Anime Review: Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life Episode 1

Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life Episode 1

Studio: Platinum Vision

Genre: Music, Drama, School

Stream: Funimation

Adapted from the manga of the same name, Kono Oto Tomare! (or Stop This Sound!) is the story of Takezou Kurata, the last member of the Koto club at his school, and Chika Kudou, a delinquent who demands to join the club. I didn’t read the manga before reviewing this show, but I’m a fan of the koto and koto playing so when I heard about the anime premiering this season, I was excited to check it out.

Kurata is the only member left in his Koto club after all the previous members graduated. Going from this episode, he’s a meek individual who doesn’t have any interesting qualities but has a strong desire to keep his club alive to honor his upperclassmen who left the club in his hand. Then enter Kudou, a loud and rough youth with a bad reputation who announces his plans to join the club despite Kurata’s initial protests. These two characters make up the unlikely duo to start our show.

Just from this first episode, there isn’t too much to go on that tells me whether this will be a good anime or not. Most of the ground it covered is common territory for school stories like this: lonely club president needs members or club will shut down, members come along to save the club, adventures ensue. Of course, there are other aspects to spice up the narrative, like having one of the characters being an infamous delinquent from middle school, but even this is charted territory for the most part. What’s more, there isn’t even any playing of the koto in this episode!

Even so, the two main characters (and a few side characters) we see are both interesting, and they both have compelling enough motivations to bring me back for episode 2. It’s also probably worth noting that I’m a sucker for the “Jerk with a Heart of Gold” trope, so having that here definitely gives the show points in my book.

On the production side of things, the anime does well. Platinum Vision only has a few projects under their belt (none of which stand out at all), but with Kono Oto Tomare! looks good, with nice character designs and backgrounds. Both the OP and ED were fine but neither really stood out to me as being songs I’d listen to in my free time. And the rest of the sound in the episode was good; the soundtrack fits well with the tone of the show without being distracting.

Kono Oto Tomare! has the potential to be a great show, but just from this first episode, it’s too hard to say how things will unfold. For now, I’ll look forward to the second episode to see where we go from here.