Sora no Woto

[Buffalobiian]

Alternative titles: So・Ra・No・Wo・To, Sound of the Sky

Synopsis: The story takes place in an imaginary town Seize (the model cities are Cuenca and Alarcón Fortress in Spain). A long war brings a gradual decline to the world. People disappear from the town and fishes cease to exist in the sea. In this quiet world, five girls guard a fortress and play brass vividly.-MyAnimeList

Links: AnimeNfo, ANN, AniDB, MyAnimeList, Official.

Episode 01 - GoalGG




-----------------------------

I'm impressed.

At first I wasn't sure how well I'd swallow the K-ONified character designs, but they were quite acceptable.

The landscape and music, rather than blew me away, drew me right in. Beautiful would be the word to describe both aspects here.

I'll be expecting Rio to experiences some of the fandom that Mio went through, given the similarity in hairstyle and her "get in line" attitude. She's a lot more hardy than her high-schooler counterpart though, just as Kanata very much resembles Yui, but with some watered-down airheadedness. Felicia's backseat manipulation immediately gave me the impression of Captain Mugi.

The setting's definitely interesting, and I'm eager to see how much of a part their music will contribute to the overall effect of the war. If this episode is any indication though, the final development may be more supernatural in nature. [K-ON spoiler]In contrast to K-ON, I'm glad Kanata starts out with a genuine love for music, but without the genius to go with it (the latter which lead to Yui performing near flawlessly with little onscreen practice). Kanata still has perfect pitch though, which is a talent in it's own right I guess.[/spoiler] Add that to the music, and I think this show shows promise to deliver where K-ON didn't.

Kalafina's "Hikari no Senritsu" (Melody of Light) was a joy to listen to.

Keeping up with my K-ON comparisons, I'm pretty much as impressed as I was when K-ON neared it's peak (ep 2-5?), but for much more solid reasons (art, music, setting vs 100% moe characters/gags)

PS: I decided to go with "Sora no Woto" as the thread title rather than So・Ra・No・Wo・To since it looks less stupid and makes more sense to romanji readers. I realise they were probably going for a "musical notes" effect here, as well as perhaps each "sound" representing a girl or something.

[Pandadice]

just watched ep 1, and i enjoyed it.

the animation was fantastic, and yeah the characters were definitely similar to k-on..

you know, with that introductory and back story to the village, a clash with the demon thing is pretty inevitable. but with a second episode titled "the story of the chair", i'm thinking it be mostly episodic slice-of-life :\

[RyougaZell]

I want to watch this, but I'll probably wait for another group. GG is not safe anymore... even if they are working with another group this time around. Whose Goal anyway? CoalGirls?

[Pandadice]

I want to watch this, but I'll probably wait for another group. GG is not safe anymore... even if they are working with another group this time around. Whose Goal anyway? CoalGirls?

it's CoalGG, Buffalobiian just typo'd i think.

also, why aren't gg safe anymore?

there is a Himatsubushi (torrent: h264 - xvid) release out. think it was the first one out.

but actually after reading their site

Hello hello! Here’s episode 1 of Sora no Woto. However, as of now we have no plans to continue subbing it. So I guess enjoy this one shot!

maybe you shouldn't get them after all O_o.

[RyougaZell]

GG dropped several series last season out of nowhere or started to sub without quality check. Himatsubushi is actually Ayako with another name, I found out several days ago, so... ugh... so little options out there.

[Pandadice]

there's this pwq release. just read their full release article, and after reading it, I wish i had gotten theirs O_o.

HD - SD

and I thought the same thing about ayako when they had the ayako irc on the torrents, but they have a different site and stuff.. maybe they just like operating under different titles O_o.

[Kraco]

I wasn't put off by the K-ON style moe blobbing at all. It's just a style and not an unpleasant one. The character personalities and the story are what counts. Unfortunately there lied the one thing that annoyed me: Kanata's airheadedness. It was cool in K-ON due to the high-school setting, but seriously, this girl is supposed to be in the military yet a mission of finding her way from the city gate to the fortress right in sight was too much for her. I don't know, if it's going to be like that, why did the author have to make it military? It feels far too unreal.

The other thing that bothered me was Rio's annoyingly slow nature and behavior. Not slow like stupid but just slow like taking ages to react and say anything and equally slow to get to the point. I hope I'll either get used to it or it was just this first episode.

Otherwise I have no complaints. It was interesting enough and I'll definitely watch the second ep (if only to find out why girl-soldiers not even carrying rifles have such a badass looking tank).

[Archangel]

Valkyria-ON!

The animation looks superb and it seems like a very soothing series so i might check it out, but the trumpet has to be the lamest musical instrument in history

[David75]

Minimal French mistakes from regarding the Helvetia letter, not perfect, but way above anything I've seen in anime before. The song was sung by a French native, too bad it wasn't interresting at all.
(Helvetia, now better refered as Switzerland with parts of the country speaking French)

Other than that, I'll have to watch ep 2, because that first one was incredibly boring and useless to me and I would drop the show if my curiosity wasn't piqued by the French references.
The synopsis refers to spaniard origins, so it's strange, or maybe that's because Helvetia is an ally.

