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NeoGAF's "Let's Watch Anime" OT#7: Now Watching: Kids on the Slope (11/17-11/29)

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Cornbread78

Member
The Goal of the "Let's Watch Anime" thread is to bring together the anime community (even "casuals") to watch a lesser known anime series to discuss and share our reactions towards it at the same time. Participation in each episode is appreciated, but playing “catch-up” by watching multiple episodes is normal as everyone has different responsibilities/time to watch anime. Just don’t post on future episodes unspoilered! The more posting about the series and it's events, the more beneficial it is to everyone, so please post up on the good, the bad and the awful; We are all in this together! (no hiding lurkers) We will have a new show selected to watch every two/three weeks and the genre will vary greatly. The shows that will be selected will have met the below criteria:

- Any genre
- Lesser known titles (Not SAO, One Piece, Gintama, etc)
- Not already aired on Toonami/Adult Swim
- The shows should try to avoid outrageous and/or sexually offensive themes
- Shows could be good, bad or possibly trash; let's find out together
- Recommendations are always accepted for future viewing
- Let's have FUN with this together! Please participate in the review and discussion!



Next up by popular demand:

F8Kc579.png

(Sakamichi no Apollon)
iUTJ5hC.jpg

Fj6LhWU.gif




Synopsis/Plot:
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!


Additional information on the anime and characters from MAL & Wiki:

http://myanimelist.net/anime/12531/Sakamichi_no_Apollon



Genres: Drama, Josei, Music, Romance, School
Duration: 22 min. per ep.
Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Episodes: 12


Review:

Kids on the Slope is superb in its visuals and music. The characters are naturally drawn and the backgrounds are animated to evoke a strong sense of nostalgia. The character movement is fluid and believable, with the attention to details being most impressive during the series' jamming sessions, as every note is matched by finger movements that are in sync with the music. Watanabe has reunited with composer Kanno Yoko (Cowboy Bebop) to create the show's amazing soundtrack, and the music is definitely the best thing about the show. In fact, music is its central element because it is a passion shared by many of the characters and Watanabe has also used it as a means to communicate the characters' feelings.





Available on Crunchyroll :

Crunchyroll!:

http://www.crunchyroll.com/kidsontheslope





Episodes are set for viewing “one a day” over the next three weeks so we can try to stay together.



Open Episodes:All:


Episode 12 opens:

11/228 12am PST


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Come join me Friends.


Previous “Let’s Watch Anime” sessions:

#1- Humanity Has Declined:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1090173
#2- Eccentric Family:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1097748
#3- Sunday Without God:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1104608
#4- Samurai Flemanco:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1111817
#5- Blast of Tempest:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1120956
#6- Kyousougiga:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1133594






*Required ToS Footnote and reminder*
Please see the warning on page 1 of the current seasonal Anime community OT, that still applies here. It's simple; Don't talk about it or promote it...

look at GAF-chan’s words of advice from the community thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1118026

Mod Note:
This has been happening frequently enough lately that I just wanted to throw out a friendly reminder: solicitation, discussion, and linking of pirated material is prohibited. This includes illegal streams, torrents, aggregators, fansub & sub group discussion, links to websites containing entire anime soundtrack albums magically for free, etc. Use common sense here. Discussion of legal, ethical, and economic implications of piracy is okay.

Basically, the section on piracy & copyrighted material in the Terms of Service applies to anime as well.
 
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Oh wow, I saw a Demo D+ video about this but since that video used the Japanese name I never made the connection that that anime was Kids on The Slope (which actually get's a lot of praise everywhere). I'm interested to check this one out, I always like music based anime, and I guess there's even a romance element? Sign me up!

Anyhow, I'm not as busy anymore as last thread so I can actually keep up this time lol.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Oh wow, I saw a Demo D+ video about this but since that video used the Japanese name I never made the connection that that anime was Kids on The Slope (which actually get's a lot of praise everywhere). I'm interested to check this one out, I always like music based anime, and I guess there's even a romance element? Sign me up!

Anyhow, I'm not as busy anymore as last thread so I can actually keep up this time lol.

That damn picture! Freakin' Mailbox! LOL.

It's got some bromance too, so yeah... Also, it has a really excellent rating on MAL and pretty universal praise, so hopefully it lives up to it all..
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Good luck with this show. I still have strong feelings about it after all this time, and it's when I realized that staff-hype is the worst kind of hype.
 
Kids on the Slope 01

That was a pretty great introductory episode, a lot of stuff happened but it flowed very naturally. There's an impressive amount of detail for the instruments, even compared to Euphonium. I'm not an animator but to me it would seem like Piano or Drums would be equally as hard to animate and detail as a trumpet or tuba due to the movement. Ok, maybe it's not as insanely detailed as Euphonium but it's pretty impressive nonetheless. Direction and music are on point but I guess that's to be expected.
 

