Forum - View topicForest of Piano (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Forest of Piano (TV) Forest of Piano (TV2) Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Music, School, Seinen Themes: Plot Summary: Kai was born as the son of a prostitute and he's been playing the abandoned piano in the forest near his home ever since he was young. Shūhei, on the other hand, was practically breast-fed by the piano as the son of a family of prestigious pianists. Yet it is their common bond with the piano that eventually intertwines their paths in life. ---------------------------------- An anime adaptation for this show was not surprising but I'm so glad it's happening. Been reading the manga and as it's complete, I expect this to be a faithful adaptation. It would require more than one cour though. Still, I'm very excited for anime. Just in case people are wondering, this is based on the manga and not an expansion of the movie. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Season 1, Episode 12 (finale)
Oh, lol, no one has commented on this, I had to search to see if it is here. Which goes to show that I also did not know that this was the last episode, until a second season starts next year, because it was a climax in a performance, but it did not actually feel like an end. I don't know if it has something to do with the source I was watching this show, but the episodes kind of had a weird sporadic element, where it would come out, and then I could not be sure I watched the episode before, and although I would say it was generally good, I don't think the episodes spread between each other well. There were multiple time skips, but they felt kind of odd in leaving you confused, it never felt like we were really in a comfortable place of where the narrative is at. I could maybe connect it to Kai's odd situation of not a good home life despite a nice mum, but I kind of feel like that is stretching it a bit. The last episode did this weird thing where apparently Kai was tied to a tree for arriving at work late, and he is happy about it because the other option was his finger cut off. Dude, that is messed up, do police in Japan just let that sort of thing happen? It is not the only thing that was weird, and although it was going for a bit of shock, I don't know. And I don't know, I would have liked more consistency on people like the girl who was thinking of him like a dog. But really, a confusing place to end it, kind of like maybe it was meant to be a two cour show, but now we are at an end of his performance which should be big for what happens next, but 6 months will pretty much pass before then. CGI piano playing was interesting for getting some details in playing, but it is always a gamble of weird changes in animation. I give a rating of Decent (6/10), I didn't lose my time. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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I didn't know there was a thread for this either.
I had already seen the movie version, so maybe that's why none of what you had trouble with bothered me at all. I actually enjoyed the series more than the movie, since it had more time to flesh out the characters more. As for the tree bit, if they'd lopped off a finger or two, who would've gotten the police involved? His mother was apparently not there at the time, and her job and their home would've been on the line if she snitched later. I imagine police aren't called much to that side of town unless there's a homicide that can't be covered up. At least they gave him a choice of a lesser punishment. |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Resurrectingn the 'discussion'
as just finished the first part of the series, and hoping Netflix is going to pick up the second half (which I think is airing this season?).
Anyways, it is/was quite decent. the competition scenes made me think of Nodame Cantabile ("Oh my God, what is this weird sensation, I don't know what to do with myself, this guy is a genius..."), and the plot may not be massively creative, the rivalry between Shu and Kai (although Kai does not seem to want to compete with Shu, whose main opponent seem to be himself), but it got more enjoyable as the series went. As I'm Polish, it was lovely to see Warsaw's International Chopin Piano Competition as a backdrop, with very many evil and scheming Polish critics and judges, which kind of made me laugh. Well at least the dub didn't butcher the Polish last names! |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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They're even more evil and scheming in the second season. Kinda reminds me of all the controversies over Olympic scoring during the Cold War. Also figure skating judging.
spoiler[But man, if you thought Kai has an underdog backstory, some of these other players make his life look like a walk in the forest. Piano is apparently not for the faint of heart.] (I could be wrong, but I think most professional world class musicians come from rather privileged backgrounds, due to the cost of instruments, lessons, tutors, travel, etc., unless they can somehow find a patron like Kai did.) |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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I know, I got to the story of the Chinese player, man, that was intense  Some of the drama though was a bit much. I understand that every player needs a story to make them interesting, but spoiler[being born to a dead hanging woman,], come on... Seems you need trauma in your life to be able to play well, otherwise you're just a boring Shu who focuses on the technique.
Not that I know many pianist, but likewise, I would think that there would be not that many people not coming from families of musicians and/or relatively well off families who can pay for lessons /tuition/instruments. That being said, depending on the country, some places have amazing opportunities for students of all backgrounds to be able to learn instruments and scholarships in place for the best. I would actually think China being one of those places, they specialise children in arts and sports very early on. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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And now they've jacked Pei's drama up to 11.
They've just completely given up animating any of this, haven't they. It's more like an animatic than anime. The only thing that's moving in 3/4 of the shots is the tidal wave of pollen floating around, which makes me want to sneeze. I don't even know what that's supposed to represent. The notes? People's souls? |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I think that the pollen is meant to be something like the atmosphere, which the better players can affect, but it has become rather distracting.
Maybe stuff has been happening, but it has felt a little bit unfocused with who the main and central character should be. Will admit it has left my mind wondering a bit while watching. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1946 |
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At this point you could probably just read the manga while listening to Chopin and get the same effect...i loved the manga (and the movie) and i'm still happy it got an anime at all, but really, it deserved better. 
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Very true. And the manga would still be more animated than the anime. The extra long sequences of people playing (still captures of 10 minutes with a bit of random movement of trees and sparkles) get boring quickly. And the excited overvoices of spectators. I suppose it may have been more exciting if I actually played the piano and could tell the difference between the different levels of genius (wonder if the piano play is actually as good as the narration makes it seem ).
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 24
Well, it looks like it finally finished. The judges' feet was put to the fire under a threat to expose bias in the scoring, where they had to publish their scores the finals, meaning unfair favouritism or even sabotage of players they might not want to win would be exposed. The polish favourite tying at third, Pang getting second, and Kai managing to take first with multiple awards. Also got revealed after the ceremony that Kai had organized for advanced hand surgery for Ajino, so he could play again. And all lived happily ever after. Kind of would like to have known if Kai could have helped his mother get out of her situation though. I gave a rating a while back to keep some of my thoughts before it finished, it was a rating of Decent (6/10), and I think that is the best I can give it, a decent at best. Honestly it was pretty boring, I don't think there was any effective tricks to put across some of the subtly of the playing. Don't know if you would have to be an expert of piano to understand stuff hidden in the performances, or if there was such a depth in the playing. The best most of us could do is read the room and pay attention to magic wind. As it is, I am not even sure I quite got what I wanted out of it, which was someone stuck in the dredges of society being able to climb up, because it felt like the perspective would shift away from Kai, and things would only come up much later. At least I can finally be happy that it is over instead of something never to be finished. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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They did totally forget about Mom, didn't they.
 But we know Kai would take good care of her. They also all but forgot about Shu, once they resolved his jealousy issues, even though he was a major focus for the first half. He did get a few good crying and cheering shots though.
Apparently even Wei's daddy made it out alive. That storyline sure got sewn up in a jiffy just from, what, him placing second? I'm not sure how that worked. Still, I'm glad they took some time with Ajino's deal. It was nice to see him finally show some emotions and cry at the concert, and he didn't just leap at the surgery and then voila! all better now. After 25 years of not playing, it would take awhile to get back to speed, if he even could. I enjoyed it overall. It's just a shame that a story that inspired both a movie and a 25-episode series couldn't seem to attract enough money to animate it very well. |
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