[Ryllharu]

Since not a whole lot really happened and they didn't even introduce the other characters, there's no way I can make a determination about this series off this one episode.

The music was great, and I loved the OP/ED. The art was really good too. The characters are Kannagi style, but the backgrounds look great. That sequence about the legend was the real highlight though. The art style was definitely Klimt like the Elfen Lied opening was, and it looked fantastic.

But the characters we a bit lacking for an introduction episode. Like Kraco, the fact that Kanata was still allowed in the military was a mystery completely. The girls at the fort are pretty obviously not much in the way of soldiers, despite their awesome tank, but being late and then requiring rescue is something a bit far beyond, "cute soldier is slightly incompetent but means well." Their captain may prefer they don't use ranks around each other and is fairly lax on discipline, but Kanata deserves a bit of punishment, like a day in the brig or scrubbing some toilets. If they are going to go with a military setting, at least act like it.

Quibbling aside, there were a lot of things that barely got mention that will certainly keep my interest until the rest of the girls get formally introduced. That tank for one. That thing looked awesome. Also, the quick glimpse that Kanata caught underwater. Winged. Headless. Monster Skeleton.

I guess the biggest question I have about this is what kind of series this intends to be. If it is just another K-ON slice of life with a military setting, I'll probably pass. But with that tank there, and the monster quite possibly all too real, the series might take a very different turn, and be a delight to watch.


As a side note, there are obvious parallels with K-ON in terms of character design, but in terms of their personalities, someone elsewhere suggested that from a first impression standpoint, the characters are a lot more like counterparts from ARIA. Their captain, the Endou Aya character, is a rather a lot like Alicia. She is very relaxed but obviously knows how to toy with her subordinates while still looking completely innocent. Same for Kanata and Akari too. Very enthusiastic about their chosen skill, but only marginally competent at it in the beginning.

[Buffalobiian]

..With the aid of a giant spider, they defeated the demon and took its head..

Now I must see this legend-inspired giant spider tank!

[animus]

Rio is voiced by Nagi-senpai!

Impression so far, is that I'm glad it's not like K-ON's premise of 5 girls going about their daily lives. Nothing happened, and it doesn't look like it'll turn out to be a comedy or anything. It's filled with some mystery and intrigue. Don't know what 5 music players has to do with anything...

Hopefully it turns out good, it'd be something decent to follow, considering this season looks flimsy.

[Pandadice]

That sequence about the legend was the real highlight though. The art style was definitely Klimt like the Elfen Lied opening was, and it looked fantastic.

probably because it's the same director ^^

[Archangel]

FYI everyone, gg dropped this one

[Buffalobiian]

In that case, I here's another subber for evaluation:

Nekomimi - Episode 01

Edit:

Perhaps this one would be a better consideration for weekly releases:

Hatsuyuki - Episode 01

edit2: didn't like Hatsuyuki's karaoke.

[David75]

[Kimagure]​_Sora​_no​_Woto​_-​_02​_(1280x720)​.mkv 139.24MiB
Let's try ep 2 and a new group, probably a low res release per its size.

Edit: not downloaded yet, but I'm pretty sure it will be a CR rip.
Edit2: Decent in sub and quality

[Kraco]

Yuurisan and m33w in cooperation released the first ep. I haven't checked it yet (though I downloaded it already) but still I'm 90% certain theirs is the version I'll be archiving.

[RyougaZell]

In that case, I here's another subber for evaluation:

Nekomimi - Episode 01

Edit:

Perhaps this one would be a better consideration for weekly releases:

Hatsuyuki - Episode 01

edit2: didn't like Hatsuyuki's karaoke.

Hatsuyuki / Fubuki aren't that good with karaoke, but their subs are good. I'll be switching to me for several series

[Ryllharu]

I watched the HorribleSubs release (perfectly watchable, better than their average actually). I'll be archiving m.3.3.w.

I'm hooked on the setting of this story.

After seeing the school that took Kanata so long to recognize, that the pair were amazed that a school could be so huge, that no one even knows what Japanese is anymore, that any other past language can't be recognized (as on the sheet music), this world is clearly Post-Apocalyptic. It is also very anachronistic. They use trains as primary transportation, bolt-action rifles and sub-machine guns...and an old model tank is nevertheless an advanced walking tank.

I wouldn't be too surprised if the Nomansland on the other side of the mountains is a completely devastated war zone from 'ancient' history.

[Buffalobiian]

Rio's got her perks, Felicia's charming in a supportive way. Kureha's meh, and I dig Kanata's hairstyle, but by far my favourite girl is Noel.

She's a Yuki that interacts!!

I didn't like the OP sequence as much as I liked last week's, mainly because they showed the girls in very limited poses. Horrible Subs also appeared a bit choppy to me.