Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
_DearLisette_
It would be difficult to recommend this anime to someone unless they have an appreciation for music. The music alone carried the show, complemented by beautiful visuals during the performances. The rest feels comparatively underdeveloped.
The pros:
With each piece sounding like a masterpiece, it’s hard to dislike. The music can, at times, make you feel as if you’ve ascended into the heavens. It can be incredibly moving and intriguing seeing how the same piece can sound so different.
Outside of the performances, the animation and art are consistent. They bring the shamisen pieces to life and create beautiful atmospheres.
Setsu’s growth during the show is very realistic, and feels very genuine. Learning how to find yourself and struggling to find your own “sound” is not easy. It leads to…
Read at the sourceDBX
Originally, I was going to pass up on this anime because, it didn’t interest me from the get-go. I had never heard of the main interment for this show before and that’s what turned me off however, it was exactly that, that made me change my mind. The idea of learning about something, I had never heard of before, sounded interesting.
I liked how the story progressed. The elements of the show that it revolved around made the pacing feel great. It was as if, in every episode, that things just escalated and escalated. I enjoyed watching the progression of the characters as like me had no idea what the instrument was, learn and come to enjoy it. If I had any quarrels with the way that the story was told, it would be that it fell apart a bit towards the ending. It was like watching someone danc…
Read at the sourceheldencrow
The music is superb. Purely as an introduction to the passion and tradition of shamisen and acoompanying song this anime could not have been better. I will always be grateful to have been given this chance to experience that for the first time. And not just one or two performances: the show features multiple Japanese artists playing together or alone, sometimes introducing us to new ideas, sometimes playing the same piece but made individual through their own styles.
However. The excellent music and good supporting artwork are let down by the story and characters. The main character is The Troubled but Brilliant Artist in Search of His Own Sound. A cliché in service of a cliché. He is silent, moody, self-obsessed and generally an asshole to everyone. But they always seem to forgive him b…
Read at the sourceVicenteDragneel
I started watching this anime because I was intrigued by the musical instrument they use and the way it sounds. I stumbled upon a dramatic anime in which the protagonist tries to create his own music despite being heavily influenced by his grandfather's music.
Story: 9/10
The story revolving around Setsu, the protagonist, is spectacular. Despite having immense talent, he lacks his own unique style when playing the shamisen, only imitating his grandfather's music. Thus, he must search for his own essence.
Art: 8/10
The art is perfect and doesn't need much more than it has. Even the fingers playing the shamisen and the movements are fantastic.
Characters: 9/10
The characters are perfect in every sense. None of them seem flat or unimportant, and the characters who are meant to be irritatin…
Read at the sourceShirogari
Mashiro no Oto is a journey; a journey on which you follow Setsu Sawamura as he tries to find his sound. Since this anime is based around the shimasen, a Japanese instrument, it is needless to say that the sounds in this anime are beautiful. Though there is not much to say about the voice acting, the shamisen play is amazing and I went to sleep several times with its sound still stuck in my head. If we stop considering the art that was the music, the actual art style in this anime was not overly impressive. It supports the story just fine but this is not an anime that should be watched for the animations.
Setsu's journey is not an easy one and he will have to clash with multiple people including himself if he wants to achieve his goals. The characters and people he interacts with feel lik…
Read at the sourceZorkary
Disclaimer: this is a copy/paste from my blog for my podcast
Not going to lie I didn't know if I would like this anime. I hadn't watched any music-themed animes before this one and I didn't know if it would strike a chord with me.
Spoiler - it definitely did.
I loved it! The characters are fantastic and the music was stellar (which is good considering this is a show about music and character development.) I really enjoyed seeing everyone's journey and how they interacted with our main character. There are so many good people in this show and, once the main group is formed, there is good chemistry and interaction.
The music is so good, I grew to love the sound of the shamisen and loved how they blended it into the first opening song as well. It was fun seeing its place in Japanese cultu…
Read at the sourceZNoteTaku
SPOILER-FREE!
I’ve taught music and music history at a university, but interestingly enough, music anime and I have a bit of a troubled relationship. I suppose it stems from the fact that I find real-life stories about what music means to people so much more compelling than what fiction usually provides. It’s rare that I come across a music anime like "Sound! Euphonium," "Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song," or "Kids on the Slope," which manages to both excite my musical imagination and make me feel compelled to follow the overall drama.
