So it has been some time since I last posted in this thread. Since grad school has started things have gotten side-tracked all over the place. I also haven't had the time to really watch a lot of anime much to my chagrin :angry:. But recently I was able to find some time and watch a number of shows to completion as well as start a few others.
One of the shows I watched to completion was a 12 episode show called Kids on the Slope directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. This is the guy who did Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. And! With him doing the music for the show was the same artist who did Cowboy Bebop's music, Yoko Kanno. These two teamed up again and brought a manga, which I didn't know about till this show, to life. The story is as described:
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!
The show leads you through Kaoru, Sentaro, and Ritsuko's ups and downs during their high school years starting when Kaoru and Sentaro first meet. Both are social outcasts whose troubled pasts and current social hangups not only cause rifts between them and their classmates, but also with each other. Yet, despite each conflict that arises between the two, they resolve it, and usually this is done by playing jazz which is the main theme for the show. And these scenes when the characters played jazz were something special. Yoko Kanno and Shinichiro Watanabe did not hold back with these moments and alot of the time I wish that they were extended so we could watch the characters play more jazz and her Yoko's work at the same time. These combined would draw me into the scenes. The animation was not half-assed and you felt like you were really watching a live performance put on by the characters. And probably one of the best scenes I have ever watched in any anime is in this show. About mid-way through Kaoru and Sentaro have a big fight and both are being somewhat stubborn. Ritsuko is distraught because she sees both as her close friends fighting (though she has feelings for Sentaro though this eventually changes over time). This comes to a head when Sentaro decides to play drums for a pop band for their school's festival. Kaoru is jealous because Sentaro is the only friend he's ever really had and they stop hanging out. Though, as with these stories, power goes out and the pop band cannot use their electric guitars and bass. But Kaoru and Sentaro put on an impromptu jazz session in front the whole school and Ritsuko realizes that both boys are making up in their own way through playing jazz. It's a difficult scene to describe without giving too much away because it's a big moment in the anime when it happens. It's also one of those rare magical anime moments where afterward I was simply blown away.
What I loved most about this show is how nothing was overly exaggerated or over done. If you want a high school anime full of romance and comedy then I'd suggest School Rumble as you won't find anything of that sort here. Kids on the Slope handles its romance very well and there are moments where you can relate to all of the characters, both male and female. One thing that really worried me about the characters initially was that the female characters would be either week or the type that puts on a tough skin but is in fact very feminine on the inside. Nope, you won't find that here. Both the male and female characters show both weakness and strength and each is willing to show this in front of others at various times throughout the show. This makes watching their development very rewarding.
I already enjoyed listening to jazz and when I saw this show it made me love the genre even more. I don't watch a lot of anime based on the contemporary world as we already have plenty of live action movies and TV shows that cover that but almost none have a story like Kids on the Slope. Yoko Kanno's musical interpretations of some of the most legendary jazz artists are fantastic, catchy, and worth listening to time and time again. The characters have a touching, frustrating, and heart warming story to tell that is worth watching several times over even if the show does not follow the manga to its completion. Something I am very touchy about as the manga has a great ending that is wholly satisfying that also ties up many loose strings that the anime leaves unanswered due to where it leaves off. It could have easily been a 24 episode show because it leaves out some important moments that the manga delves into that are not covered in the last 2 episodes of the show. But I digress, the anime itself is superb and still worth watching. So! If you like jazz, want an anime that is set in the contemporary world; is as realistic as one can get with anime; and enjoy a good story of friendship, music, and love! Kids on the Slope is definitely worth your while.
You can watch the show in its entirety on
HULU. Here is the show's website:
Kids on the Slope
Here's the scene I was talking about earlier. You really just have to watch it the show up to this point.
[video=youtube;nZNPdUjaXys]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZNPdUjaXys[/video]
Some of Yoko Kanno's music pieces:
Some Day My Prince Will Come - Original by Bill Evans
[video=youtube;viwUgMVr2G0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viwUgMVr2G0&list=PL392549EA6617ADBD[/video]
Bag's Groove - Original by Miles Davis
[video=youtube;9AWGFdozCi0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AWGFdozCi0&list=PL392549EA6617ADBD[/video]
). But the setting is so far from is usually out there that it's a nice change of pace for once. 
