I wanted to talk about Sound! Euphonium, but not exactly. It’s more about the way Kurosawa Tomoyo stole a lot of my attention this year, with her performance in this sharp coming-of-age piece from Kyoto Animation. The animation, story, direction, the handling of the adaptation, art direction and the character/inter-character drama are all very remarkable, and to me, very enjoyable. Even the salt from the oversea yuri community. It’s really symptomatic about their inability to read what’s going on, but in this case it was humorous how it turned out. I guess I am in no place to criticize other otaku for being KY.
The music is something worth talking about. Just a holidays sort of observation, while catching a glimpse of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, you see some of America’s top High School marching bands at work. The stuff they play is way more progressive than anything out of the more recital-style stiffness that delights snooty Asians and OST nerds from Eupho. And that’s what we really want.
It’s kind of like how in Your Lie in April we tortured a similar music scene for its drama, although perhaps that has the satisfaction of slamming the sledgehammer through a wall, compared to the fine-slicing of a sharp blade–the bleeding comes only after you’re done with Eupho. I don’t really know which is worth talking about more–the candle that sparks into life or the sparkle that extinguishes.
What I do know is Tanechan really needs to visit America, because when Moyochi did, she stole something precious! I don’t even know what.
For the rest of you, there’s always this ode to Kyoani I guess.
And for what it’s worth…the voice cast in Amagi, then Euphonium…then in Phantom World… I think I like this pattern. How does annoying sidekick fairy Koroazu sound like?
And I didn’t even talk about Tamaki in Love or High Speed…probably because I need to still watch them properly first.
Year-in-review 2015:
- Introduction
- Shirobako, Kurobako
- Sounding Off
- Eventing
- The St@te the Union
- N-Listing
Leave a Reply