Anime Reviews (2010-2019): Kids on the Slope Complete Collection (2012)

It’s a 12-episode one season series, and it’s a series that I wholeheartedly recommend because it’s so captivating and delightful from beginning to end. “Kids on the Slope Complete Collection” is highly recommended!

Click here to purchase this Blu-ray

TITLE: Kids on the Slope Complete Collection (坂道のアポロン)

YEAR: 2012

DURATION: EPISODES 1-12 (300 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, English Subtitles

COMPANY: Sentai Filmworks

RATED: TV 14 LD

Release Date: April 13, 2021

Originally Created by Kodama Yuki

Directed by Watanabe Shinichiro

Music by Kanno Yoko

Character Design by Yuki Nobuteru

Art Director: Uehara Shinichi

Director of Photography: Takehara Kenji

Anime Production by MAPPA, Tezuka Productions

Featuring the following voice talent:

Kimura Ryohei as Nishimi Kaoru

Hosoya Yoshimasa as Kawabuchi Sentarō

Endo Aya as Fukahori Yurika

Suwabe Junichi as Katsuragi Junichi

Nanri Yuuka as Mukae Ritsuko

Kaoru Nishimi has spent his life on the move, always struggling to fit in to new schools and having to push on just when he’d started to set down roots. But when he comes to stay with his extended family in seaside Kyushu, things will be different.

Kaoru wanders through high school, meeting friends who change his life forever, and discovers a new kind of music that affects him like nothing ever has before. Ritsuko, the girl whose family owns the music store, and Sentaro, the high school delinquent, both set in motion Kaoru’s fascination with this amazing thing called Jazz. Fashions may change and fads come and go, but when you put a couple of musically obsessed teens together and let them follow their muse, magic is sure to happen!

I am reviewing an anime series which was beloved by many back in 2012.

The anime series is titled “Sakamichi no Aporon” (aka “Kids on the Slope”) produced by MAPPA and was created by Kodama Yuki, directed by Watanabe Shinichiro (“Cowboy Bebop”, “Carole & Tuesday”, “Macross Plus”), character designs by Yuki Nobuteru (“Escaflowne: The Movie”, “Battle Royal High School”, “Battle Angel”, “Angel Cop”), art direction by Uehara Shinichi (“Initial D” films, “Mai Mai Miracle” and featuring music by Kanno Yoko.

The series has been released as a complete collection courtesy of Sentai Filmworks.

“Kids on the Slope” is a series set during the summer of 1966 which focuses on two teenagers who came from two different upbringings.

Nishimi Kaoru is intelligent but extremely introverted and gets panic attacks when he’s around people and has a mistrust towards people, as he has lived a life of moving often. He’s currently living with his aunt, as his mom left him and his father is busy with work. While he wants the love of family and he is not thrilled of his new school year as he moved from Yokosuka, Kanegawa to Sasebo, Nagasaki, life changes when he meets Kawabuchi Sentaro and Mukae Ritsuko. Nishimi is a classic pianist and comes from an upper class family and is expected to do well in school, so he can become a doctor.

Kawabuchi Sentaro lives at home taking care of his adopted siblings, as his father left home for work. His family doesn’t have much money but he loves jazz music and playing the drums. He is considered the bully at school but in reality, he just wants to be left alone and play jazz music, which he does in the basement of his childhood friend’s, Mukae Ritsuko’s father’s record store. Kawabuchi is a child of an American serviceman and Japanese mother and was orphaned and often bullied because he is half. That’s why he learned how to fight and is considered by people at school that he is a delinquent. He wears a rosary around his neck at all times.

During the first day of school for Nishimi, while he feels his anxiety is calmed with his classmate Mukae Ritsuko, he suffers a panic attack and his usual go to for fresh air is the top of the school. That’s where he meets Kawabuchi and while the two are opposites, when Mukae finds out that Nishimi plays the piano, Nishimi decides to watch Kawabuchi play the drums and when he is challenged by Kawabuchi to learn how to play a jazz song on piano, Nishimi does it.

This introduces Nishimi to the world of jazz music, playing along with Kawabuchi on drums, Mukae’s father on bass and cool college student, Katsuragi Junichi and just jamming.

But for Nishimi, he begins to fall for Mukae, while Kawabuchi starts to fall for Fukahori Yurika.

It’s the day in the life of teenagers during the summer of ’66… Music, love and growing up.

It’s been awhile since I watched “Kids on the Slope” but watching it again, I appreciate it more because it’s an anime rarity.

It’s about high school teenage life but how two total opposites became friends through music and circumstances.

And because their upbringing is so different and their thought processes are different, both have the commonality of loving to play jazz music, but also being part of homes where they feel they don’t belong.

And the friendship between Nishimi, Kawabuchi and Mukae is often tested but because of their newfound friendship and the bonds they have created, how will that friendship develop during the school year and how will they grow as individuals but also as friends.

“Kids on the Slope” is an animated series that is top notch quality, from character design, background art, music, character development and story.

It’s a 12-episode one season series, and it’s a series that I wholeheartedly recommend because it’s so captivating and delightful from beginning to end.

“Kids on the Slope Complete Collection” is highly recommended!

Click here to purchase this Blu-ray

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