Kvik

Member
Will watch now. Hopefully the ending won't be as depressing as White Album 2's (which is the last music/romance anime I saw)

EDIT:

Episode 1

That was a great opener. Two misfits united by the love of music and their character dynamics here was pretty good. Artstyle was quite good so far and the character design was pretty cool. I didn't realise it was set in the 1960s until I saw the cars and the locales. And the music, to tell you the truth I wasn't a jazz listener (and what little I heard in the past was a little hard to get into), but I really appreciated that small snippet of Someone to Watch Over Me which Kaoru played in the morning.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Well, that was an interesting opening episode. The characters were interesting, the settign is unual in that it's a classical setting and I'm really looking forward to the music aspect of the show. That's what kept me coming back to Nodame Cantable. That was classical music, so getting some jazz music with this one should be pretty good.

"It was love at first sight" almost fits perfectly in a couple ways between the bromance and romance aspects, lol.
 

Linkark07

Banned
Thought you guys were going to watch Rozen Maiden.

Doesn't matter, this anime is superb. Watched it in less that 2 days, loved every second of it. It also made me listen Jazz.

Hope you guys enjoy it.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Thought you guys were going to watch Rozen Maiden.

Doesn't matter, this anime is superb. Watched it in less that 2 days, loved every second of it. It also made me listen Jazz.

Hope you guys enjoy it.



We were/are, the debate is whether to watch season 1 or not first for the back refernce. Plus we skipped this one in error, lol.

I'll leave it up to everyone if they want to watch the original Rosen Maiden (2 seasons) first before moving to 2013, that would be about 39 episodes total though... Hence the confusion.

We might just go straight to Mirrai Nikki after this first and get some bloodsport on, lol.
Open to more recs though.
 

Linkark07

Banned
Well, if you guys like the bromance of Kids on the Slope, my recommendation is Tsuritama. Bromance, fishing, aliens, beach and an unique visual design, it is really enjoyable.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Well, if you guys like the bromance of Kids on the Slope, my recommendation is Tsuritama. Bromance, fishing, aliens, beach and an unique visual design, it is really enjoyable.

I got through 7 episodes of that, but lost interest, ut that's just me...

I'm open to whatever, it's a matter of making sure more people join in...
 

Linkark07

Banned
I got through 7 episodes of that, but lost interest, ut that's just me...

I'm open to whatever, it's a matter of making sure more people join in...

Another poster on the other thread recommended Usagi Drop. Add me to that too. Although, dunno if people will like it so much.

But, after this, go with Mirai Nikki. Got some friends who hate anime watch it and say it is one of their favorite shows ever. People will truthfully enjoy it (unless they hate yanderes and wimpy boys).

Shinsekai Yori too. To be honest, watched like 23 episodes in one sitting.
 
Episode 01


Solid introductory episode although it was a bit bumpy with the exposition at times. The aunt straight up saying to Kaoru that his mother abandoned him for example. It didn't feel like something an actually person would say. Maybe she's just evil, hopefully they'll touch more on the aunt later on.

For the rest the premise of this is a bit paint by the numbers, two polarizing misfits come together because of their shared passion for music. I can't complain though as I always like a more classic story, especially since I'm already enjoying both the main characters right from the get go, not really sure how I feel about the girl though
Please let her not ruin the OTP

It kinda seems like there is a going to be a bigger focus on Kaoru finding something in his life with the help of Sentaro than the other way around. I hope this relationship will work both ways in the future. They're probably going to touch on that later on, I wonder about what it's going to be. If I had to guess Sentaro's family situation is going to play a big role as there seems that something is going on about his heritage and upbringing, his dad is probably a sailor as well.

Speaking of which, what's up with all the sailors. Am I missing something about this period in Japanese history? I did some googling and couldn't find anything that fits. Is there a reason why this show is set in this particular period in time?

For the rest the animation of especially the hands looks really good, smooth would be the best word to describe it.


Most of the times the show looks quite "tame" for lack of a better word but I feel like it sets the mood well. Especially when it plays around with the lighting for those neat symbolic moments.


nI1tqA7.jpg

The fact that the instruments of the main characters share the same colour pallete (and characteristics) of their musicians is a nice touch
 

Cornbread78

Member
Episode 01
Most of the times the show looks quite "tame" for lack of a better word but I feel like it sets the mood well. Especially when it plays around with the lighting for those neat symbolic moments.
g5A3vHM.jpg

Like I said before, it was love at first sight, lol...
 

