Impression
Gosh, this show just takes your breath away. There is this raw quality about the characters, in particular Kaori and Kousei that does a great job reeling you in. It was beautiful to watch Kousei fall in love, but being afraid of her at the same time. The way she performs and delivers the pieces brings peace to him. The traumatizing memories of his mother’s pressure goes away, and in a way is beginning the process of healing. What Kaori brings to her performances is freedom. She does not let herself be bounded to the way the pieces have been composed, she owns it by carving her own path and could care less about the overall result. However having this kind of personality in a music competition is the reason why she hasn’t been able to win any awards, except for the audience’s choice. Kaori seems to enjoy performing in front of many people, doing her own thing than to follow the competition guidelines. And my god, unless you are extremely familiar with these pieces they were playing or music in general, the audience (like myself) has this mind-blowing moment of, “OH MY GOD, IS THIS REALLY THE SAME PIECE?!” I couldn’t believe it, it was so different compared to the original piece (the set piece for the competition), Beethoven, Violin Sonata No. 9. The Kreutzer. So when Kaori changes that so drastically, it often times ticks off the judges. However despite her confidence on the stage, afterwards- when it comes to getting feedback from Kousei (who I am sure probably knows was a former competitor) she was very nervous about it to the extent her hand was trembling. Knowing that she flunked it and not wanting to crush her, he choose his words carefully.
I find it sad that Kaori likes Watari, because Watari is a total player. He is juggling a whole bunch of girls, including another one of Tsubaki’s friends, whom he had decided to skip practice and hang out with after school. Kaori was waiting patiently in hopes to surprise him, and Kousei didn’t want her feelings to be hurt so he tried to talk her out of checking up on his practice. Honestly though, I think Kaori already knows what kind of person Watari is, so she tries to look unfazed by brushing it off and deciding to appoint Kousei has his substitute. Next week, I hope that we will be able to learn a little bit about Kaori, as I somewhat expect Kousei to ask about her reasons for performing the way she does.
