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REVIEW: Kids on the Slope Episodes 1-6 Streaming


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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2899
Location: California
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 12:27 am Reply with quote
I'm enjoying this series immensely. I have heard that in the music scenes, the movements are copied from actual performances, which is why they are so dead-on. When Kaoru is playing the piano, that's Yoko Kanno playing the piano.

I rather like the OP and ED, and it didn't bother me that they weren't jazzy. The OP reminds me of Honey and Clover (which I love) since it's by the same artist, and the ED is pretty nice too.

It'll be interesting to see how this series will end.
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danilo07



Joined: 25 Dec 2011
Posts: 1580
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 5:09 am Reply with quote
Quote:
(Never mind that a teenage classical pianist is somehow able to sound as good as Bill Evans in a matter of weeks; that's what suspension of disbelief is for.)

Really?I thought it was done in such way that it sounds good but not as good as Bill Evans.
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pachy_boy



Joined: 09 Mar 2006
Posts: 1341
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 7:14 am Reply with quote
Shinichiro Watanabe back with a bang, obviously, albeit a different kind of bang from before.

Watched the first 4 episodes, and so far all the complicated love entanglements were reminding me of the similar situations from Honey and Clover. The big difference is that while everything went absolutely nowhere and felt like BS, Kids on the Slope already feels it'll go somewhere despite or even because of the complications, or at the very least have a point to everything. That's my feeling, anyway.
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Divineking



Joined: 03 Jul 2010
Posts: 1298
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 7:59 am Reply with quote
I agree with the review more or less. I wasn't too sure what to expect coming in, especially when I heard that the episode count was low for the amount of source material there is to go through, but the show has been wonderfully paced so far and the characters and writing are great. Yoko Kanno also continues to show why she's one of the top composers in the industry.

I look forward to picking up the show and I hope Sentai puts in a good effort when it comes time to dub it.
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Juno016



Joined: 09 Jan 2012
Posts: 2428
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 9:02 am Reply with quote
I could have sworn that one big highlight of the series was its unique artstyle and amazing animation. I wonder why that doesn't seem to be the case here.

I have the series on hold until I finish some of the other shows this season, so I'll get to it eventually. I'm looking forward to it, since I love romantic series that are done with great characterization and universal depth.
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2350
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 9:31 am Reply with quote
My parents both love this series. my mom loves nodame and my dad liked cowboy bebop a lot. so this was a obvious title to show them. my mom went on for minutes when my favorite things started to be played, not to mention the beetles. Luabby of birdland also caused my mom to smile a ton. this sow does not have the best start but it's not as bad as everyone says I think.
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jymmy



Joined: 11 Nov 2011
Posts: 1244
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 11:05 am Reply with quote
Juno016 wrote:
I could have sworn that one big highlight of the series was its unique artstyle and amazing animation.

Unique doesn't necessarily mean good. I reckon the character designs are subtle and distinctive, but don't care for the actual way they're drawn. They look different, but kind of chalky, or flattish, or... something. Anyway, I get used to it, but looking at random images they stand out. The colour palette and visual tone of the show, though, are excellent, and I would like to have seen mention of that.

The animation is wonderfully accurate during music scenes, but other than that I think it's fairly standard. The review says that outside of the music-playing, it's technically sound but not too flashy, which I think is fair.
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Botan24



Joined: 30 Apr 2011
Posts: 684
Location: Northern Michigan
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 1:52 pm Reply with quote
Divineking wrote:
I look forward to picking up the show and I hope Sentai puts in a good effort when it comes time to dub it.

^This. I was none to happy to hear Sentai gobbled up the rights to this. I would have preferred FUNimation, if only because they have a more stable track record than Sentai, when it comes to dubs. However, if I were really picky I'd have wanted Bang Zoom on this dub with Mary McGlynn as the ADR director. But that's pretty much gone with the wind now that Bandai no longer is doing home video releases.

