La corda d'oro Anime review

English: La Corda D'Oro: Primo Passo

Synonyms: Kin'iro no Chord, Kiniro no Chord, Kin-iro no Corda: Primo Passo, The Golden Chord

Type: TV

Episodes: 25+1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 2, 2006 to Mar 26, 2007

Producers: Aniplex, Yumeta Company, Hakunensha, Koei, Sentai FilmworksL

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Magic, Music, Romance, School, Shoujo

Duration: 24 min. per episode

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Check out the Manga review HERE

I have stopped playing my music before I watched this anime. It has inspired me a lot to start playing again. Its such a nice musical anime with blend of romance in it. Of course its not as great as Nodame Contabile.

So how often do we hear "shoujo" and "classical music" uttered in the same sentence? Both entities dwell in vastly different realms of substance, media, and mind, and after watching La Corda d’Oro, I am convinced that it should stay that way. For the average shoujo-loving viewer, this series will be nothing more than a delicious catalogue of hot guys (who, as a side note, all happen to play instruments, but that doesn’t really matter). For the classical music junkie, it will twist a dearly beloved genre of music into something more akin to bubblegum pop.

Kahoko Hino, a regular high school sophomore, stumbles upon a fairy, receives a magic violin that anyone can play, and promptly finds herself in the school’s prestigious music performance competition. Throughout the next twenty-five dragging episodes, she gets to know her handsome competitors even while she confronts jealousy and sabotage. She also struggles to cope with her unfair advantage and her lack of skill. Sound interesting? It’s really not. Hino meanders along in a romantically drugged haze, and the show quickly tires with its loose plot and lackluster characters.

It is a good musical anime. The selection of pieces is good. The character design and animation style is good too. 

The romance is all over the place. Everyone in the music club has their eyes on Kahoko so , in the end the viewer is confused. Kahoko does not show feelings for anyone. 

The concours are good but generally, the anime lacks any suspense. 

The anime appears too short as the results of the last concert are unannounced. Also, in the end, Kahoko has no definite lover. Everyone in the series becomes friends. But its different in Manga. She Ends up liking one particular and most anticipated choice after all... !

La Corda d’Oro has a soft, pretty look, owing to its fine use of color shading. The backgrounds are not particularly detailed, but that does not mean they are simplistic. Actually, the pastel-like texture combines nicely with the clearly definable lines.

However, the series decides to spend most of its energy on a plethora of close-up face shots, which, while unneeded, become an integral method for retaining viewers. Shiny lips and smooth skin run unbounded in this anime. In fact, everyone’s skin is so smooth that they all resemble porcelain dolls. This is the show’s greatest strength – the men are positive drool-mats, even if they are shallow and indecisive to a one. At least, the prospect of impending eye candy is the thing that kept me watching.

As with any reverse harem anime, the male cast becomes vital to La Corda 's survival. Each typecast is faithfully administered, from the cold prodigy to the friendly jock to the heartwarming nice guy. They fling into the mix the ever-popular “angel of light” who happens to have a dark side, as well as the aloof cutie pie. It’s as if nothing could go wrong with this tried-and-true arsenal of bodacious boys.

And yet, things do go wrong. Instead of the bishies coming into their own, they dig deeper and deeper into their preprogrammed personality modes. As a result, their bonds with Hino never grow. For example, the icy, talented Tsukimori continues sawing away at his violin, forever out of reach. The cheerful Hihara’s conversations never evolve past small talk. One could forget that the sleepy, supposedly endearing Shimizu even exchanged words with Hino on more than three or four occasions. At the end of the series, Hino’s friendship with each male does not seem to have expanded in any dimension.

Evidently, La Corda's superb art and well-gauged voices somewhat recompense the poor storyline and characterization. The series as a whole teeters on a precarious edge, and it all boils down to variances in taste and reasons for deciding to watch in the first place. One thing is sure: La Corda d’Oro has firmly planted itself within the ranks of the utterly mediocre.

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