Sakamichi no Apollon

Introverted classical pianist and top student Kaoru Nishimi has just arrived in Kyushu for his first year of high school. Having constantly moved from place to place since his childhood, he abandons all hope of fitting in, preparing himself for another lonely, meaningless year. That is, until he encounters the notorious delinquent Sentarou Kawabuchi.

Sentarou's immeasurable love for jazz music inspires Kaoru to learn more about the genre, and as a result, he slowly starts to break out of his shell, making his very first friend. Kaoru begins playing the piano at after-school jazz sessions, located in the basement of fellow student Ritsuko Mukae's family-owned record shop. As he discovers the immense joy of using his musical talents to bring enjoyment to himself and others, Kaoru's summer might just crescendo into one that he will remember forever.

Sakamichi no Apollon is a heartwarming story of friendship, music, and love that follows three unique individuals brought together by their mutual appreciation for jazz.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kawabuchi, Sentarou Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Nishimi, Kaoru Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Mukae, Ritsuko Main

Nanri, Yuuka Japanese

Katsuragi, Junichi Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Fukahori, Yurika Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Mukae, Tsutomu Supporting

Kitajima, Zenki Japanese

Matsuoka, Seiji Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Taichi Supporting

Iwasaki, Megumi Japanese

Kaoru's Aunt Supporting

Jou, Masako Japanese

Maruo, Shigetora Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Ootsuka, Manabu Producer

Ozaki, Noriko Producer

Udagawa, Sumio Producer

Reviews

Aug 10, 2025

MichaelBellonis

Recommended

“A painting is created on a space, while jazz is created during a time called a performance. It’s like etching your living self into that place in time.”

I’m back with another contender for my Definitive Top 100 Anime of All Time List - Kids on the Slope.

A gorgeous 12 episode anime directed by Watanabe and animated by Mappa studio (it was actually Mappa’s FIRST production!) though not either of their usual approaches to storytelling - a soft, poignant coming of age story of a group of kids becoming obsessed with jazz music. This marks an even more interesting departure from Watanabe’s usual storytelling, ... as this was also his first directorial role SINCE concluding Samurai Champloo in 2005.

Watanabe has always had a large focus on music in his projects, though up to this point it was always an immersive soundtrack to highlight beats and choreography. In this anime, it’s wholeheartedly the focus - not only is it about kids playing Jazz, Jazz as a genre is used as a vehicle for the themes as the main character, ordinarily a quiet, sheltered, reserved kid, gradually learns to come out of his shell and live more freely.

Something fantastic to note about the production of this anime is that Watanabe initially was pressured to use CGI for the music performances to cut down on time and costs, but Watanabe pushed for hand drawn animation for all of it, using motion capture of real world musicians performing as reference for the animators.

Kids on the Slope is a beautifully realistic portrayal of all of the pains of growing up - From moving around a lot and losing friends, to living in poverty, to the loneliness of living with wealth, to unrequited love and awkward relationships, and even just the struggles of regular friendships and jealousy. With the beautiful dialogue, wonderful animation provided by Mappa, and the great direction by Watanabe, this anime has all the makings of Top 100 Contender.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 11, 2026

Olaf_Forkbeard

Mixed Feelings

Great animation, strong eye for cinema, and reasonable story beats.

However this is a Boy's Love Josei anime with Jazz in it, not a Jazz Josei anime with romance. I enjoyed it, more than less, but the clear romance of will they won't they wasn't between the main love interest and the two growing boys, it's definitely two bisexual boys and a straight girl.

I don't think I can say I don't recommend this anime, but I can say it's a about changing love triangles and childish reactions (because they are children, it was realistic on that front) to trauma's and love distress. It legit ... would have been better if it was written with what was so clearly intended to be a gay or bi curious romance while also being a coming of age story. I am an ace adult, so this frankly did not interest me much at all, and feel like the genre lied to me.

A bit rote / tropey with overall story beats, but they were perfectly serviceable in performing the role of exploring character development.

It is quality that I am not the target audience for. Oh yeah, and I repeat: the animation is incredible.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 5, 2025

ShipperNig196

Not Recommended

Funny

This was bad yall. As yall can see it took me an entire month to finish a 12 episode fucking show. I just finished arcane in a week and it has 9. That should tell you all you need to know about this.
THIS SHOW WANTED TO BE A BOY LOVE SO BAD AND IT NEVER WENT THERE WHAT THE FU— okay first off i wanted to preface this by saying i kinda gaslit myself into watching this sludge. For the longest time i heard it was about jazz and that it was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (idk who tf told me that. I think i ... told myself that. Idk) so it had always been on my ghost list for a while. Fast forward like 10 years later (im lazy) and I finally get around to watching it and i want to go back in time and slap the shit out of myself. Anywho the worst part of this show besides the fact that the characters were annoying af (especially the main character that nigga reminded me of what light would be like if he never got the Death Note) and nothing interesting happened at all is that it didn’t have the balls to be what it actually wanted to be and thats 🌈GAY AF🌈. The show was a massive waste of time and it barelyy had any jazz in it. I mean there was some jazz but not enough to tickle my old ivory keys if ya know what im sayin jack 😎😎😎 anywho. Dont watch this. I should’ve just watched Blue Note instead probably

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Sakamichi no Apollon Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) CuriousThing - May 10, 2012	144 replies	by Moshy29 »» Yesterday, 7:58 AM
	Poll: Sakamichi no Apollon Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) HawthorneKitty - Jun 28, 2012	468 replies	by otomon »» Dec 29, 2025 6:21 PM
	Poll: Sakamichi no Apollon Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) HawthorneKitty - May 3, 2012	205 replies	by strawblady »» Dec 21, 2025 9:53 PM
	Traditional gender roles on the slope Kelvets - Jan 20, 2020	3 replies	by Hashiriya_weeb87 »» Oct 16, 2025 5:18 PM
	Poll: Sakamichi no Apollon Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Aria_Wright - May 31, 2012	140 replies	by LunaLov »» Sep 8, 2025 1:52 PM

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