Sakamichi no Apollon

I first heard about this series due to the Shinchiro Watanabe directed anime, which I’d watched a long time ago. At the time I didn’t think much of it, but I was also a much younger and more close-minded individual. Years later, here I am revisiting the series in its manga form. Yuki Kodama’s 2007-2012 manga about life, love, and Jazz music. Let’s rock.

PLOT: 1966, a young Kaoru Nishimi transfers to yet another school. Due to his father’s work he’s always moved about, never really connecting with anyone. However he runs into the school delinquent, Sentarou Kawabuchi. The two form an unexpected friendship, helping each other through the ups and downs of life and playing jazz together. While nothing new, the set-up is effective. We follow Kaoru and Sentarou through their 3 years of high school and the events that come with. We see both characters deal with the damages of their past as they move on to the future. While, as with any drama, the situations were by and in-large caused by the main characters, it never really hit an obnoxious degree and very rarely did the situations feel particularly contrived. They were very natural and very impactful, and the manga’s brief length kept it from ever feel like it was repeating itself or dragging for dragging’s sake. The series mostly focused on the main trio, though it did spare some time for the stories of Yurika and Junichi which I found to be some personal highlights. If there’s any complaint I have it’d be that the original ending lacked much punch, however the bonus track volume adds more and wraps the story up in a rather nice manner.

8/10, a good drama story yet lacking in the horseshit that they sometimes come with.

CHARACTERS: A drama’s story is only as good as its characters. Our protagonist Kaoru starts off the series as someone damaged by his loneliness. We of course see him grow out of that over the course of the series. While many times he does let his emotions get the better of him and put himself in trouble, his genuine love for the people around him shows through. We see him not only grow up, but loosen up, such as his transition from rigid classical music to the reactive and improvising jazz. His character arc is quite satisfying. Next up is Sentarou, the force to shake up Kaoru’s world. Despite his delinquent reputation, Sentarou’s quite the nice guy, if a bit aggressive. He’s got a bright energy to him and the force to change those around him, even if that strength is built on a troubled past. He’s the one who gets our lead into Jazz and is generally the motivating force of a lot of the series. I found him to be quite likeable in his genuineness and learning of the scars he bears I found to be quite the emotional trip. Rounding out the trio is Ritsuko Mukae, Sentarou’s childhood friend, Kaoru’s crush, and the daughter of the owner of the record store at which the cast practice their music. She’s a very kind and gentle figure and adds a softness to the main cast balancing them out. Despite her affable nature and likeability, I found she lacked presence in comparison to the other two leads. While it’s natural I do wish we got to spend a bit more time with her as her rather than sticking to her in relation to the other leads.If there were to be a fourth main character it’d be Yurika Fukahori. She starts of simply and a crush at first sight for Sentarou, but moves into a leading role for a good portion of the manga. Unlike Ritsuko we do get to see a bit more of her personal life and struggles and her arc in the manga is one of my favorite portions. Lastly I want to give brief mention to the character of Junichi, while I won’t go into details on why I want to mention him for spoiler reasons, I also really liked his character arc. As for minor characters go, there were a few comedy characters and some other minor characters to flesh out the cast but the real focus was on prior mentioned characters.

8/10, some strong and likeable characters brought up by each other.

VISUALS: Yuki Kodama’s arts has its strengths and weaknesses. To start with the negatives, the art is really flat. Not in an emotional sense but everything felt really two-dimensional. (While duh it is two-dimensional, nothing felt like it popped.) On occasion I’d feel like characters felt off but not to any real demeritable amount. On the positive side however, is the expression and emotion tied into the art. There are a lot of scenes that come off as quite beautiful and really convey the feeling of the scene in a rather powerful way. This ability is also used masterfully in scenes with music, managing to convey the feelings of music in a soundless medium. A lot of the settings were visually interesting including the visual use of the titular slope. The characters all had unique and memorable designs and the quality was pretty consistent. As far as flow goes the series does just fine.

7/10, while not perfect the art does definitely have some very strong points.

