Ongaku (On-Gaku: Our Sound)

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: 音楽

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jan 11, 2020

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: GKIDS

Studios: None found, add some

Source: Manga

Genre: Slice of Life

Theme: Music

Duration: 1 hr. 11 min.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.57¹ (scored by 2,618 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1440²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #6324

Members: 7,340

Favorites: 90

External Links

Official Site, AnimeDB, AnimeNewsNetwork

7.57

Ranked #1440Popularity #6324Members 7,340

Movie

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Synopsis

Kenji, Asakura, and Oota are an apathetic trio of school friends, notorious for often beating up fellow delinquents without reason. Tired of the mundane fights that once provided the group with temporary adrenaline, Kenji looks for an alternative source by starting a band on a whim. Enlisting the rest of his gang, he picks up the bass, with Oota on the guitar and Asakura on the drums. Despite having no prior experience playing musical instruments, their first session far exceeds their expectations.

Ongaku is the raw depiction of three teenage boys from the moment they discover the beauty of making music to their first live performance that turns a simple cure for boredom into a fiery expression of passion.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Ongaku was produced over a period of seven years. The film won the Nelvana Grand Prize at the 2019 Ottawa International Animation Festival. It also received the Noburou Oofuji Award at the 75th Mainichi Film Awards in 2021. In the same year, the film won the Entertainment Division's grand prize at the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards.

The film was released in a Blu-ray and DVD bundle on March 9, 2021 by Shout! Factory.

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Adaptation:

Ongaku to Manga

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Characters & Voice Actors

Kenji

Main

Asakura

Main

Aya

Main

Oota

Main

Maeno, Tomoya
Japanese

Morita

Supporting

Ooba

Supporting

Takenaka, Naoto
Japanese

Staff

Iwaisawa, Kenji

Director

Oohashi, Hiroyuki

Original Creator

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Opening Theme

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Ending Theme

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More reviews

Reviews

Oct 12, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

haydenluvsanime (All reviews)

41 people found this review helpful

Ongaku is a passion project created almost single-handedly by Kenji Iwaisawa over the course of 7 years and is my pick for anime of the year.

"Beauty in simplicity" best describes the ethos of Ongaku. Every aspect from the minimalistic character designs to the blunt and incredibly straight forward script compliment each other and culminate to this strong sense of confidence in the film. That confidence in turn creates this aura of inspiration and optimism. Goes to show that you don't need a huge all-star team or deep writing to create something special. Sometimes all you need is a strong vision and tenacity.

Creating anything as a read more

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Apr 27, 2021

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

NBreviews (All reviews)

15 people found this review helpful

At the beginning of the film, the characters still do not have an interaction with the music. What we know about them is that delinquents are possible, and that is because of their clothing and characteristics. What surprises us most is our bald protagonist Kenji, played by Shintaro Sakamoto. The character is quite expressionless at various times. It seems that he does not necessarily have a personality or a will of his own. Even so, his choices and actions influence the other characters around him.

The anime begins with this simpler animation, which uses very static plans and frameworks, at times the characters don't even move. It gives me a very good idea of the life of the characters, which is very still. The characters and the sets are also very “two-dimensional” in that sense. We can only see them from simpler perspectives, and not from complex insights. As far as we can see, they have no goal or pretensions until the main character invites them to create a band.

Music is treated as something to be discovered and deepened. The anime is very well etilized in musical moments. The evolution of the film starts from this point. It is an evolution that is styling the music more and more until reaching the end. As we already know the simplest and least expressive side of your universe, the stylization moments are very impactful. You can't even say that what they play is really a song, it's more of a noise that they make with the instruments. When the characters do this together for the first time, it changes from that two-dimensional, expressionless aspect to a deeper and more organic perspective.

The film treats music as a kind of discovery and fascinating goal. The sound in the film generates movement. The anime leaves the viewer immersed in that static reality and later gratifies him with that feeling of movement and freedom.

