51 replies to this topic

[Evilnemesis]

I loved all the smiles in this chapter when things started clicking and messing  both with the two male leads and the rest of the members, and the president and the girl.   Even the teacher stepped up and was acting better saying the right things to get the point across.  Really nice chapter to read.

 

It's the soothing chapter(s) before the storm ( nationals ).

 

The president is a second year right? If he is, the author could go the typical sports shonen route with a crushing defeat and then a victory + ending during the 3rd year. 

[Comadrin]

It's the soothing chapter(s) before the storm ( nationals ).

 

The president is a second year right? If he is, the author could go the typical sports shonen route with a crushing defeat and then a victory + ending during the 3rd year. 

 

I don't think Adachi Mitsuru has written a music manga yet, but that would probably be his route.  Seriously, in a national competition three weeks after their sound has "come together," they really don't stand much of a chance to win, unless they have three weeks of master classes from someone like Eto Kimio or Yoshimura Nanai.  My hope is that they realize just how much they've improved, and keep on going forward in the same spirit they had at the training camp.  Winning competitions, whether music, sports, or pinochle, is great, but isn't the be all, end all, especially in music.  I still think that Willie Mays is probably the greatest baseball player of all time, but San Francisco never won the World Series in all the years he was there.  Kudos and accolades are nice icing on the cake, but if you can enjoy making great music with good friends, that is a fabulous achievement that no one can take away from you.

 

- Liked the Madeline Albright quote -

[Jae]

Chapter 22 released today. Fried Squid Scans' website for download link.

 

Is it me or is Ousuke a lot more intense than we think he is? 

[Comadrin]

I thought so too, and we've been proven right by chapter 23.  I'm rooting for him in his love life, but still like our crazy bunch of mc's best.

[AyaLover]

The translation is so slow!!! 

[Comadrin]

I thought chapter 27 and 28 were great.  Unlike many other shounen manga, the author didn't turn our crew of neophytes and misfits into overnight koto prodigies.  Oh Sadaharu may have pitched four games in the 1957 Spring Koshien with a bleeding hand injury (and won the championship), but too many manga use this sort of thing as a regular plot device.  Instead, it showed them growing and getting better, with the weakest one of the bunch getting them all over a major hurdle half-way through the performance, due to Chika's hand injury.  While they did not place in the competition, they made a definite impression on everyone, even those who hated them.  I also enjoyed the back story on the teacher (of whom my opinion is growing by leaps and bounds), and on the vertically challenged guy from the two man club.  Like a few other mangaka whose works I'm extremely fond of, Amyuu can bring in a whole bunch of secondary characters who are interesting in their own right and not just throwaway stereotypes.  

Edited by Comadrin, 13 February 2016 - 08:39 AM.

[Comadrin]

And I thought it would be impossible for me to dislike the old biddy more than I already did!  Pretty naive of me.  Now, with chapter 33, we get to see more of the evil manipulator of the Houtsuki Group at work.  We now know that Doujima San's aim is not just success and behind the scenes control of the group, but actually taking over, via a coup d'etat using her granddaughter.  The granddaughter, herself, is a real piece of work, just as nasty, albeit a little more subtle, and perhaps more cruel, than old nasty.  I get the impression that this was Doujima's plan all along, even before the "disastrous" competition, since other members of the group felt that Satowa's performance was impressive enough that it could breathe new life into the group, so to speak.  This seems to imply that her actions prior to the competition were specifically designed to destroy the mother/daughter bond and remove Satowa as a threat.  She must have been dancing in the streets when Satowa's father died.  The father must be spinning in his grave.

 

I was also extremely proud of Satowa's reaction when young nasty smirked at her with her insulting offer of use of her own koto.  She smiled and thanked her, which wiped the smirk off her face in record time.

 

A side point:  I am more impressed than ever with Amyuu San's artwork.  The implacable, emotionless look on the evil granddaughter's face is a masterpiece of comic art (comic art as in genre of art, not comic/funny).  It conveys contempt, derision, and condescension in what at first appears to be a blank expression better than any artist's work that I can think of at the moment.  

