The Fall 2023 Anime Preview Guide

Kawagoe Boys Sing -Now or Never-

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Former choir member Dei Tenshi shut himself inside his room and has been quietly singing alone. Haruo Hibiki enters his life at school one day with an idea to create a choir club and win first prize at the National Boys Choir Competition. Haruo was once an up-and-coming conductor but was kicked out of the orchestra due to his disagreeable temperament. If he can bring victory to a newbie choir club, he can return to his former job at the orchestra.

Kawagoe Boys Sing -Now or Never- is an original anime project. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

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Richard Eisenbeis
Rating:

On paper, you'd think I'd be all about this anime. I love to sing and it is probably my only true natural talent. Growing up I was in about every possible choir and musical theater group you can imagine—be that in school, church, or local amateur productions. In high school, I and a group of four other boys created our school's first-ever “boy's select choir” and did a few competitions and performances. And as this anime is literally about a group of boys doing that very thing, you think I'd love this one, right? Not really.

I think this is one of these things where I am far too close to the subject to be able to enjoy it. Almost every scene annoyed me on one level or another. It felt like sitting through a caricature of what I experienced more than anything else. The conductor was so over-the-top—from basically molesting the boys at every chance he got to spraying them with water to get a good pitch. (Well, I guess there's a reason he is working at a high school instead of an orchestra at this point.)

Then came the big song number itself. What a disaster—and I'm not only talking about the animation! Rap songs don't show off a person's singing ability (so I don't know what the point was of having them do this song as a test of ability). And what the heck was the point of making them learn all the dance choreography before actually teaching them to sing the darn song? If this scene was supposed to make me think they were a group that had real potential... let's just say it did the opposite.

Even our opening two boys' choir songs rubbed me the wrong way. However, that has to do with my dislike of “Katakana English” rather than the voices on display. (They did a fine job vocally.) Perhaps if the story had anything going for it, I'd be able to overlook at least some of my issues with the show. However, only one character has any development at all (he used to sing but now has stage fright) and the rest might as well be part of the background for how much they stand out.

So, yeah. Hard pass from me on this one.

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Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Of all the things I might have been expecting, a pretty anime boy crooning out “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” was not among them. Neither was a school principal with a pet honey badger (named Ratel, the other name for a honey badger) that she let run freely around town. But that's what I got in this first episode, along with a way-too-handsy self-proclaimed genius conductor and, most unbelievably, a school that actively wants to increase its arts offerings—really pushing the envelope with that one.

The story is plainly meant to be a comedy, and it does have its moments. Haruo, the grandson of the badger-keeping principal, is facing a downturn in his conducting career when she offers (or bribes) him into starting a choir at the boys' school she runs. Despite this high-level backing, he quickly becomes the subject of predator warnings over the PA system. That's because Haruo either has no idea that Granny hasn't made her choir plans public, so when this random guy approaches students, asking them to sing or commenting about their physiques and postures concerning singing, they're justifiably freaked out. When he finally does manage to grab an unsuspecting trio, he refuses to take no for an answer, even when one of them, Tenshi, is so completely freaked out that he can barely move.

I did not find Haruo's approach to corralling a choir amusing. Mostly, this comes down to his treatment of Tenshi, who is very clear that he's uncomfortable, especially when blindsided by the fact that he and his pals Ei and Tori are expected to sing and dance in the gym, where sports teams are practicing. A kid who makes himself a soundproof room in his bedroom so that his mom can't hear him sing is not someone who's going to be able to get up on stage just like that, and the total lack of respect that any of the adults shows him is frankly off-putting. The opening theme shows Tenshi being dragged into the choir very literally, so it doesn't look like this aspect of the story is going away any time soon, which is pretty much a dealbreaker for me.

It's neat that this isn't an idol show or set at a highly specialized performing arts school. That's a pretty good hook if you're not bothered by other aspects of this episode. But if you don't enjoy seeing adults run roughshod over teenagers and “humorously” touch them when it makes them uncomfortable, this may not be the series (or at least the episode) for you.

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James Beckett
Rating:

Let it never be said that this fall season didn't have at least one show that delivered something completely unexpected. If nothing else, a good portion of the appeal for Kawagoe Boys Sing -Now or Never- will likely come from the novelty of focusing on men's choir performances, which is something I don't think I've seen depicted adequately in an anime since…well, maybe ever? While I'm not a hardcore choir geek or anything, I can at least say that this type of music appeals to me a little more than the usual candy-coated J-Pop stuff. It has a bit more soul to it (pun very much intended).

That said, whatever enthusiasm I have for this show comes with some caveats. Simply put, the production for this show is rough. The animation is stiff, the storyboarding is often clumsy, the editing is all over the place, and it is generally the kind of show that gives you the impression that something—many things—is just…off. Plenty of anime have been able to get by despite their amateurish visuals, but the jury is still out on whether Kawagoe Boys Sing is one of them. That said, there's also a scrappy, underdog quality to the story that I couldn't help but find some joy in.

Maybe it was that we somehow eventually went from introducing our washed-up conductor Haruo's mission to form a brand new choir group for the Kawagoe Academy to having him and our trio of reluctant recruits sprayed by a honey badger's stink glands. It's just so willfully dumb that it makes it difficult not to laugh at (and with) the proceedings, even if you're not super excited to see these boys sing their cheesy choir songs. It reminded me of one of my favorite Japanese comedies, Water Boys, which is an easy way to earn my favor.

So, while I don't know if KAWAGOE BOYS SING is good, per se, it's the weird, ugly-duckling anime worth giving a shot if you're willing to meet it on its level and forgive its numerous aesthetic shortcomings. You might find yourself having a fun time with it, like I did.

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Nicholas Dupree
Rating:

For the first few minutes of this premiere, I was intrigued. I've never been huge on A capella music. Still, anime has gotten me interested in stuff I would never have considered trying otherwise, and I figured this could be a decent entry point. If not that, then at least this was a realm of music I haven't seen explored through anime before, so it could be a unique take on a familiar formula. In the end, I got a disjointed and charmless series of plot points that felt pulled from the really bad episodes of GLEE.

You'd think this premiere would use its time to sell you on the idea of a choir club – maybe explain what separates this performance style from school bands or music clubs or have us listen to an excellent vocal performance as a sample of what's to come. Instead, we spend most of this episode with Haruo, who's supposed to be a charming jackass that's bad at communicating but a pushy creep who never shuts up. He spends the entire episode being an asshole in weirdly invasive ways, getting distracted by side plots out of a bad sitcom, and being generally unpleasant to follow. Rather than teach his students or the audience about singing, he yells at them to do better and stop sucking, in a horribly misguided attempt at humor on the show's part. Between him roping students into capturing an angry honey badger (don't ask) and multiple school faculty walking in on students in the gym showers, by the end of the episode, I didn't want to see these characters form a choir club – I wanted the school to get sued out of existence.

I don't know why this was chosen as our introduction to the main cast or concept, but I do know that I don't want to watch another second of it. The characters outside of Haruo are basic and leave little impression. The most engaging musical performance is at the very start, with shy singer Tenshi struggling to get his mouth around the lyrics to “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” After that, it's all original songs that would sound at home in any given idol anime. If there are any unique musical moments or more compelling cast members, they are trapped behind this giant speed bump of a premiere, and I don't much care to see if they're even there.