Sakamichi no Apollon – 03

“Someday My Prince Will Come”

My Bengals did well in the NFL Draft last week, but that’s not why you’ve clicked here. I remember this time las… “shut up Jrow. It’s time to discuss Apollon.” I’ve liked Kyokai’s format for her recent F/Z posts, and having dabbled in a similar style myself while blogging Jormungand, I’ll try this round to switch things up for these Apollon posts, maybe jazz things up a bit.

Sentarou’s Lovesickness

Being lovesick. It really sucks. The fascination is there and all that comes with it, but the fear of being turned down and not being with that special someone in the way you want to be is a real pain. I’ve dealt with this, and it actually kind of affected my eating habits; I’m a slower eater now than I used to be, which I don’t think is necessarily a good thing. Though the end result didn’t play in my favor, it feels good to be able to, you know, eat food again. Fish in the sea, blah blah…

Wait, this isn’t Tsuritama. That’s a half-hour later. Anyways…

It’s pretty funny to see just how lovestruck Sentarou was. Not being able to eat and shy as all heck, he ends up throwing Kaoru unnecessarily into the mix and literally faints at the site of her. This is a whole new feeling for a guy many thought of as the delinquent-type character. He probably did fit the bill until the day Kaoru arrived at school now that he has a jazz partner. At his home we kind of see why and how he can be such a great guy, having many younger siblings to look over (which also matches with the importance of religion to him).

Ri-chan’s Feelings

Kaoru is aware and Sentarou seems oblivious to them, but what exactly are Ri-chan’s feelings? It seems as though she’s held these feelings in for a while, but once she recognized that Kaoru was “the one who invited her”, the feelings toward Sentarou began to take over her emotions during the trip. Making up an excuse not to climb the rock, running away to go cry and the chalk breaking as Sen sniffed Yurika’s handkerchief, Kaoru shows off a level of astuteness about two of those moments in particular. He knows he’s not in as ideal a situation as he thought he’d be. Yurika_x_Sen is working in his favor, but Ri being upset about it has complicated matters for him.

Instead of finding ways to force the issue and potentially blow things up right in his own face, Kaoru seems focused on doing what will make Ri feel better, a most noble move on his part. Things like this make Kaoru perhaps my favorite character to come out of this Spring batch of animes, and there are plenty of enjoyable ones (like Ao from E7, Koko from Jormungand and Mutta from Space Brothers).

All that into consideration, and then later we see Kaoru walking in on Yurika and Sen. With how gorgeous the art is and the shine that a number of scenes in Apollon give off, it’s easy to assume that something intimate was occuring between those two. It’s probably a misunderstanding on Kaoru’s part, but it does lead him to…

♪ Confession ♪ 

I’ll mention just this once more since you’ll probably be tired of me writing it in the future. These couple of episodes have had a lot of great scenes, but in them there is one scene that will clearly stand out, create that lasting impressions whether it’s 10 minutes or 20 minutes in. An anime can really be effective when it has several good scenes and one (or two) great scene. And in Apollon, that scene will always be when music is played. The first two jam sessions you see Kaoru start to cast aside his invertedness; this moment in episode 3 is his strongest so far while the music holds deeper meaning to the romantic implications of Apollon.

The confession was a really sweet scene, especially in how it was arranged. Showing shots not just of Kaoru playing, but also of Ri watching intently and Kaoru’s seemingly tireless training of the song so as to perfect it for the “performance”, not the “rehearsal” as Ri initially thought. The sketch of her face on the music sheet was a sweet touch. With this love square in a tricky spot, it was great to see Kaoru confess the way he did and to keep the wheel of romance spinning.

“Someday My Prince Will Come”

In the Pocket

Even after fighting over the handkerchief and the several misunderstandings created from it, putting the two boys in front of instruments is going to net some fun, jazzy tunes. Them playing together is kind of their way of talking things out. We’re used to the quality animation at this point, so it’s just kind of fun to hear them play. Unfortunately, this tune is not on the recently released OST.

On a closing note, Apollon has been nothing short of a delightful watch each week. Things are developing at a fast pace, but I don’t get a sense of thinking, “this seems rushed”. The flow of events comes off as very natural to me, which I think is surely a testament to the fine work of Shinichiro Watanabe couple with Yoko Kanno. I want to check out the manga, but I’ll wait until after this anime is done airing; it could be an interesting comparison to see how the series has been adapted.

Episode Previews… I’ll be avoiding them

A comment last episode led me to noitaminA’s site where you can see a lengthy preview of the next episode of Apollon. Crunchyroll (and by extension HorribleSubs) doesn’t include them. If an anime does previews like Fate/Zero and Mawaru Penguindrum where it’s spoken dialogue and only draws in more curiosity than conclusions, then I’m fine with watching them. A preview that goes on and on feels a bit too much for me. I’ll leave the link here if you’re not as anal about it as I am, but they also do mini episode summaries as well incase Chrome is automatically translating the page for you.