OP: “Blizzard” by Burnout Syndromes

The eternal debate when it comes to anime criticism is one I struggle with frequently, but especially when it comes to the year-end lists.  Do you class a series primarily how how lofty its heights are, or by how consistently good it is (and how successfully it avoids missteps)?  I don’t know that there’s a single correct answer, apart from “both” (though the mix is harder to pin down).  But I do know it’s the shows which deliver the strongest individual moments that tend to live on in my memory.

I’ll say this about Mashiro no Oto – there have been some stumbles out of the gate.  The introduction of Umeko was a bit of a trainwreck, and pretty much everything with Taketo was awkward.  But the final scene of this episode – which was a major step-up across the board – may have been the best of the season so far.  And this has been a really good season, too.  I know that any series that can make me feel the way that scene made me feel is special, even if there are moments along the way where it’s pedestrian.  The critical thing is going to be how few of those moments there are.

To start with, the music sequences are absolutely stunning across the board.  That’s obviously important for a music-themed series but especially here, since Mashiro no Oto seems like a show that’s going to have a lot of them (as compared to, say, Kono Oto Tomare).  I sure hope so, because they’ve all been amazeballs.  I’m far from sold on Umeko as a character but as a singer, she’s bonkers.  I haven’t seen any mention of who’s providing the singing for the character, but as far as I know Honda Takako has done little or no singing so it seems unlikely that it’s her.

One thing Mashiro no Oto obviously gets is the evocative nature or music, and that was on display in both major numbers this week.  “Tsugara Ohara Bushi” can, as Setsu notes, be taken as a metaphor for the stages of a woman’s life even if its theme is an apple tree.  I don’t like Umeko (in that Setsu and I agree) but one can see where a woman who trades on her physical appearance would find performing that a powerful experience, much less with her 16 year-old son.  She seems to be trying to do the right thing here, at least, but that doesn’t make up either for her attitude or for what even she admits has been an abdication of her responsibilities as a parent.

The best thing Umeko does – both for Setsu’s sake and ours, since it leads to superb material – is get her older son down to Tokyo to help Setsu adjust to his new life.  She enrolls him at a local high school (this may be the Yanaka neighborhood) and the scenes at school are fairly straightforward for the most part.  The best of them comes as Setsu helps the school’s Tsunagu Shamisen Club’s (every school has one I’m sure)  only member Maeda Shuri (Miyamoto Yume) reassemble an old shamisen.  It’s a preposterous coincidence, true, but it shows us a side of Setsu we haven’t seen much over the first two episodes.

The real meat of the episode, though, are the scenes between Setsu and Wakan.  These two immediately become the best relationship in the series, and Wakan possibly its most engaging character.  He carries the burden not only of being the responsible one and looking out for his little brother, but of being the shamisen player who’ll never achieve true greatness.  He seems to love it no less than his grandfather or Setsu, but lacks the spark of genius that burns in them.  Through some of the best use of flashbacks you’ll see, Wakan’s complicated feelings about his brother become clear as day.  This is excellent in terms of writing, direction, and acting.

I can’t say much about the final scene in the Inari Shrine apart from repeating that it’s probably the best of the season in my book.  Yes the music (played by real brothers, the Yoshida) is goosebump-inducing.  But so is the drama, as the music (their own private childhood composition) draws out all the love the brothers feel for each other.  Music cuts straight to the heart of memory, of emotion, and this scene captures that in an incredibly powerful way.  It’s beautiful in every sense of the word, a triumph.  And any series that’s capable of this level of brilliance is one that demands to be taken very seriously indeed.  This is a deep and fairly diverse anime season, but it’s now clear that Mashiro no Oto is not a show to be overlooked.