Sound of the Sky

Sound of the Sky was recommended on the 25 anime worth watching. The gif showed a little girl playing a trumpet with the listed Slice-of-Life genre down below. I pulled up the anime and started watching the first two episodes and ended ultimately confused. There was no narration, no backstory, no introduction. It was as if... oh wait... those were the two episodes listed with the special dvd.

Yes, in my rush, I somehow managed to watch the two special episodes that came with the disc. These episodes were thrown in as a the followup "another story" the main character mentions in episode 7 and an epilogue to the final episode. After figuring out my mistake, I rebooted from the beginning.

The anime ran much, much smoother watching from the start. The anime does an excellent job building up the characters in the tower, as well as how the town runs down below. They carefully skim over each character as each one's secrets gradually come to light. Of course everything sort of gets thrown behind the fore running main character plot of learning how to play a trumpet. The series is very brief, clocking at 12 episodes (without the bonus). I have minor gripes when it comes to plot development but unlike other anime, the convenience of the plot gets skewed about 10%. Generally I tend to disown a series when people act out of character or somebody does something stupid for comic relief or worse... fan service.

I've bounced around several other animes. My Bride is a Mermaid was one I poked at for a couple episodes but the generic "family is trying to kill us" theme every episode literally sapped any joy out of it. Black Rock Shooter is one that was recommended that I have yet to even look at yet. The Eccentric Family was one recommend on the list but I had to quickly drop. The setting might have been as crazy as one of Studio Ghibli movies but the reactions were all over the place. I think my biggest gripe had to be how everyone seemed to be nonchalant about this weird tradition of one raccoon being eaten once a year. I half-expected a rebellion as if someone said "Hunger Games is stupid and shouldn't happen anymore." The "humans" didn't seem to care, the "birds" sort of went with it, and the "raccoon" sort of accepted their fate. Not cool. Norn9 is a new series I tried out but they are having a hard time balancing the mystery of the main plot and developing likable, realistic characters. Someone stated that Infinite Stratos was better but I have yet to see what it is all about. Give Blessings to This Wonderful World started out like a series I may enjoy with a little bit of silliness on the side. Yet, the silliness went overboard and started to border on way too much fanservice to keep going.

Hopefully things will work out in the long run.

 

 1-30-2016