Sakamichi no Apollon Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links   1a1q3d

While I write this review, the intro of Moanin' by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers is playing inside my head. Not just that, for two weeks, all I could hear was pure and awesome jazz songs. Of course it's Sakamichi no Apollon's fault.

Music. Do you know how powerful can it be? C'mon, I bet music changed your life or your day, at least once. Now, jazz songs. Jazz is contagious, you hear it and starts tapping your fingers, moving your shoulders or doing weird footsteps under the table. It's magical! In the end, you're smiling and you don't even know how that ... happened. You're just smiling, even if you got some problems here and there... And this is what this manga is talking about.

In the late 60s, we got a freshman high school student Kaoru, who not so coincidentally looks like a American jazz pianist, Bill Evans, in the early days. He's our honor student kind of character and just moved to Kyushu to live with relatives. In school, he's not the most social guy, but destiny brings two new friends, Sentarou and Ritsuko. Sen introduces him to jazz music and after being told he can't play other music style, 'cause he's a "piano-classic-songs boy", Kaoru accepts the challenge and try to learn how to play jazz, without knowing he'll not only change his music style, but change inside, change himself.

The story goes by. New characters appear, revelations, some little plot twists that make you feel a tightness in the heart. It's a slice of life, don't expect action or explosions, don't expect the answer to the Universe. This is simple and pure slice of life. Their lives, their thoughts, their feelings (oh, their feelings!) and their problems. That kind of manga you read and say: "oh man, I'm this character" (hey, Kaoru, I'm with you!). The characters aren't ORIGINAL, you have seen a lot of characters like them, "big brother mentor", "childhood friends", "delinquent", "cute girl" and "megane". Yes, they aren't original, but they're UNIQUE. Little details makes you love them... I like how things happen, isn't your "oh, let's put 60 chapters and solve things, I don't know, in the 59th chapter". It's your "Oh my, is this really happening? But it's only chapter 14... Oh, oh, go for it! But wait, oh my" (I'm sorry, that's my inner self talking).

So, you ask me: "Why should I read this manga?" Because it's good. It has quality! Doesn't matter if it isn't the most original one, it's unique. Introduces you to a Japan in the 60s with culture and costumes being corrupted. We got japanese christian, which it's the first time I see it in a manga. We got a imaginary triangule and "love hurts" from a new perspective, not your shoujo-type "He hates me, sniff sniff, I want to die". This is Josei, people are dealing with their problems, they're facing past issues, changing little by little. The art is a little retro too and I like the artist style. The music recommendations are the best too! So, please, give it a try. If you don't like it, I'm sorry, but I'm in love with this story.

Put some jazz, read it and travel with the characters to the beginning of japanese summer in 1966.

** This isn't yaoi or shounen-ai. Bromance? Well, maybe a little, if your idea of "friendship" is "boy huging boy? gay!", but for me is just friendship, two friends laughing, facing life and being comrades. I watched the anime first and I got to say: the anime exaggerates a little bit if you compare it with the manga. But, well, that always happens!

Sakamichi No Apollon (also known as Kids On The Slope) is a josei manga which can get some catchy jazz song in your head, and manage to keep it there all day. At first, you'd catch yourself tapping your fingers or toes to some melody, and after some time, you just can't stop. The musical style of jazz is off-beat, nonrhythmic, and often improvises the melodies. It's very different, but often in a good way.

That definition also best describes Sakamichi No Apollon.

As the winner of the 57th Shogakukan Manga Award for General Manga, I don't think you could really expect anything sub-par. Kaoru, a stotic, ... young, freshman in highschool during the 60's, began living at his aunt's house as a result of his father's excessive moving. He has no means of making friends or memories, since he has always been transferred out of the class before any true friendship could blossom. And yet, the two people he meets on the first day of school, Ritsuko and Sentarou, eventually manage to change his way of thinking, and his way of life.

The characters and the development in this series is excellent. The world of jazz manages to pull the unexpected three together into a friendship for life. And get this –it isn't sappy. The feelings, the conflicts, the misunderstandings, and the (very) young love is realistic and sensible. Their relationships were the best part about it; a whirlwind of fast-paced feelings that are similar to the nature of jazz. Many of the characters are based off of high school tropes (ie: the quiet boy with glasses), but there are little flaws and characteristics built into each one in order to make them unique. This story is mainly character-driven, and as you could probably tell from my total rating, they are done extremely well.

Though Sakamichi No Apollon is a slice-of-life that focuses it's plot on the different, social situations, it never falls into generic high-school tropes. And despite the fact that the slice-of-life genre can be the longest, and cover the most in a character's life, this manga downplays it quite a bit. Sakamichi No Apollon is focused on the experience and little changes in Kaoru's life. And it only takes 9 volumes to do so. He's a piano player who changes his style from strictly classical to jazzy 'swing'. He falls in love; something he probably thought he could never do. He changes from an outcast to a pretty social guy. Sakamichi No Apollon chronicles the little things in life. One may say that there isn't a true plot to this manga, but I beg to differ. This manga covers Kaoru's life during the early years in high school. I mean, it's high school in the 60's, for crying out loud; it's the time of his life!

