Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica

Phoron Tatara's no ordinary musician. As one of the rare Dantists who can summon elder spirits using music called Commandia, his gift is so strong that his spirit partner is none other than the infamous Corticarte Apa Lagranges. Sure, she may look like a young girl in her human form, but you don't get nicknames like "The Crimson Annihilator" and "The Bloody Duchess" for sitting back and watching the daisies grow.

Now, at the behest of the Tsuge Divine Music Player Office, this dynamic duet travels the continent of Polyphonica on Phoron's combination motorcycle/organ, following the song of the open road, orchestrating rescues and generally fixing whatever's baroque! Some musicians wait for a muse to hit them, but Phoron makes his work for scale!

(Source: RightStuf)

Apa Lagranges, Corticarte Main

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Tatara, Phoron Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Yugiri, Prinesca Supporting

Satou, Rina Japanese

Yugiri, Perserte Supporting

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Aria Supporting

Kanda, Akemi Japanese

Machiya, Matia Supporting

Chihara, Minori Japanese

Lagu Edraikerius, Managariastinockle Supporting

Kosugi, Juurouta Japanese

Akatsuki, Dirrane Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Mailreit Supporting

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Tsuge, Eufinley Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Satou, Toshiyuki Producer

Hasegawa, Yasuo Producer

Kinoshita, Tetsuya Assistant Producer

Shimoda, Masami Director

Reviews

Oct 5, 2009

Archaeon

Recommended

There aren't many anime that heavily feature music. The most well known would be Macross (any of them), Nodame Cantabile and La Corda Doro, and those anime that do rely on music are often reasonably straightforward affairs. Every so often though, an anime basen on music will appear that deviates from what we've pretty much come to accept as the norm. Happiness! is one such show, as is Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica.

The series is based on the highly successfuly visual novel created by Ocelot in 2006, which spawned several light novel adaptations, a manga version in March 2007, and finally an anime in April 2007. Since ... then there has also been another anime adaptation (Crimson S), which was released earlier this year.

The story is set in a fantasy world, on the continent of Polyphonica, and follows the lives of the Dantists who work at the Tsuge Divine Music Player Office, in particular, the Dantist Phoron and his contracted spirit Corticarte Apa Lagranges (Corti).

The series actually has a rather refreshing take on music, and relates it to the summoning and command of spiritual creatures whose power is relative to the number of wings they have. While music in Polyphonica is not restricted in any way, the Dantists are the only ones with the ability to use "Commandia" - a summoning song or piece of music. Unlike most other series Polyphonica makes a definite connection between music and "magic" (although here it is limited to summoning spirits), which is interesting in itself as historically, and in folktales, music and magic in the real world are linked in many ways. It may also be the case that the term Dantist is an oblique reference to Dante and his Divine Comedy, although that is supposition on my part (for now).

As interesting as the concept is, the story suffers from it's episodic nature. The series would have been better served by showing some actual progression rather than taking what is effectively a haphazard approach to the plot. Although the anime is fairly easy to get into, there is an overall lack of depth to the plot which is an effect of the format, especially as the characters suffer greatly from it.

Visually the series looks good. The colours are bright and bold, with nothing that looks "washed out", especially in relation to the backgrounds and settings. The animation is decent, however the series suffers from an overall lack of cohesiveness which causes the animation, in particular of the characters, to sometimes become unnaturally rigid. Design-wise, the series is above par for the most part. There are some unique innovations in the show that separate it from the typical supernatural or music based anime, the two main ones being the "One-Man Orchestras" and the "wings" of the spiritual beings.

As this is a music based series, one would expect the sound to be of a high standard. Unfortunately the show only passes muster with it's music and effects. The music is, at first, rather pleasant, however this quickly fades due to the repetitious nature of the series. The effects are okay for the most part, however (and unusually), they are sometimes too quiet, and play second fiddle (pardon the pun), to the music.

The voice acting isn't bad at all though. The cast does a good job giving their characters a "soul" as it were, however the episodic format, and the repetions I mentioned, mean that there's really nothing there for the actors to get their teeth into.

