Anime Review: Kids on the Slope

Kids on the Slope is part of  Crunchyroll‘s Spring 2012 simulcast lineup, and I love it. With anime, I have a weakness for musicians, romance, period pieces, and slice of life, and Kids on the Slope includes it all. So far, five episodes have aired, and I’ve watched each at least twice.

The anime is set in Kyushu during the early 1960s. Kaoru, the main character, has just moved there to live with his uncle’s family. He’s book smart and an excellent classical pianist, but he’s also an introvert and has moved so often that he’s resigned to being the outsider. He anticipates once again being marginalized in his new school, but instead meets Sentaro and Ritsuko. Through them, he discovers friendship and an unexpected passion for jazz.

Music is indeed front and center in this anime. Each episode is named after and features a particular jazz standard. The music, by the way, is produced by the amazing Yoko Kanno, who put the bebop in Cowboy Bebop and was composer for Escaflowne, my favorite anime of all time. In addition to an awesome soundtrack, the jam sessions are animated beautifully. Between me and my husband, we play six musical instruments, and it makes us cringe when the animation doesn’t match how an instrument’s played. The best I’ve seen before this was Nodame Cantible, but its instrumental animation had a CG look that clashed with the series’ overall style. With Kids on the Slope, hand placement, fingering, drum strokes, instruments – everything is accurate and blends  stylistically with the rest of the anime, making it a delight to watch.

Another thing I really appreciate is Kaoru’s transformation from classical to jazz pianist. Like him, I was also classically trained on piano, but when I hit high school, I joined the school jazz band. Same instrument, completely different ballgame. Watching his struggles reminds me of my own difficulties with improvisation and jazz chords, even though Kaoru picks it up much faster than I ever did.

In terms of romance, the main cast consists of two boys and one girl, which pretty much screams love triangle. As of Episode 4, circumstances develop such that the love triangle starts looking more like a love pentagon. While there are many funny bits (Sentaro’s efforts to ask Yurika out are laugh out loud funny), Kids on the Slope steers more in the direction of teen angst than comedy. Both boys come from troubled households which means they also bring a significant amount of baggage into any and all of their relationships.

I’m not sure what the rating for this series is, but I’d peg it as 13 and up. Sentaro’s afterschool brawls are the extent of its violence, and there’s no nudity thus far. However, the boys’ complicated family circumstances and a graphic death scene push it into the realm of non-kiddie fare. Actually, despite the youth of the main characters, I’d guess the target audience is adult females given the series’ particular pacing and introspection. It certainly got me hooked. Still, I’d invite anyone in the 13 and over crowd to give Kids on the Slope a try, if only to check out its awesome instrumental sequences.

Carl Macek’s Robotech Universe: Robotech’s past and a glimpse of the future

If you’re an anime fan who grew up in the 80s (like me!), chances are that your first exposure to anime was Robotech, a franchise which has lasted over 25 years, and yesterday, Harmony Gold held a special screening of Carl Macek’s Robotech Universe, a documentary to be released as part of Robotech: The Complete Series which goes on sale today. The event took place at Harmony Gold headquarters in Los Angeles, and in attendance were several Robotech voice actors who participated in the project, including Tony Oliver (voice of Rick Hunter).

The evening began with opening remarks from Harmony Gold Chairman Frank Agrama, a fiery senior gentleman, who shared his memories of working with Macek, who passed away suddenly in 2010. At Agrama’s request, the audience honored the late Robotech producer with a round of applause, which, according to Agrama, Macek would have much preferred to a moment of silence.

Keith Maxwell, the director of Robotech Universe, then spoke briefly about the film. In his remarks, he mentions that Robotech Universe was originally intended to be a podcast series. However, after shooting the interviews, they decided to knit all the material into a single entity – not unlike the way Macek combined the three anime that turned into Robotech.

The documentary itself, comprised of old footage, photographs, and interviews with scenes from Robotech interspersed throughout, lasts approximately thirty minutes. It opens with an acknowledgment to Macek and explains how Robotech Universe was originally supposed to be spearheaded by Macek as part of Robotech’s 25th Anniversary, but with Macek’s untimely death, the project turned into a tribute to both Robotech and Macek. The film then delves into the origins of Robotech and what American media culture was like at the time Macek got his idea to cobble together three anime to get them on the air in the United States.

What follows are predominantly first-hand accounts of those who worked on the project. The majority of interviewees are voice actors, and they tell about their experiences working with Macek, who had a hand in just about all aspects of the production. They also share stories about their mad production schedules and their thoughts about the characters they played.

The documentary then moves on to the series’ commercial success; the projects that followed, including Robotech Shadow Chronicles; and of course, future plans for Robotech. While plans for a live action Robotech film have been in the works for some time, Harmony Gold has another project, initiated by Macek, that is a little more retro. Apparently, they have unused footage of Yellow Dancer/Lancer from the New Generation arc, and their intent is to edit it and put it out to the fans. Sure, it’s 80-style animation, and there’s no release date yet, but for the die-hard Robotech fan, it’s something exciting to look forward to.

First posted at The Fandom Post.

Anime Review: Usagi Drop

So an anime I’ve recently watched is Usagi Drop. Crunchyroll categorizes it as “slice of life,” a genre my husband and I enjoy, so we decided to give it a try. We ended up watching half the available episodes the first night and watching the remaining half the next.

Here’s the basic premise: Daikichi, a 30-year-old salaryman, goes to his grandfather’s funeral and unexpectedly finds himself with custody of Rin, his grandfather’s 6-year-old illegitimate daughter (yup, she’s his aunt).

Usagi Drop is unusual in many respects. Unlike the vast majority of series which center on adolescence and young adult life, the main characters are a middle-aged man and a little girl. In addition, it really is a slice of life. Anime in that genre tend to have either extremely quirky characters (like Honey and Clover) or end up supremely boring (like Ocean Waves), but with Usagi Drop, you can actually envision a family challenged by their particular quandaries. Daikichi and Rin are utterly relatable, and my husband and I were completely invested in them by the end of the first episode.

So there are no superhuman powers or end-of-the-world plot lines, but Usagi Drop’s themes about family and belonging are compelling in their own way. Daikichi must make the abrupt transition from bachelorhood to a single father role, and Rin grapples with fears of abandonment and death in the wake of her father’s passing. Maybe it’s because Daikichi’s so close to my own age and life stage, but his brand of quiet, gentle strength really appeals to me.

I can’t think of a whole lot of anime comparable to Usagi Drop. The closest I can come up with is the manga Aishiteruze Baby, but in that series, the primary caregiver of the abandoned child is a high school Casanova, which makes it more fantasy and less slice of life to me. Not to say Usagi doesn’t have its own less than believable components, most of which are connected to Rin’s mother. For one, I can’t fathom the woman and Daikichi’s grandfather in an intimate relationship. For another, compared to all the stories I’ve heard about child abandonment, her reasons for stepping out of Rin’s life are lame, frankly.

Fortunately, Rin’s mother doesn’t dominate the entire series, and the focus generally stays on Rin’s place within the extended family and the parallel struggles of Rin’s friend Kouki and his divorced mother. And just to be clear, there’s nothing perverted about Rin and Daikichi’s relationship. NOTHING. The worst that the series offers up in terms of language and violence is kindergarten naughtiness from Kouki. (I can’t say the same about the manga though. I haven’t looked it up yet, but a friend tells me that it’s very different from the anime.)

So if you’re looking for a contemporary anime about family and the noble side of the human spirit, give Usagi Drop a try. As far as content goes, I’d probably rate it “All Ages” if it weren’t for the discussions about Rin’s parentage.