Story: 8/10
It's great to see a music-centered show, especially for an instrument I actually play (piano, if you were wondering).
This show starts off with a pretty interesting premise, which immediately caught my attention. You get it all in the description--boy is unable to hear his own piano playing. Then he meets Kaori, an energetic violinist who shows him how she interprets music. Pretty generic for a setup, but what follows is what makes the show more interesting.
The story progresses smoothly from one episode to the next: events in one episode directly affect the events of the next, and so on and so forth. There was a little awkwardness around the middle, because one episode the characters were saying "Summer break has started!" and the next they're like "Oh no summer break is almost over."
The pacing of the show is a little weird too; it takes about four episodes from getting Kousei to enter a piano competition to his actual performance. This is due to establishing the backstory of some other characters in the piano competition, that knew Kousei as kids and always placed below him.
A lot of the story focuses directly on Kousei's development as a character, from the "human metronome" he was known as, to a somewhat introverted teenager who has stopped playing the piano, and again to a pianist who lets his own emotions flow into the music instead of playing strictly to the score.
Now, here I have to interject with my own musical experience.
This show has a lot of "No you must play according to the score in a competition, if you add your own flair it's cause for a much lower score." I'm not sure what competition does that, because in all the competitions I know you're supposed to add a little of your own touch to the music because that's what distinguishes between players. It's not necessarily about the number of mistakes you make. If a competition were full of 20-something people all playing the same song exactly as the composer wrote it, it'd be really hard to distinguish between players because to a degree it'd all sound the same.
I've also never heard of a "set piece" in my life--it's boring for judges and the audience to listen to the same song over and over, so usually you pick from a list the competition itself has provided. You may have two or even three people playing the same song, yet overall there's a lot of variety.
Anyway, back to the story.
Pretty early on the show starts hinting something, and as you move through the episodes this hint becomes more and more pronounced before finally coming to a close in the final episode. Since I got spoiled on the ending of the show before I even watched it, these hints just led to the conclusion even more. Even if I hadn't gotten spoiled though, the implications alone would be enough for me to realize the show was getting at something.
A lot of the show is centered on one life-changing event: Kaori persuades Kousei to be her accompanist in a competition she's in, and despite his reluctance, he eventually agrees. In the midst of this competition, Kousei's inability to hear his own playing kicks in. It's really interesting how they used the metaphor of him being underwater and distorted the piano music to help the viewer see inside his head.
However, Kaori's smiling face and her tendency to play the music however she wants helps transform Kousei's playing from robotic to something full of passion, and the changes caused by this solitary scene are brought back over and over again as Kousei's primary motivation to keep playing.
On that note, this show has a lot of issues of repetition. Words and phrases are repeated a lot to give the viewer the impression that they are important. I'm not sure what a better way to do this would have been, but nonetheless it happens a lot. However, this becomes less of an issue once you move into the later episodes.
My number one issue with this show is the comedic relief. This seems to be a common problem among manga adaptations, because what only takes up one panel in the manga can take up to ten seconds in the anime.
The comedy was not really funny since it'd usually come in the middle of an emotional scene. There'd be a great, passion-filled scene going that would suddenly be broken by chibis and yelling. Needless to say, it ruined the mood. I feel like a lot of authors need to realize there can be comedic relief that isn't mood-ruining and doesn't have to be centered around cheap jokes and chibis. Sure, it takes more time, but it ultimately gives the reader/viewer a better experience out of it.
And I wish I could say this problem of mood-ruining comedy goes away as the show grows darker, but it does not. There's less of it, certainly, but it's always there and never handled properly.
Art: 9/10
You can tell A-1 put a lot of money into this show. The visuals are outstanding. Backgrounds full of detail and color, the harsh and shimmering lighting onstage, and the musical aspect of course. This show definitely didn't shy away from drawing a piano, and grand pianos especially are really hard to draw. They used a lot of CGI for these musical scenes, which I was fine with since it makes rendering the instruments a lot easier and provides some nice close-ups of the inner workings of the piano.
Not so much CGI used in Kaori's violin playing, but she was holding it correctly and there was a lot of motion in her playing rather than stills.
The colors in this show are reminiscient of Madoka Magica in that there are tons of colors used in many shots, from a clear blue sky with cherry blossoms swirling about to a starry night to standing by a river with fireflies, to scenes using many different shades of one color like Kousei's underwater entrapment while he plays. Both uses of color are equally impressive, and draw the viewer into the story even more.
This show also has attention to small details, such as the sweat dripping off the characters' faces as they finish playing, and how the characters have full lips and bright, shining eyes.
There's some weird artistic choices though. Sometimes Kousei's glasses are detatched from his face (so as not to hide his eyes when he's drawn from the side), but sometimes they are attached, and sometimes even in the same scene. Presumably, this is sticking to how they were drawn in the manga, but a little more consistency wouldn't hurt. It was kind of bothersome to watch.
As far as other problems, this is more due to personal taste: I didn't like how the chibi characters were drawn. Probably tying into the fact that the comedy was destroying the serious mood most of the time, but a fair amount of the time the chibis would be missing their hair which was odd to say the least.
Sound: 10/10
Damn good sound in this show.
When I found out Goose House, the band who did the Silver Spoon ED that I love so much, did the first opening to this show, I was ecstatic. In all honesty, that opening was about half of the reason I did watch this show.
And it certainly doesn't disappoint. It's a really upbeat and joyful song that makes you want to jump up and dance around.
