La Corda d'oro series review

I kept my word and watched every episode of La Corda d'oro...and I am a bit bitter and disappointed by the whole series. All I read were tons of reviews talking about how awesome the show was and I wonder if I am really that picky or was the awesome left out of my fan subs.

The rest of my awesome review

I suppose my first problem was the fact....that despite being a shojo anime and that the theme was suppose to be ROMANTIC feelings, nothing ever happened. It was a lot of blushing and "oh, my music feels better when Kahoko is listening to in". Not one kiss in the entire series with all those guys falling over her...is a bit ridiculous in my mind. I was really rooting for Ryoutarou, even though at times Kazuki seemed like the better choice. But no, no romance was to be had at all. I think that defeats the purpose of classify this as a romance anime.

No kiss...


Still no kiss...

At times, I felt as if this show had Dr. Quinn syndrome. For those of you who do not know what syndrome I am talking about, let me explain. Ms. Dr. Quinn leaves the big city and becomes the doctor of "small town" folk. Every single week she would have to teach these hicks how to love a certain person/situation of the day. Sometimes it was a black family, a Native American, Chinese works, the Hispanic teacher, ect. But some next Saturday (it's airing date), these town folk have forgotten their lessons of love and were back to hating on someone else. It was never ending cycle. THAT IS WHAT THIS SHOW FELT LIKE! It was like every single day Kahoko woke up and remembered she really could not play the violin (50 first dates anyone). It was so boring watching her angst over the same topic day after day. THE LIE SHE IS LIVING!!! I was getting sick watching people compliment her, because I knew 5 more minutes of self pity were coming my way. She was given a magical violin by a fairy, DUH SHE CAN NOT PLAY IT FOR REAL!!!! I do not know why she was so upset about it all the time, either stop playing it or cheat and play. Of course, when the violin broke from her "intense feelings", it was awesome how she did not want to play anymore. I laughed at her situation....then cried for the next two episodes when everyone was trying to make her play again.

WHAT?! I SUCK?!

THE LIES!!!

Which leads me to my next point....was everyone brain dead or in on this magical violin deal? This general education student (which apparently is one level above pond scum in this anime) just all of a sudden gets picked to be in the concours. Ryoutarou gets picked as well, but it is shown later he is truly talented, Kahoko is not. She tells the other participates later she just started to play the violin. Do they just accept this crazy truth and decide she is a magical genius? Perhaps her uneven hair cut confused them all. Perhaps they were too busy wondering why she was crying all the time when complimented. However, the most STUPID moments for the rest of the cast comes after the violin breaks. After she spends all that time trying to pretend to be happy hanging out with her boring friends and goes back to her true love the VIOLIN, she sucks hard at it. I am sure it sounds like what I would play if given a violin. There is no possible way a week or two away from something can make you suck THAT badly. Something obviously happen...but not obviously enough for all the other people on the show. They decide it is just nerves that got to her and she is working hard to make up for her short comings. I call bullcrap. I would have been calling her a cheater and demanding an investigation (yeah, in case you have not figured it out by now, I can be a bitch. However, I prefer to see it as being honest). She continues to suck for a while, but all the characters cheer her on for doing her best..her best was awful and made me cry. Thanks for making me cry writers.

Just don't return it at all?!


YAY! Everyone loves me WOOT!

WTF was up with Yunoki? He was the guy from the nice family and would someday help with the family business. At least bitter third son Kyoya from Host Club was EVIL from the start and pretended to be nice in front of customers. What reason did Yunoki have for being so evil to Kahoko (besides the fact she was a cry baby cheater?!). It was so random and it came out of left field. However, Kahoko just kept...allowing herself to be alone with this person SHE KNEW was a liar. His little sob story about how being the third son meant he could never be "better than his brothers (never understood that part) and he was tired of his perfect life so he had to amuse himself with the suffering of others did not touch me Sorry, that is too Host Club for me and it worked better when it was 2 (3) people.

The only episode where his head looks good.

