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Mild Spoilers in a marked section

"I have no parents. No money either. Nor do I have any hobbies, friends, or goals for the future. But, where I didn't have anything in my life before.... now I have a cub."

I have always considered myself as a Slice-of-Life enthusiast. I have hardly rated any Slice-of-Life anime lowly but Super CGI has done it. It has broken my streak and that isn't a good thing.

I’m just going to begin with the art. Wow, the character designs are ugly. Just take a look at how Studio Kai draws lines. The lines on Koguma's face makes me think that ... a cat showed up and scratched her face. Why did the cat do that? It probably couldn't handle staring at a moe blob anymore. Or maybe the cat had some of the Grappa that the anime staff added "Caution: too much makes it alcoholic and actionable." But there’s more… The lines drawn on the hair reminds me of someone who pulled out their sturdy fingernails before deliberately scratching a chalkboard! My eyes cringe just as much as just looking at the characters of Super Cub. Continuing on, there is so much CG in this anime. I understand with the Super Cub but using CG for almost every background character and switching between animating the Cub motorbike rider as half 2D and half 3D is just too much. Even if the CG is considered fine, I’m sure the blatant usage of reused animation will get anyone’s disapproval. The one scene that always gets reused is Koguma arriving at school. There will always be the presence of two girls walking together towards the right with two other male characters, one walking towards the camera and the other also walking to the right as the camera pans to the right as Koguma arrives on her Super Cub. I should’ve counted how many times they used this one scene in particular. Throughout this anime, there are many moments where Koguma is just driving around on her Super Cub for entire minutes. The same backgrounds were used so many times, especially at that one intersection and that road she sees outside of her classroom. All in all, the shots and scene durations all made this anime feel like I’m watching the same episode over and over.

Speaking of loops, I did not care for the music. There is recycled 'sad' or 'peaceful' oriented music playing for Koguma as she drives around. But these scenes are so long and Koguma’s thoughts are so bland that I don’t care for the music. Many times this music failed to impact me at all since most of it tends to follow a specific formula: 1. Find a cool 2-4 second part, then just keep looping it, 2. Take one finger and play something on the piano that sounds like a song, or 3. Combine 1 and 2! Very creative I say. This even applied to the opening! To start, we hear Duu 40 times in the beginning of the opening! It won't be getting out of my head any time soon even if I duu try. Also, when the characters are talking with music playing in the background, I feel that the music is more important than the actual dialogue (which I can't quite disagree with this). Most interactions between Koguma and others make me feel like I’m waiting in the elevator while trying to ignore the conversation next to me or I’m trying, and failing, to listen to my online Zoom lecture because I fell asleep.

Finally to the plot of the anime. Sad girl gets a Super Cub and finally makes friends. I think that's all you need but I will persevere. Koguma is a girl living alone with no parents, income, goals, or friends. She then makes an impulsive decision to buy a Super Cub without having a license. Thankfully, a sudden time skip happens so she can get her license real fast before getting a one minute driving tutorial from the seller. First off, where does she get her money to buy it? How did she learn road rules before learning what gasoline is? I have so many questions without any logical answers. There is another person at her school who notices Koguma’s cub, therefore wanting to befriend Koguma. Moral of the story: Super Cub makes Super Friends. Koguma then learns more about her Cub and runs into possible issues of not having the right gear nor a full understanding of her Cub. However, whenever these problems arise, there is always another random background character that shows up that just so happens to have the answer she needs. Wow, so realistic.

Koguma is a very flat and basic character. As Koguma continues to understand her Super Cub, the noises she makes whenever she runs into any issues has gotten on my nerves. I’m sick of hearing her whining and I’m sick of her always looking at herself in the Super Cub mirror for no reason. How was she able to take care of herself for so long if she decided to buy a whole cub and not read the owner's manual (or even search up information about the vehicle) online? Later, as she is able to meet a friend, she starts to smile more. Smiles like these in Slice-of-Life anime are generally meant to be touching for the audience since the character is finally portraying actual happiness past all that they have been or are going through. However this smile was not that. It looked ugly and I did not ever feel for Koguma at all. This smile was not character development nor showing us more about her. It was a forced, placed in smile with no emotional impact whatsoever. I have an easier time smiling with the opening song’s super creative background lyrics of Duus than with Koguma.

Reiko is kinda better than Koguma. She is a Super Cub enthusiast who desired to be Koguma’s friend because of their similar interest in Super Cubs. Reiko is the bright, happy friend that contrasts Koguma’s sad, quiet character. However, that's really it to her. She becomes such a side character that she's basically there for Koguma to have lunch in the same spot in their Super Cubs every single episode.

