Review for Kids on the Slope - The Complete Series

Let me start by apologising. It’s a very hot day here in the UK and it’s about the twelfth in a row. We’re not used to it. It does funny stuff to us. I haven’t slept properly in a week and yet the sun makes me feel more alive than ever. It’s like some weird re-awakening.
I’d say the same for ‘Kids on the Slope’.


Yeah – melodramatic maybe. But it’s the best series I’ve seen this year. Maybe this decade. Or is it just the arrival of summer making me see this bitter-sweet coming of age series as better than it is? I’ll have to make a note to watch it again when the rain comes and I’ll let you know. In the meantime, excuse me for waxing lyrical. 



Any moment now I’ll start the review but there’s a thought I want to share before I do that. Firstly, I am no anime expert. I’m a dabbler. I like too many genres of movies and TV series to devote what little time I have exclusively to watching anime. So it always surprises, delights or disappoints me. Thanks to ‘The Animeister’ (Reviewer’s own Jitendar Canth) I’ve watched three in relatively quick succession of late. ‘Last Exiles’ which was fabulously imaginative; ‘Un-Go’ which was confusing and somewhat disappointing to me, and ‘The Kids on the Slope’ which is utterly sublime. 


I guess many of us see anime as a genre in its own right. It really isn’t. It’s a medium. Which is why there is no more point in saying ‘I love anime’ than in saying ‘I love art’. Because you can’t love it all.  So after struggling through ‘Un-Go’ imagine my delight in watching ‘Kids on the Slope’.

Set in the mid-1960’s, it's the story of a small group of kids and join them through the final years of their schooling together, cleverly spread across just 12 brief episodes. But this is no ‘Love Hina’. This is well told coming of age tale that for me had more in common with ‘Pretty in Pink’ or ‘The Breakfast Club’ than in any anime or manga that I’ve seen or read.  Though it's also much better than that. 


Even better, rather than reflecting the popular music of the day (‘The Beatles’ do get a name check or two but that’s all), the story is told against a back-drop of jazz. Brilliant cool be-bop jazz from the likes of Bill Evans, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Chet Baker. Cool jazz that reflects the mind-set of the group as they go through the tumultuous roller-coaster ride from adolescence to adult-hood. 



New boy at school Kaoru Nishimi has come to live with his Uncle in the coastal town of Kyushu. It’s 1966 and the world is changing fast. Beatle-mania is in full swing and there is an air of excitement and opportunity. However, spectacle-wearing Kaoru, despite being a brilliant student, is an outsider who has difficulty fitting in.

A chance meeting near the roof terrace of the school, where Kaoru is trying to get to for some solitude, leads to a new friendship with the rough-guy in the class, Sentaro. Then there's Ritsuko, a pretty young girl who lives with her father at a cool record store. They soon find that they have jazz in common. Kaoru plays Piano (and looks a little like Bill Evans) and Santaro plays drums.


Ritsuko’ s dad plays double bass and the ultra-cool ‘Brother Jun’, a friend of Ritusko and Sentaro’s plays the horn.  With jazz as a back-drop we see the group fall in and out of love, get into battles and scrapes, and come to terms with their own often difficult backgrounds. Sometimes falling out, sometimes falling in love, sometimes winning (like when Kaoru and Santaro play a blistering version of ‘My Favourite Things’ in the school hall), sometimes failing, the series runs flawlessly from one chapter to the next. It’s a complex story beautifully told with great sensitivity, the occasional air of melancholy and lots of teenage optimism and fun – all against a wonderful back-drop of some of the coolest jazz ever laid to vinyl.


Even if you don’t agree that it is the greatest anime series of all time, you’ve got to admit that this is amongst the coolest anime series ever.



Jazz fans will love the frequent references to classic jazz. We even see Ritsuko’s dad wearing a black tie the day that John Coltrane dies. Additionally the shop itself is festooned with images of Miles Davis, Chet Baker and of course, Bill Evans with whom Kaoru shares a striking resemblance.


Non-jazz fans need have no fear though. The inclusion of the references and music is never intrusive, merely one ingredient in a richly constructed web of visual and audio cues to the action.

The series has plenty of depth, raising all kinds of questions about loyalty, relationships, trust and love. Sub-plots to the main arc include various romances, ‘Brother Jun’s’ destructive dalliance with drink and drugs, and generally the awkwardness and magic of adolescent feeling (frequently portrayed here with blushed cheeks).
It’s all done so superbly that it really is tough doing justice to its whole which is so much greater than the endless list of the sum of its parts.


The thing to do is just buy it and see for yourself. The extras (including lengthy interviews with production folk) are interesting enough but the real key here is the series itself. Apparently made by the folk who produced ‘Cowboy Bebop’ I’m naturally going to get that on order. If it's half as good as this it will be worth getting. 
You get six episodes on each dual layer disc and they looked great on my 42” LED. I expect the Blu-Ray looks even better.


I went Japanese with regard to audio but I did have a brief listen to the US dub which sounded good, even if Santaro sounded a bit ‘Clint Eastwood’. Sub-titling is clear throughout and easy to follow. 
If you’re not convinced this review and need more persuasion then have a peek at Jitendar’s review and see what one of the UK’s foremost anime ‘experts’ has to say.