It's unfortunate that the anime has failed to capture the essence of the visual novel, epsecially when it comes to the characters. This is understandable on the one hand though, as the audience is simply thrown in at the deep end, with only a few hints given about how it all began (something which Crimson S has attempted to resolve). As much as I liked the show, there is an incomplete feeling to the characters, something which only makes their stereotypical nature more apparent.

I have to admit though, even with the flaws I actually did enjoy this anime. The odd take on music is something I found appealing, and although this phenomenon is only lightly touched on in the series, it still manages to keep things reasonably interesting by highlighting how strong the bond between dantist and spirit is.

This isn't the best anime about music, nor is it the worst. The concept is pretty good on the whole, but the execution is lacking in several areas, and this causes the series to lose cohesion from time to time. One thing I should point out though is that the series is actually better if you watch Crimson S first, as that series is a prequel to this one. Like many others though, I watched Polyphonica first, and I was dubious about watching Crimson S when it was released. I'm glad I did though as it makes the characters and events in the first Polyphonica series much more understandable, and my score is reflective of that fact.

If you're planning to watch this series, I would advise doing so after watching Crimson S.

Okay, now everyone sing "Doo Wah DiddY"....

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 9, 2009

jenalla

Recommended

This is solely my opinion and i do not care if some poeple think otherwise. This anime started out very nicely, the Story seems to be very unusual but do not let it discourage you, it might be a little boring in begining but middle part and ending are absolutely amazing. Art looks pretty good, nothing too fancy and not too plain it is well within standarts. Sound, sound was absolutely gorgeous. I do not think i've ever heard this much beautiful and romantic sound in any anime. I greatly enjoyed this anime and if you are into anime with abit of romance,superpowers and decent ... art, you wount regret watching it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 28, 2020

LegendAqua

Mixed Feelings

QUALITY VAN

Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica is one of those base music animes LA thought was something more from the premise itself, what LA got was a rather slimmed down watered down vers. of what the premise gives us, with spread too thin character development, isolated incidents almost "Day in the Life of a Dantist" plot structure and flimsy world building.

Let's start with the clunky character development, well this being released in 2007, we have the typical bland male main protagonist in the form of Phoron Tatara voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya being able to summon and made a contract with an elder spirit of Corticarte Apa ... Langranges voiced by Haruka Tomatsu and she's the designated tsundere and with her being a spirit and all, she's abrasive and has little care about "human things" gimmick. Phoron's place of works houses the rest of the core cast and most have that "clunky" character development much like Phoron and Corticarte as well. LA says "spread too thin" as we do gets some form of character development with the interactions the core cast has one another but beyond that almost slim to none. Like, Eufinley Tsuge voiced by Ayako Kawasumi is the owner and leader of Tsuge Divine Music Player Office and she teases Renbart Psyche (these names seriously) voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi, in which Renbart is the typical senpai of Phoron and is high adaptability to the spirits. Then we have the remaining cast of the sisters Prinesca and Perserte Yugiri voiced by Rina Satou and Nan Mizuki respectively, we get to know Prinesca a bit and Perserte is probably the one with the least character development, with the ONLY thing LA knows about her is that she has a crush on Phoron......THAT'S IT. Hell the quote unquote "villains" of this anime Dirraine Akatsuki voiced by Daisuke Ono has MORE character development with LESS screentime than the rest of the core cast COMBINED to bring this point across.

And the plot structure of this anime doesn't help matters as for the majority of the anime is NOTHING but isolated incidents that Phoron and the Tsuge Divine Music Player Office members goes through, there is the plot point of the villain of Dirraine within the isolated episodes at FIRST but his plotline gets resolved not even at the finale, instead near the 3/4's mark of the anime and a small arc involving a new incident that doesn't even have Dirraine involve comes in for the finisher. To say that Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica is erratic in the sense of structure is an understatement.

