Kaoru has no shortage of guts. I’ll grant him that. But what a horrible, horrible, horrible spur of the moment decision. Even he seems to realize what a bad idea it is halfway through.
Ri-chan, of course, is not pleased. In any other show, this would entail several episode of one or both of the characters sitting in their room, skipping school, and generally being miserable. But here, they awkwardly try to pretend that nothing happened. They don’t even tell Sentarou what happened. Sakamichi no Apollon treads a much more delicate line by avoiding the “no talking” treatment, but it is much more realistic.
Kaoru did have the perfect mood going before he screwed things up. What a romantic present— one matching drumstick each.
And she looks adorable in the snow. But still, a terrible move by Kaoru.
Sentarou’s Past
It turns out Sentarou is half American. I should have guessed, given how much taller than everybody else he is and how he has blonde hair.
From WWII until around the time Sakamichi no Apollon is set is the time period that I find the most fascinating in Japanese history. It’s a shame that more anime don’t discuss it. There’s basically the Sengoku period, followed by the modern day. I find the few anime that do cover it fascinating, since I’ve only learned about the history of this time period from the American perspective.
But Sentarou is unsurprisingly despised by the other children for being an American. Of course, once he beats the crap out of one of them they all stop. But that’s why he’s been maintaining his tough guy image to this day.
It also may help explain why Sentarou was so angry at the drunk for telling them to stop playing “coon music.” His own position as a pariah may have led him to empathize with the African Americans more than the other members of the band.
His past may have also helped contribute to Sentarou’s stubborn streak. It seems to be a recurring pattern that whenever he fights with Kaoru, he’ll follow him until they play music and become friends again.
A New Rival
This guy’s so cool. If I were a girl I’d probably fall in love with him too. He can both play the trumpet and sing. The English was surprisingly good too! A few words were off, but compared to most anime with English, this was golden.
But now both Sentarou and Kaoru have rivals that they’re losing to. But they still have each other! Only Ri-chan will be left alone.
Its true the english in the song was surprisingly good but it also felt extremely forced like he was trying to make it as clear as possible. Also i don’t like the no telling policy it doesnt advance the story much … he’s confessed to her no reaction, he’s kissed her still no reaction ..WTF
Yeah, some of the words did feel a bit off. You could definitely tell he wasn’t a native speaker. But it was *much* better than usual.
I wouldn’t say there’s no reaction to the telling or kissing. The kissing definitely did have a reaction, as she ran away crying. For the confession we didn’t see her reaction. You can tell that inside she’s all confused over what to say, she just doesn’t have the usual reaction of either giving an immediate response or completely shutting down all mental facilities while she thinks about it.
“From WWII until around the time Sakamichi no Apollon is set is the time period that I find the most fascinating in Japanese history. It’s a shame that more anime don’t discuss it. There’s basically the Sengoku period, followed by the modern day. I find the few anime that do cover it fascinating, since I’ve only learned about the history of this time period from the American perspective.”
Errm, have you seen Rainbow? If you haven’t, I’d highly, highly, highly recommend it. Its set right after the japanese lose WWII and its about a group of teens who get sent to a “correctional ” school aka juvenile jail. Realistic, awesomely directed and has scores of man tears in – if you like Sakamichi’s setting, then Rainbow is the one to watch.
Oh yeah, I started watching Rainbow and got it on hiatus after ep 8 for no particular reason. draggle, this could be a great chance for co-watching through skype 😉
In this episode what I admired was that Richan cried, a reaction that makes you think that forcing a kiss isn’t really romantic more like sexual harassment; and that’s the reality of it. Also, great was the way drama got resolved. I didn’t expect Sentarou to act so calm and thus he goes out of cliche, I’d say.
True sentarou’s reaction was a pleasant surprise.
Yeah, he is good at putting up with Kaoru’s temper tantrums. He did the same thing before when they just started playing music and laughing in the basement after fighting.
I actually haven’t. But now I am extremely tempted to. Added to my to do list, thanks!
A very good summary of the episode. I like the no talking elements. It can be very effective, and the creators probably need such elements to advance the story (assuming they want to adapt all or most of the manga).
Maybe it is just me, but I noticed some sort of homosexual attraction/tension between Kaoru and Sentato. I don’t see anything wrong with that, but that would be a totally unexpected and very interesting turn.
And did anybody notice Yurika’s eyes when she watching in awe Jun’s performance? That scene was great animation and direction in my opinion.
Oh I definitely see the homosexual attraction too. If they actually did that, wow, that would be interesting. I don’t think they will though, both of them seem pretty set on females at the moment.
And I agree, the way they showed her eyes was excellent. I liked how they had the tears fall from Ri-chan’s eyes as well after she was kissed.
“Sakamichi no Apollon treads a much more delicate line by avoiding the “no talking” treatment, but it is much more realistic.”
You’re right about that. If such a thing happened in real life I’m sure they would both be embarrassed, but this won’t stop them from going on with their usual life. Also, a few days pass since they see each other again anyway. One thing I noticed though is that the series doesn’t excel in showing the passage of time. When Kaoru kisses Ritsuko he says “merry Christmass” but after that we get a long interval in which Karou describes how they are practicing for their upcoming live performance (which is supposed to take place during Christmass). So yeah, time is a little crooked here.
That’s true, it’s hard to get a feel for how much time has passed. I felt the same way when they were talking about how long it was since they played with the trumpet guy. “Eh? Really?” Portraying the passage of time well is extremely difficult though.
I’m a bit at a loss as to whom Ri-chan likes. She was affected when she was told that Kaoru invited Mariko. She didn’t reject Kaoru, either. But then again, she is jealous of Mariko and Sentarou. It almost looks to me as if she wants both guys. Or she doesn’t know either.. maybe that’s why she’s crying.
Re your favourite era of Japanese history: How about Shouwa Monogatari – http://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=10014 ? What I’ve seen (only a few eps are subbed) was really nice and nostalgic although not very dramatic.
My guess is that she isn’t sure who she likes herself. Hopefully she’ll figure it out over the course of the series.
I haven’t sen that for the same reason you mentioned, it’s not all subbed yet. I’ll give it a look when it is subbed, it looks interesting.
There is particularly a short segment at the end of most episodes of S.E. Monogatari called burari sanpou or “carefree stroll” which I love. It is a short documentary about how the places where the series is set look like today and how things have developed and changed. You might like is, as well!
Ooh that sounds pretty cool! Will wait until it’s complete and then watch it one go.