy intorverted sleepy archetypal sisters. The only character LA really liked was Finis' maid Corte voiced by Ai Kayano, being Finis' protector and helped WHENEVER she could and definitely deserved MVP during the first half not to mention she was so likable to a fault. So with all this being said, the second half changed EVERYTHING LA said about the first half to the point of redemption of the anime's story it had going for it.

The second half by all means "redeemed" LA faith to Lost Song if anything it threw a curveball into the clicheness Lost Song had but even then with this LA would say because of the second half, the first half was the building block and setup to what the second half had going for it. LA will say talk potential spoilers right now, so look away or WATCH THIS SERIES NOW then come back!.

Ok, so Lost Song incorporates "time travel" into the mix and this can either go in the way of Steins;Gate and bring in a good time travel story, or on the other hand, bring in one confusing plotline that can end badly but like LA said Lost Song's setup paid off for the most part and the anime thought through all the time travel hijinks leaving NO plot holes as far as LA knows as LA theorized and tried to get the story straight for a LONG time before LA concluded that the time traveling plotline had no plot holes. See from what LA could gather Lost Song incorporated converging timelines along with it's time loop in order to tell it's story and allowed the story to fit into itself properly, that and LA wasn't trying to be bias that "just because this theory works, no plot holes, no problems", LA thought through it from alternative timeline theories to in media res, or split segmented storylines, but it was for the most part the one theory that made sense to all this was the branching converged timeline theory (LA only say this as Lost Song NEVER properly say what kind of time travel shenanigans it did to the plot and expected us to follow through...see that how you will, this along with LA's branching converging timeline theory as LA won't contest this theory is definitive) and because of this HUGE revelations made the link to Rin in the process. In terms of characters, the majority of the cast had some stake in the plot or improved the character through some plot twists about them later, the only two LA really didn't see improving were the Look sisters, yes they helped out Rin's cause, but not much after that. The greatest character development would go to Finis mainly on what she went through and her degradation of her personality to where she got to, nonetheless from damsel in distress to a major factor and stake to the plot in which HER drive caused it all was a massive improvement from her first half counterpart and even though Finis was a heavily flawed character especially with her beliefs and plans she had going for it, Finis nabbed LA's favourite character overall, this is helped that she was the most fleshed out character from the entire cast.

Ohh and the second half gave us a MUCH BETTER villain in the form of Bazra voiced by Tsuyoshi Koyama, though his motivations were alot more ambitious than Prince Lood, jerkass for the sake of being a jerkass, Lost Song's villain department nonetheless was cliche all around unfortunately as much as Bazra was an massive improvement in terms of villainy.

The animation done by Dwango and LIDENFILMS was visually striking to the eye for the most part, from the great amount of backgrounding to the colorful character designs. The animation all around was consistent and this is especially with the character designs which for LA was the highlight of the series next to the beautiful backgrounding work it had. The the other side of the spectrum however, the CGI royal orchestra was annoyingly blatant to say the least, like LA will say this time and again but DON'T PUT HUMAN CHARACTERS THROUGH FULL CGI UNLESS THE ENTIRE SERIES IS CGI, it just made them stand out even more is what LA is saying but the CGI on some of the mechanical structures gets a pass and was at least incorporated right. Nonetheless, the animation was crisp, exotic and interesting to watch for the most part.

Voice acting, well this is interesting to say the least, well you know Konomi Suzuki is voicing one of the main characters, you may know Konomi Suzuki as the singer of several OP's like Absolute Duo, Ange Veirge, Freezing Vibration, Madan no Ou to Vanadis, No Game, No Life, Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu and Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!. LA was a HUGE fan before her role in this anime and her first debut in voice acting...was decent all things considered and was a good decent debut role to be put in an anime that had elements of singing in it. Now as much as Konomi Suzuki was interesting to see in the voice cast, Yukari Tamura utterly steamrolled any other voice actor in this anime without a doubt, Yukari Tamura did her expected stuff and LA loved her portrayal as Finis and by all accounts Yukari Tamura had the most diverse range in voicing Finis throughout the anime, again expected of a veteran like Yukari Tamura. Misaki Kuno crossdressing as Al was interesting as well, though it had Misaki's typical high pitched vocals, LA was still fine with Misaki and had some oddly good chemistry with Konomi Suzuki. The only other voice actor LA would talk about would be Ai Kayano being the extremely supportive character of Mel and Corte and LA didn't even noticed Ai Kayano was pulling double duty not until LA saw the VA cast list. The singing portions for the most part was great, coming from singers in general of both Yukari Tamura and Konomi Suzuki, LA thinks this was expected to say the least. The voice cast is utterly amazing to say the least, even towards many of the minor characters and even the villains, this voice cast was exceptional with the tremendous help of Yukari Tamura keeping it all together (Can you tell LA is a fanboy of Yukari Tamura?).

