Kin’iro no Corda Blue♪Sky – 02-04
Yes, it’s a little known fact that practicing violin is merely a few steps away from a satanic ritual.
 |
…Seriously, does he always insist on practicing in a room that’s full of lit candles, or what? Anyways, things are moving along in Kin’iro. I’m finally posting this just in time for the competition to actually start, too. Yaaaay. |
They’re including more of Kanade than I thought they would. Most of episode 2 was about her problems with being better than others at things. I’ll try not to spoil the plot of the game, but basically, Kanade learned from early on that being the best at something means that she’ll be pushing other people out of that spot, thus her hesitation in the beginning. …My surprise here comes from the fact that there are maybe 4 events in the main storyline that briefly go into this and Kanade’s internal issues are largely ignored for whatever else is going on in the route. They’re giving a better look at Kanade’ personal problems than the game did. This really helps Kanade feel like an actual character as opposed to just a plot device for the rest of the character’s stories to be told. …In fact, Kanade’s problems never really ever seem to go away. She has Leiji glaring at her every time the two cross paths, and now Chiaki keeps telling her that her playing is subpar. Though in regards to Chiaki’s behaviour, I rather like the translation of 地味子 as “Miss. Mediocre”. Probably because my own take on that was the much less nickname-sounding and more literal “plain girl”.
“I found this kid angsting by the riverside and figured that I’d invite him over”
Though far more than Kanade, Kyouya is the one with the angst issues. Does he actually want to play or does he not want to play? His indecisiveness can be pretty annoying since he refuses to quit, but bitches about having to be part of the ensemble for a lot of the time until he deals with his personal problems. Luckily, Kyouya wasn’t too bad in the later episodes to make way for Kanade’s problems again, but I’m sure they’ll be back eventually. Introducing Sousuke at that point in the plot was a good character foil to Kyouya’s issues. Perhaps ruining a rather expensive instrument isn’t the best way to go about life though. Cellos are at least a couple hundred dollars. At least sell the thing. Anyways, Sousuke probably isn’t the greatest addition to the large cast of characters as far as personalities go (though it’s funny how he’s following the natural path of the kouhai in regards to Leiji), but he did act as a good plot device to introduce the rest of Amamiya.
If your piano playing isn’t causing hallucinations (or attracting children), you’re not doing it right.
There’s Kyouya who seems to have been friendzoned from early on. …And then there’s Sei, who tells Kanade “k, we’re lovers now” and then goes with it. Mind you, he has issues (…okay, the music video has nothing to do with anything, I just wanted to throw that in there because I had forgotten how fabulous the 90’s were). His approach is direct, at least. Though Sei doesn’t even really seem to truly like Kanade, but instead he’s using her as a tool to improve his own musical endeavours. So he’s out for OTP.
Well, there are a lot of characters, but at least they’re all maintaining a somewhat normal relationship with Kanade instead of throwing themselves at her right from the start. …Sei is a bit of a special case, since him trying to figure out what love is is basically the entire premise of his character development. Arata and Daichi are just really… friendly, Kyouya has pretty much been friendzoned (and is a bit too angsty to break out of it anytime soon). Maybe those are bad examples. But at least Ritsu, Haruto, the Jinnan group and Sousuke seems to have a relationship with Kanade outside of romance.
So if you’ve fallen behind on which character is who, you’re kind of SOL, since episode 4 brought in the entire cast and seems to expect the viewer to remember who everyone is. Hopefully the hair colours help a bit. Though you can probably ignore everyone from Siseikan for the most part. Once their part in the competition is done, they’re not too important to the plot (unless, of course, you were on their route but that’s not going to happen here). Though as a point of interest, Shirou from Siseikan (the guy who sounds like he’s going through a pack a day with the badass face scar) and the guy who keeps walking around who’s not part of Kanade’s ridiculously large harem are voiced by the same seiyuu, Morita Masakazu.
These two.
Speaking of, Kazuki (the one who’s not Shirou, who’s hair is that weird blonde-green colour) is actually from the original anime and was part of Hino’s harem back in the day. He’s around town for reasons that aren’t really plot important in the long run (but they’ll probably explain it anyways), but it’s interesting that they’re throwing in references to the first series. Actually, the guy who runs the music store and the headmaster of Seiso are probably references as well. Though it’s been like, 6 years since I watched that show, so hell if I remember them. Actually, I’m pretty sure that the headmaster is one of the guys from the OVA.
Yeah, just go ahead and ignore these 5.
The music aspect is going pretty well. …Even if pretty much every single violinist in this seems to be ignoring the chinrest and/or has with the amazing ability of not having to move very much to play. Though really, that goes for any music anime. But hey, the classical music choices are pretty great. They’re using the same compositions as they did in the game~. One was definitely “Winter” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. …Or if you prefer, Concerto No. 4 in F minor, Op. 8, RV 297, “L’inverno”. I’m a bit disappointed that they didn’t use Danse Macabre for Jinnan’s street performance (…just pretend that this has 2 electric violins to get the idea of what Jinnan did. I couldn’t even find one good video with a single electric violin). That was my favourite piece from the game. However, they used one of the other ones that Jinnan plays in the competition, so maybe they’ll be throwing that in later. It should be interesting to see what else they choose music-wise for the competitions at least.