Yomidi

Member
Episode 1

Pretty good first episode. The premise isn't that original, but the show still looks interesting. The two main character are likeable and I'm ready to see their bromance.
I really like the animation, especially the lighting and I'm always down for music stuff. So yeah, I liked it
 
Episode 1
It's amusing that this first episode feels so much like a BL story when I'm pretty sure that's not the direction they're going in. The set up also reminds me of A Separate Peace. It's OK so far.
 

Kvik

Member
Episode 2

OK, It's the beach episode. Also featuring Sentaro's love interest. Bullying is rampant, and probably there will be a love polygon later with Jun-niisan appearance (I hope not). Jamming session in the record store was pretty cool, and seems like the band members has gathered. The rest of episode was pretty much SoL and not much else happened unfortunately.
 
Episode 2

Seems like we've had more fighting than music being played at this point, not that I can really complain though. They have to do something to make Sentaro look like a nice guy.

The time at the beach was nice, way better than your average slice of life series. Maybe because of how awkard Kaoru acts around everyone Ritsuko or because of the fact that these characters are more realistic/relatable and are able to embody being young and doing fun stuff better than a typical SoL cast that's more extravagant.

I wonder how that Church scene is going to come into play later on in the story, same with Sentaro's new girlfriend, can't wait to see more!
 

Cornbread78

Member
OK, that was pretty good. I think I laughed way more at that fight than I should have. Poor Kaoru tries to man up, but ended up in the well, lol. Well, at least he threw down (or tried to, lol) If that is what we get for your typical "beach" scene, then bravo KotS. That was well done. The jamming sessions was well done as well. He obviously isn;t some wiz kid when it comes to music, so it is fun watching him have to learn how to play jazz.

Good stuff.

tumblr_nsiw5rZNSO1tgp5pso3_500.gif
 

Yomidi

Member
Episode 2
Good episode. The beach scene was surprisingly good and didn't fall in the usuals anime tropes. I hope there aren't more fights in the next episodes, they might become tiring.
 
Episode 2
This was a pretty good slice of life episode. It was nice seeing the jazz session and the characters enjoying themselves at the beach. As I hinted at in my earlier post, this reminds me a lot of the sort of story you'd read in high school or middle school for class, involving two boys bonding in slice of life scenarios before something terrible happens to them.
 

Kvik

Member
Episode 3

Plenty of misunderstandings and heartbreak. Seeing Sentaro bumbling his way through inviting Yurika on a date was pretty funny. Another great piano piece from Kaoru and his assertiveness was commendable too, I never thought I will see a confession so early.
 
This love traingle, yikes.

Wonder who'll end up with each other.

-----

How did the girl get a scratch on her arm though, they were walking on the middle of the road!
 

Cornbread78

Member
Well, I guess those misunderstandings came up real quick, but there is trouble in paradise. The feels got amped up real quick with those two, but it'll probably be awhile before things clear up, but another good episode. At least he finally got it out of his mouth to Rika.




This love traingle, yikes.

Wonder who'll end up with each other.
-----
How did the girl get a scratch on her arm though, they were walking on the middle of the road!

Remember childhood friends ALWAYS lose, lol.

Well, more than 90% of the time at least.
 

Yomidi

Member
Episode 3

Yeeeeah, I'm not digging the love triangle stuff. This episode is basically people misunderstanding each other. I hope this stuff gets cleared up quick.
And holy shit, Sentaro already got the girl. Wasn't that a bit too fast? I dunno, I thought that I missed something for a second there.
 

Kvik

Member
Episode 4

Kaoru is alpha as fuck. It's too bad the bar management won't eject the drunk racist (it's a gaijin bar after all) during the gig. Also, what I feared has come to fruition: this has turned into love polygon. Oh dear, I hope this won't break the band up (lol).
 

Cornbread78

Member
Yumiko you hussy... Poor Sentaro is gonna get rocked by this trick. I didn't think this show had this much love drama in it. Thankfully, the show is still very enjoyable and the characters pretty good. I'm shocked Kaoru got the balls to kiss Ren like that right out in the open; talk about stealing a kiss. He probably stole her first and really sent her into a tizzy because of her feelings for Sentaro...
 

McNagah

Member
Working my way up to Episode 4

Episode 1
So the two main guys are going to get together right? In more ways that one. Speaking of which, both of them are way more good-looking then anyone else in this series. The show feels like it's rotoscoped, and if it is, it will be the first rotoscoped anime I got into.

As a fan of Jazz, but haven't gotten into it, I think I'm going to really like the music in this anime.
 

McNagah

Member
I believe parts of the show are rotoscoped, like the piano parts

Yeah, I remember someone told me that it was rotoscoped during the sessions. There's one up ahead that will be a lot more noticeable I think. It's just the first episode had a lot of details that you normally don't notice during an anime.