The finale, tied up many of the loose plotlines though the later half of anime was already doing that with Rin and Finis but nonetheless, the finale DID fill in the remaining plotlines and was bittersweet to say the least but with a good side to it all in some sense if the anime had anything to say about it. Lost Song IS an original anime thus had some decency to give us a full story and end it when it need to and it did just that.

Lost Song is something of a hidden gem, hidden from the already cliched plot from the first half which detriments the anime even further but nonetheless the anime's second half redeemed itself quite well and effectively made the first half something of building block to the overall story as cliche as it is and no LA isn't saying it because LA was a fan of both Konomi Suzuki and Yukari Tamura thus gives a pass to the story, Lost Song's second half was where LA interest skyrocketed, theorizing and gotten into many of the main characters and what their plans or plot twists what were to come were in the process that was almost unpredictable with the first half as predictable as that was, was made as a leverage in making itself better in the process as well. Sure Lost Song isn't the best thing LA saw in the season of Spring 2018 but nonetheless it had a solid structure to itself and it KNEW what it wanted to tell as at first cliched then turn confusing and risky as it was at the end of it all. Lost Song is seriously a hidden gem of an anime and ambitious to a fault that LA at first discredited as cliche...as much as Lost Song has some clicheness to it, it DOES NOT take away the the latter half's success and intrigue that it followed through with vigor.

Lost Song is one of the more ambitious yet risky animes LA had seen for the Spring 2018 that actually pulled through all it's ambitious and risk into making a fully fleshed out and satisfying story and characters and because of this, it definitely gets LA's hidden gem of Spring 2018.

INTRODUCTION:

Lost Song's setting is your typical medieval fantasy world - a huge kingdom, small villages and conflicts between the different countries. The plot revolves around Rin, a young girl who dreams to sing with the orchestra at the capital, and Finis, a naive and charming woman that simply enjoys singing, in times when the menace of war comes closer by the day. What is special about these women is the fact that their singing is magical, as it shows on the first episode, and it quickly becomes a tool to move the plot forwards.


PLOT:

The anime starts well enough: side characters are introduced and some difficulties ... are overcome. At this stage, it feels just like a generic anime - there are some overused tropes and stereotypes thrown into the mix, which does not improve the experience. All in all, the art and the sound are pretty good, though the side characters feel a bit bland. Besides Rin and Finis, the main characters, I could only really care about Henry Leobold, a just, strong and courteous knight from a rich and honorable background. Regarding the antagonists, their motives are also cliché and predictable. I couldn't feel anything towards them (they were indeed quite generic), though they can make us react accordingly once in a while.

Then, approaching 2/3 of the series, the plot twist happens. Mind you - it is not a plot twist, it is THE plot twist. It definitely is one of the best I have ever seen. It made me realize how well-executed the anime has been up until that point, which I was blind to due to the lack of knowledge. It instantly made me hooked to the show and, for that reason alone, I am inclined to eventually rewatch the series. After that point, the whole main plot does become more interesting. There is room for character growth during the end of the anime and it does happen to some of them.

My main disapproval is that Lost Song remains with those same cringy tropes and some lackluster scenes that made me roll my eyes throughout the entire show. There was one specific scene that had some good tension built up only to end up in an infuriating "I can't believe that is what happened" shortly thereafter. I had to pause and take a deep breath at that moment. My feelings towards the ending are mixed, as there are some truly great moments, though it lacks in other parts.


CONCLUSION:

All in all, Lost Song has a fine story with a HUGE plot twist - and I mean it. Its art and sound direction are amazing, as it revolves around music and the special effects by them created. The main characters are interesting, though almost all the others suffer from the same things: they are lackluster and quite annoying, having some non-important subplots that just take screen time. I feel that Lost Song could have been a much, much better anime if only the side characters were more interesting and less focused on unnecessary drama. Still, it was an enjoyable show - if you are in doubt about it, it is worth watching due to the plot twist alone, although try not to expect much about the anime.

Lost Song is like a fantasy game from the 16-bit (SNES) era. You have abilities, you suffer a tragedy, you have an adventure, and you realize that there is more, much more to the world than you've ever imagined. It reminded me of Terranigma, but with more singing.

