Story: 6
The story (synopsis available above) is pretty simply. It's simple without the need to get convoluted and is very enjoyable with it's innocent fun but... here comes my biggest issue with the show; it's not handled very well.
To avoid spoilers I won't go into details: there are concepts introduced which don't show up for long periods of time, seeming like they were forgotten or copped out because of time restrains. Transitions between time 'skips' (for lack of a better term) is awkwardly handled, leaving the audience to piece together how much time has passed with very little indication for no reason and, my biggest issue, the extremely sporadic pacing. The pacing is all over the place in this show; some parts are calm and collected while others go from one thing to another so fast that there's little time to take anything in.
Art: 8
The character designs are very 'normal' (for the most part) without the need for flashy in-your-face characters or deformed bodies. The art is overall quite nice and the close-up shots on the instruments are pleasing to the eye. Very fitting with the rest of the show leaving no complaints.
Sound: 10
This is probably bias speaking, especially since jazz is one of my favourite genres--and the 'main' song "Moanin'" by Art Blakey being one of my favourites--but the sound of this show was damn near perfect. The voice acting was good and there were no overblown reactions for comedic purpose (that I remember), sound effects were fitting, and the music selection left little to be desired.
Characters: 9
I could go off on numerous tangents about each of the [important] characters but to save time and space:
they were all well written with their own motivations, reasoning, likable and irritable traits, they had fitting reactions and were, in my honest opinion, more relatable/human/'natural' than in most other anime. Although some development is lacking, the execution more than makes up for it if I say so myself.
Overall: 8.
As much as I loved this anime there were numerous issues with the story which I found to be greatly detrimental to the overall show but not enough to make me dislike it. It's a show I'd definitely recommend and think stands on a solid 8/10.
