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Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon) |OT| Jazz was always there between us

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duckroll

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Title: Kids on the Slope / Sakamichi no Apollon
Genre: Drama / Romance / Music
Length: 24 minutes x 12 episodes

Official Site: http://www.noitamina-apollon.com/index_en.html
Official Stream: http://www.crunchyroll.com/kids-on-the-slope

Trailer 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFuO_2kBwlQ
Trailer 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8owoGJntHJw



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Introduction

Yuki Kodama’s Kids on the Slope (serialized in Shogakukan’s Monthly Flowers) is set in the 1960s against the backdrop of burgeoning modern jazz and freshly explores the friendship, love, and music shared by its high school student main characters. This series has the distinction of winning #1 in 2009’s This Manga is Awesome!, women’s comics division and though it is indeed a “girls’ comic”, male readers have also been won over by the male bonding and coming-of-age aspects of the story. The comic series is supported by a broad base of readers that has high expectations of the anime version.

On January 23rd, 2012, as Kids on the Slope had its biggest exposure yet as a winner of a Shogakukan Manga Award (general audience division), it was announced that the anime production was underway!


Story

The beginning of summer, 1966.

Because of his father’s job situation, freshman high school student Kaoru Nishimi moves by himself from Yokosuka to Kyushu to live with relatives. Until then, Kaoru was an honor roll student who tended to keep to himself, but meeting notorious bad boy Sentaro Kawabuchi starts to change him. Through his devil-may-care classmate, Kaoru learns the attractions of jazz and finds the first person he can call a “friend”. He also discovers how much fun it is to play music with a pal.

Other characters include Sentaro’s kind childhood chum, Ritsuko, who is the daughter of a record shop owner; the mysterious upperclassman, Yurika; and Brother Jun, the much-admired leader among their peers. Set against the backdrop of a seaside town with a scent of American culture, this series is a drama about young people coming into their own, crossing each other’s paths, and finding friendship, love, and music!



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The much-anticipated dream team of Shinichiro Watanabe (director) and Yoko Kanno (music) is back!

Director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) is helming the anime version of Yuki Kodama’s comic series, Kids on the Slope (serialized in Shogakukan’s Monthly Flowers), a vibrant coming-of-age tale about the friendship of two young men and their mutual love of jazz music. Moreover, Yoko Kanno is in charge of the music. Watanabe and Kanno’s collaboration on Cowboy Bebop drew attention and accolades in the past, and now this dream team is together again! Various jazz masterpieces will accompany images of the sparkling springtime of the characters’ lives.


Watch out for a number of classical jazz pieces and performance scenes too!

The story of Kids on the Slope really starts rolling when the classical piano-trained Kaoru encounters Sentaro and falls head-over-heels in love with jazz. One thing to look out for is the performance scene of an excellent jazz piece in every episode. Up-and-coming young jazz musicians are employed here, with Takashi Matsunaga (Kaoru) on piano and Shun Ishiwaka (Sentaro) on drums. Yoko Kanno produces the sessions, which are then used directly for the anime.

Jazz standards like “Moanin’”, “My Favorite Things”, and “Someday My Prince Will Come” are played along with improvisational performances that reflect the mood of the characters at the time, whether they’re in high spirits, or feel lonely, confused, angry, and so on. How these occasional performances and feelings are portrayed and directed is one more highlight of the show. Director Watanabe’s “sessions” are a mix of images and music, so innovative and exciting visual expressions should be expected.



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Staff:
Director: Shinichirou Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo)
Script: Ayako Kato, Yuuko Kakihara (Stitch TV series, Chihayafuru)
Character Design: Nobuteru Yuuki (Vision of Escaflowne, Chrono Cross)
Supervising Animation Director: Yoshimitsu Yamashita (House of Five Leaves)
Music: Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus)
Animation Production: MAPPA / Tezuka Productions


Cast:
Kaoru Nishimi: Ryohei Kimura
Sentarō Kawabuchi: Yoshimasa Hosoya
Yurika Fukahori: Aya Endo
Junichi Katsuragi: Junichi Suwabe
Ritsuko Mukae: Yuuka Nanri
Mariko: Amina Satou
Shigetora Maruo: Ayumu Murasae
Seiji Matsuoka: Nobuhiko Okamoto
Mukai: Zenki Kitajima



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Streaming and Broadcast
The show will broadcast in Japan on FujiTV every Thursday night on the noitaminA slot at 12:45 AM, starting April 12 2012. The Japanese title is Sakamichi no Apollon. More information can be found here: http://www.noitamina-apollon.com

For those outside of Japan, Kids on the Slope is set to stream on Crunchyroll starting Thursday, April 12 at 9:30am PDT in the following territories: U.S.A, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. More information can be found on the official site here: http://www.crunchyroll.com/


Soundtracks

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http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/4979161

The first OST for Apollon will be out on April 25, for 3,059yen.

