Kono Oto Tomare! Episode 5 Review: Let Our Sound Resound and Reach Them

This week’s episode of Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life, ‘Let Our Sound Resound and Reach Them’, blew me away! I have been waiting for this series to finally bring on the music and Episode 5 really delivered!

Plot

Despite all the Vice Principal’s plotting and planning, the members of the Koto Club members go to the stage in hopes of giving a memorable performance. But, when a bit of last-minute jitters has Kudo and the rest of the club shaking, some emboldened words from Karata toughens their resolve…

Episode Highlights

Hozuki Learns the Truth: Hozuki learns the truth about Kudo and it changes everything. She starts reevaluating how she has been treating Kudo up until this point, reminiscing over all the hurtful things she’s said to him and how, despite it all, he never retaliated. She even musters up the courage to apologize and it’s a surprisingly heartfelt moment between the two… a welcome change from all their bickering and arguing.

The Big Performance: Despite not having the school behind them, the members of the Koto club take to the stage for their big performance. Amid jeers from the crowd, Kurata gives an impassioned speech about the trust he has in his friends and fellow club members. We’ve never heard the piece in its entirety before, so this performance is the first time. Also, rather than just showing the performance, the music is more of an accompaniment to a series of Kudo-centric flashbacks.

Themes and Trivia

Koto: The koto is a Japanese stringed instrument and the national instrument of Japan. The Koto is made from kiri wood and has 13 strings each strung over 13 moveable bridges, to change the pitch the player must move the bridges before playing. To play the koto, the player uses three finger picks worn over the thumb, index, and middle finger to pluck the strings.

Ryuuseigun: For their performance for the vice principal, Hozuki decides to have the members of the club play the song Ryuuseigun.

You can listen to the entire piece here: YouTube

Ryuu and Koto Dragon references: The gang is trying to decide their motif for Ryuuseigun, when Kudo remembers his grandfather telling him that the koto is made to resemble a dragon. He also remarks that the Kanji for ‘ryuu’ in the title “Ryuuseigun” (meteor shower) is replaced with the Kanji for ‘dragon’ instead.

Comments

This week’s episode was everything I had been waiting for and more! I mean WOW, seriously, everything is finally coming together, the music, the character building… EVERYTHING!

So, the episode opens with a genuinely sweet moment between Kudo and Hozuki. After finding out about his past, Hozuki feels like crap for giving Kudo so much flack early on to the point that she is moved to tears. Bonus points for some genuine emotion from Hozuki right off the bat. She realizes what the audience already knows, that Kudo is really a super sweet guy underneath it all and she actually apologizes to him. This is important for a number of reasons, but, chief among them is that this is the first time we’ve seen Hozuki apologize to anyone. She’s been condescending towards everyone in the club at one point or another, but, this is the first time she’s apologized for the hurtful things she’s said. Of course, Kudo takes it in stride, teasing her a little, but it comes from a softer place than in the earlier episodes. This mark a huge shift in their relationship, which up until this point was mostly antagonistic, and let’s be real, I am shipping them so hard right now!!

But, the biggest highlight of the episode is the actual performance of Ryuuseigen. These past few episodes have been dedicated solely to preparations for the performance and we’ve seen each of the members grow as musicians, but none more than Kudo. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that this performance was just as much for Kudo as it was for the rest of the club and we see that in the various flashbacks we get throughout the performance. The entire performance is like an ode to Kudo and how far he has come. We see the highs and lows of his life up until this point. From the heartwarming moments he shared with his grandfather to the hardships he faced after his grandfather’s shop was vandalized.

And then, as the piece moves to Kudo’s solo, we move beyond his past to the moments he shared with his friends and the other members of the koto club. You feel how much love and appreciation Kudo has for everyone in his life and that really comes through in the gentle, clean sound he produces from the koto. His performance gave me chills, it’s almost like how I felt when I first heard Kai play in Piano no Mori; the music just resonates with you.

Also, I absolutely love that they focus on Kudo’s hands while he plays, not unlike what they did in Piano no Mori. However, where I hated the clunky CGI they used in that series, the clean light animation style in Kono Oto Tomare lends itself well to such intricate motor movements. THIS IS WHAT PIANO NO MORI SHOULD HAVE DONE!!

Music that Resonates

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS WEEK’S EPISODE! Episode 5, ‘Let Our Sound Resound and Reach Them’, brings everything these past few episodes have been building on to a wonderful conclusion. The performance was amazing and the way they tied it in with Kudo’s journey was absolute perfection. If I wasn’t already in love with this series, I am now after this phenomenal episode.

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: An Invisible Boundary