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

While it’s not a hallmark or a master-classic, Sakamichi is a very strong manga about life and music. It pretty well utilizes a strong cast and finishes right when it needs to. While many people may be put off by the lack of a soundtrack, I find playing some of the music discussed by characters in the background helped me get in the mood but was by no means necessary. If you do read this just make sure to read the Bonus Track volume as well, it’s great. All in all I would recommend this series.

While I write this review, the intro of Moanin' by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers is playing inside my head. Not just that, for two weeks, all I could hear was pure and awesome jazz songs. Of course it's Sakamichi no Apollon's fault.

Music. Do you know how powerful can it be? C'mon, I bet music changed your life or your day, at least once. Now, jazz songs. Jazz is contagious, you hear it and starts tapping your fingers, moving your shoulders or doing weird footsteps under the table. It's magical! In the end, you're smiling and you don't even know how that happened. You're just smiling, even if you got some problems here and there... And this is what this manga is talking about.

In the late 60s, we got a freshman high school student Kaoru, who not so coincidentally looks like a American jazz pianist, Bill Evans, in the early days. He's our honor student kind of character and just moved to Kyushu to live with relatives. In school, he's not the most social guy, but destiny brings two new friends, Sentarou and Ritsuko. Sen introduces him to jazz music and after being told he can't play other music style, 'cause he's a "piano-classic-songs boy", Kaoru accepts the challenge and try to learn how to play jazz, without knowing he'll not only change his music style, but change inside, change himself.

The story goes by. New characters appear, revelations, some little plot twists that make you feel a tightness in the heart. It's a slice of life, don't expect action or explosions, don't expect the answer to the Universe. This is simple and pure slice of life. Their lives, their thoughts, their feelings (oh, their feelings!) and their problems. That kind of manga you read and say: "oh man, I'm this character" (hey, Kaoru, I'm with you!). The characters aren't ORIGINAL, you have seen a lot of characters like them, "big brother mentor", "childhood friends", "delinquent", "cute girl" and "megane". Yes, they aren't original, but they're UNIQUE. Little details makes you love them... I like how things happen, isn't your "oh, let's put 60 chapters and solve things, I don't know, in the 59th chapter". It's your "Oh my, is this really happening? But it's only chapter 14... Oh, oh, go for it! But wait, oh my" (I'm sorry, that's my inner self talking).

So, you ask me: "Why should I read this manga?" Because it's good. It has quality! Doesn't matter if it isn't the most original one, it's unique. Introduces you to a Japan in the 60s with culture and costumes being corrupted. We got japanese christian, which it's the first time I see it in a manga. We got a imaginary triangule and "love hurts" from a new perspective, not your shoujo-type "He hates me, sniff sniff, I want to die". This is Josei, people are dealing with their problems, they're facing past issues, changing little by little. The art is a little retro too and I like the artist style. The music recommendations are the best too! So, please, give it a try. If you don't like it, I'm sorry, but I'm in love with this story.

Put some jazz, read it and travel with the characters to the beginning of japanese summer in 1966.

** This isn't yaoi or shounen-ai. Bromance? Well, maybe a little, if your idea of "friendship" is "boy huging boy? gay!", but for me is just friendship, two friends laughing, facing life and being comrades. I watched the anime first and I got to say: the anime exaggerates a little bit if you compare it with the manga. But, well, that always happens!

I'm not sure exactly what I expected when I decided to read Kids on the Slope. My only experiences with music in manga were Your Lie in April, which is a beautiful story about expressing oneself in music partnered alongside a story of redemption and hope, and Kono Oto Tomare, a more sports-like manga about appreciating music and playing in competitions. But Kids on the Slope was like neither of these two: it is a tumultuous character drama about friendship and love, with emotions swaying erratically back and forth like the jazz the characters love so much.