Episode 2

Every episode feels like it's 60 minutes, instead of 20, and in a good way. There's just so much shoved into each episode but it's all paced out very nicely. Kaoru fights like a wimp, it was funny when he was just splashing people around with water. The jamming session was the best part of this episode! The music is great!

Someone posted that the anime was set in the 60's. I was able to notice it in the second episode, that bus looked so old. So does the outfits that they are wearing and the town setting.

Hopefully this anime doesn't become a love triangle. I feel like it will though according to the preview.
 

Yomidi

Member
Episode 5

Now this was a nice episode. Kaouru meets his mom. Their reunion was nice and the ending was a bit sad.
And it looks like Kaoru is over Riko....but I feel like we still got some more love drama with Yumiko and Jun.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Reunion with his mom was nice, and the further bromance is now tangible. Jun is in full pimp mode, and he is stealing Sentaro's girl as well. The doulbe love triangles are kind of annoying but the show is pretty damn good, so I can easily deal with it. Good stuff!
 

Kvik

Member
Episode 5

Sen being a true bro and accompanying Kaoru to Tokyo was great. I suppose Kaoru's mom was a bar singer? Ri-chan finally told Kaoru what she felt, but it almost broke the band apart (lol), what the hell with these groupies man.

Episode 6

Man, if you're a drummer and loaning yourself to another band, shouldn't you notify the other band members beforehand? Jealousy abound. Kaoru knows what's up with the fishy Beatles fan. His Insecurities is one thing, but asking a jazz drummer to play pop tracks can be considered an insult, almost.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Trouble in bromanceland.. Poor Kaoru needs to chillax. You know he had a rough childhood, but damn dude, don't fuck up the friends you do make.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Episode 5

Sen being a true bro and accompanying Kaoru to Tokyo was great. I suppose Kaoru's mom was a bar singer? Ri-chan finally told Kaoru what she felt, but it almost broke the band apart (lol), what the hell with these groupies man.

Episode 6

Man, if you're a drummer and loaning yourself to another band, shouldn't you notify the other band members beforehand? Jealousy abound. Kaoru knows what's up with the fishy Beatles fan. His Insecurities is one thing, but asking a jazz drummer to play pop tracks can be considered an insult, almost.



Only groupie is that vile chick two timing Sentaro...



BTW, any new recs out there for the next Let's watch, or are we good going straight ultra violation with Mirai Nikki?

We could also go back to the original Rozen Maiden since it is on Crunchyroll, then do the following seasons.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Holy $hit, what an episode! Best one by far, that ending was with Kaoru and Sentaro playing together was great. Good music, good writing, excellent episode.. Damn, bromance is back baby...
 

Kvik

Member
Episode 7

Sen and Kaoru got their groove back and in such spectacular fashion. It's really good seeing introverted Kaoru grew into one of the most popular kid at school. And at least Yurika admits to Ri-chan she's been leading Sen along, but I wonder what happened to Jun-niisan though. Also, Ri-chan's dad referring the death of John Coltrane placed this episode around July, 1967.

Only groupie is that vile chick two timing Sentaro...

Haha, I wish they fleshed out Yurika's story a little bit more. Sen's should've picked up on it earlier, I mean, something's fishy if your date talked about another man FOR THE ENTIRETY OF THEIR DATE.

BTW, any new recs out there for the next Let's watch, or are we good going straight ultra violation with Mirai Nikki?

We could also go back to the original Rozen Maiden since it is on Crunchyroll, then do the following seasons.

I'm game for Mirai Nikki, but I was curious about Night Raid 1931 and Natsume Yujin-cho. Has anyone seen these two?
 

hamchan

Member
It was halfway through the first episode that I suddenly realized I've already read the whole manga of this series years ago. So can't make any predictions about where the plot will go since it'll probably be actual spoilers I'd just forgotten!

I guess I'll just appreciate the quality of the adaptation. Already liking that I can actually hear the music.
 

Cornbread78

Member
Oh Yurika, you sly sly dog you.... Looks like Brother Jun is prying onthe younger girls, poor Sentaro. I guess we finally found out what really happened in the basement with Brother Jun to make her flip on Sen like that. Lots of drama in this episode, but I guess we're headign into even more now that Ri-chan is changing her tune on Maoru? This is going to get crazy really fast, especially now that Sentaro finally is figurign out about Ri-chan's feelings... so many upcoming misunderstandings....
 

Kvik

Member
Episode 8

Well, I got what I wanted: Yurika's backstory. Did Jun-niisan just knocked her up, since Yurika's mom scheduled that appointment with gyneacologist? What happened to Jun-niisan was a tragedy since he originally just wanted to help a friend, rather than being a political activist. Kaoru struggles with his newfound fame at school whilst Ri-chan struggles with her newfound feeling for Kaoru.
 
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