Original Run: 11/11/2002 – 01/13/2003
Genre: Drama, Romance.
Anime Director: Norihiko Sudo
Plot:
Music has many distinguished sounds, sounds of joy sounds of pain, but it also sheds a new light to a path so serene that it’s captivating. Miu Nomura (our heroin) has walked this path from a wee tot to her adolescent stage. She had incredible talents ever since she was young, and playing the piano was her specialty. She was blessed and her talents were at their peak when she shared what she loved doing best with an audience. As Miu reached her preteens, she began to struggle like all musicians do as they try to find their muse. The path she once walked was shrouded with darkness, and her talents had come to a screeching halt. To struggle is to survive, and reinventing oneself is a hard task than it appears to be. Through the pain, and social struggles, Miu continues to march down that black painted path in hopes of rediscovering her former self.
Characters:
Miu Nomura.
Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese), Rebecca Soler (English)
Miu Nomura was born a prodigy; she had an unbelievable talent for playing the piano and found it to be the rhythm of her life. Playing the piano was her way of expressing herself and a way of connecting her emotions with those around her. The urge to share the wonderful feeling that music instilled in her heart with her beloved ones, is what fueled her ambitions and allowed her to excel at her forte. With such feelings, puddles of nerving emotions begin to develop, and Miu’s heart was enveloped with unfamiliar feelings, feelings of love, friendship and despair, that she struggles with immensely as she tries to lead a normal life. Despite this enormous weight that she caries on her shoulders, she continues to strive forward in hopes of grasping the emotions that once filled her heart with immeasurable joy.
Yuuki Matsubara.
Voiced by: Voiced by: Tomoko Kawakami (Japanese), Zoe Martin (English)
Yuuki is a wonderful person; she’s friendly and enjoys helping others. She is energetic and full of life and is always putting others ahead of her own needs. Yuuki’s Miu’s best friend in the series and they share a warm and sensational relationship in the series. Through out the entire aspect of the story telling, we find Yuuki always keeping a watchful eye on her best friend, as she tries to help her deal with the daily struggles of a preteen’s life. Together they embrace their surroundings and march towards a resolution to the crippling problems that befell them. Amidst the misery, Yuuki’s determination to help her friend never once wavered, and this quickly becomes one of her strongest traits in the series.
Kazuya Takahashi.
Voiced by: Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama (Japanese), Michael Sinterniklaas (English)
There comes a time in every boy’s life when he has to decide between his future and love life, and Takahashi is no stranger to this moral dilemma. Takahashi is a hard working teenager that’s devoted to his studies and his school life. In the series, he serves as Miu’s serene crush and one of the reasons that hindered Miu’s talents. Although this is somewhat true, Takahashi is not entirely to blame, as it was Miu’s uncontrolled emotions towards him that caused her severe disillusions.
Summation:
Music has powerful affects, effects that can heal, sadden or spring forth an astounding surge of energy to the human vessel. Piano is a series that embodies all of these affects that music produces, and it does this through a young maiden named, Miu Nomura. The viewer is immersed in all what music has to offer through Miu’s struggles in the series. Miu’s struggles are portrayed wonderfully via a terrific script and rich character, that the majority of the viewers are likely to be familiar with. Piano is a powerful series that offers a sensible insight on teenagers in their adolescent stage, and how they contend to deal with internal uncertainty.
Theme:
The show does well to establish a moral theme that everyone can familiarize with. Through powerful characters and a beautiful story line, Piano dictates the pace on how humans struggle with love, friendship and change. The series solely focus on how change can affect us all, but it also depicts how love and friendship can have such tremendous effects in our everyday life. The message is spectacularly delivered through solid actors and self-conscious characters. The viewer is sure to be enthralled as he is taking on a journey of struggle, despair and salvation.
Media Related:
Although it’s not the originator of its genre, piano does well to deliver a solid story line that is sure to appease the mass audience of the genre. Through elegantly designed characters and breath taking scenery, piano amasses all the necessary traits of a magnificent drama filled, and romance inspiring series. Not often are we blessed with extraordinary story telling and memorable characters, and only a few series have succeeded in this beloved field, but Piano quickly erases all doubts from the viewer’s mind from the get go to the preclusion of the series, and in doing so it distinguishes itself and establishes a solid foundation for itself as one of the greats.
