Amateur Recommendation Hour: Kids On The Slope

Today’s recommendation is an absolutely lovely anime series I simply cannot wait to recommend to you all. A thematically and tonally brilliant balance of reality and idealism punctuated by its reverence for a genre of music that once swept the world over and the celebration and value of the music that makes so many of us feel so much for so many individualistically unique reasons. A depth that goes far deeper than any of us could fully comprehend.

Kids On The Slope, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, with music composed by Yoko Kanno, is a story set in 1960s Japan of a high school student from an affluent family learning how to acclimate to his new countryside surroundings and his transition from classical to jazz pianist. Just leaving it at that would sell it WAY short, but since it is a character driven narrative there really isn't much more I could say without giving away key details. Its setup is straightforward but it's never more than it needs to be. It's in in the execution where it earns its stripes. As is the case with most art.

There are a lot of heavy topics and themes here, given varying degrees of attention. The class divides of the 1960s that also intertwined between patrons and creatives of classical and jazz music, the cycle of mass protestation that swept the world over during the height of the Cold War, upstart young adults and traditionalism clashing. It capitalizes on its nostalgic feel without lionizing its era as a perfect time without fault. And while it is told primarily from the viewpoint of adolescents, we see through their interactions with their elder friends and relatives the bits and pieces of the harsh real world blurring into the lives of the younger demographic. Something that is even more prevalent now in the information age, given smaller roots in a different way at an earlier time in our history. It is depicted with such care that is noticeable to the smallest detail.

The main characters mostly have well fleshed out backstories fed to the viewer in a very naturalistic way, each with their own clearly defined reasons for being conflicted in ways that I'm sure all of us can identify with, in one way or another, give us reason to be tethered to them and their personal plights. And for me it never felt too melodramatic or over-indulgent, striking a very healthy middle ground between minimalist and extravagant, hitting each respective beat when it would naturally feel appropriate. The believability and reactivity of each character dealing with their own endeavors at each given point in their lives and as it relates to each of their personal experiences is ripely woven into dialogue, decision making, narrative stakes, and character animations. The story is created more by the characters and the natural situations they find themselves in as opposed to an overarching story being filled in by character action. “Good characters write themselves” is never more true than in a story with the intentions at play here.

Yoko Kanno doing the score in a work where music is a focal point should speak for itself. The woman is a genius. Jack of all trades AND master of all. Not much more to be said. She's simply the best [insert Tina Turner voice clip here]. In fact as this is a show about music she is able to have an even bigger role on the proceedings, imprinting even more of her personality and style on the show. Setting tone, delivering narrative and tonal backdrop to a given scene, it feels vastly more influential here given that what she is does is very much at the heart of Kids On The Slope as a work of fiction. In a way that doesn’t feel contradictory in the slightest yet fully intentional, it is in the moments of silence that, on a human level, hit the hardest. A character sitting at a piano in contemplation, another shocked into quiet by the action of another, the awkward silence that occurs before the ice is broken between mildly estranged family members meeting for the first time in years. They are discomforting on their own without accompaniment. We know what this feels like without artistic guidance. It is intelligent on a level few could claim.

As is the case with Watanabe’s works, it is thematically very rich. Ultimately I believe this work to be about the importance of male relationships, self-actualization, the unifying presence that musical inclination provides, and the value of embracing different experiences you may not be used to or even look down upon at previous points of your life. Empathy can be felt by each and every human being but so uniquely, almost indescribably beautifully as through music. The way it is written, how each individual plays their part and their perspective of said part. And no matter the aptitude of the player, musical inclination gives so much dimension to our experiences, of all kinds.