As far as the review goes, I have to admit I like the love "arrows". But the show is so good at handling the drama, it never does feel like a soap opera. Yes, I kinda want to know who will end up with who. At the same time, it doesn't really matter because the show doesn't feel like its playing matchmaker. Its just a story about teenage life, being told in a mature manner, matter-of-fact manner.
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Maidenoftheredhand



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 2634
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 2:05 pm Reply with quote
pachy_boy wrote:
Shinichiro Watanabe back with a bang, obviously, albeit a different kind of bang from before.

Watched the first 4 episodes, and so far all the complicated love entanglements were reminding me of the similar situations from Honey and Clover. The big difference is that while everything went absolutely nowhere and felt like BS, Kids on the Slope already feels it'll go somewhere despite or even because of the complications, or at the very least have a point to everything. That's my feeling, anyway.


As much as I am enjoying Kids on the Slope, I actually think Honey & Clover is the much stronger series of the two, but to each their own I guess.
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dragonrider_cody



Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 2541
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 2:16 pm Reply with quote
Botan24 wrote:
Divineking wrote:
I look forward to picking up the show and I hope Sentai puts in a good effort when it comes time to dub it.

^This. I was none to happy to hear Sentai gobbled up the rights to this. I would have preferred FUNimation, if only because they have a more stable track record than Sentai, when it comes to dubs. However, if I were really picky I'd have wanted Bang Zoom on this dub with Mary McGlynn as the ADR director. But that's pretty much gone with the wind now that Bandai no longer is doing home video releases.


This is all really just a matter of opinion, and many of us feel just the opposite. I can never quite a few Sentai dubs in the past year that I though were great, but when it comes to Funi I can only think of one or two that were even serviceable. But I think it's probably best just to wait before we start judging any potential dub.
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Zhou-BR



Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 1461
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 2:46 pm Reply with quote
As much as I love this show, I have to agree with Carlo that the digital shading looks distractingly bad and overly artificial. I know that every show is digitally painted nowadays, but 2d shading looks much better when the animators use their line art to indicate the areas that are supposed to be painted with a darker tone, instead of having a software calculate that.
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bemused Bohemian



Joined: 09 Jun 2009
Posts: 404
Location: central Mizzou (Moral Oralville)
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 4:46 pm Reply with quote
I see jazz as the metaphor for the players in this series rather than a showcase of melodies that existed in the era portrayed. We see several individuals trying to come to terms with each others personalities, the common denominator being the music they love. Jazz is more conducive to freedom of expression than classical and isn't that what the teens, adults are doing seeking a brief respite from the '60's era life scripts?

I like the show so far and am still curious which direction the storyline is going to go. It sure isn't obvious.
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Snomaster1
Subscriber



Joined: 31 Aug 2011
Posts: 2916
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 5:26 pm Reply with quote
There was something in the review of "Kids on the Slope" I found interesting. I didn't know that one of the kids,Sentaro was half-American. So,what happened? Did her mother marry an American or what? Did his father die or was he shipped off somewhere else and that he didn't know that he even has a kid.
To me,this sounds like a good show and I hope it comes over here. I'd love to see it.
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Gwydion



Joined: 16 Feb 2008
Posts: 158
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 6:57 pm Reply with quote
I realize I'm in the minority, but I really enjoyed the first episode and have felt that the ones since haven't lived up to what I was hoping the series would be. I was looking for something more along the lines of Beck, but instead I got Honey and Clover (which I never could make it through). It's certainly not bad, but I was hoping to see a more gradual development for Kaoru from classical to jazz piano - while some may be able to overlook this, having watched my sister who was trained in classical piano early on and then later switched to jazz, the speed at which he picks it up is just too unbelievable for me. That and the melodrama was laid on pretty thick in episode 6...

I still like it well enough, but admittedly I don't think it's as great as everyone else seems to think it is, though, to be fair, it's hardly my favorite genre.
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crosswithyou



Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 2899
Location: California
PostPosted: Tue May 22, 2012 8:17 pm Reply with quote
Maidenoftheredhand wrote:
As much as I am enjoying Kids on the Slope, I actually think Honey & Clover is the much stronger series of the two, but to each their own I guess.


I agree, but then again I'm also a bit biased towards H&C because Takemoto kun reminded me so much of myself as I was going through college, so there was that personal connection to the character.
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