Finally on LA's flaws docket is the flimsy world building, first thing is that we get dropped into Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica world rather fast and expected things as normal, weirdly it soon doesn't matter when this world of Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica is pretty much like our own but that spirits are common place. LA is more bamboozled by Tsuge Divine Music Player Office, like what EXACTLY is Phoron's occupation, because the anime makes it out that Dantist are "Psuedo-Spirit Police", "Human-Spirit relations", "Detectives" and mercenaries all at once, LA brings this up as Tsuge Divine Music Player Office world with spirits should...LA doesn't know have some changes to it's world, instead of being like the human world but with spirits and that's all. Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica spirit world building is tacted on is what LA is saying as to why Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica's world building is soo flimsy. Like LA just doesn't get it and probably the worst victim in all this is Corticarte an elder spirit yet she's an entirely reactionary character on almost all proceedings. LA will however give Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica world building this though, they DID cover the basics...but that's it. Like how can spirits be contracted to people with commandia...they write and play music, can spirits betray their owners?. All in all, flimsy world building with the notions of spirits tacted in.

So was there anything LA liked about Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica?...well a couple of things, one is Prinesca as a character, she was the most well rounded, calm and voice of reason character out of the entire cast, there were some plotlines LA liked like anything involving Dirraine to Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica main message of the entire discrimination of human and spirit relations leading to the entire thing of communication as it's major themes through it's many isolated incidents being a big factor in it's theming and for a "music" type anime...LA can give leeway that this makes sense and for what it's worth they at least portrayed that well from all the fluff.

QUALITY VAN....ohh yes the animation done by Ginga Ya, if there is ANYTHING for the animation that was why LA wanted to watch Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica in the first place is the derpest, off model car chase in anime and ohh boy that's "sooo bad it's good" territory. As for the animation in general, Ginga Ya for the time it was released was "ok", subpar at worst, with a bland color palette, background work and character designs. LA will note that in 2007, animes like Baccano!, Hayate no Gotoku! and Teppen Toppa Gurren Lagann was releasing at the time and how LA gauged it's animation. Ginga Ya's animation dips from time to time, resulting in janky animation of it's characters to the "fighting" and the bland color palette and constant derping didn't help matters...thus why LA says "ok" but subpar at worst"

As for the voice cast, well this had quite the voice cast even for 2007, from Hiroshi Kamiya, Haruka Tomatsu before her as Lala Satalin of To Love Ru, Nana Mizuki, Rina Satou, Daisuke Ono, Mamiko Noto, Minori Chihara and Ayako Kawasumi who probably most well known for as Studio Deen's Saber in Fate stay night. All in all a very good voice cast, however wasted potential with the source material given with the ONLY voice actors that LA liked were Rina Satou and Ayako Kawasumi.

Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica is bare bones beyond what it's gives out, LA was expecting an entire orchestra, LA got a solo artist..sorry Dantist doing it's own thing and sure it's "own thing" had a clear and simple message of "communication", but if LA had to go through 8 episodes of fluff to get there with flimsy world building, spread too thin character development and an erratic plot structure LA would rather watch Symphogear to get the themes in a better off way.....or watch QUALITY VAN for the laughs.

Hey at least Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica gave us QUALITY VAN.

As much as LA piled on Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica, this ain't the worst anime LA has seen, far from it, it's just.....uhhh..."stumbled on it's execution in most of it's elements". LA just hopes the second season will remedy some of flaws, heck even more development on Phoron and Corticarte ESPECIALLY Corticarte could help.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Anime Not On Streaming Services 5

by eblf2013

15 Entries · 7 Restacks

Re:Watch Re:think

by Blackwizardclub

34 Entries · 2 Restacks

No animation budget.

by eblf2013

27 Entries · 18 Restacks

	Poll: Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Episode 1 Discussion Faust721 - May 23, 2007	17 replies	by Dragonk116 »» Jan 7, 4:55 AM
	Poll: Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Episode 10 Discussion orangehouse - Jun 3, 2009	2 replies	by removed-user »» Oct 20, 2022 5:52 PM
	Poll: Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Episode 4 Discussion mild_even - Jul 4, 2007	7 replies	by removed-user »» Oct 16, 2022 10:03 AM
	Which is first AkatsukiUlquiora - Dec 4, 2021	2 replies	by Nixxy777 »» Dec 14, 2021 2:09 AM
	Poll: Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Episode 2 Discussion Sukotsutsu - Jun 12, 2007	8 replies	by TheBigGuy »» Feb 9, 2017 11:50 PM