If you're looking for a fantasy/medieval anime and you got burned badly by Grancrest, I highly recommend Lost Song. It doesn't try to shove 10 volumes into 24 episodes (which is more like 4 volumes and change if you value quality, and A-1 or the production committee clearly didn't), there is believability in the plot and characters as ... a result, and the thematic elements give the story a clear direction, but allow for the plot to take a sudden turn. Plus, there are bards. You can't have a proper fantasy/medieval anime without a bard somewhere. Honestly, I kinda wish that this was a 2-cour anime so that loose ends could be tied up, but evidently that wasn't in the budget.

Visuals are, in my opinion, the show's weakness. Aside from Finis, the character designs are like a shonen manga artist designed all the women; From certain angles and using certain expressions, Rin's face looks almost like a guy with a wig. Then there's the designs for the supporting women... Uh, tone down the cleavage, guys. Those tops look insanely uncomfortable. It's like someone in the design team wanted to see breasts, but the studio forbade them from showing nudity. The show doesn't take a lot of wide shots early on for a very good reason that is revealed midway through the story. Once you start seeing them in the last couple of episodes, pause the playback and take a look around.

It would be a travesty if a show about a "lost song" had mediocre music or vocals. Rin's voice actress has a superb singing voice, and Yukarin as always delivers a solid performance as Finis, and her "Song of Endings" is one of her best songs yet. Unfortunately the soundtrack isn't particularly memorable, but at least it's not as ridiculous as the Symphogear franchise.

Solid 8. I wish the show were longer (the plot twist felt rushed and there are loose ends), and the character designs weren't that great overall; good singing and execution otherwise.

If there's one thing I have to say about this anime: It's incredibly generic. The music and art is very nice and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it seemed like the anime played way too safe to the point they're not taking any risks.

Story: This part is its weak point. The story felt like those generic original stories you find on Wattpad, Fictionpress or Quotev trying to be the next Disney movie. Because it is. It's very predictable to the point that you can just go in blind and able to make an accurate picture of what's going to happen next, plays way too safe ... and the context of the story has been done a million times over every media you can imagine. Now, that doesn't mean they screwed up the most generic story a 5 year old can think of, which thankfully they didn't, and I do like to watch it when I get home from uni, there is this plot twist that kinda got me off guard and I thought this anime starts getting interesting, but other than that, it doesn't have anything that'll excite me.

Art: I find the art style to be pretty good. The environment is pretty and the characters look nice. Although that chest on Pony is distracting and out of place for this anime. The animations, I had to say is alright. Most part, the animators did well, but there's some part that are choppy that my eyes snap to and I get distracted because of it. Like someone disappearing on a horse out of thin air. I didn't know how that happened since it's 2D.

Sound: The music is pretty good. Konomi Suzuki's and Yukari Tamura's singing were pretty excellent and I do find the OP and ED catching and got me in. But compared to other animes of the season, the music is generic. As for the sound effects.... ehhh alright I guess.

Characters: Just like the story: incredibly generic and you can predict their personalities just by face value. That glasses boy? An aspiring scientist and the smart guy of the group. The knight guy? Knight in Shining Armour that's always good and the princess falls to. That General? General Ripper. Hell, even the two main characters? Pretty much Anna and Elsa in anime. Hell, you could tell their personalities just by their attractiveness. If they look good, that's because they're good. If they look dark and/or ugly, expect them to be against you or dicks. That doesn't mean I don't like them (in fact I do like the glasses boy who wants to be a scientist and the smart guy of the group, and Anime!Anna), but nothing about them is any original. I've seen these tropes applied to these guys with slight variations.

Enjoyment: While the genericness of the story and characters distract me a lot, I do enjoy the anime especially for the music and maybe the art. I've heard that this is Konomi Suzuki first take on being the MC of the anime and honestly, she did alright.

Overall, this anime is generic and doesn't stand out in that season. It tries way too hard to be a family friendly Disney anime, but it comes off as a team of amateurs trying to write a story that's BEING a family friendly Disney anime. If I wanna watch something similar to this, I'd go and buy a ticket or stream some Disney movie like Frozen, or go to Wattpad, Fictionpress or Quotev and read their stories there.

Lost Song is very cute but also a average anime.

For the first 5 or 6 episodes this show carries itself very well with the lovable main charterer with the cute supporting cast and songs and has a very cheerful story but after the plot twist in episode 6 the show gets very confusing and doesn't explain the change very well and expect you to just adapt to the new change in statues quo.
The plot twist in episode 6 also ruins on of the relationships that a pretty large amount of screen time decanted to it too and try match up the guy with ... one of the supporting cast which I could see someone drop the series because of that although that really isn't a flaw but it could be handled way better then it was and for anyone invested in that relationship it was pretty annoying but it did make sense on why they did that.
And this is probably more of a personal preference kind of thing but I wish it had a bigger verity of songs instead of the 6 or so that we had. They started to get repetitive by near the end of the series but besides that they where all very good.