If I were to find a comparison to another piece of work, I'd say the closest thing I've read to this is Honey & Clover, which you could see as being either good or bad. Honestly, the sheer amount of drama and misunderstandings in this manga were really frustrating at times, and the speed at which problems would be solved only for new ones to appear was confusing. I found big parts of the story to be a bit tropey within the genre of drama, especially the characters, and I felt like there were a decent amount of things that didn't really need to be there for the story to work, kinda like how I felt about Honey & Clover. It just sounds like I'm bashing on Kids on the Slope a lot, but I find that a lot of my complaints with it are pretty prevalent in the genre as a whole. And even though there is a lot to complain about, I still found myself enjoying the manga a lot.

The reason why I still enjoyed the series even though there were so many things I disliked was because it felt so real and lifelike. I know that I'm prone to misunderstanding people, trying to take things into my own hands when I don't know the full story, and constantly thinking about little things that don't really amount to much. These are all issues the main character Kaoru has to deal with. The struggles of having to fight with your only good friends, missing them, making up, all of it is so human. In a medium where either idealized or self-insert characters are abundant, it's so refreshing to see such flawed characters. But they don't stay rooted in those flaws. They learn, grow, mess up, and stand back up again. Do you know what it feels like to have to give up on your dreams to pursue something you never wanted to do? I can relate. Ever put aside your own feelings so you could see your friends be happier? I know I have. I have trouble relating to people who have to use their special hidden power to go save the world or have their family killed so now they have to go get revenge on the ones who did it. But what I can relate to is getting together with a good friend just to do something we enjoy, and forget about all the problems I've been facing up to that point. What Kids on the Slope gets so right is that very human feeling of wanting relationships, seeing them break and grow, caring about others, getting mad and messing things up, running away only to be found again.

Kids on the Slope was by no means the most enjoyable story I've ever read. I really don't like crazy love polygons or drama filled events. But what it does give me is something I appreciate a lot: a reminder of how good it is to be with the ones I love. Because after all, "Friendship is forever".

Wow! This was a really well-written, character driven manga. Following the friendship of the main characters was an emotional roller coaster. Their interactions all felt very genuine, and the characters were all flawed in ways that made them feel more real. The mangaka was able to capture both the extremely happy as well as extremely sad moments, and draw the reader into sharing the emotions of the characters.

The use of music and the way that it reflects and inspired the emotion in the manga was PHENOMENAL, leagues beyond any other musically themed manga that I have read before. Even without sound, I always felt immersed in the music and the mood that it created.

The artwork was good, and very effective at conveying the emotions, thoughts, and actions of the characters without having to use excessive words. I appreciate it when the picture is composed well enough to speak for itself. The background imagery was very simple, but in a way that allowed the characters to take restaurants be the focus of the story.

My only complaint was that the female main character, Ritsuko, was somewhat bland and underdeveloped when compared to Sen and Kauro. She wasn't a bad character, or a weak-willed female that constantly relied on being rescued by the men in her life, but her character lacked depth. Although she was an important character in the story, her purpose was mainly to be a love interest and friend to Sen and Kauro. Not much is known of shown of her outside of her relationship with those two men.

I don't have the slightest idea why i kept overlooking this manga before. Probably it was because of the cover.... it had this aura of seriousness around it and i wasn't really in the mood for all that.
WELL, my fellow people-with-the-same-thinking
Do not be tricked by it. Because little did i know that this manga i picked up just out of curiosity, would be a masterpiece.
Guys, you don't know what's going on behind the scenes of this sane looking review. Im actually pacing about with excitement, because that's how much this story has got to me.
Well, the friendship-forever tag has been the underliner in a ton of manga and anime, but the way sekamichi no apollon brought it out is amazing. It genuinely made me smile and laugh out loud throughout the story, and frankly speaking, it made a brick wall like me, cry too.
I previously mentioned i wasnt ready for serious and sad shit, but this was different. I got attached to it and my emotions went with the flow because it all felt real.
The chacters, oh my god.... they are what made this story into what it is. There weren't any incosistencies or anything of that sort and everyone one had an important role in the story, in some way or the other. They were down to eath, with feelings of joy, insecurity, strength, envy, love, lonliness and the most important of all, passion.
Well, i may have said i kept looking away from this because of the cover art, but man apart from that, it is a beauty. The art style works with the story so well, i found myself staring at a single page. And oh god were they beautiful. What can i say, the art didn't potray music but i dont how to deliver this, um it could make you feel the music. I can safely say, sekamichi apollon may not have been sekamichi apollon if not for the art.
Well if i keep going, ill keep going on for ever. But its up to you. All ican say is this manga was beautiful and was an incredible experience for me. You may think im kinda stupid for giving a whole lot of 10-s but im just going with instict and this is what my insticts told.
Once again, DON't BE DECIEVED by the cover. Go read it. Now.

