Sakamichi no Apollon

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"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.

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".

Original review in french below

What about Kids on the Slope? This manga follows three high school students in late 1960s Japan and revolves around jazz. I wrote "gravity", because if this noble musical genre cements the relations between our three young whippersnappers - namely: a binoclard letting go of the classical piano for improvised freedom, a young American-Japanese half-breed stuffing his drums and the charming damsel in the middle - it still seems to me that the real heart of the matter is more the feelings than the music.

Where a Blue Giant, released more recently, frankly insisted on musical discipline, music theory and the history ... of jazz, Kids on the Slope seems to disseminate with more lightness its few references, and happily revolves around the "Moanin '" of Blakey (but composed by Timmons) and "My Prince Will Come", Bill Evans version, to which our bespectacled hero is compared throughout his 9 volumes. Basically, the music acts as a link, a materialization of the friendly relationship (crypto-gay?) Between the two lads, and as a possible letter of declaration to the loved one. Also, if there are a few end-of-year concerts, the whole thing will undoubtedly appeal to those looking for sentimentality.

With its clear, elegant line, and this way of brushing the innocent emotions of adolescence, Kodama signs a work ultimately rather close, in more refined, to that of Yazawa (Nana, I am not an Angel) or even Adachi. (Rough), without any meta commentary. As such, Kids on the Slope shows a beautiful subtlety and will recall, by its unspoken and its ellipses, the communciational sufferings of the ungrateful age, not without falling here and there in some hackneyed cliché of romance (which proquo, conclusions interrupted). A sensitive and delicate work, a little disappointing for the jazz aficionado but which wins on the blackboard streaked with a nostalgic white line. And having for him the relative originality of its theme (jazz), anchored by ease in a time when it was mainstream, but a time which could have been the occasion to develop a little certain specificities such as the situation between two waters of blond adventurer ...

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Quid de Kids on the Slope ? Ce manga suit trois lycéens dans le japon de la fin des années 60 et gravite autour du jazz. J'ai bien écrit "gravite", car si ce noble genre musical cimente les relations entre nos trois jeunes freluquets - à savoir : un binoclard lâchant le piano classique pour la liberté improvisé, un jeune métis americano-japonais bourrinant sa batterie et le charmante donzelle au milieu -, il me semble quand même que le véritable cœur de l'affaire, c'est d'avantage les sentiments que la musique.

Là où un Blue Giant, sorti plus récemment, insistait franchement sur la discipline musicale, le solfège et l'histoire du jazz, Kids on the Slope semble disséminer avec plus de légèretés ses quelques références, et tournoie allégrement autour du "Moanin'" de Blakey (mais composé par Timmons) et de "My Prince Will Come", version Bill Evans, auquel notre héros à lunettes est comparé du long de ses 9 tomes. Au fond, la musique agit comme un lien, une matérialisation de la relation amicale (crypto-gay?) entre les deux lascars, et comme une possible lettre de déclaration à l'être aimée. Aussi, si on trouve bien quelques concerts de fins d'année, le tout plaira sans doute bien d'avantage à ceux cherchant du sentimental.

Avec sa ligne claire, élégante, et cette manière de brosser les émois innocents de l'adolescence, Kodama signe une œuvre finalement plutôt proche, en plus épuré, de celle de Yazawa (Nana, Je ne suis pas un Ange) voire d'Adachi (Rough), sans aucun commentaire méta. A ce titre, Kids on the Slope fait preuve d'une belle subtilité et rappellera, par ses non-dits et ses ellipses, les souffrances communciationnelles de l'âge ingrat, non sans tomber ici ou là dans quelque cliché de romance éculé (qui proquo, conclusions interrompues). Une œuvre sensible et délicate, un peu décevante pour l’aficionado de jazz mais qui gagne sur le tableau noir strié d'un nostalgique trait blanc. Et ayant pour lui l'originalité relative de son thème (le jazz), ancré par facilité dans une époque où il était mainstream, mais époque qui aurait pu être l'occasion de développer un peu certaines spécificité telles que le situation entre deux eaux de baroudeur blond...