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Forum - View topicREVIEW: Sound of the Sky Sub.Blu-Ray
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Ingraman
Posts: 1077 |
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Instead of faux-Italy, this time it's faux-Spain. With perfect timing, the BBC's website just recently had a short pictorial about Cuenca, the town borrowed by Sound of the Sky. Some of the buildings are definitely familiar.
It may never have been in my topmost favorites, but I loved the series when it aired. I imported the Japanese (unsubtitled, sadly) Blu-rays as they were released, and bought RightStuf's nicely-packaged DVD set when it came out. This BD set is a recent arrival. ^_^ |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5436 Location: Iscandar |
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Like Nick mentions Sound of the Sky is a strong anime that has flown under the radar. I assume it might had been dubbed if another companies had picked up. Anyhow, this is a very special anime with lovely productions values that at a glance looks like a simple and silly moe show, but it has depth and a bunch of existentialist themes.
The link below compares real life locations in Cuenca with scenes from the anime. https://infinitemirai.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/cuenca-spain-home-of-sora-no-woto/ |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18223 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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It may have been hurt a bit by being an anime-original project but was probably hurt a lot more by a common perception that it was merely "K-ON in the military." (Indeed, that was my initial reaction to the series, and I never entirely got away from that impression.) It might fare better if it was released now, outside of the shadow of K-ON |
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Lobokendo
 Posts: 135 Location: Somewhere |
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I think that even if it were released now it'd still live in K-on!'s shadow, only because you can still see K-on!'s influence on the moe slice of life genre even now.
That said, this series really hit a personal note for me. K-on! hit my musician heart a little, but this series was on a whole different level because I even played trumpet in school. K-on! will be something I always remember and will be an eternal favorite of mine, but Sound of the Sky was an experience I will remember forever as well. |
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Edl01
Posts: 117 |
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I've barely heard anything about this show since it aired, but it sounds really interesting, pretty much exactly up my alley, so I'll give it a buy for sure.
*Bluray not Available in the UK". The DVD is pretty expensive too. Well I guess I'll...hope it gets licensed and then buy it then. Anyone here know about the region restrictions on the Bluray, the Amazon page doesn't list anything. |
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Dark Mac
Posts: 317 |
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Under the radar? The show was hugely hyped before it came out, and the early episodes had a big viewership in the West. It fell off as it went along though, since viewers were mostly disappointed, at least at the time. The cast and story were both fairly mediocre. It tried to mix slice of life and war, but didn't pull off either aspect particularly well.
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ScarRedTiger
Posts: 15 |
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Happiest post-apocalypse ever.
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Amazon labels it "frequently bought together" with Kantai Collection and Girls und Panzer, so that perception is still very much a thing. It only superficially resembles those shows, but apparently people are buying it based on that. (Which probably explains its lack of popularity; no one seems to like getting something more complicated and less action-packed than they expect.) It's hard to think of anything truly comparable to this show. It's vaguely like Madoka, with a bleak, possibly doomed world contrasted with cute-looking characters and a protagonist representing hope and optimism; somewhat like School-Live for similar reasons, though that show was much less subtle, and more horror-cute than melancholy-cute. I sort of think of it as K-ON from an alternate universe where it had a story, and a unique setting instead of yet another high school. (There's a funny scene where Kanata daydreams about them all being in a school music club, so the creators were certainly aware of what people would assume this show was about.) I still have the ancient DVD version of this, which came with a fancy box and artbook but pretty bad video quality. May need to get the blu-ray version at some point... |
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Nordhmmer
Posts: 1028 |
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Kalafina's 'Hikari no Senritsu' drew me to the show back when.2010 was a good year for original anime projects.
