This is also known as "Kiniro No Corda"
Synopsis: La Corda D'Oro (Italian for "The Golden String") is about Hino Kahoko, a 2nd year student at a music academy where the students are divided into two groups: those who wear the gray uniforms are the normal students, and those who wear the cream colored blazers have chosen a musical instrument as their course of study. This musical academy was founded by a musician who loved everything about music and made it his life to learn as much as he could. One day, he found a small fairy who he from that day on, decided to care for on his own. This fairy, Lili, suggested that he create a school which teaches music and that is how this academy was formed.
Hino meets Lili at the school's entrance as a surprise to both of them because only a select few people have the ability to see Lili, and those who do are chosen by Lili to participate in the school's music contest. In the past, only music students participated have participated in this annual contest, but this year the normal student Hino Kahoko will compete. At first, she is completely against this as she has never played an instrument before that day, but Lili reassures her and gives her a magical violin that can be played by anyone, as long as they have the music in their heart. Reluctantly, Kahoko finally agrees and competes in the contest.
As a result of entering the music contest, she meets the other contestants and must face the pressures from her peers and prejudice from the music students to the general education students.
(from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiniro_no_corda)
Genre: Comedy, romance, shoujo
Status: Anime - 25 episodes, completed
Manga - 8 volumes, ongoing
Aired: Oct 2006 - Mar 2007
Thoughts / Review:
TO START OFF... The opening song, "Brand New Breeze" by Kanon, sounds okay to me. I initially didn't like it much but I guess it kind of grew on me after the 3rd episode. It's not too ballad but it's not that upbeat either, somewhere in between. The tune is kinda nice. The ending theme is called Crescendo by Stella Quintet.
The first two episodes introduces us to Hino Kahoko where, basically, what happens is what is written in the synopsis up there *points up there* (kindly scroll a bit upward and refer to that). This anime has a reverse harem feel to it with a bunch of good-looking guys with Hino as the leading lady character. The magic violin is given to her and she is able to play it from the heart. Every episode, she gets to learn a valuable lesson in life and she is able to apply this in her music and play beautifully. Playing from her heart, the people watching the concours also feel this emanating from her music. There are 4 selections for the concours and each selection, the 7 participants are ranked based on their overall performance. For each selection there is a certain theme and the participant would choose a piece to play related to that theme.
AND THE CHARACTERS ARE... The 7 participants of the concours are: (1) HINO KAHOKO is the leading lady character of the story. She is slightly a klutz, considerate, kind, good-natured and pretty. She is a 2nd year general education (gen-ed) student. She sees Lili on the campus and is given the magic violin to play. As a result, she becomes a participant of the concours, which was initially against her will later on decides that she would do her best to improve her skills and not rely on just the magic of the instrument she plays. (2) TSUCHIURA RYOUTARO, the first of the guys that we meet. He is also from the gen-ed department. He's nice, seems mature for his age, warm and accomodating. He's in the same year as Hino. He's been giving Hino some pointers and a bit of pep talk regarding the concours and even saves her butt in episode 2 by being her accompanist in time of her need in the 1st selection. We eventually learn that he is a genius at playing the piano, being included in the concours for the 2nd selection. He is also part of the soccer team. (3) TSUKIMORI LEN comes across as obnoxious and proud (he kind of reminds me a bit of Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice ^-^), but we eventually learn why he tends to be like this. He and Tsuchiura get off on the wrong foot. He initially is cold to Hino, but later warms up to her. He is a student from the music department and specializes on the violin. He sees Hino as his rival in the concours as they play the same instrument. He is also a 2nd year. (4) HIHARA KAZUKI is a very energetic, aggressively friendly 3rd year music student. He is very outgoing, carefree and enjoys playing music. He is also part of the orchestra club. He is a brilliant trumpet player.
(5) YUNOKI AZUMA is another 3rd year music student who is highly popular with girls of the school with his good looks and charm. He appears to be very kind, considerate but seems to have a secret side with his own agenda. (6) SHIMIZU KEIICHI is a 1st year music student and is the youngest male participant in the concours. He is a "pretty boy" and is always drowsy and tends to fall asleep almost anywhere. He is very absorbed in his music. He specializes in playing the cello. (7) FUYUUMI SHOUKO is the only other female participant. She is quite shy and hesitant and looks up to Hino. She plays the clarinet. Another character is LILI, the cute little fairy who gave Hino the magic violin. He believes that music should be shared and enjoyed by everyone. There are also a few other minor characters like Kanazawa-sensei (assigned as the head for this set of concours), Ousaki who lays the viloin (a graduate of the music department who previously won the concours; helps out with the orchetsra club), Amou (a gen-ed student who is from the press club; follows the events of the concours for the school paper), and a couple of Hino's friends and some accompanists.
I have some more thoughts on the characters but I decided to ramble about that on
another post (see next entry). ^-^
MY IMPRESSION... I love music and I like watching anime. I found this, read the synopsis, watched the first 2 episodes, liked it, and ended up getting hooked. I find it different because it explores classical music. My anime knowledge isn't that vast, so for me this is the first one that I've seen with music as part of its central theme. Besides me having a penchant for shoujo, I also liked it because it seems to have quite a good balance of story and music and doesn't overshadow each other's elements. The story isn't confusing either. I also like the touch of comedy, and although there is a hint of romance in it, it isn't too mushy to the point of being tiresome. Everything is just about right for my taste. The little bits of music trivia right before the preview at the end is also a nice touch. It's light entertainment The colors are good and the animation isn't too cutesy, although the characters are drawn to have sort of a fanservice in mind as the good-looking guys abound, so I'd consider that element as a bonus. Lol.
So, if you don't mind those points I mentioned, then I think that there's a high probability that you'd have a good time watching it too. I know I did. :)
It's a total of 25 episodes. I've only seen until ep 12 because that's where the subbed episodes are at the time of this entry... so I'd plug in a quick shout out to strawberrymint subs, thanks for your hardwork! We really appreciate it. ^-^
How about you? What did you think of it? I'd love to hear your thoughts about it. :)