[Comadrin]

So we discover that young nasty is twenty years old; four or five years older than Satowa.  This makes her actions even more objectionable from a moral standpoint (as if deliberately ruining a vulnerable young girl's relationship with her mother isn't enough of a sleaze bag maneuver).  One thing she can't have realized is that the club has already successfully fought two people who have tried to break it up, one with slightly similar motives and methods.  They should be extremely quick to recognize the methods Miss Akira is probably going to use (and Hiro Sempai should recognize variations on her old methods even quicker).

 

Has Takinami sensei been suckered hook, line, and sinker by the douchebag duo?  Highly doubtful, given his undoubted cynicism and what we have seen of his background.  He knows, far better than any of them, what it is to be a young genius that people want to exploit (and probably also what it is to have to deal with envy-ridden people, as well).  He, like Chika, has seen where Satowa lives.  He is quite astute enough to notice that it's only when she has a purpose and friends in her life instead of bleak loneliness and poverty, that her former "associates" come to offer their "help."  Could their hypocrisy possibly be more obvious?  I doubt it.  I think he is planning on squeezing every bit of use out of Miss Akira that he can, while appearing to her to have fallen completely for her ploy, springing their trap only to turn around the identity of the trapper and the one trapped.  

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how Amyuu sensei handles this new development.  I haven't seen her using any shoujo/shounen cliche solutions in the plot yet, and expect her to handle the latest plot twist with the adroitness and humor I've come to expect from her writing.  I loved the idiot quartet falling on top of Suzuka Chan being young nasty's first introduction to the club at large!

[genocidegrande]

am i the only who have shivers and my hair raising when reading this manga?

especially that last chapter......

the whole 2 chapter is so good!!!!

hairgasm?

[Comadrin]

I have to admit: I was as emotional as Satowa's mother while reading chapter 51.  Like PLG said, "They're blowing the doors off!"  [Main Page comment]  Their competition, Hakuto and Himesaka, were both quite incredible for high school performances.  Himesaka went with their forte, which won competitions for years:  Ensemble with a bold, capital, 36 pt. "E,' with their former "we are the champions" complacency stripped away and their subsequent finger-bleeding practice.  Hakuto went for an incredibly gifted soloist playing a gorgeous and original melody with a very competent backup.  Tokise (thanks primarily to Takinami Sensei putting all their strengths together) has a combination of factors:

 

     a.  Possibly the greatest koto prodigy of her generation playing the song written by herself and closest to her heart.

 

     b.  Her song, transcribed for an ensemble by Japan's answer to Mozart (most gifted/child-prodigy composer).

 

     c.  Another (albeit late-blooming) prodigy still discovering his genius, and dedicated to improving to be able to play with prodigy no. 1.

 

     d.  Five other players of varying abilities who are absolutely determined to do their absolute best no matter how much effort, time, and embarrassment it takes.

 

     e.  An incredible koto teacher (and top virtuoso in her own right) who believes in them and is determined to make each and every one of them virtuosi in their own right.

 

Even though the listeners were captivated by the other two school's performances, the enraptured attention and tears engendered by Tokise's performance were in a class apart.  Music is supposed to move the heart.  Performances can be beautiful and moving and wonderful to listen to.  Then there are rare performances that can be equated to epiphanies.  They are certainly rarer, but they do occur.  They become known as landmarks by which all subsequent performances are judged by.  Do high school students do this?  Doubtful, but that is what makes manga great reading (and it can happen, although rarely).  It's also what makes reading a great manga a great experience.  

[Comadrin]

Well...  The Kanto champions are relegated to a "stage" looking more like a shopping cart parking area, while a middle-school rock band are given a sound stage with all the trimmings.  Interesting in the extreme.  As an American, it embarrasses me when wonderful cultures like Japan copy America's least likable cultural idiosyncrasies.  I thought that Chica was going to kick the douchebag promoter's butt up one side of the mall and down the other, but I think that Suzuka Sensei has something up his sleeve.  When he smiles and agrees with something that seems lousy, I kind of fear for those who go against him or try to patronize him.  

 

Eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

[Bommijn]

does anyone know the intro song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yegQRUhJkuMi know the piece is kuuon but i wanna know the intro song