I wanted to blow my brains out every time Keiichi talked. Of course he was eye candy, but his voice...the slowness of the delivery...WHY?!?! How does staying up all night=pot head attitude? He was slow and never had anything useful to say. He was just...there. He was boring, boring, and boring. Oh, did I mention boring?! I mean, if his back story had been something interesting like he has to work nights to put food on the table for his starving orphaned siblings, I would have found him way more interesting. But no, the little crazy blond just loses track of time. Instead of sounding sleepy, he sounds doped up and slow minded. His subtle love for Kahoko is beyond vague at times...yeah, he was boring.

The only time he was enjoyable..


He needs a refund on that pot.


Freak!

I think the writers for this show expected the viewers to have the I.Q. of gold fish. They repeat material over and over again and expect us to think it is new (and no, I am not talking about random girl in audience with her eyes closed). Kahoko decides early on in the series she loves the violin. So it was like a twilight zone moment when in episode 17, she declares her love for the violin. Didn’t that already happen when Lili took her violin away? Isn’t that WHY she got the violin back?! Of course, there were plenty of repeating I am a liar moments, but if I practice hard, it makes up for in scenes that I already mentioned. I also found it magical how everyone found their reason to keep playing in Kahoko, a magical repeating theme. It also makes me wonder what everyone’s reasons was before they meet her….but then I realized I didn’t care. The constant GASPING when someone was playing and commenting how good they were was also de ja vu for me. Being that they are all skilled musicians (cough), why are they so shocked when people deliver awesome performances? Isn’t that what they are supposed to do?! So many repeating moments, so little desire to remember them all.

MMM recycled scenes...

This next issue is probably my own fault, as I am not educated on classical music…but was I suppose to be able to tell the difference in pitches and “moods”? When the characters would talk about, wow his style has changed or oh, he isn’t playing the same, it was totally lost on me. It all sounded the same to me and the comments they made or the judges made were either really petty or so awesome they went over my head into some other realm of understanding. However, listening to the music was nice at times and I managed to keep my eyes opened unlike most of the characters.

Here are all the "last moments" and how people touched her...

The thing that bothered me the most about this show was the ending. I am not counting episode 26/Special Episode as the ending as it sucked even worse in regards to actual plot. So these 7 kids are working hard to bring music to everyone and it is all cupcakes and rainbows…BUT WHO WON?! Yeah, that would have been a nice thing to tell the audience who wasted over 8 hours of their lives being toyed with! I suppose we are to love how everyone gave it their best and not focus on such petty things like winners….whatever. The ending had Kahoko and her former first accompanist Souji practicing really fast while the other six members played. The random redemption of Souji was thrown in at the end, how lovely. During her practice, Kahoko thinks about all the other members as she plays and of course they are thinking of her while they play and it shows a scene of Kahoko and whoever she is thinking of at the time playing together with flowers in the background (in case it was not already blatantly clear they were all in love with her). Kahoko then rushes on stage and delivers a pretty decent performance (which is magical in itself since days before, she was sounding pretty bad…even WORSE than when she first was trying to play the violin without the magical strings of love). Everyone cheers and is touched. At the very end, all the boys play a special song for Kahoko instead of one boy actually kissing her. It all ends with smiles and laughter, because that is what music is truly about….and apparently Kahoko taught them that. It was just one big Duh and oh, I saw that coming.

There are other things about the show that bothered me as well, like the trying to tie everyone together back-story issue or how Yunoki magically came back from England. Some parts seemed very meaningless, like showing the random flashbacks of the teacher’s drunken past and the journalist entire role in the anime. It was nice seeing a show just about music in an attempt to balance all the sport ones. It had potential to be a good romance anime, but the romance never got off the ground. There was just so much about this show that made me 0_0 I wondered why it was popular at all?! Is it just the eye candy and the cute girl trying her best that hooked everyone in? Was the manga so awesome everyone felt obligated to watch the anime as well? Whatever it is, La Corda d'oro is a big PASS in my book. Maybe I will steal my friend’s manga one of these days and see if the storyline was actually killed by the anime company. At least I know what all the fuss was about know…and part of me wishes I didn’t.

Thank God it is over :)

Thank you for reading.

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La Corda d'oro

While I am impatiently waiting for Shugo Chara to get the latest episodes subbed, I decided to watch a new anime. And by new I mean something that came out last year and everyone was talking about. I enjoy being the last one to blog about things, makes me feel special. After searching for a proper place to view my anime (as my usual source had this anime dubbed with a different color for every character x_X), I sat down and watched the first 3 episodes of Kin'iro no Corda or it’s better known title (or at least what I knew it by) La Corda d'oro.
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Sexy little trumpet.