Sakamichi is delightful in the delivery of its story and characters. You have Kaoru, an intelligent but antisocial individual. He meets Sentarou, someone who's assertive and straightforward, but at the same time, gentle and caring in his own way. Over the course of Sakamichi, you come to see more about the two of them, their motives, and even glimpses of a greater bond as they both embrace their love for music and use it to overcome the typical obstacles and worries of becoming an adult. Sure, the story Sakamichi presents may be nothing new, BUT what is new is the way that story is handled and what direction it goes in. I thought I knew where Sakamichi was going midway through but the story took several turns that allowed the story to even further develop what I'd say a quite perfect bromantic relationship between Kaoru and Sentarou. The art may be seen as dated for the general teenage populous of this generation, but don't let that scare you. I personally think that the art is outstanding and blends well with the theme of love and friendship. Some of the characters may come off as edgy and downright unlikeable at first, but that's all the more reason to continue reading and cherish the author's extraordinarily clever writing that reveals itself moreso, later on. Overall, Sakamichi is a beautifully crafted story with dynamic characters that aren't too predictable. If you're not a fan of the general plot, that's understandable but otherwise Sakamichi is far too amazing to be ignored by anyone, unless you hate the idea of love and friendship, in which case I recommend a darker read that will tear your soul in half and scar you for life like Berserk..... >:)

Sakamichi No Apollon (also known as Kids On The Slope) is a josei manga which can get some catchy jazz song in your head, and manage to keep it there all day. At first, you'd catch yourself tapping your fingers or toes to some melody, and after some time, you just can't stop. The musical style of jazz is off-beat, nonrhythmic, and often improvises the melodies. It's very different, but often in a good way.

That definition also best describes Sakamichi No Apollon.

As the winner of the 57th Shogakukan Manga Award for General Manga, I don't think you could really expect anything sub-par. Kaoru, a stotic, young, freshman in highschool during the 60's, began living at his aunt's house as a result of his father's excessive moving. He has no means of making friends or memories, since he has always been transferred out of the class before any true friendship could blossom. And yet, the two people he meets on the first day of school, Ritsuko and Sentarou, eventually manage to change his way of thinking, and his way of life.

The characters and the development in this series is excellent. The world of jazz manages to pull the unexpected three together into a friendship for life. And get this –it isn't sappy. The feelings, the conflicts, the misunderstandings, and the (very) young love is realistic and sensible. Their relationships were the best part about it; a whirlwind of fast-paced feelings that are similar to the nature of jazz. Many of the characters are based off of high school tropes (ie: the quiet boy with glasses), but there are little flaws and characteristics built into each one in order to make them unique. This story is mainly character-driven, and as you could probably tell from my total rating, they are done extremely well.

Though Sakamichi No Apollon is a slice-of-life that focuses it's plot on the different, social situations, it never falls into generic high-school tropes. And despite the fact that the slice-of-life genre can be the longest, and cover the most in a character's life, this manga downplays it quite a bit. Sakamichi No Apollon is focused on the experience and little changes in Kaoru's life. And it only takes 9 volumes to do so. He's a piano player who changes his style from strictly classical to jazzy 'swing'. He falls in love; something he probably thought he could never do. He changes from an outcast to a pretty social guy. Sakamichi No Apollon chronicles the little things in life. One may say that there isn't a true plot to this manga, but I beg to differ. This manga covers Kaoru's life during the early years in high school. I mean, it's high school in the 60's, for crying out loud; it's the time of his life!

