Given my appreciation of Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo), I should have pursued this show years ago, but I wasn’t interested after hearing that this was a kids show. A few months ago, we were looking for something to watch and we were intrigued by the fact it centered around jazz.
While technically true, this series is better described as a teen romance drama with a jazz motif. Even though teen romance is even more distant from my preferences, and I still enjoyed it. With only twelve episodes, the plot moves at a good clip. Midway through, there is a a moment that has “all the feels” and is fully earned. I’ve revisited that moment a few times on youtube.
As someone else has quipped, the problem with teenagers is that they’re children in an adults bodies, injected with a whole bunch of hormones. As a teen drama, this show has a whole lot of that in spades, with other complications due to a lack of communication between the characters. Then again, I don’t think there would be a show without such snafus.
Fortunately, I avoided love drama in my own teens, however I didn’t appreciate the freedom that I had at that age without the responsibilities of a family. Then again such a realization is only made after the passage of time. In the moment, one only feels trapped in the constraints of the present without the benefit of hindsight that comes with age. Then again, that might have been a good thing, I could have been overwhelmed with too many options.
Then again, those days aren’t coming back so I shouldn’t rue the past. Hopefully my future is still wide open. Plus, I don’t have to worry about finding a life partner!
As I revisit this post before publishing, I appreciate having watched the show, but feel no urge to re-watch it. It is highly recommended if you dig jazz and don’t mind some romance, but I don’t consider this a must watch classic. Then again, I just got sucked into watching an hour of random youtube videos while editing this post. In comparison to such unstructured silliness, this show is a better use of one’s time.