First Date Review: So Ra No Wo To

Vital Statistics Title: So Ra No Wo To JP Title: ソ・ラ・ノ・ヲ・ト Studio: A-1 Pictures Director: Mamoru Kanbe

Release Information Licensor: Crunchyroll Airs: Mondays at 12pm PST Episodes to date: 1

The Story:

Kanata has joined the army immediately after a war ends, so that she can learn how to play the trumpet...presumably without having to worry about actually being on the frontlines. She winds up in Seize, which kinda reminds me a bit of Siena-- very old looking, and in the middle of a festival-- a dye-throwing festival, apparently; it made me think of La Tomatina, the tomato-fighting festival of Buñol, Spain. (Which it most assuredly is supposed to; this is a very European-style world.)
 
She gets lost, meets a young woman who doesn't introduce herself (but it's pretty obvious that she's part of the platoon, or unit, or squad, or whatever you want to call it), and gets lost finding a sentimental bauble that belongs to said young woman. And then she gets found. Yay!

The Review:

Well, there was certainly a lot of interesting, very western-European-influenced music-- a bit Spice and Wolf-like, in that respect. Visually, though, it was hard to get over how very much several of the characters looked and acted similarly to characters from K-On!-- a similarity exacerbated by the very similar art style (I'd almost think Kyo-Ani was animating rather than A-1).

The main characters, Kanata, looks quite a bit like K-On!'s Yui Hirasawa, and is also pretty dumb, oblivious, but almost ridiculously well-meaning, like her. Similarly, there's a character rather like an older Mio Akiyama in appearance (mostly the long straight black hair) who tries to be sort of a no-nonsense sort, in spite of the nonsense constantly surrounding her. And her name is "Rio" to boot. Kanata even decides to call Rio "Rio-sempai" after learning that they don't use their military ranks at the place...in fact, so far the military-stuff seems to only be an excuse to put them in uniforms and make them sad. (There's also a chipper, unflappable young woman with long blonde curly hair a la Komugi...)

Honestly, though, it only took about ten minutes before I found myself kind of bored. The setting is very pretty-- I guess in that sense this might be an "atmosphere" show, as so many friends of mine offer up, because the story doesn't look all that interesting (although so far, all we're promised is the daily life of a bunch of girls in a military band, though there could be more plot to be had). And the characters COULD have some depth to them, but beyond a bunch of emo staring and some hints at sad pasts, I don't know how much I'd trust that.

The show isn't as bad as a few people had suggested to me either, mind. If you want something kind of mellow and pretty to watch a bit idly in the background-- or if you're a big fan of KyoAni-style designs and music, perhaps --you'll probably be able to get some enjoyment out of the show. 
 
But all in all...this was me watching the show.

Not as cool as I was hoping the first Anime no Chikara project would be.