Kids On The Slope

Year: 2012
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe

(We worked our way through this earlier this year, and I meant to do a Nights In then, but life (apathy) interfered. Tigger’s jazz thread has bought it back to mind, so here goes.)

Kids On The Slope (Sakamichi no apallon) is a twelve part anime series based on the manga of the same name. Taking place in early 60s Kyushu, it is the story of Kaoru, a timid high school student who has to start at a new school thanks to his father’s move to a new job. He is a classical pianist, but soon falls in with Sentaro, a wild and undisciplined student who is also a drummer. Sentaro introduces him to jazz, and they begin to play together in the basement of the local jazz record shop, with the store owner joining in on double bass. The owner’s daughter, Ritsuko, becomes the third main character, and the narrative of the series is driven by the shifting relationships between them. These various love triangles can get a bit wearyingly adolescent, but the plot is secondary to the joy in music that is expressed in every episode. Jazz fans will recognise a parade of standards and hard bop classics. Art Blakey’s “Moanin’” is a touchstone throughout the series, Ritsuko puts in a heart-melting rendition of “My Favorite Things” and so on. Director and jazz fan Watanabe forced the animators to painstakingly draw each musician’s hand and arm motions so each key press or drum hit on screen perfectly mimics the real thing, and the jamming sequences are just pure unalloyed pleasure.
The show also adroitly touches on the social history of the time. Ritsuko’s older brother becomes caught up in student unrest, some other kids at school form a Beatles inspired pop band, and the suspicion that the half-American Sentaro is viewed with is a neat metaphor for the position of jazz in Japanese popular culture.

For all that the focus on the problems of teenage love grated on my cynical forty year old corpse, the quality animation and love for music that shine throughout the series make it very memorable. One of my favourites.

Might appeal to people who enjoyed:

animation, jazz, general hep cats

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