I don't really have much to say about the pacing or the narration, other than the fact it's superb. The ending was a bit rushed, but the concept of it was still meaningful. The atmosphere and the setting too: I don't think I could give a accurate description of it, except that when everything is over and done, you'll be left with a soft, fuzzy image of two boys running down a hill, living for every moment in their youthful lives.

Sakamichi No Apollon (aka. Kids On The Slope) was magnificent. The effort, the creativity, and the teens who are ever-so naive – all of it is packed within a story which parallels the world of jazz. It's a fairly simple story, but then there are the characters, who, being teenagers, are always so complex. And it's something surprising for a josei; it doesn't primarily focus on romance. So because it allows the reader to slip into the lives of the characters during the 60's with realistic ease, it deserves a 9.0 / 10.0.

(To add a side note, I'm sure we've all read a manga before with music involved. They usually tell you the lyrics and the title, and that's as far as the musical impact goes, right? Sakamichi No Apollon really, really lets the reader get involved with jazz. Even now, the melodies of My Favourite Things, Someday My Prince Will Come, and, of course, Moanin', are memorized. So definitely read this, and you'll get to experience 60's jazz.)

★★★★★★★★★☆
RECOMMENDED.

Again, I am not writing a review just because and I rarely write reviews for things I've completed. I randomly found this tile (Kids on the Slope) while browsing Tumblr, so I checked its wikipage out. I was interested, so I started reading it at the early hours of today. Maybe 1 am. Anyway, I was instantly drawn in by the main character and I was wanting more from him, as well as his new life with his new friends. What made the story better for me was the fact that he gained such good and new friends easily and he slowly began to come out of his shell once he became friends with Ricchan and Sen.

Additionally, a bonus would be that almost any character he came into contact with, they had a story of their own, which is brought to light and resolved in a way. I knew it was a feel good story when I started reading it, and now that I'm finished, I can say it really is. It really is a story about friendship and how friendship is forever (or for life, as stated in the manga). The simple art style gave life to the characters and the characters came to life on their own.

Literally, it gets a 10/10. The end legitimately made me cry and I understood why they were the Kids on the Slope. I love feel good stories and this is a good read.

I came across this manga while I was looking for josei manga and decided to read it because it won an award. I thought it could be boring but that wasn't the case!

The story takes place in a small town with a warm, cozy atmosphere (around 1960s I think) and you really feel you're there! The characters are very realistic. There's one girl and two guys but the story is not cliché. The girl is a timid, sweet small town girl who's still friends with her childhood friend, the "delinquent" Sen. Then the city boy/ good student comes into the picture and music pulls them all together. The main guy is not this amazing, cool type but he has his goods and bads, he's human. And Sen is an amazing character, you would have to read.

From the way the characters meet to the way the mangaka turns romance between characters upside down throughout the manga, I think the right word for this manga for me is "believable". There's no crazy romance with lots of drama but your regular romance you would stumble upon everyday, equally mixed with music and a strong friendship between the two main guys which is rare to find in common literature. I just loved this, made me feel warm stuff :)

"Manga about music, that's not going to work well, isn't it?" is what you might be thinking. Well, wrong. Sakamichi no Apollon is about jazz and one of it's best qualities is certainly how well can it deliver the soundtrack (despite having none) and the atmosphere in the reader's head. Yes, you can almost hear the jazzy music from those pages.

And it is not only music-wise atmosphere that is done right. It is also the historical setting of 60's Japanese school that is done right. Now, I'm no historical expert, of course, but the architecture, the clothing and the behavior of characters convey accuratelly that this is a different time period.

The behavior of the characters itself is the second main strenght of Sakamichi no Apollon. The reason? They feel real. They are not just cardboard cutouts that move to progress the plot, they are human-like and with lives before and beyond the story the manga portrays. Usually, love triangles tend to get cringy and forced, but this time it's done well, realistic but not boring, giving an interesting story while still being believable.

If you're a fan of josei and romance manga, you're going to love it. And if not, you should still give it a try. It might not hype you that much, but it will most likely still turn out to be a worthile read.