Piano no Mori

I absolutely loved this series. I must admit that the second series drags a bit with the lead up to the finale, but my oh my does it still deliver. I was hooked from episode one and I could not wait to watch all the episodes. Absolutely fantastic series, with the drama of friendship and love, and the descriptions of the piano which made you feel as if you were in the place Kai and the others were taking you to. Cannot emphasis enough how great this series is.

I'm a huge classical music fan. I play the piano a lot and I love doing so which is why I thought this series will be perfect for me, but I was sadly mistaken.

First of all, I would give the first season 8/10 The good: Fast paced storytelling, heartwarming storys and a likeable protagonist and antagonist (if you can even call him that). Beautiful music and it makes one want to play the piano.

The bad: You can't really enjoy a piece of music since it will be cut of at any second. On the other hand, sometimes they go on for a minute even though you've heard it a lot already just to "show the reactions". This is a big point, in a Manga you can write how it makes people feel but in animation, you should be able to feel that as well. which of course is very difficult, and they didn't really succeed.

The cringe-worthy: The animation. It's a 2D animation with 3D when they play the piano. The movement of the hands is very pleasant and rarely seen in animation, but when the whole body is shown, it looks creepy and unpleasant. But after a season, I got used to it.

Season 2: This season discarded almost everything good about the first and tried to better the cringe-worthiness by removing the 3D. But, they made it worse. Now there are juist still shots shown of them playing the piano. Sometimes they are clearly playing with both hands and the still shows them with one hand in the air.

The fast paced story comes to a halt because the entire season is just one big competition and the animation gets so lazy they use still shots about 50% of the time. Did the budget run out? What happend?

The good: The protagonist is still likeable and the music still good (except that it's now exclusively Chopin, which get's a bit boring after a few hours)

4/10

Overall 6/10 First season is recommendable, the second season not so much.

This animation about a feisty boy, Kai Ichinose, who finds an abandoned piano in a forest and learns to play it by himself, is so addictive I watched the whole 2 seasons, of 12 episodes each, in one sitting.

He rescues a classmate Shuhei Amamiya from bullies and, after finding out Shuhei wants to be a pianist, shows his new friend his piano in the forest. By some magic, the piano only responds to his touch. Shuhei is startled by Kai's playing and starts to harbor a complex emotion of envy and admiration for Kai, an emotion that eventually turns into an obsession to prove his superiority in piano playing.

Kai's teacher, Sosuke Ajino, a once-renowned pianist who got incapacitated after an accident, finds out about Kai's piano and volunteers to train the poor but extremely talented boy who, being the son of a prostitute and raised in a red-light district, would have little chance to better himself.

Season 2 is mostly about the International Chopin Piano Competition that Kai and Shuhei participate in. Side stories about the participants and Ajino add to the delightfulness of the series. The competition is fierce, raising my respect for pianists through the roof for having not only enormous talent but also incredible memory and nerves of steel. The commentaries from spectators add to the excitement about the events. But most of all, the music is exquisite, made more so by the pianists' affinity with it.

Forest of Piano or Piano no Mori is based on a 2007 animation film also called Piano no Mori. I haven't watched the film but, based on the images I saw, I can tell the first season of the anime covers the story in the movie and the second season expands it. In the first part we watch Kai Ichinose difficult childhood, his connection with the piano in the forest and the beginning of his relashionship with Shuhei Amamiya. It's a simple yet captivating coming-of-age story, with a nice character development and a good narrative. Kai is very likeable and I couldn't help but be curious to know what was going to happen in his life, so I went straight to season 2. There are some differences regarding the two parts. The second has much more music and more characters. If you like piano and erudite music, then you are gonna enjoy this part a lot. It's delightful to watch and, essentialy, to hear the pianists through the 12 episodes of the season, the same amount of season 1. I can't say much about the second phase, cause it would be a spoiler so I'll just say it focuses on a very famous pianist from the romantic era and it's lovely to see the amount of love people from the country where he was born still gives him, through events. Like I said before, there are more characters in this season, what adds a lot to the narrative, that becomes more complex, with more conflicts. There is just one negative thing I gotta highlight in this review: the animation. The drawing is beautiful, but it lacks in motion. In the first season the animators used techniques to give motion to the characters while playing the piano, so it's delightful to watch and hear the piano. But, regarding season 2, there is almost no movement at all, therefore, it relies totally in the beautiful soundtrack. Like I said in the trivia, professional pianists were hired to play for the studio. I don't know so much about music yet I could totally notice the difference in the way each character plays the piano. It's a masterful job. That's why it's crucial to like erudite music to watch this anime, because it's what stands out in it. I loved the music, the landscapes and the energy about the city so much that it became a dream of mine to go there someday and pay homage to the brilliant composer the anime honors.

I loved Season 1 and binge-watched Season 2 of this charming series. It shows Kai growing from poor waif into an accomplished pianist with great generosity of spirit. His teacher Ajino and rival Shuhei grow with him as childhood resistance and rivalry mature into supportive friendship. Meanwhile, much great piano artistry is featured as nearly the entire second season takes place at the Chopin competition in Poland. Other characters at the competition are well-developed and authentic with interesting side-stories. I wept with its poignancy several times. Don't miss it!