Tracklist:
1 KIDS ON THE SLOPE
2 Chick's Diner
3 Moanin'
4 Bag's Groove
5 Blowin' The Blues Away
6 Satin Doll
7 YURIKA
8 Rosario
9 Curandelo
10 Transparent
11 Run
12 But not for me
13 My Favorite Things
14 Equinox
15 A Piece Of Blue
16 Lullaby Of Birdland
17 Jazz For Button
18 Four
19 Easy Waltz
20 float
21 Milestones
22 Apollon Blue
23 Kaoru & Sentaro Duo in BUNKASAI (Medley “My Favorite Things~Someday My Prince Will Come~Moanin'")
24 Someday My Prince Will Come

Song Performance Staff:
Producer - Yoko Kanno
Piano - Takashi Matsunaga
Drums - Shun Ishikawa
Guest Vocalists - Aoi Teshima, Masayoshi Furukawa, Yuuka Nanri

BGM Staff:
Composer - Yoko Kanno



http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/5000932

The second OST for Apollon will be out on June 6, for 3,059yen. This is the "Outtakes Collection" which includes BGM and alternate performance takes not included in the previous soundtrack.
 
It's pretty bizarre that I'm not a regular anime watcher by any measure, and yet the show which has recently brought me back into the fold is this- a show about highschoolers playing jazz music.

But Bebop is too good. I can't resist the Dream Team, and that trailer was great too. I'm setting my expectations sensibly, so hopefully they'll blow me away.
 
If you change the thread title to Sakamichi No Apollon you'll get more people in here
I was THIS close to skipping this thread because I didn't know what the hell Kids on the slope was
 

duckroll

Member
If you change the thread title to Sakamichi No Apollon you'll get more people in here
I was THIS close to skipping this thread because I didn't know what the hell Kids on the slope was

Nope, not enough weeaboos to make up for the loss of people who will stay away from a random title they don't even understand.
 
i'm pretty sure it'll be up for streaming an hour or two after it's broadcast in japan

That would be awesome.

Nope, not enough weeaboos to make up for the loss of people who will stay away from a random title they don't even understand.

Speaking of weeaboos, I recall a couple of years back when gaf was quite populated by them. Have they migrated elsewhere, or is being a weeaboo not as cool as it used to be for them?
 

duckroll

Member
Speaking of weeaboos, I recall a couple of years back when gaf was quite populated by them. Have they migrated elsewhere, or is being a weeaboo not as cool as it used to be for them?

There are two large cages in OT-Community filled with them.
The rest are in NISA threads on Gaming. :p
 
Speaking of weeaboos, I recall a couple of years back when gaf was quite populated by them. Have they migrated elsewhere, or is being a weeaboo not as cool as it used to be for them?

Check out the Spring Anime Thread in OT Community. edit: beaten :(

Anyway, I appreciate shows like this get their own threads in OT, because god forbid I use the Community threads for discussion.
 
Premise sounds fantastic and I'll check the trailers out in a bit, but it already had me at: Watanabe, Kanno & Jazz.

Will watch.
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
Milestones!!!!!!!


SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME


OMFG



Man it's going to be awesome to hear this music in the show even if they don't use some of the brass. Going to be really interesting to hear the versions they pump out. These are a few of my favourite things~
 

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
Oh I missed the 2nd trailer. Art Blakey's Moanin' niiiice. So smooth.

Slice of life graduating to stardom! I gotta go lie down before I faint from over excitement.
 
There are two large cages in OT-Community filled with them.
The rest are in NISA threads on Gaming. :p

Check out the Spring Anime Thread in OT Community. edit: beaten :(

Anyway, I appreciate shows like this get their own threads in OT, because god forbid I use the Community threads for discussion.

Completely forgot how OTs prevent so many different type of gaffers from mixing in on the conversation. Yeah I don't venture much into community threads at all, which explains my lack of weeaboo gaffer exposure lately.
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
Man first Watanabe series in years and it's a motherfucking adaptation of a girls manga? hype -1

Can't wait, Watanabe is totally going save Noitamina and bring back the old!
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
I cannot wait for this. I've been waiting for the triumphant reunion of Kanno and Watanabe.

I'll have to watch this with my roommate.
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
are those supposed to be amazing animes or something?
I can't speak for Mysterious girlfriend X (although it is getting good reception) but space brothers is pretty good, although I doubt either show will be as good as Kids on the slope darkside is just being full of shit!
 
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