[TV series] La Corda D'Oro

[littlekitty]

La Corda D'Oro Review by littlekitty

STORY (7)
Hino Kahoko, a high school girl who has never played an instrument in her life, is given a magic violin. In turn, she must compete in a competition (the Concours) with several elite music students from her school. It's a story about Kaho learning to love the violin and music, while deepening her relationships with her fellow competitors.

The story is not for everyone. This is a character driven series through and through. The plot loosely falls around the Concours, but the purpose of the Concours is to contribute to character development. That being said, the character development is outstanding. I barely noticed the lack of plot- simply seeing these amazing characters interact and grow had me yearning to see the next episode.

The story really falls flat when it comes to romance. This is a reverse-harem at its core (based on a dating sim), so I was not surprised by how things ended up. Still, the lack of any concrete romantic development or even a hint on Kaho's part as to which guy she likes best is very frustrating. Yet, there are just enough romantic moments to make you want to see something more. This cannot be written off as a simple "friendship" series.

CHARACTERS (8)
Hino Kahoko is a decent, but bland lead. I liked her determined approach to the violin, and her character development was well done. During the anime, we see Kaho persevere, doubt herself, face a major setback, and ultimately triumph. While I enjoyed this, her inability to choose one guy was irritating. This flaw really shows through in the La Corda Special, where she can't even begin to make a decision as to which guy she likes best. It was very annoying to watch this.

Each male has a distinct personality, because this is a harem-type show. You have all of the usual suspects- the cheerful and clumsy guy, the guy all of the girls are in love with, the cold but good-looking guy, the cute and innocent guy, etc. I found all of the boys to be interesting, enjoyable characters. To some extent, every character develops, which is refreshing. Tsukimori was definitely my favorite character. I liked how his approach to his music gradually became gentler throughout the series. All of the characters are cute, both inside and out!

SOUND (9)
Music is where this anime shines...which is what I expected from an anime centered around a music competition (hehe). In 25 episodes, a wide variety of classical music is introduced, which I really enjoyed.

The OP and the ED songs are outstanding. In particular, the OP "Brand New Breeze" had great music, great art, and overall, it was very cute! It tells us exactly what the anime is all about. The song gives a feeling that Kaho is singing to each of the boys. The ED music is also very good- it seems like the boys are singing back to Kaho. I like the call and response format of the OP and the ED.

ANIMATION (7)
I loved, loved, loved the character designs. This is what attracted me to the show in the first place. Each character has a distinct, unique look, right down to face shape. All of the Bishounen are good-looking, but my favorite character designs are Tsukimori, Shimizu, and Tsuchiura.
Apart from character design, animation was average.


VALUE / ENJOYMENT (9)
In case you didn't notice, I adore this anime. The story it told was heartwarming. I would only recommend watching it again if you really love the story. Or if you really love Bishies.

The Bottom line:
The music, character designs, and the characters themselves are easily the strongest components of the show. Recommended for fans of Shoujo anime. Skip this one if you dislike indecisiveness in romance.
If you liked this, you may also like Aishiteruze Baby (a series that gives off the same warm and fuzzy feeling as La Corda), or even Peach Girl (a reverse harem with a more concrete romance story).

This was my first review! Feedback is appreciated. Thanks! :-)

[VraieEsprit]

Kiniro No Koruda! Oh, must add a review for this too

Overview

Kiniro No Koruda/La Corda D'Oro is one of the three "neoromance" series (the others being Haruka Naru Toki No Naka De and Angelique). This means that first off it's a shoujo series, secondly it's core plot is a female character with surrounding male leads as potential beaus. (It originated from a PS2 game of the same name).

Although the neoromance theme means that it has to meet certain expectations, (so there is some predictability), I think the basic idea is a good one. It's a fairly character driven story from start to finish, and the positive thing about Hino Kahoko as lead is actually her non-outstanding-ness. She's an ordinary girl who performs no miracles without the magic of Riri's violin.

To strip it down to bare bones, "girl meets fairy, girl is given magic violin, girl plays magic violin, girl is entered into contest without her knowledge, girl meets various guys...girl has an impact on guys and they on her, contest is concluded."

There are times when the plot seems to circle and repeat itself (Kahoko occasionally obsesses about whether she has the right to play the violin, etc.) But even so, I'd give it a 7-8 for general structure/plot.

As is the general way with neoromance, Kahoko doesn't ever make a decisive choice, which might irk some people. Although a second series wouldn't necessarily go amiss considering the bonds she's already formed - certainly more development on her relationships with Yunoki and Tsukimori would be nice, since in places they're ambiguous (especially Yunoki). Though (as far as I know!) Koruda didn't go so far as to release individual endings for each of the guys "winning" Kaho's heart (a la HaruToki), I think it's something which is still left to the viewer to choose.

Characters
Hino Kahoko: A fairly average girl given a completely unaverage gift by a fairy who happens to protect the school (as you do). Her normalness actually works for her. 7/10.