I don't really have much to say about the pacing or the narration, other than the fact it's superb. The ending was a bit rushed, but the concept of it was still meaningful. The atmosphere and the setting too: I don't think I could give a accurate description of it, except that when everything is over and done, you'll be left with a soft, fuzzy image of two boys running down a hill, living for every moment in their youthful lives.

Sakamichi No Apollon (aka. Kids On The Slope) was magnificent. The effort, the creativity, and the teens who are ever-so naive – all of it is packed within a story which parallels the world of jazz. It's a fairly simple story, but then there are the characters, who, being teenagers, are always so complex. And it's something surprising for a josei; it doesn't primarily focus on romance. So because it allows the reader to slip into the lives of the characters during the 60's with realistic ease, it deserves a 9.0 / 10.0.

(To add a side note, I'm sure we've all read a manga before with music involved. They usually tell you the lyrics and the title, and that's as far as the musical impact goes, right? Sakamichi No Apollon really, really lets the reader get involved with jazz. Even now, the melodies of My Favourite Things, Someday My Prince Will Come, and, of course, Moanin', are memorized. So definitely read this, and you'll get to experience 60's jazz.)

★★★★★★★★★☆
RECOMMENDED.

Original review in french below

What about Kids on the Slope? This manga follows three high school students in late 1960s Japan and revolves around jazz. I wrote "gravity", because if this noble musical genre cements the relations between our three young whippersnappers - namely: a binoclard letting go of the classical piano for improvised freedom, a young American-Japanese half-breed stuffing his drums and the charming damsel in the middle - it still seems to me that the real heart of the matter is more the feelings than the music.

Where a Blue Giant, released more recently, frankly insisted on musical discipline, music theory and the history ... of jazz, Kids on the Slope seems to disseminate with more lightness its few references, and happily revolves around the "Moanin '" of Blakey (but composed by Timmons) and "My Prince Will Come", Bill Evans version, to which our bespectacled hero is compared throughout his 9 volumes. Basically, the music acts as a link, a materialization of the friendly relationship (crypto-gay?) Between the two lads, and as a possible letter of declaration to the loved one. Also, if there are a few end-of-year concerts, the whole thing will undoubtedly appeal to those looking for sentimentality.

With its clear, elegant line, and this way of brushing the innocent emotions of adolescence, Kodama signs a work ultimately rather close, in more refined, to that of Yazawa (Nana, I am not an Angel) or even Adachi. (Rough), without any meta commentary. As such, Kids on the Slope shows a beautiful subtlety and will recall, by its unspoken and its ellipses, the communciational sufferings of the ungrateful age, not without falling here and there in some hackneyed cliché of romance (which proquo, conclusions interrupted). A sensitive and delicate work, a little disappointing for the jazz aficionado but which wins on the blackboard streaked with a nostalgic white line. And having for him the relative originality of its theme (jazz), anchored by ease in a time when it was mainstream, but a time which could have been the occasion to develop a little certain specificities such as the situation between two waters of blond adventurer ...

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Quid de Kids on the Slope ? Ce manga suit trois lycéens dans le japon de la fin des années 60 et gravite autour du jazz. J'ai bien écrit "gravite", car si ce noble genre musical cimente les relations entre nos trois jeunes freluquets - à savoir : un binoclard lâchant le piano classique pour la liberté improvisé, un jeune métis americano-japonais bourrinant sa batterie et le charmante donzelle au milieu -, il me semble quand même que le véritable cœur de l'affaire, c'est d'avantage les sentiments que la musique.

Là où un Blue Giant, sorti plus récemment, insistait franchement sur la discipline musicale, le solfège et l'histoire du jazz, Kids on the Slope semble disséminer avec plus de légèretés ses quelques références, et tournoie allégrement autour du "Moanin'" de Blakey (mais composé par Timmons) et de "My Prince Will Come", version Bill Evans, auquel notre héros à lunettes est comparé du long de ses 9 tomes. Au fond, la musique agit comme un lien, une matérialisation de la relation amicale (crypto-gay?) entre les deux lascars, et comme une possible lettre de déclaration à l'être aimée. Aussi, si on trouve bien quelques concerts de fins d'année, le tout plaira sans doute bien d'avantage à ceux cherchant du sentimental.

Avec sa ligne claire, élégante, et cette manière de brosser les émois innocents de l'adolescence, Kodama signe une œuvre finalement plutôt proche, en plus épuré, de celle de Yazawa (Nana, Je ne suis pas un Ange) voire d'Adachi (Rough), sans aucun commentaire méta. A ce titre, Kids on the Slope fait preuve d'une belle subtilité et rappellera, par ses non-dits et ses ellipses, les soufs communciationnelles de l'âge ingrat, non sans tomber ici ou là dans quelque cliché de romance éculé (qui proquo, conclusions interrompues). Une œuvre sensible et délicate, un peu décevante pour l’aficionado de jazz mais qui gagne sur le tableau noir strié d'un nostalgique trait blanc. Et ayant pour lui l'originalité relative de son thème (le jazz), ancré par facilité dans une époque où il était mainstream, mais époque qui aurait pu être l'occasion de développer un peu certaines spécificité telles que le situation entre deux eaux de baroudeur blond...