La Corda D’Oro Primo Passo (The Golden Chord ~First Movement~) Episode 1 - The No Way! Prelude
OP - Brand New Breeze (Kanon) - man, this is cheesetastic shoujo. And who would play a violin/flute/anything by a waterfall like that? The moisture would cock everything up. Anyway, ’tis pretty, and the song’s not bad.
ED - Crescendo (Stella Quintet) - I don’t care for bishounen seiyuu groups, so this song doesn’t do very much for me, and the ED’s pretty typical really.
Kahoko Hino is your typical shoujo heroine; slightly clutzy, running late but ever-cheerful. She is the only one who can see an annoying music sprite thing, though, and ends up landing herself in a school-wide music competition with a bunch of bishounen and a green-haired clarinettist love rival (perhaps); will she and her magic violin (which makes her something of a cheat, in my mind, but…) make it to the top with bishounen falling at her feet in her wake?
La Corda D’Oro is the “other” bishounen game by the developers known as Ruby Party; two more, the strategy simulation Angelique and the vaguely RPG-esque Harukanaru Toki no Naka de, have already had numerous anime adaptations (both have OVAs and TV series, Angelique’s getting a sequel TV show in January and HaruToki gets a film sometime soon). Both others are flawed in rather major ways; Angelique is a bit simplistic and overly dating-game esque (plus the anime suffers from Satelight’s horse-faced character designs), and HaruToki has a pathetic heroine set in a relatively decent (if cliched) setup.
La Corda D’Oro, however, seems to be a much more appealing package based on this first episode. It’s true that there’s obviously the harem element to it, but more interestingly the story is much more focused on Kahoko than Angelique is and, whilst she’s a bit of a stereotypically shoujo heroine, she’s not a whining idiot like Akane in HaruToki. Furthermore, the animation is surprisingly excellent (although it is only the first episode), unlike Angelique certainly.
So I might keep up with this show; as long as the budget stays high, the music stays a focus, the fairy’s not in it too much and it doesn’t get too harem-esque, Corda d’Oro could be a decent enough show in the long run
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:47 pm
I must say that this series is turning out to be a good one. And in a way, it reminds me of OHSHC, probably has to do with the heroine surrounded by lots of guys and the paper thin plot. I can’t wait to finish the series.