Aki no Kanade is a short 25-minute anime that was produced in 2015 as part of Japan’s Young Animator Training Project program. It’s a government-sponsored program that does exactly what it says on the tin, but I can’t help feeling that the anime industry wouldn’t need to resort to such programs if they only paid animators a living wage and let them keep reasonable work hours. Make it like a regular job, in other words. But instead of doing that, they’re doing quick patches like this project either. Well we got a nice anime short out of it, so that’s good enough.
Summary: Aki Miyagawa moved to Tokyo to pursue her dream to be a taiko drummer, but had a hard time balancing her strict training regimen with her part-time job. Now, after 15 years, she’s returning to coach others for a taiko festival.
It’s a good little show. The good thing about short-shorts is that they don’t waste too much time setting things up characters and stories, they just jump into things straight away. So it starts off with Aki unlucky in life and in love, quickly takes her back to her hometown, quickly covers her backstory and how she came to love taiko drums so much, then poof, on with the show!
The music was good, especially the drum performances. The animation was nothing remarkable. Not QUALITY, but not “Wooow so fluid!” either. The background art and buildings and environments were all very nicely done. Those young animators are pretty talented.
Aki’s passion for the drums came through very clearly, as did the fun the entire club had working together to make music. It made me wish I’d joined some student orchestra or amateur music group or something in my youth. Her frustration with her life and her strained relationship with her father also come through quite well in what little time is given. Other characters besides Aki don’t get much attention and are mainly generic anime cliches (girly friends, boring mother, guy who has a crush on her that she totally doesn’t notice, etc) but the title says it’s Aki no Kanade, so what do you expect?
For better or worse, Aki no Kanade tells a complete story in only 25 minutes, so I’m willing to let everything else slide. Someone I spoke to was unhappy because we don’t find out what happens to Aki next – does she success as a pro? Does she give up? Does she date Yoshioka-sensei (I didn’t see no ring), Naoto or the Civil Engineer guy in the beginning? Does she ever reconcile with her father? It’s open ended enough to give you room to imagine the future, but not so much so that I was unhappy with the ended. I thought it was a great little show. Highly recommended to anyone with 25 minutes to spare.