Yes, this is perfect. …Okay, obviously it isn’t, but this is exactly what I was looking for in this anime. Honestly, a large part of my enjoyment comes from just how cheesy everything is. Why was Leiji practicing in a moody room full of candles? Do children normally carry around pianos and let suspicious men play them? How the hell did Kyouya know that Kanade and Sei were even in that part of the city, let alone that particular room in that particular building? Did they seriously use the old anime cliche stepping on a twig by accident to alert a character of another character’s presence? Because shoujo. That’s why. And really, that is a reasonable answer to everything here. Obviously the plot development isn’t the greatest, there are far too many characters in this, and the animation isn’t the best. …But on the other hand, look at how many sparkles or overdramatic still shots they use per episode. It’s so shoujo it hurts, and that’s basically what makes the anime for me.
Fun fact: These two named their violins “Absinthe” and “Cantarella”. It just doesn’t get any better than this.
About Karakuri
University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 60 comments
Personally, I really really hate this season of Kini. At least Hino had a personality. She was a human being. By episode 4 the MC of Blue Sky has almost no to very little dialogue.
She’s boring. Plain. All she does is resort to the typical harem girl noises, “mmm” “gasp” “ehhh”. The fact that they added in an arch to her character that resorted her being insecure and moody for the first 2 episodes when I don’t even know the character, also gets on my nerves.
The “Have you reached your limits?” should have honestly been in the middle of the season, not at the very beginning.
This new MC just is terrible. She has no flavor and she’s just a mannequin to showcase their “hot bishounens”.
I cannot stand Blue Sky. It’s just awful and not good awful. Just bad awful. It is just a shell of what the original series was with Hino.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Ah, I guess it’s about perspective then. I can barely remember the first seasons of the anime and the games are purposely written so that the heroine is as blank as possible minus dialogue choices (or at least the Kin’iro ones are), so this Kanade has so much more personality compared to what I’m used to.
I do vaguely remember that Hino had a lot more interesting interaction with the other characters too since A.) there were less of them and B.) the series was longer, so the writing wasn’t as worried about shoving the plot in along with the interactions. Hino had more time to be a character as opposed to a plot device.
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 60 comments
Maybe Blue Sky would have been better if they took the time, instead of throwing characters in my face. And screaming at me “CARE ABOUT THE MC”
And see its inexcusable. Because if you have seen Kamigami no Asobi, the MC is and has more personality than the Blue Sky MC. I am sorry, just cause the game makes them blank slates, You have to develop them into being a human being in the anime.
There is no excuse for her being this plain, this flat, and this boring.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
This show has so many guys, and they’re almost all entirely uninteresting. “Oh look, it’s another virtuoso performer who doesn’t want anyone to get in his way!” “Hey, this guy’s a maverick, he’s playing on the street with his flashy e-violin!” I mean, it’s almost like there’s a parade in the OP with so many guys. And hey, everyone should live in the same dorm, with just Kanade as the only girl there! Plus, Ritsu’s hand trembles feel so tacked on also.
The whole effort just feels really poor. And it really suffers in comparison to Kamigami no Asobi, I think.
And a cello being a couple hundred dollars. 🙂 One worth playing for someone starting out would cost 2-5 thousand dollars. One of the caliber that these guys would play is probably on the order of 5-10 thousand dollars. 500,000 to 1 million yen. Possibly even more, as the next range, 10-25,000 dollars, is where you start getting handmade instruments. Cellos are VERY expensive instruments.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Oh, and Danse Macabre is perhaps my favorite orchestral piece (I do like the versions with full orchestra better). The show would have gotten instantly better if they’d used it.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
It’s one of mine too. I just used that one instead of the orchestra since it sounded closer to the version they used in the game. I just really wish that I had found the 2 electric violin/piano version that they had. That sound combined with the two characters was just so perfect and over the top. xD
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Er, there’s Nia there too, not that she really counts since she isn’t really interacting with any of the characters in the anime. Ahaha it does feel tacked on, but that’s also part of what I’m enjoying too. This falls under the “so bad, it’s good” category for me, I think.
Seriously? I figured it started more in the $500-$800 range. All the more reason not to throw it into a river.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
As far as I’m concerned, Nia is a ghost who only Kanade can see, and just kinda pops up, says a cryptic line that doesn’t mean anything, and then disappears. Is there any evidence that the other guys can even see her?
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…There is in the game (she’s a real person with regular interactions), but of course, that doesn’t mean much here.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Hmm… Somehow memory says this is based of an eroge derivative…
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
Pfft, if only. It would probably make so many of the characters more interesting.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
You know, in a way this anime is unbearable but I still keep watching it because music and bishies. I can’t say anything beyond that, really 😀 It’s so cheezy and stupid and shoujo, it’s almost painful 😀
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
It so is! I’m not watching because of bishies, but for the cheeziness and unbearableness of it. Even the music is just so-so, and the animation is pretty poor (and they had a bow playing a cello below the bridge… noooooooo!).
I’m also watching so I can comment on it here. 🙂
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I would say the animation is terrible, rather than poor, tbh. :\
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Well, at least they try. Wake Up Girls! gets more into the ‘terrible’ range for me, where they have whole idol performance sequences with barely any movement shown.