Kids play shamisen.

Well, the first episode was good??? But that only made the rest of the show more disappointing since we saw what they could do. The first episode has the main character run away from home and move in with a kind girl with an abusive boyfriend. Some really good drama and interesting characters and all very adult!!! Then, at the end of the episode, she goes back home and we never see her again. In the most shocking twist of the show, it turns out the boy is still a high school student. He goes back to school and joins the shamisen club. They enter a tournament. God it sucked. If you want to do a show about a music club at least make the teacher possessed by Jimi Hendrix’ ghost or something.

It did have some cool moments when they were playing shamisen. I really liked the one scene where the main character plays with his rival.

But overall, the standard school club / tournament arc stuff really sucked. And it ended up being 90% of the show. In the first episode I thought this show had a flash of inspiration. And it then it just turned into every other school club anime.

• Storytelling – D – Seen it a million times.
• Voice – F – What could have been…
• Characters – C – The students are lame… especially the main girl.
• Attention Grab – D – Lost all interest from episode two onwards.
• Production – C – Meh, it’s fine.
• Overall – D

Recommendations – Kono oto Tomare, Sakamichi no Apollon, Chihayafuru