Tsuchiura Ryoutarou: The straight-forward, blunt-spoken guy with his heart in the right place. He'd be a cliche if it wasn't for his depth and skill at the piano...which makes him rather more than the average football playing teen. 7/10

Tsukimori Ren "Len": A genius who is brilliant on the violin but awful with people. Tsukimori's progression from cold aloof individual to Hino's friend and companion is really sweet. Plus his seiyuu is a darn fine singer, which also works for him. 9/10

Yunoki Azuma: Up until episode 11, he's kinda boring. Although it's fairly obvious that he's either the most irritating boy in the world or pulling an elaborate hoax. I really like Yunoki's messed up personality. He's one of those characters who's a jerk but still a jerk you can love and feel sorry for. 9/10.

Shimizu Keiichi: I have no idea what drugs this kid is on, but they must be good ones :S 7/10

Hihara Kazuki: Hihara's open honesty and constant optimism is really quite sweet. Although he's totally clueless with it. 8/10


Others:
There are other supporting characters in the show which help to pad out the others' stories, although I would have liked to have seen more direct delving into Kanayan's story, and the girl with the clarinet really needed to find a backbone. Yunoki's fan club reminded me of Yuki's in Furuba...only quite possibly more annoying. Fortunately not annoying enough to ruin the series...

Music:
Well, it's been a long time since I played my violin, but after I watched Koruda I actually got it out and played it again for the first time in years Not only do the characters "play" several classical pieces throughout, many of the soundtrack songs are also based on or developed from classical pieces, which gives them a sort of unique feel to the show. Corda has a really outstanding soundtrack for the most part, with Taniyama Kishou's (Granrodeo) "Tsukimori" songs among others. Koruda music has been playing on my playlist a lot lately. Very addictive music.

((That's not to say all of the Seiyuu can sing all that well...but none of the songs are complete vocal disasters!))

If you hate classical music, you might get irked by the amount of it in this show. Personally I think it's beautiful, but then I'm highly music obsessive so I think it's a case of each to their own...
9/10

Seiyuu
For some reason this show has an overdose of Bleach seiyuu lurking in it, with Tsuchiura (Renji's Itou Kentarou), Hihara (Ichigo's Morita Masakazu) and Shimizu (Yumichika's Fukuyama Jun). The cast as a whole do a good job though, with Granrodeo's Taniyama Kishou voicing Tsukimori and Kishio Daisuke as Yunoki Azuma. Ishikawa Hideo also appears as Kanayan
8/10

Animation style
I like how this is animated...better than the pictures I've seen from the Corda game. Each of the characters are distinctively drawn and there's no distortion. The colours are good within the boundaries of realism...hair colours aside (heck, it's neoromance...so we'll let that go!)

Overall:8/10
I'm still loyal to HaruToki as my favourite neoromance saga, but Koruda comes a close second. If you like action shows, you'll hate this - but if you're a fan of character interaction, I'd recommend giving it a watch

Vraie

[October.]

Story (10):Kahoko is a girl with no talent in music at all....until she met a fairy.the fairy then gives her a magical violin.this violin lets Kahoko meet new people...and friends.

Characters(boys)(10):
Len: he is a talented violinist who had not much passion until he met Kahoko.
Riotaro: he is a pianist who hid his talent in playing the piano from his fellow students until the day when he helped Kahoko.
Kazuki :a lively boy who is playful and is honest. he plays the trumpet.he likes Kahoko.
Keiichi :he plays the cello. he does not play from his heart until Kahoko told him that she played from her heart.
Azuma :he plays the flute and comes froma rich family.he is very popular with girls.he gets affected by Kahoko sometimes.

Animation(9):the animation's pretty good but sometimes their faces look ugly.

Music(10):i love the music and it is addicting.

Voices(8);their voices are cool but sometimes they are too soft or deep or high-pitched.

I adore this anime and i wish they continued it...

[karisa]

STORY - 7/10
Hino Kahoko is a high school student who is given a magical violin by a magical fairy, Lili. She finds out that she can play any song with the violin as long as she knows the tune. She is then asked to join a concours. It is in this competition that she meets new personalities, new faces, new attitudes, and a different view of life that revolves around music.

CHARACTERS - 9/10
I definitely loved the characters. Kaho may not be the best lead out there but the portrayal of her development was great. The show not only focused and making her a better person but they went through the normal stages one must go through. She experienced all doubt, confidence, rise and fall, win and defeat.

Ryoutarou, while being a general student, does not look down on himself and sees the music students equally. Len, as the cold guy did his part well and had a gradual improvement in attitude. Kazuki, being the energetic, fun, and friendly upperclassman he is was well-portrayed in his realization of his feelings for Kaho in accordance to his attitude. Azuma's character was the dual-personality type. I might have found it annoying at times but it definitely made it's mark on me. Shimizu's sleepy yet determined, focused and friendly nature was an additional plus to the character. Fuyumi, on the other hand, was the shy type who lacked self-confidence. I liked how it is shown that inspiration brought out the confidence in her.


SOUND - 9/10
While the opening and ending songs left their mark on me, especially the opening, I can't help but say that what I really enjoyed most of all was the music in the anime itself.

Hearing different kinds of classical music ranging from Pachelbel to Chopin, Elgar to Holst really entertained me.

ANIMATION - 8/10
Character designs were definitely amazing. Animation, on teh other hand, was fairly quite just average. It wasn't the best I have seen yet not at its worst too.


VALUE / ENJOYMENT - 8/10
Most people would really be drawn to this anime. Aside from music lovers getting drawn to the mix of classical music, bishounen lovers would go crazy over the many good-looking guys in the show.