Despite how much I enjoyed Lost Song it still has some very big issues and I wouldn't be surprised if someone dropped Lost Song by the 8-9th episode but I would recommend watching it

This is the kind of anime that has no business making so much sense as it made. Beautifully crafted story, made me invested to the main characters. I wanted the villain to fall and I cheered for the main characters to succeed. And the twist is freaking divine. Everything perfectly fits and you could see that they're building towards it from the very beginning.

Though, I think the primary plot itself is nothing special, and dare I say, rather weak towards the end. The ones who needed miracle and salvation the most laid unsaved and without miracle, and this perhaps highlights my own lacking more than ... the anime, but the ending just...doesn't shake me enough.

If you consider watching it, do it. You won't regret it.

Upon finishing Lost Song I had a hard time sorting out my thoughts about the show. I honestly could have landed anywhere between a 4 and a 6 on this series, and by this time next week I may have completely changed my mind on that ranking. In the end though - or at least for now - I settled on a 6 because there's clearly a lot of passion behind this show and in its best moments it does shine. In its worst though it is fumbling and almost laughable.

It's always nicer to finish on a high note, so I'll start with where this ... show falls down. Part of its problem is it suffers from an overabundance of earnestness. The result of this is that its fumbles end up far more noticeable, because they are treated with such drama and seriousness.

Beyond this, the show struggles to really establish any particularly interesting characters, and most of them come across as recycled tropes and not particularly deeply evoked. As a protagonist Rin is fine, occasionally charming, but mostly nothing you wouldn't expect and haven't seen many times before. Finis starts off as almost painful to watch, but as the only character that actually gets significant development, becomes somewhat more interesting as the show goes on. Al barely warrants mentioning, Pony Goodlight's (what?) only remarkable trait is how she avoids wardrobe malfunctions.

Of the two villains, Prince Rudo is the more interesting for how thoroughly unlikable he is made. The characterisation is not nearly as well done, but there's more than a little of Joffrey Baratheon about him. Other than that the other key antagonist is, like many of the other characters, an archetype that's far from original.

The plot starts of wholly unremarkable, but gradually builds to something reasonably interesting around the halfway mark, before subsiding back into mediocrity for the series' end.

So what did I like? Well this is a show about music and the music is excellent - or at least the big insert songs are. The OP and ED are forgettable (I literally can't think they sound like as I write this), but the two main spirit songs in particular are great. Which is good, because in a show like this, they really needed to be. The first of these is the Song of Healing, which features in the first episode and is every bit as stirring and uplifting as one might hope. The second comes around the midway point and represents the high point of the series. Indeed it almost makes you forget about the painful amounts of cringe that undercut what should have been a dramatic moment immediately prior to it.

Ultimately this is a show that tries hard, and it managed to gain my attention at times, whilst utterly losing me at others. It did stick around in my mind though, so there's something to be said for that. It isn't particularly original or daring, but it has its charms. This isn't essential viewing, but it isn't a waste of time either.

I was able to predict the ENTIRE show on the opening alone. I didn't get it all right, enough that I was more than a little annoyed.

That being said, it was still fun to watch, and some of the music is great. I rewatched a few episodes just for the music. It is not really all that revolutionary in it's story. Like I said, it's something you could predict, however, it's more creative in it's delivery than many of the stories like it.

I'm not going to go much deeper, but I'll leave you with this, if you have ever felt ... that music was powerful... there are a few things you will enjoy.

Let me see,
lost song is a unique experience unlike any other, it is so entirely devoid of any redeeming qualities that watching it becomes disorienting, as if it distorted reality itself it with its badness

it is consistently awful minute to minute, never a dull moment, in fact watching it is like getting your delicate brains repeatedly poked with a porcupine quill, it will make you laugh but its more the kind of mirthless desperate laughter of getting strung up and tickled with a feather in a dark, dark dungeon

it is a show about song, and the singers are bad, and the songs are bad, and ... the sound design overall is bad and it makes you cringe because you're overly aware that real life people are singing it badly and having to pretend that they're not bad, it doesnt even deserve more imaginative writing on my part than just the word 'bad' which also accurately describes the monotonous badness of the show

watch it with a friend and alcohol and you will have a great time though