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4096 |
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Got to agree with this. While Sound of the Sky has K-On! in its heart, K-on! isn't bad and neither is the connection. Also, seeing how it's a five girl band-I mean unit- this superficial connection is no doubt intentional. It is K-on in the military, to put it any other way is an insult to K-on! Unless you're just taking K-On at face value... And I can't fail to mention one of my favorite moments in anime, when that point in the series where Kanata got to use her bugler skills to their intended use... A "call to arms" right up there with K-On!!'s last culture festival episode. You know, the one where Yui both wrote their opening number and closing number when she was only supposed to write one... Though I have to say K-On had the sadder ending. Why would a war anime/post apocalypse series be so upbeat... ok, it doesn't have to be on the level of She, the Ultimate weapon or Now and Then, Here or There Great series, wish it was dubbed. Also wish it was a bit more depressing. Now that I think about it, even Desert Punk has the better melancholy feel, fitting for its own war torn, post apocalypse setting... Good series, needed some spoiler[character deaths]. Sure, it wouldn't be the feeling of "K-On with Tanks" they were going for but... Look, even Girls Und Panzer had more melancholy than this series. I better stop before Sound of the Sky hits "mediocre!" Mad Max: Fury Road... Last edited by Animegomaniac on Tue Jun 06, 2017 12:59 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Wrangler
 Posts: 1346 |
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Well crafted history, while building the world and character's fully in a post-apocalypse setting. Even Mecha in it if you look hard enough or patient. I saw this years before it had a pronounceable name.
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stevek504
 Posts: 216 |
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This show, when it first came out here in the USA, was what got me to go ahead and subscribe to Crunchyroll. Up until this one I was fine to wait for shows to be free. I could not wait to see this show though...
That said, I did buy the fancy DVD release when it was made available. And I did lament that it was not a BR release as I loved the background art. Since I have the DVD I am not sure that I will buy this BR. If the offer would have been BR+dub it would have been an instant buy for me. I really don't like it when shows come out as DVD only, then a long time later it is "surprise - here is a BR you thought would never see the light of day". Hidamari Sketch was the same way when it first came out - DVD only. |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5365 |
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I love this show, and I'm not usually into SOL. The world the characters live in feels very lived in, there's a sense of history and culture about it. If more of them did something like this, rather than using the same location, then the genre could actually have a selling point.
i hope this comes to the UK on BD, I got the Beez release back when it was cheap, but I would prefer it on BD because of the beautiful backgrounds. I've never watched K-ON and I hadn't even heard about it when i first saw this. |
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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I did decide to revisit this show a few days ago just to see if it holds up, and just looking at the first episode the underwhelming animation does stick out to me more this time around (though not to the extent it did when I tried rewatching Voices of a Distant Star). Couldn't wrap my head around some of the directorial choices either, like the alternating colouration in Kanata's flashback. However, the world the series takes place in is still just as fascinating, and I've even noticed new details of subtle worldbuilding. The scene where Rio says "bless you" to Kanata after the latter sneezes didn't seem like anything special the first time I watched the show, before I knew that there was no customary saying to a person who just sneezed in Japanese (Rio uses the phrase お大事に, which is a general phrase for wishing well to a sick person, but the way their exchange plays out clearly seems like a copy of the Western post-sneezing ritual rather than anything from Japanese culture). I guess to the Japanese audience this exchange would only strengthen the impression that the culture of the show's setting isn't Japanese, before the show starts revealing its deliberately ambiguous cultural mix. Looking forward to spending more time with the characters and getting a fresh look on the show's themes.
Don't you mean "with amazing grace"?
I think Kemono Friends could give it a run for its money in this regard (though we don't yet know enough about the world of KF to tell if it's a true post-apocalyptic story). |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I am not sure if anything notably bleak would have worked to this series' favour. Slice of life, as a genre, tends to flourish most when it has the opportunity to explore the wonders of the everyday rather than having to intermingle with assorted horrors. Calamity would have caused tonal whiplash, which is perhaps why Filicia's past was restricted to a single flashback episode. I shall agree that the ending was overly saccharine though. A triumph on a smaller scale could have provided a similar demonstration of Kanata's development without requiring quite the same suspension of disbelief. |
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