Which brings me to "Those Snow White Notes," a show where I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. All I knew going in was that it concerned an instrument that I knew a little bit about, but not anywhere enough to be called an expert. I’ve listened to a few shamisen…
Read at the sourceSalvatierra21
The anime Mashiro no Oto is truly one of the biggest surprises of the Spring 2021 season. It features a unique musical theme, a solid story, and an excellent presentation of the world of the shamisen. The art takes care of every technical aspect, providing beautiful scenery at crucial moments that blend perfectly with the music.
In some ways, it reminds me a lot of Barakamon. It was also very original to introduce a second opening theme when the story entered its second arc.
As for the characters, none of them feel wasted. Each character has their own moment to shine, taking turns in the spotlight throughout the story. This helps the anime avoid feeling too cliché.
Overall, it is a series that deserves to be recommended and certainly deserves a well-earned second season.
Read at the sourceaverage-lucifer
I tried to like it from beginning to end but was unsuccessful. The story was extremely rushed with little to no character development aside from the MC. Every other episode is overflowing with forced and unrealistic drama, making it difficult to relate or even feel bad for the characters. I really wish this show was done better. I wish I actually wanted a second season after where it left off. Watch it if you'd like, but do not get your hopes up. If you'd like a similar anime, but done way better, watch kono oto tomare. Every issue that could be brought up with Mashiro no oto is almost nonexistent there. I couldn't recommend watching that instead more.
Read at the sourceTwilightDweller
Strange, clumsy, erratic, but riveting. If I had to describe this show in a few words. The range of emotions I felt while viewing were unexpectedly diverse. The title of Mashiro no Oto speaks for itself, the "sound" they produced was exceptionally candid.
For many people, after a certain point of viewing title after title, they may stop fussing over the technical details of a production and start focusing on more abstract concepts such as feeling the emotion or passion of the creators conveyed through the characters, or particular themes or messages that resonate with them. This is one such work for me. The plot isn't particularly exceptional and the pacing is pretty poor. Particularly the beginning and ending, both being quite abrupt. There aren't any groundbreaking moments in the arcs…
Read at the sourceZaysaki
The music pulled me in and it is good. Everything else i had to endure. I was rolling my eyes so hard i had to start fast forwarding some of parts between the music. So much terrible writing, pointless drama and tear jerking. Mediocre characters at best, throwaways at worst. I know it's a problem in manga/anime as a whole, but damn some of these female characters were so stereotypically useless.
It started well enough, but went down hill quite early. Completely threw away an interesting story and went with just another high school setting with an arena arc to top it off.
I expected better, but it was so bad that it actually made me write this review. If you think this is like 'Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu', think again.
Read at the sourceTakashi_Yuu
Learning about Japan's artistic cultures is always a wonderful experience. How many times do we come across anime and manga that use themes that are unusual in the Western, but that produce an essential meaning in this very rich country? This season, eyes were definitely on the most popular animes and that overshadowed some titles that could deliver much more than just 12 Episodes
This anime is like a gem whose value is underestimated till you check it on your own if it's real or fake. This was a pretty watch during the spring and obviously, you will definitely get spring vibes from this anime. - hoping for season 2. I will give this a rewatch in the future.:)
Read at the sourceClaussell
If you are here for the music, this is not your place because not everyone can enjoy this instrument.
I can enjoy all anime genres because it has SoL. Every characters has fair development, but sadly this show can't hit it's peak of potential because only have 1 cour, It's good really good from the start then roughly rushed till the end.
This shows reminds me of Kono Oto Tomare, nice build up of chara development, balance of the conflict and the joy and unique of every chara. I thought this show can be better but it ruined by 1 cour limit budget (maybe?).
I would like to see another season of this show if possible.
Read at the sourceMaspatri
I don't usually write reviews for animes, but Mashiro no Oto (Those Snow White Notes) is the best anime I've seen, the performance of Shimazaki (the Japanese VA of Setsu) was amazing, the other characters actually felt like their own person and not just a character to push up Setsu, especially Kaito, he reminded me a lot of Ryuji Sakamoto from Persona 5, which was my favorite character from P5, and even if Kaito has a different situation then Ryuji, he still has a compelling story.
