| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
0 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
0 |
| Value |
0 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| (Live-Evil fansubs. Nice translation and quality overall)
From my first years in school already me and many others I presume, were told to read and to be good pupils with high grades, to be obedient to our superiors, to be instilled with our national identity and pride, ignoring other cultures and never to lax or else be labelled as outsider and failure. How many children were wasted because of that. But one can have a talent somewhere that unfortunately remains undiscovered. How many bad pupils are actually good mechanics or possess an artistic talent, waiting to be molded? How one blind by success can often overlook that for every success there are 10 failures, failures only because they werent able to adapt to the educational standards that are sometimes flawed in themselves?
The Japanese education system has these features even more intensified.
Exactly this is how I felt after I watched this movie.
The main characters here are Amamiya Shuei and Ichinose Kai. The former is the model student, of upper class background, educated, perfect through hard work in everything, but mostly supervised and disciplined and never able to act according to his will.
On the other hand Kai is of poor background, lives with his mother, has rebellious attitude, refuses to learn and would not be the ideal friend many parent would seek for their children. But he has something that makes Mamiya admire him, namely he can play an abandoned and damaged piano in the forest, without even knowing music theory. He even can copy directly any song he hears on piano, except Chopin who requires technique and not just strength. But despite this he is willing to learn and succeeds.
On the other hand not Shuei and not even his teacher can play that piano.
This kind of relationship between those two characters is the trademark of the movie and manages to keep the interest till the marvellous finale. Even viewers not delved in classical music can comprehend the movie.
There is nothing to blame about the technical aspects of the movie. The backgrounds are detailed, the countryside and school settings are detailed. Character design could be better but the voice actors are very convincing.
The music, performed by the Czech Philarmonic Orchestra requires no comment and is succesfully integrated with the movie.
Now to the particulars.
The drawback of the movie is this:
Cramming many manga volumes into a 100 minute movie, rubs Piano no Mori the opportunity to reach the excellence of the series Hanada Shonen-shi.
Though Piano no Mori is not such a tear jerker as Ishiki Makoto's previous manga and focuses instead more on characters, the movie does not do justice to the manga that is still ongoing.
Characters like Ajino and Kai's mother do not have such a role as in the manga and some more serious moments are altered in the movie since it would increase the age rating. Also the girl in the contest does not have the necessary screen time to be memorable.
The movie looks like a synopsis of the manga, plotwise and characterwise but it adds the missing musical and animated flavour that would require a series to be better used.
Of course if you liked Hanada you'll also like this movie.
Most anime movies of that genre are slow paced in the beginning but this reaches in some scenes Studio Ghibili standards. The direction is very good, considering there were so many manga volumes.
If you like movies of that genre , you will not be dissapointed. But better read the manga and then you'll really understand why the movie would deserve a series.
Overall recommended but it lacks the emotional impact of Hanada Shonen-shi
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