Kids on the Slope

aka Sakamichi no Apollon

Number of Episodes: 12

What Wikipedia says: "The beginning of summer, 1966; because of his father's job situation, freshman high school student Kaoru Nishimi moves by himself from Yokosuka to Sasebo in Kyushu to live with relatives. Until then, Kaoru was an honor roll student who tended to keep to himself, but meeting notorious "bad boy" Sentaro Kawabuchi starts to change him. Through his devil-may-care classmate, Kaoru learns how much fun it is to play jazz and finds the first person he can call a real friend."

KoanMan says: Every once in a while, a story catches you in an unexpected way.  This is an engaging and personal story, and somehow kept KoanMan riveted throughout, without the need for explosions, violence or carnage.  KoanMan generally loves those things, and yet they were not required here due to the strength of the story-line.

It begins in a fairly standard way, with an isolated young teen, Kaoru, arriving in a small provincial  town.  Tough-guy Sentaro, and classic girl-next-door Ritsuko, befriend Kaoru, and so begins a troubled journey through their developing relationships to each other and those around them.  These characters almost became part of KoanMan's life during this series, they are that well developed.  This is remarkable given the limited number of episodes in which to get this done. 

Pace is excellent, and the storyline cohesive and complete, thank you director Shinichiro Watanabe.

How About the Music?: The music is a standout as well.  The opening title song is seriously catchy, and some of the jazz that features within the series had this KoanMan tapping and swinging to the beat.  Composer Yoko Kanno has done well.

Overall Grade: Well crafted, free-flowing, short and sweet.... KoanMan cannot give anything other than an A.  

Addendum (by tTPO): I can't do much else but agree with KoanMan's assessment of this series. There is just the right balance of justice and injustice, things that go right and things that go wrong, joy and sadness, failure and redemption and all in an amazingly paced pocket sized series. Also, while the jazz is not a central theme to the story, it is the canvas on which this story is painted and it works just so well. I want to explore more jazz because of it. Ultimately, while this is a million miles away from their previous pairing on Cowboy Bebop, Shinichirō Watanabe and Yoko Kanno deserve nothing but an A for this.