I didn't know or give a shit about the Tsuguru Shamisen before this anime, and holl shit I love the Shamisen know because of the beautiful sound, and on the subject of sound, the plot of Setsu looking for his sound just for his ideals to be shattered by Umeko because of her selfish desire to have Matsugorou so…
Read at the sourcematurenough4this
This series frustrated the hell out of me. At first it played as recovering musician, then as slice of life, then as drama, then as competition, and finally coming of age story.
The most frustrating point of all though is the ending. I genuinely don't know what to think about it. The primary character, on the final episode has the equivalent occur to him: arrow to the knee, stabbed in the back, lying on his deathbed with his eyes closed, then opens them.
I cannot put into words how blue-balled this anime left me. I'm either incredibly inept for not getting this ending or this anime is a spectacular, staged train wreck. Mashiro no Oto had the momentum of a blue whale swimming at top speed, it was beautiful, it was going places, but the whale put on the breaks and stopped just before the c…
Read at the sourceNime-Newbie
Mashiro No Oto started sloppy at the first episode but redemption comes after 2nd episode, this anime really impressed me, and the art itself kind of reminded me of "BECK"
Character development in this anime is depicted really good, you can feel Setsu's struggle on finding his grandpa "sound" and of course, his Nakama gets a decent character development too, this really impressed me because not much anime did that in their character development in my personal opinion, the music also really good and impressive also feels gutwrenching and kind of stuck in your soul for a while, the studio really did a great job on adapting this manga into anime, the ending itself made me craving for another season, and let's hope the studio will give a green light for a 2nd season in the future.
Read at the sourcesimonsenpai98
Biggest Upset endings in anime history.
Written poorly although music is 11/10. Plot is 2/10.
I hate when they over dramatized the story to distract from actual musical journey which is supposed to be a main theme.
Nodame Cantabile is a perfect example of how music anime is done right.
Cowboy Bebop have better musical journey than most "music" anime out there.
Worst part is cliff hangers. I hope studios stop doing that for business reason because many viewers will drop & move on to next anime which don't have cliff hangers.
I hope there's season 2 because there's no way if this is how the show ends.
I'm upset because it could've so much better.
The protagonist seems to need psychiatrist & his "mom" shouldn't be around him. The main plot ought to be MC not caring about competition, n…
Read at the sourceanimeshitha
The word to describe this anime is "raw".
I mean, it has a very rough feeling to it, not as polished as Kono Oto Tomare, and much heavier. You'll see what I mean if you watch it.
Don't let the high school setting fool you, this anime deals with some serious stuff.
The story follows a boy struggling to deal with the death of his grandfather, who was a shamisen player. He grew up around it, has innate talent for it, but cant deal with the fact that his grandpa is gone. All the boy wants to do is find his own sound, but he has people pulling him every whichway.
Most anime with sports, music, whatever, tend to exaggerate the intensity of the art in question until you can no longer really relate to it, and you just have to go "ok, maybe an actual player/ musician would feel like that". But…
Read at the sourcekurokokid
This anime was a rollercoaster. The beginning is quite rough and to me seemed rlly rushed however, the overall plot is interesting and amusing. This anime is about Setsu basically trying to find his own sound after his grandfathers death. There are many difficulties that Setsu faces in this anime and it shows how he overcomes them to truly understand himself more.
You don't need any prior knowledge about music to watch this anime as they don't go technical when talking about the shamisen. It's mainly about the sound they produce which can appeal to any audience. This anime has a really soft aesthetic and feel in the first half of the anime when they are merely exploring the shamisen however when the anime gets more serious and has more conflicts involved the art helps leave a more powerf…
Read at the sourcemakotoplz
Although not free of common character and situation tropes, Mashiro no Oto really surprised me. Having watched only a couple music animes, I was hesitant on trying yet another one with an instrument I hadn't even known existed until then. Just like Kono Oto Tomare, Mashiro no Oto is built on drama, story and its characters.
The MC's development and exploration is spot on, it's consistent (imo), interesting and has successfully caused me to become both invested and attached to Setsu as a character, and the anime as a whole. I know I've already addressed that this anime is full of stereotypes and predictability, but it doesn't take away from it.
I love the buildup leading to the competition, the music is, and should be, really good, I like the plot and the drama involved. It's realistic…
Read at the source