In this first moment, even at the beginning of the film, this technique appears as something fascinating, and that later becomes an imaginary element, especially when we encounter the character Morita. His relationship with music already transcends this vision of fascination with the new, he is already someone who relates to music, so he shows a more imaginary and meditative affection. The first song sung by the character group is calm, and this is reflected in the style of animation that is presented to us in this scene and also by the great voice actress Kami Hiraiwa. We, as spectators, are invited to discover this more imaginary side.

There is a moment in the film where Kenji gives up on the music after listening to it on his recorder. If we notice how the anime deals with the relationship between music and spaces, it makes sense to understand why he gave up. In that scene, they just listen to the song they just recorded, and it had no impact at all. It was staged without that expressiveness that we were used to seeing when they play, again passing that feeling of immobility that goes against the feeling that the characters should feel at that moment.

If there is no music or to appreciate one's own, there is no reason to have that more evident expressiveness. This final stretch leaves the film again with that more static aspect, at least when it comes to Kenji's musical group. There is a very interesting moment when the Morita musical group is handing out the flyers for the rock event, and they are not getting anyone's attention. The character becomes uncomfortable with this situation and begins to play more aggressively, and this is reflected in the animation. Because it is a very unusual scene for the lightness that the character had when singing the first time, it shows how he not only likes to sing, but also takes it very seriously.

At the rock festival, we are in the situation where Kenji is not yet there to play, and another more important one that happens with the character of Morita. Before that, it is interesting to note that the first to sing his music is not so impressive due to the lack of expressiveness that his song goes through the form of animation that we are used to. This in a way takes away the importance of the other participants, until the turn of Morita's Kobujutsu band comes. While they play, at the same time, Kenji's character ran around playing the flute and being chased by a gang for the event. The character to the sound of rock has been traveling the spaces of the streets and the scenery in a very visceral way. This is interrupted when Morita's instrument in the middle of the performance breaks and disrupts his song.

After this event, another band plays and then it is the turn of Kenji's Kobujutsu group to do their show. In an obvious way, the character arrives at the last minute to play with his friends, so we have the most expressive scene in the entire film. When the characters begin to play, Morita's band, by virtue of the music, joins them in the same song. It is interesting to note how at this point, everything becomes more organic, three-dimensional and expressive, and this effect reaches even the audience that is watching. And when it seems like it's over, Kenji continues to play his flute, and in a surreal moment of animation, there is a dip in that imagery side, and then the character floats across the sky, transcending not only this musical and imagery expressiveness, but also reality. It's kind of hard to have an idea if that was real or not, but the important thing is to convey that idea of the effect of the music.

To conclude my criticism. All the ideas and the staging of director Kenji Iwaisawa managed, through the contrast of simplicity and expressiveness, to pass this idea on to a discovery by movement and fascination that music can provide.

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Dec 29, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

MrWEEBX (All reviews)

11 people found this review helpful

ON-GAKU: * spoilers *

When you thought great songs, absolute stunning animation, well-written dialogues, subtle character development couldn't be compressed in a one-hour movie...this movie is here to prove you wrong.

Taking over 7 years to make and more than 40,000 hand-drawn frames, Kenji Iwaisawa brings to us an absolute joy of a movie.

Theme:
We have 3 high school delinquents, Kenji, Ota and Asakura, living a carefree school life, playing games on a console, in their own hideout in school, picking up fights with people from other students, and having a single female friend who gave the trio the title of “three musketeers”, they just do whatever read more

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Oct 6, 2020

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

OrdinaryOddity (All reviews)

9 people found this review helpful

Ongaku is a pleasant surprise.
The story is very simplistic, a trio of dispassionate delinquents randomly form a band. They have no musical background and no ear for tone but they can bang away at their instruments in a, excuse the pun, one note tune. With this new found passion, the trio practice for their debut after entering into a local rock concert.

The film has a strong comedic sense, reminiscent of Wes Anderson flicks with its focus on deadpan characters and punctuations of silence that last a little too long for comfort. The characters aren’t deep but they don’t need to be in this less read more

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Ongaku

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