[Spoilers]

Reiko is revealed to dream about being able to climb Mount Fuji with her Super Cub. There's one episode dedicated to this where she is constantly trying and falling off her Super Cub all while boss battle inspired music is playing. Wow it's like the mountain is her final boss, it's as deep as the river in episode 11. Two questions come up during the montage, why is she not looking for bumps in the road to avoid? Why doesn't she just slow down a bit? I think the real question is: Where did she learn how to drive? Sure the bumps and not being able to slow down can be because of the incline of the road but if she doesn't know how to deal with it, then why doesn't she practice and learn how to properly deal with these issues safely? I'm sure off-roaders didn't just up and go one day to begin their new hobby up a steep mountain. They most likely build up to something more dangerous or risky. But no, Reiko decides to just go all the way. Also, why did the adults just keep letting her go on a road that is easy for her to fall to her doom? Well she has a Super Cub so she'll be safe even if she herself is being unsafe about driving it. What Reiko really needs to do is pick up a new book about proper off-road driving instead of reading the same random one over and over in class.

[End of Spoilers]

Overall, this anime is one of the worst Slice-of-Life anime I have seen (To make sure I am clear, I have nothing against actual Super Cubs in real life). Honda really should’ve done better. Now at least I know where to find a real life CG Super Cub if I really wanted to drive one. A character whose name I forgot once said, "Please save me again with your Super Cub." Let me rephrase it: Please save me FROM this Super Cub.

Mashiro no Oto is a new music anime about an culturally important instrument: the shamisen. From the first episode, the audience is drawn to Setsu, a very skilled shamisen player who has yet to find his sound, leaving his home in the countryside for Tokyo after his grandpa has passed away. Throughout Setsu’s journey, there are many forced, dramatic moments to be able to meet new characters or push the story forward. While the music is gladly the strongest point to this anime, there are many flaws that come with it. Before explaining further, some cultural context of this instrument should be known.

Kabuki is ... a very important theater within Japanese culture. There are different types of theater like Bunraku, the puppet theater, but both use the shamisen instrument as an important figure. The shamisen can either emphasize the intended emotions from the play or help with fun sound effects. Also, more so within Kabuki, the plays are known to be overdramatized to the point that the play is supposed to be seen as fake and not particularly believable. The influences from the Kabuki are impalpable and important in understanding Mashiro no Oto better.

While I do agree with the majority that Mashiro is rather melodramatic, this does not come without reason. As mentioned earlier, Kabuki is a theater play dramatized to an extent that is purposely unauthentic. For the audience, these plays are not meant to be viewed as realistic but as entertainment within its ‘fakeness’. For that reason, Mashiro no Oto is not as contrived as a normal kabuki play. Not even close. But this shows how Mashiro no Oto’s story was influenced and mixed with more modern entertainment that led to the melodrama within the show.

The animation style is very light and dream-like throughout the anime, helping portray the influence of the unrealistic, mythical beauty that kabuki plays have. The music along with the animation when they display the powerful sound that a shamisen player can have is also pulling from Kabuki and Japanese theater. The shamisen is at the forefront when it comes to Japanese theater music and sounds, so it must be able to perform and portray various emotions. In fact, the whole performance relies on how skilled the player is. For a more modern day audience, not as many people have experienced these theater performances. Thus, within an anime, they must be able to deliver a compromise that shares a similar feeling to real life. Thankfully, the director/crew at Shin-Ei Animation managed to display their prowess in the animation style when it comes to the shamisen parts. Watching an animation of a kabuki play will certainly not feel the same as a play in-person but by adding visuals that compare emotions received when looking at different natural scenery to the emotions the shamisen is conveying and pair that with strong music, the reception is enhanced within the anime style performance. A point that cannot be left out is how it is sad that the overall animation does not stay consistent. I do admit that there are moments where the animation seems to decline especially in the later episodes but I did not think they were particularly obnoxious.

However, if there is one almost unbearable part of the show, it is also the most notable flaw of Mashiro no Oto and that is the comedy. To put it simply, it constantly feels out of place. One moment, the anime will have a calming atmosphere following Setsu before it suddenly changes to a randomly placed comedic moment. A brief example is how Setsu is thinking about how he's going to play a specific piece before some character interrupts him by either saying something supposedly funny, acting strangely, or Setsu running into an argument or awkward situation between two characters. Some of these comedic moments are portrayed as a necessity, especially in the beginning, when introducing its wide cast of characters who offer their unique chemistry in a rather niche setting. However, with this being a slice of life anime, one must place great care towards the flow of events to pace the audience for the climactic emotional impacts. Without any spoilers, an example of how the pacing gets lost is how certain scenes would begin to build up to a serious moment, like watching snow fall pile onto the ground into an untouched, crisp image only to have the some comedic stranger think it would be funny to reenact their earlier Dance Dance Revolution session only to leave many dense, messy footprints and forever ruining the could-have-been nice emotional landscape from before. In the slice of life genre, the biggest problem is almost always the illogically inserted comedy sprinkled about to lessen the emotional weight that they can bring. Mashiro no Oto is unfortunately no different. In the end, I believe the best way to use comedy in slice of life anime is to have it flow or not have it at all.