Kahoko is running late to school, because that is how all animes have to start off with, a running to school scene. She attends Seisou Academy, a school that is divided by normal students and musically gifted ones. While she runs past a statue, she hears a voice and it turns out to be a fairy named Lili. He was once rescued by the man who founded the school and in return, Lili stays at the school to fulfill the promise of blessing it with music. Kahoko against her will is given a violin and entered in the schools concours (sort of like a competition). Then Kahoko is introduced to all the hot people who play instruments at the school and has to learn how to play the magical violin with the will of her heart.

This actually explains the whole first episode!

This anime is full of eye candy, although I am not really attracted to the weird colors they decided on for these characters’s hair. The colors did not bother me during Fushigi Yuugi, but it does in this for some reason. All the males take on the typical roles in shojo anime. Len Tsukimori (some people say it is Ren) is the blue haired butthead who acts like there is a stick up his butt and playing music is NOT fun. This author guesses that he will fall in love with Kahoko and she will teach him the real meaning of music. Ryotaro Tsuchiura is a green haired boy who can play the piano, but up to episode 3, he wants to keep it a secret for some reason. I am sure the reason will be all dramatic and he will play again to make Kahoko happy. Kazuki Hihara also has green hair, but he is the genki character, full of sunshine and happiness. Azuma Yunoki has long purple hair (something that I find really ridiculous, but it is anime after all) and is the male in school with a fangirl club. He seems nice and sweet so far, so that must mean that his father use to abuse him as a child or something. Keiichi Shimizu is the blond hair 1st year student who has a severe sleeping problem. Kahoko will most likely consider him to be like her younger brother. I am sure all of these men will fall in love with Kahoko, but the two that stand a chance will be Len and Ryotaro. Len seems like a jerk, so I will go with Ryotaro for now. There are also a few male teachers that are there to provide guidance and be eye candy as well.

YES! I am eye candy!

I am Eye candy too!

Don't forget about me!

Eye candy sleeping on the job...

There are some girls in this show too. Shouko Fuyuumi is the only girl besides Kahoko in this contest and she seems very unsure of herself. Kahoko has some buddies that hang around her sometimes. There is a journalist girl who seems to be all over the place, but I find her boring. And of course, since this is a school that divides people up by abilities, there are the mean girls. Hopefully some of these girls get the left over eye candy.

We are mean and evil for no reason!

The whole concept behind this show is a little annoying. This concours is supposed to be a competition of sorts for students who can play an instrument. Kahoko cannot without the aid of some magical fairy. I think that is cheating in a way, as it is not her true talent shining though, but the desire in her heart. I can desire to be an artist too, but that does not mean it is going to happen. Lili says that he has promised to fill the school with music so he has to pick Kahoko to play the violin. Well, that school is full of lots of musicians, why does he need to make a false one? It really does not make any sense to pick her as she was not TRYING to be a musician and failing. I hope she does not win the overall concert too and there is more meaning behind why he chose her in the first place.

I gave her the gift...of cheating I MEAN MUSIC!

The art was a bit messy at times and I mentioned the colors were a bit out there for me. I did enjoy the different colored ties the different grades wore. I like animes that try to incorporate the Japanese culture in them, but I saw students wearing boots, that was a bit of a down point for me (that is kind of picky of me…). However, I have not watched an anime that focuses on music so much, so perhaps I will grow to appreciate the art form more and learn something.

Playing music duplicates you!

After three episodes, I was a little bored at the typical roles people were fulfilling and how the main girl is once again surrounded by hot men who will fall in love with her. This show seems very slow paced and angst at times. I will try to watch all 24 episodes. It really isn’t that bad, perhaps I have just watched too much shojo anime and I start getting bored with the same plots (of course it is my favorite genre, I am insane for hating what I love!!). Also, I am watching this anime without ever picking up the manga and 9 out of 10 times, the manga is better (I think the manga is still ongoing for this series). I am a little tired today, so perhaps my rambles are a little grumpy. :P I will post about how I feel about the end of the series. I hope the rest of the series picks up and draws me into the music magic. :)

Thanks for reading. :)

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