The second opening is also pretty happy, but is more mellowed-down than the first. It fits well with the direction the show takes.
The ED's are both really good as well. The first one is a bright, happy song, while the second one is melancholy and evokes sad feelings.
The OST for this show is as it should be, and that is fantastic.
The classical pieces performed for the competitions are resplendent in all their glory, done by professional pianists and violinists, not synthesized as is the norm. It gives them a much more authentic sound this way. There's a lot of Chopin, as well as some other classical composers.
Aside from the classical music, the OST of the show on its own is really good. Lots of piano and violin, of course, but it helps to carry the scenes through happy and sad. One issue is it felt like a lot of the BGM was repeated quite frequently. A little weird; not sure why considering the budget for this show was obviously large.
And as far as voice acting goes, it was stunning. There was some weird yelling at the comedic relief, but other than that the voices really bring the characters to life and make you care that much more. This is one of those shows that makes your eyes blur over with tears so you can't read the subtitles.
Character: 8/10
There's four main characters to this show, as well as a few minor characters.
Kousei is our lead, obviously. I found myself surprisingly getting very attached to him over the course of this show, and loved the development he went through. Despite always learning to play music to the score exactly, once he meets Kaori, he learns to step outside the box and bring his own personality into it. You can even hear the change in the music over the course of the show, a subtle but nice touch.
As for Kousei's issue with not being able to hear his playing, I'm not sure what happened to it because at some times he's not able to hear it and at others he is. They didn't really make it clear if it went away or not, either.
Kousei doesn't seem to have much of a personality outside of his piano playing. I can cut some slack seeing as this show is music-centric, but even Tsubaki points it out a few times: She can't decide what his winning qualities besides piano are.
Kaori, on the other hand, has a radiant personality that makes her habit of making the music her own all the more apparent. She's basically the perfect female lead despite her short temper: She's pretty, optimistic, gets along great with kids, selfless, and caring.
I do take some issue with her relentless persuasion to get Kousei back to the piano. I felt that if he doesn't want to play, she shouldn't make him since it obviously brings up unpleasant memories. However, holding back on judging would be wise since you don't see her motivations right away.
Tsubaki is Kousei's friend since childhood. She doesn't play music, but she discusses it with him regardless and supports him the whole way through.
She's similar to Kaori in that she bugs Kousei to pick up the piano even though he clearly doesn't want to, but her motivation is made apparent pretty early on, so once again, hold back on the judging.
They imply a sort of love triangle in this friend group, which did not sit well with me. After all, not every childhood friendship results in romance. After this side plot ran its course though, the show more or less forgot about it and moved to more important things, which is the real issue here. Why add it if it never leads to anything in the end?
Watari is the fourth main character, but he doesn't really feel like it since although we got a lot of time devoted to the other three, at the end of the day we don't know much about him aside from his ladies' man personality and the fact that he's captain of the soccer team. There definitely should have been some time set aside to develop his character.
As for minor characters, there are only four worth mentioning.
First, there's Kousei's mom. She was, to put it bluntly, a terrible mother to him. She forced him to practice for hours on end and beat him and yelled at him. It was good that this show faced this issue of the abusive parent instead of hopping around it, but the big issue was somewhere around the middle of the show they start to paint her as maybe not such a bad person after all. No offense, but she was an absolutely awful person and whatever excuses you make for her behavior, the fact remains that she left a deep and highly negative impression on Kousei, so when the show starts to try to show her in a more positive light, it just doesn't work. Yes, she may have been Kousei's mom, but she was not a nice person and didn't deserve the "redemption" she got.
There's also a professional pianist who was a friend of Kousei's mother. I can't quite recall her name, but she starts to serve as Kousei's mentor when he gets back into piano. She doesn't do much for the story except that, but adding her in was a good choice regardless. God knows Kousei needs a proper mother figure in his life.
The other two minor characters, as previously mentioned, were the two pianists who always placed second and third to Kousei's first. When he quit piano, the two of them became the best.
Their relationship with him was rather odd though, because they seemed to at once both admire him as a hero and despise him as a rival. It was good to see the hints of friendship between the three of them at the end, though.
They have fairly well fleshed-out personalities, but in the end mostly serve as the driving force to inspire Kousei and give the feeling of actual competition rather than just focusing on Kousei's playing the whole time. Know thine enemy, if you will.
Enjoyment: 10/10
I enjoyed the hell out of this show. I'd finish one episode and start the next without even thinking about it or feeling mildly reluctant.
As I've mentioned in other reviews, my enjoyment score is partly based on how quickly I watch the show. With this one, I watched six episodes one afternoon and the remaining sixteen the next day. Some kind of a record, I think. It was just so addicting.
"The scene" in the final episode moved me to tears. Here was where everything came together so brilliantly: the story, the art and animation, the sound, and the character development all accumulating into one heck of a moving scene. It wasn't the end of the show nor the end of my tears, but it's definitely the best scene of the show.
Overall: 9/10
Worth watching? Yes, definitely, especially if you're a musician like me. I recognized a few of the songs and that just made it all the more personal.
I have heard from a friend who read the manga that it's basically a word for word adaptation but with gorgeous animation and the songs included, so it's probably okay to watch this over reading the manga.
Ultimately, this is a really powerful story that shows how music brings people from many different backgrounds together, bridging the gap between them. Despite its flaws and shortcomings, the final impression it leaves you with is very moving and inspiring.
