Kids on the Slope 1.01

Moanin'

Kaoru Nishimi is new to Kyushu. On his first day at a new school he meets a number of students but ends up hanging out with two of them more than the rest. Kaoru is fairly reserved. Ritsuoko Mukae, a classmate of his, is assigned to show him around the school. While she is giving him the tour he gets beaned by a ball thrown by another student and starts to feel like he is going to throw up.

This isn't the first time this has happened to Kaoru. He has a history of getting disorienting nausea at inopportune times. His cure for these debilitating attacks is to go to the roof of the school. It there or on his way there that he first encounters Sentarou Kawabuchi.

Sentarou is much bigger than the other kids in the class. When he is first shown he is drumming away with a couple of sticks, not drumsticks, just sticks. He gets into a fight on a whim with three older students. He's a bit reckless and at one point it looks like he is going to start picking on Kaoru.

After school the three meet up again at the record store that Ritsuko's father owns. It is there that Kaoru learns that Sentarou like to play drums and jazz. He has no interest in classical music, which is what drew Kaoru to the record store.

Director, Shinichiro Watanabe, and music composer, Yoko Kanno, also worked together on Cowboy Bebop, probably my favorite anime series.

So far Ritsuko is playing third fiddle to the guys. I'm fairly confident it won't stay that way based on past experiences with anime about a trio of friends, two male, one female, like Cowboy Bebop.

I realize that I am just one episode in but I really like this show so far. I thought the first minute or two were a bit stiff, probably because the focus was on Kaoru, who is by far the most uptight of the trio. As with Cowboy Bebop, I really like the way music is used. Of course, in this case music plays a role in the plot of the story, unlike Cowboy Bebop. The show only runs 12 episodes.

The title of the episode is a reference to Art Blakey's tune of the same name. The song is also mentioned in the episode.