Forest of Piano (2018)

[PictureGuy]

If Forest of Piano seems a bit familiar, it should. It certainly brings to mind Your Lie in April, though from a bit of quick research I learned that the Forest of Piano manga is about 20 years old.

Both raise the question of a composer’s original intent versus the creativity and imagination of the artist. Your Lie in April has one young pianist dealing with his personal baggage. Forest of Piano has a few. Only in Forest of Piano, there is no love story – at least not in season one. Season two is forthcoming, and there is a possibility.

The main story-line centers on the relationship between Kai and Shuhei. Shuhei is a musical prodigy, who is befriended by Kai, a child from the wrong part of town. But Kai has a secret. There is a piano, abandoned in the forest, which only Kai can play. Whenever someone else presses a key, no sound. But Kai, who has the ability to memorize a piece after hearing it once or twice, produces beautiful music.

Kai comes to the attention of Ajino, his school’s music teacher, who was once an up and coming concert pianist – until an accident damaged one of his hands. Now Ajino takes Kai under his wing and begins to teach Kai how to find and play his own personal piano.

The series makes a jump from Kai’s and Shuhei’s childhood to young adulthood. Shuhei begins to see Kai as less of a friend and more of a rival. However, Kai’s feelings of friendship had not changed.

The performance scenes are animated in a different process than the rest of the series. The movements are made to be more lifelike; not just the fingers, but the musicians’ whole bodies. Pity they could not do this for all scenes, but I guess you have to hold down expenses.

The English dub is excellent, led by Johnny Yong Bosch from Bleach, Code Geass, Ajin, and practically any other anime you care to mention.

There is little action here, but that does not mean there is no tension. The competition kept me on the edge of my seat.

There is no profanity, blood, or fan service here, so it may be suitable for kids. Well, maybe not since Kai’s mother is a prostitute. Yup, Kai has to rise above quite a backlog of troubles.

I totally recommend Forest of Piano. It's one of the best coming of age anime series I have seen.

[Takatofan1986]

This sounds like a really interesting show. Will have to check it out sometime

[PictureGuy]

It is. But I forgot to mention, its on Netflix Streaming. Netflix is signing up some pretty good international TV shows.