What They Say:
Sentaro falls in love at first sight with the beautiful and sophisticated Yurika, who’s a year older than him. Noticing this, Kaoru arranges a double date with Yurika, ostensibly to help the lovestruck Sentaro, but really to get him out of the way so Kaoru can focus on wooing Ritsuko. The three of them and Ritsuko go on a picnic in a nearby mountain, but it doesn’t go quite as Kaoru hopes.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After some surprisingly good bonding time between Sentaro and Karou as well as Ritsuko, things are turnin ga more towards things for Sentaro himself. His sudden attraction to a young woman, a year older than they are, named Yurkia has Sentaro pretty much hit hard. While Kaoru has gotten the information, he gains a bit more informaiton about his new friend when he visits his home with him. It’s pretty educational for him, getting a look at a row home where Sentaro lives with all his much younger siblings, and the way they’re all so close together and affectionate. It’s not that Kaoru is jealous, it’s just that it’s so different from what he grew up with that he can’t help but to be fascinated by it.
Because of the way in which everyone can easily get together but still within some constraints of social structures of the time, things unfold in a way where Kaoru sets up a picnic date for the two of them while including himself and Ritsuko as well so as to give Sentaro the right cover. And himself as well as he wants to get closer to Ritsuko, having fallen pretty hard for her in the time that he’s known her. The simplicity of the situation, the almost cute honesty of emotions and interests, is really a sight to watch here when you have moments where they’re all going along together and you see Sentaro so flustered and blushing over the things that Yurika says to him. With Yurika’s interest in what Sentaro’s interested in, it certainly does make things easier to deal with and gives him more alone time with Ritsuko.
There are some cute tensions that come along with all of this, particularly between Ritsuko and Kaoru, since he does something that she takes the wrong way and ends up sad and somewhat upset about it. It’s more interesting to watch how Kaoru beats himself up over it and how he comments internally about how she’s the most important person to him and that he can’t believe he did it. But when they do get to talking again a bit, it gives him the courage to admit some of his feelings towards her, though they’re not quite interpreted in the way he would have preferred. But it’s also hard to tell just how much she’s doing to minimize it a bit so that Kaoru doesn’t go too far, too fast with her.
In Summary:
The jazz portion of the show is pretty slim here overall, but it’s not a complaint in the end because with music being all about the emotion and soul of the player, understanding what these young men are going through is important. Without that, it loses some of what makes it passionate and fun, and as we see, a driving force for Kaoru in order to truly express his feelings for Ritsuko in a clearer way. The relationship side of the series may be a little forced here, and a little much with two potential couples forming, but it’s filled with lots of good material that will power a lot of jazz to come, and that’s the real intent here.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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