Oh my god. I have never heard Saori Hayami like that ever. I’ve heard her sing a lot, and just like her speaking voice it’s very sweet and gentle. But this…this…
The story is pretty basic. Nino, our heroine, is starting high school. Six years ago she had to say goodbye to one of her best friends, and before he left, he left notes on the sand of the beach as a farewell message for Nino. She learned the melody and every single morning for those six years, she would sing on the beach, turn around, and hope her friend would be there but he never showed up since. Nino also had to part from her other friend, who was also her first love, Momo after he suddenly moved away. But the one thing he said was that if they had to separate, that hopefully one day they would reunite with the sound of Nino’s voice. On the first day of school, Nino finds both Yuzu and Momo.
Not going to lie, as much as I liked this episode, this was pretty rushed. There were too many things happening one after the other. Nino watches the Light Music Club perform, she breaks out into song with them, Yuzu notices and runs away, teary reunion with Yuzu being cold, conflict with the music club potentially being shut down, Nino and Yuzu randomly do a little duet together (although that was nice), more drama with the band, Nino has to sing and there are lots of childhood flashbacks.
And do not get me started on the god awful CGI during the performances.
I found Nino to be an interesting but very strange girl. She’s blunt and says weird things, she always has her headphones on, and a face mask for some reason. But you can see that music seems to be very important to her, as well as Yuzu. It looks like she likes to sing and she was able to memorize the songs quickly. Yuzu himself seems to be such an important person to her that she always sang his song every day for six years, that says a lot. I’d like to learn more about her because I just find her so odd. I want to know why her friendship with Yuzu was so important, what made her fall in love with Momo, how much she loves music and all of that. Judging from this episode, the only time Nino had her face mask off was when she sang. She probably keeps that mask on at all times so she doesn’t randomly sing and scream. Yuzu and Momo also seem like good characters to know, we know now that Yuzu is a tsundere who’s obviously in love with Nino, though we never got an explanation why he was so cold to her, why he left and never came back, and all that. We got a little bit of Momo, who seems like a chill guy, but I can’t say much about him since he wasn’t in this episode much. But seeing as how Nino loves Momo and Yuzu loves Nino, we’re definitely going to get a love triangle. Usually the childhood friend is always that one that wins but TWIST, THEY’RE BOTH CHILDHOOD FRIENDS! So now I really don’t know what will be endgame, which is refreshing!
As well as the pacing, I also admit that sometimes there were cringey and melodramatic moments. Typical shoujo things, like hearing only one voice in an auditorium full of cheering students. The reunion scene kind of. Some tropes here and there. I can tell Miou is going to cause a lot of drama soon seeing as how she’s jealous of Nino. Art is rough around the edges, but I feel like it fits.
But I still really liked this show! I know it has some problems, melodrama, fast pace, production quality was kinda…ehh. But this show was still very fun to watch. I loved the interactions between the characters, I liked the music, and the comedy was handled well. I’m intrigued to learn more about the characters and their backgrounds and how things will go down in the future. Also, the concert in the end was fantastic. Saori Hayami, dear god…I just loved how Nino’s emotions went haywire after she heard “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, bringing back sad memories of the last time she was with Momo as a child. With all of these emotions rising up in her, with no control over them, she grabs her head, puts her hands over her ears, and starts singing the song without letting the others get ready. Oh I’m sorry, singing? No, I meant screaming. Not like screamo singing, but just screaming with a bit of melody in it. It probably wouldn’t be classified as good, but I found it amazing. Her voice was loud, raw, out of control, haywire, crazy. It just left me breathless. She just sang to get all of those emotions out, not even paying attention to whether if she was matching with the others or not. That’s one thing about Nino’s character that has me wanting to know more about her. With the mask on, she barely says a word. When the mask comes off here comes the screaming. It just makes Nino even more weirder than she is. The animation with the fades and flashing lights matched with the craziness of the performance so that was a nice touch.
Problems aside, this show had a pretty good start. Good music and characters I want to learn more about. Alright, let’s keep it coming.
Possibility of watching: High
Possibility of blogging: High
It’s pretty common to see people wearing facemasks in the bigger, congested Japanese cities – some want to avoid germs from others, some want to avoid passing germs, or avoid pollution, etc.
Apparently in the manga she wears the facemask for psychological reasons, to prevent herself from screaming out her frustrations to the world. She didn’t have the happiest family life.