Story:
Kids on the Slope is not what many of us have come to think of when we watch an anime. There are no epic battle scenes, or large dangling "tracks of land"; there is only the pleasant serenity of life in post war Japan. Life for these three teenagers is much like the slope they walk up and down each day, while attending school. They all experience rough patches, and seemingly endless hills; but they manage to make it back down every day through the friendships they create. We can all relate to this story in one way or another; be it the death of a family member, or the rejection of a loved one. Yet life continues on, and our pain is soon forgotten in place of joy. I only found two complaints to make about the story. The first being the lack of detail sometimes found during the time skips. Often there are many months, if not years that go by with only a small monologue in between to catch the viewer up. In addition there were not enough jazz jam sessions/concerts, but I believe this was due to the 12 episode time constraint.
Art:
The art the style chosen is a perfect pick for this type of anime. The extreme detail given to the characters faces makes every little change in emotion noticeable. This is especially prevalent during the musical sessions. Seeing the characters eyes move up or down as they increase pitch or speed really brings the show to life. All of the characters have been drawn in a proportionate manner, almost mimicking an actual human face. As a tenor saxophone player myself it was great to see this inclusion. However, this is where our experience starts to get a little rough. The water color backgrounds can be utterly astounding at times, but the animation quality drops at random intervals. The still frames will be left close to blank, and the running animations can look very off. I'm not sure what this shows budget was, but seeing as that Watanabe headed it I'd be surprised if it was under the normal rate for a single cour program. Also what's up with a the opening sequence, it looks terrible? None of these problems are very serious I would just like to know why they happened in the first place.
Sound:
I'm just going to say one thing, Yoko Kanno. If you don't know what I mean by that the door is to your right. All jokes aside if a sound track is good enough for me to listen to without the animation behind it, it deserves a 10/10. From "husky" woman solos to the ever amazing Moanin' by Art Blakey, this soundtrack is just about as perfect as perfect gets.
For the voice dubbing I choose to go with the English version, as I normally do, produced by Sentai Filmworks. I'd say the best word to describe the voice acting for this show would be "passionate". I could tell right off the bat that the voice actors had been matched to their respective characters perfectly; hats off to Sentai for their excellent screening process. Not only are the actors voices filled with emotion, they adjust their level and type of emotion from scene to scene in a manner that rivals traditional acting. It's a damn good piece of work.
Characters:
KOTS has three main protagonists, with a variety of supporting characters. Kaoru Nishimi is the well off "prodigal son" who at a young age was chosen to, by his aunt, become a wealthy doctor in order to carry on the family name. He plays the piano. Sentarō Kawabuchi is seen as a bully with a negative outlook on self worth. He plays the drums. Our final protagonist is a girl named Ritsuko Mukae. She has always been a sister figure to Sentarō, and his only true friend. These characters are as close to perfect as they come. They all develop in a natural way as the show progresses; weaving their personal stories into the overarching narrative. While not always positively, the three react to each other meaningful ways. They understand the problems of each other, and share a deep connection that can only be found in love and friendship. The only complaint I can muster, is the supporting character "Pops" didn't receive enough development. While showing potential, he is no more than a walking string bass.
Personal Enjoyment/Overall:
After having just finished watching "Durarara!!" (review coming...someday) it was relaxing to just sit back, and take in this life-like story. Other than the occasional fault this anime is a joy to watch from start to finish, and receives a "Must Watch" on my scale of recommendation.
Masterpiece-Best
Must Watch
Watch
Try The First Couple Episodes
Skip It
Run For Your Life-Worst
As usual I recommend you buy a copy, and help support our local dubbing companies and the anime industry as a whole. However, just taking the time to watch it is of greater importance.
As a final statement I recommend that you take my numerical scores with a grain of salt; as numerical scores are easily skewed and each person has their own understanding of the 1-10 scale.
