Kono Oto Tomare! Episode 12 Review: Rivals

We’re close to the end of the season and it has been quite a ride until this point! You can cut the tension with a knife as the Tokise performance looms ever closer… Episode 12, ‘Rivals’, alleviates some with some lighthearted moments and quite a few new faces. You won’t want to miss this week’s episode of Kono Oto Tomare!!

Plot

Tokise’s Koto Club members are still in shock after the amazing performance by the Meiryo Koto Club, and though they hear several other performances, none seem to leave the same impression.

Episode Highlights

Psyching Themselves Up: The members of the Tokise Koto club starts to feel down after hearing Meiryo’s performance. Thankfully, Hozuki and Kurata are there with words of encouragement and, of course, Kudo has his own unique way of psyching the guys up.

Hakuto High: A new rival school is mentioned, though they’ll be playing after Tokise, so they won’t be able to hear them. After mentioning them we’re introduced to a strange guy laying out on the sidewalk ‘listening to the wind’… it’s hinted that he is a member of that school’s club.

Meeting the Competition: The members of the Tokise club meet with members of the different schools performing and it allows for some fun comic relief. It’s a nice moment of levity after the Meiryo performance.

The Performances: All the performances in this week’s episode were spot on. This is clearly a higher caliber of competition than the gang is used to but I did appreciate hearing more great Koto music!! Special nod to the Edai performance… that was super intense.

Takinami The Musical Purebred: It’s the 11th hour and we finally get some insight into Takinami… took the series long enough! Apparently he is the son of a famous conductor and a pianist, however he never wanted to pursue music as a career. Through an extended flashback we learn that he is in fact a music prodigy, having composed several musical compositions as a child. Unfortunately, his parents’ desires for him to follow in their footsteps turned him off to pursuing music seriously.

Comments

This week’s episode was split into three main parts: meeting the rivals, the various performances, and Takinami’s background.

The meeting of the rivals was a lot of fun. There were quite a few new faces introduced and I really liked the break from all the tension of the competition. We get to see everyone acting like kids, joking, having pointless arguments, and just having fun despite all the things going on in their lives right now. Mio even makes an appearance albeit brief and I can’t wait to see more of him in the future.

I also really like that the series is taking the time to flesh out some side characters, especially the rivals. It really helps to endear us to the rivals early on in the series which should (in theory) make for a more emotional payoff later on in the series. I was especially excited to see Takinami getting a bit more of the spotlight. Seems he’s been getting way more screen time lately and was about time! He’s much more complex than I originally thought: the son of famous musicians, he doesn’t want to pursue music and yet he’s the advisor of the Koto club… talk about contradictions!

I like how he helps the club members out on the sly. He isn’t overt like most people and at first glance it seems like he’s insulting them or teasing them. There’s a disconnect between his words and his actions, but you can tell he is slowly being moved by the club members’ determination and I really want to see more growth from him in Season 2… I demand it!!

Of course things aren’t exactly smooth sailing for the Tokise koto club. Kudo gets injured just before they’re set to go on stage and I can’t help but feel like this is a bit too cliche for my taste. I would have preferred they go into their performance without any issues, but I suppose we needed some reason to cripple them in the 11th hour… I suppose we can’t have the underdogs succeeding too early in the game, now can we?

Unexpected Setback

This week’s episode was a lot of fun. Quite a few new characters were introduced and the Tokise club is poised to make a surprise splash in the competition… We even get some nice insight into Takinami’s past. However, this is all undermined by Kudo hurting his hand in the 11th hour… But, we’ll see if they can pull it together for their performance…

I’ll be back next week with another Kono Oto Tomare review, but in the meantime, be sure to check out MANGA.TOKYO’s other amazing Spring 2019 reviews!!

NEXT TIME: Kuon