Piano no Mori First Impressions

“Well, it is my piano, after all. Maybe it only opens its heart to me.”

I don’t think this first episode of Piano no Mori is a great one, but it’s definitely the episode I need right now. After reviewing Dances with the Dragons and Magical Girl Site, I just need something pleasant, straightforward and charming, and this first episode of Piano no Mori is undeniably all those things. I’m a sucker for a good classical music anime and, at this point, I can really use one. Piano no Mori is a delightful tale of two talented pianists whose talents vary greatly in nature and upbringing, but who both find common ground in their love of classical music. And maybe, just maybe… this won’t turn out to be Nodame Cantabile with mediocre, integrated CG. We’ll see.

Piano no Mori or The Piano Forest centers on two elementary school students named Ichinose Kai and Amamiya Shuhei. Shuhei has recently transferred to their school from Tokyo, and aspires to be a concert pianist, apparently like his father. Kai, in contrast, lives in the red light district, and to the surprise of both Shuhei and their teacher, Ajino Sosuke, has a shockingly precise ear for music despite no formal training. Shuhei gets dared by the class bullies to go play an apparently broken piano in the woods behind the school, but Kai insists the piano works and convinces Shuhei to skip class and go with him to see it. Shuhei finds he’s unable to get any sound out of the piano, but Kai performs ‘Little Brown Jug’ on it having learned it by hearing their teacher perform it once. My biggest problem on the narrative side is with the idea of a piano that only allows certain individuals to play it. It’s a peculiarly fantastical element to incorporate into an otherwise grounded narrative, and it can potentially strain the viewer’s suspension of disbelief past the breaking point.

On the production side, I find the show to be visually pleasant, but there are instances where the piano playing segments can be incredibly jarring. The CG animation does not mesh with the traditional animation at all, and the reliance on it in those scenes throws a wrench into what should be the visual and emotional high points for the episode. There is an art to incorporating CG into these kinds of works, and without a delicate application it can be highly disruptive. We didn’t get an opening for this first episode, but we the ED proved to be pleasant enough, even if those computer-generated doves at the beginning of it stuck out like a poorly rendered thumb. The character designs have a notably distinct quality. I could probably point to a half dozen series that have similar qualities in one feature or another, but I doubt I could point to a title where the character actually look the same. Ultimately, I’d say the show looks fine, but not as good as the pedigree behind it would suggest. If you’re like me, you probably did a bit of a double take when you saw the name Gainax attached to this. This is a more subdued title than what I would normally associate with that studio, and, frankly, I didn’t realize they were still around.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• There isn’t actually much classical music in this first episode. Aside from several renditions of ‘Little Brown Jug,’ the only other instance of classical music in the episode is the Chopin piece that starts off the episode. Or at least I think it’s Chopin. I don’t know my way around his works and while I enjoy his Nocturnes well enough, he isn’t necessarily my composer of choice.
• This is actually the second adaptation of Piano no Mori, as Madhouse produced a feature length film adaptation in 2007.
• The whole the piano only plays for me plot isn’t helped by the fact that the sound Kai gets out of it is ridiculously crisp.
• If you, like me, couldn’t put your finger on why ‘Little Brown Jug’ sounded so incessantly familiar to you, it’s probably because it served as the tune for Chuck Berry’s novelty song ‘My Ding-a-Ling,’ an inane song by a musical great that I actually got to hear performed live.
• Only 700 words. This is going to be a short one.