Pure amazement is what I felt just watching the trailer for this series when it first came out, featuring the music of Yoko Kanno (who did the music for Cowboy Bebop) and directed by the great Shinichiro Watanabe. All I knew jumping in was that this would revolve around jazz.Just the initial scene of the opening shows what a beautifully artistic style of animation this series will have, which had me wondering what sort of story it might be.High school freshmen Nishimi Kaoru has moved from Yokosuka to Kyushu. Already I am loving the premise as I've had a past of moving and changing schools during my school years and boy did I hate it. Kaoru shows the same sentiments as the episode begins him with a very dark mood resenting the people around him who speak in a different Japanese dialect, the annoying hill he has to climb up to go to a school he doesn't even like. And oh my god the daunting task of getting to fit in to ones school is never an easy one. Right off the bat Kaoru is approached by the nerd with glasses trying to get him into the radio club and then immediately gets picked on by the jocks of the class. Kaoru takes it pretty well though, pretty cool headed and ignores worthless d-bags like them. The nerdy kid warns him about the scary dude that usually sits at the back of the class, Sentaro Kawabuchi. Hearing this Kaoru displays some kind of odd feeling, which is suddenly swept away by pretty Mukae Ritsuko who kindly offers to show him around the school.Now I know how it is to be under pressure and to be nervous, but Kaoru seems to have some kind of strange disorder which is revealed during his tour of the school. The jerks who still keep picking on Kaoru manages to get a baseball knocked at him which leaves him kneeling on the ground. Due to the pressure of everyone looking at him and his nervousness, he reveals that such a pressure leads him to extreme nauseousness and feeling of throwing up.Kaoru then runs off showing that in all his years of this strange sudden sickness the one place he can actually calm himself down is the rooftop of the school. Talk about a tough cure. As he approaches the top of the schools stairs he notices a couple of chairs with a sheet covering something and curiously uncovers it... As odd of a scene this is I think there is a ton of symbolism and foreshadowing in this one shot alone. Something changes within Kaoru as he first encounters this strange dude who turns out to be Sentaro.If it weren't for this shot you wouldn't be fed the idea that Sentaro is a somewhat peculiar dude. From the looks of it he seems to be somewhat buff and delinquent like on top of the scary premonition radio-glasses gave earlier. But what he does after this is rather baffling. The senior jocks who have the keys comes up to the top where these two are and Kaoru demands for the keys to go to the roof but is easily brushed aside. Seeing this rather gutsy side of Kaoru probably more or less earned the favor of Sentaro who proceeds to go out and beat the crap out of those guys to get the keys. This for some guy he's never met or seen before."Wow! Thanks Sentaro!" is not the reaction baffled Kaoru gave but rather a "why the hell did you do that" kind of reaction. His answer, "You wanted these keys, right?" But funny, he ends up just keeping the keys for himself. Well upon returning to class Sentaro finds out who that twerp he saw during the afternoon was from radio-glasses. Sentaro then gives the nickname "Bon" to Kaoru.Oh yes, we are totally in a school setting and of course rumors spread like wildfire and everyone is talking about how Sentarou now has his eyes on Kaoru as the one to bully. This causes Kaoru's nervousness to react and immediately snatches the roof keys from Sentarou and runs off despite it being raining outside. Sentarou is a funny guy and is extremely curious about why he ran off and chased after him. Ends up with them standing pretty boringly outside. To make things interesting Sentaro gets rid of his umbrella, gets in the rain and forcefully chucks Kaoru's umbrella off the roof. Another pretty strong and key phrase is spoken by Sentaro, "Staying afraid won't bring you any good."While it might look like teasing or even light bullying Sentaro is really playing a huge role in loosening up Kaoru's outlook. I again feel like this rain scene does something special to Kaoru, washing away all the nervousness he had built up in him. Going back to class he was able to breathe fine and not feel tense like he did before.Kaoru finds out about Sentaro's interest in jazz as he is always making a rhythm using some sticks or pencils. He's able to pick this up because he has some experience playing the piano. His father is a sailor who taught him the piano. Unfortunately his father is always away at sea. So everytime he plays classical on the piano it gets him blue and wondering where his father is right now. Due to that he lives with his Aunt and cousin, who aren't the most kindest people in the world.To wrap this up despite being a pretty heavy looking story there is a lot of funny moments, mainly between Sentaro and Kaoru. Already it's shown that Kaoru has some interest in Ritsuko who have decided to call each other by their first names. With his interest in music Kaoru asks her if she knows of any music shops with records in town. Ritsuko says her place has a ton of records and that he should come by. Of course, this is taken too well by Kaoru...Whoa whoa whoa, first episode and already going to her home?Of course, her house is a record shop.Interestingly this shop has an underground Jazz Studio where Sentaro was playing the drums when they arrived. I think I blew past it but Sentaro and Ritsuko are childhood friends all right. This is the moment I was waiting for, the scene from the trailer where Kaoru gets a taste of the sweet sweet jazz as Sentaro jams away. The story takes an interesting route when Ritsuko asks Kaoru to play a song on their piano but Sentaro shout "THIS PLACE IS JAZZ ONLY" and then he proceeds to amateurishly play "Moanin" of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Kaoru incidentally knows the song and plays it but Sentaro critiques him for having no swing in his rhythm. This causes a spark in Kaoru and he buys the record they have in order to practice and show Sentaro who's boss.This looks like it's going to be a very interesting series and I really want to see how this progresses. I wanted to make this review short and sweet but there was just so much essential stuff I just had to cover. Everything from the music, art, characters, and story were beautiful and I really look forward to more of Sakamichi no Apollon.These two really get along quite well :)-Kxela
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