Sakamichi no Apollon

Introverted classical pianist and top student Kaoru Nishimi has just arrived in Kyushu for his first year of high school. Having constantly moved from place to place since his childhood, he abandons all hope of fitting in, preparing himself for another lonely, meaningless year. That is, until he encounters the notorious delinquent Sentarou Kawabuchi.

Sentarou's immeasurable love for jazz music inspires Kaoru to learn more about the genre, and as a result, he slowly starts to break out of his shell, making his very first friend. Kaoru begins playing the piano at after-school jazz sessions, located in the basement of fellow student Ritsuko Mukae's family-owned record shop. As he discovers the immense joy of using his musical talents to bring enjoyment to himself and others, Kaoru's summer might just crescendo into one that he will remember forever.

Sakamichi no Apollon is a heartwarming story of friendship, music, and love that follows three unique individuals brought together by their mutual appreciation for jazz.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kawabuchi, Sentarou Main

Hosoya, Yoshimasa Japanese

Nishimi, Kaoru Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Mukae, Ritsuko Main

Nanri, Yuuka Japanese

Katsuragi, Junichi Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Fukahori, Yurika Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Mukae, Tsutomu Supporting

Kitajima, Zenki Japanese

Matsuoka, Seiji Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Taichi Supporting

Iwasaki, Megumi Japanese

Kaoru's Aunt Supporting

Jou, Masako Japanese

Maruo, Shigetora Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Ootsuka, Manabu Producer

Ozaki, Noriko Producer

Morosawa, Masao Producer

Reviews

Aug 10, 2025

MichaelBellonis

Recommended

“A painting is created on a space, while jazz is created during a time called a performance. It’s like etching your living self into that place in time.”

I’m back with another contender for my Definitive Top 100 Anime of All Time List - Kids on the Slope.

A gorgeous 12 episode anime directed by Watanabe and animated by Mappa studio (it was actually Mappa’s FIRST production!) though not either of their usual approaches to storytelling - a soft, poignant coming of age story of a group of kids becoming obsessed with jazz music. This marks an even more interesting departure from Watanabe’s usual storytelling, ... as this was also his first directorial role SINCE concluding Samurai Champloo in 2005.

Watanabe has always had a large focus on music in his projects, though up to this point it was always an immersive soundtrack to highlight beats and choreography. In this anime, it’s wholeheartedly the focus - not only is it about kids playing Jazz, Jazz as a genre is used as a vehicle for the themes as the main character, ordinarily a quiet, sheltered, reserved kid, gradually learns to come out of his shell and live more freely.

Something fantastic to note about the production of this anime is that Watanabe initially was pressured to use CGI for the music performances to cut down on time and costs, but Watanabe pushed for hand drawn animation for all of it, using motion capture of real world musicians performing as reference for the animators.

Kids on the Slope is a beautifully realistic portrayal of all of the pains of growing up - From moving around a lot and losing friends, to living in poverty, to the loneliness of living with wealth, to unrequited love and awkward relationships, and even just the struggles of regular friendships and jealousy. With the beautiful dialogue, wonderful animation provided by Mappa, and the great direction by Watanabe, this anime has all the makings of Top 100 Contender.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 17, 2024

Gamer_Moment58

Mixed Feelings

As a current high-schooler in a jazz Band, when I saw clips from this show I was immediately intrigued. I saw a video of Charles Cornell analyzing some of the music scenes in it, and was amazed by the quality of the arranging and animation. I then learned that Yoko Kanno did the soundtrack for it.

I feel like many people don't understand how amazing this animation is. It's the most accurate representation of all the instruments shown I've seen so far in all of anime.

I especially love the festival scene when Kaoru plays "My Favorite things" and then "Moanin". The level of musicality between ... the players was demonstrated very well, and again, the animation for both instruments was spot-on.

My main critique of the show is that with such an amazing show of music, they chose to cut all music scenes after around episode 5 and "develop" the budding romance. It would've been fine if it was done well, but none of the characters meshed well together, and it took so long for them to move it along that I quickly lost interest. The only reason I finished this show was because of the final music scene in the church.

Also, with Yoko Kanno doing the soundtrack, you would expect the rest of the time when the characters aren't actively performing to still have jazz behind it, like Cowboy Bebop,l. But no, it was a mix of lofi sounds and pop.

All in all, the only thing I see in this show is wasted potential, with amazing music scenes and great animation, choosing to focus on a bad romance was a shot in the foot. 6/10, I hope to find other music-based anime that do better than this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 5, 2025

ShipperNig196

Not Recommended

Funny

This was bad yall. As yall can see it took me an entire month to finish a 12 episode fucking show. I just finished arcane in a week and it has 9. That should tell you all you need to know about this.
THIS SHOW WANTED TO BE A BOY LOVE SO BAD AND IT NEVER WENT THERE WHAT THE FU— okay first off i wanted to preface this by saying i kinda gaslit myself into watching this sludge. For the longest time i heard it was about jazz and that it was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe (idk who tf told me that. I think i ... told myself that. Idk) so it had always been on my ghost list for a while. Fast forward like 10 years later (im lazy) and I finally get around to watching it and i want to go back in time and slap the shit out of myself. Anywho the worst part of this show besides the fact that the characters were annoying af (especially the main character that nigga reminded me of what light would be like if he never got the Death Note) and nothing interesting happened at all is that it didn’t have the balls to be what it actually wanted to be and thats 🌈GAY AF🌈. The show was a massive waste of time and it barelyy had any jazz in it. I mean there was some jazz but not enough to tickle my old ivory keys if ya know what im sayin jack 😎😎😎 anywho. Dont watch this. I should’ve just watched Blue Note instead probably

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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