Mashiro no Oto is all about its music, and I can gladly say that it is the best part of this anime because this show is about a lesser known, underappreciated instrument outside of Japan: the shamisen. Even as a person who has not had much exposure to a shamisen, all the music that has a shamisen used is just impactful. Within the events of the show, the moments where either Setsu and others play, there is volume and heart to them. If the music was intended to be powerful and well played or by a character struggling, the difference is conveyed and better noticed as more episodes are seen. From this, Mashiro no Oto has succeeded in giving me a greater appreciation for the shamisen sound. Sadly, outside of the shamisen music itself, the music directing is rather bland. The many quick tone changes mean numerous changes in music. This includes many sudden tone shifts indicated by sad music. A part that needs to be pointed out is how these changes of music can ever come to overshadow the actual shamisen playing. I’m not here to listen to a sad piano bishounen when the shamisen is literally still being played on screen. It's workable music on its own but the quick changes do not flow well and should not overshadow the actual star instrument of the show.

On the other hand, the voice acting definitely deserves applause. Mashiro no Oto has kept in mind their Seiyuus and where each character comes from. There are multiple characters that live from different parts of Japan and Shin-Ei Animation did not forget to add in the accents. Even as a non-native and non-fluent speaker, I can still clearly hear the differences between the words spoken by the characters.

Concerning the characters, they are not the most in depth characters and a lot of characters that I still don’t remember the names of are all pretty flat to push the story along which may be partially influenced by the 12 episode limit constraint and not having enough time to fit everything in nicely. Beginning with Setsu, he is a character that is more of a loner with others eventually drawn to him. By trying to find a way to move on from the loss of his grandfather and seek his own sound, he is able to grow and understand himself better due to these other people. Concerning a lot of his inner dialogue, the number of times he has talked about his gramps, how he can not play the piece right, and how he can not find his sound is a chore for the audience to get through due to how repetitive his words feel. However, I can now better understand Setsu and his situation, which honestly could and should still be fleshed out more, due to his untapped potential as an authentic musician lacking both self-esteem and motivation. In the end, the last two episodes portrayed Setsu's character better, which is what I wanted from this slice of life anime.

For the other characters, the important ones like Setsu’s friends, and some later side characters get like two to five minute long for backstories. For Setsu’s brother, Wakana, he’s the acceptable ‘helicopter older brother’. I do wish that they could have made more time for the audience to understand the other characters better. To sum it up, a lot of these characters are placed and have desires just to directly or indirectly help Setsu with his journey of sound, even if it causes the show to feel less believable.

[Slight Spoilers in Upcoming Paragraph]

Two characters that follow that description the most are the teacher, Keiko, and a fellow classmate, Shuri. Keiko acts like a teenager and is always excited to go help the shamisen club. She also is able to reach out to more well-known people easily and it is explained through how Setsu is apparently known by certain people in the shamisen community. Does that mean she just gives out Setsu’s information to people in hope of them reading her emails? For a well-known alumni, Seiryuu, Keiko was able to reach out to him so easily. Would previous alumni be so willing to meet anyone who is going to their old school? Most likely not. And then we have Shuri, who is one of the first people Setsu met at his school. She was interested in the shamisen due to her Grandma wanting to hear a shamisen song that Setsu’s grandpa played in the past so she got Setsu to play again by convincing him to try to play it and basically establish the shamisen club. After the first half of the anime, she becomes more of a side character to tell Setsu what he should hear at a specific moment as well as still being around to show a beginner's struggle of playing the shamisen, timing. Her struggle is lame in comparison and could have been done better when compared to the others in the group. During the competition, two of the group members, Kaito and Rai, were able to play effectively and well despite being beginners and the new style being told to them by Setsu moments before going on stage while Shuri is still struggling with timing. “Wa” indeed Shuri.

[End of Slight Spoilers]

In the end, if you don’t like how the shamisen sounds or are not interested in Kabuki influences, then I would not recommend it. I admit that I enjoyed the music and visual style, more than the actual plot and characters. This anime will not be able to perfectly replicate the feel of a Kabuki play but if you are willing to see an anime that does embrace parts of its cultural theater roots with strong music, I would tell you to give this anime a try.

Whenever I look at my dog, I have always wondered what he would sound like if he could talk. Now I know that he would sound like Kana Hanazawa.

This anime has changed my life for the better. I am a person who has grown up with a dog throughout their life. Even though I have not had a cat, I can feel how it would be like through Tomokazu Sugita’s amazing, impactful voice acting. This anime has portrayed a pet owners true feelings. I never felt so understood before. I recommend this to all pet owners and even not pet owners since everyone can ... enjoy the comedy and heartfelt emotions that this anime has given me. Being a pet owner is a bonus to this already beautiful anime but that is not a requirement to enjoy this masterpiece. Nyaa〜 10/10