Sound of the Sky: How Sweet The Sound!

I’m here and back on the moe train to talk about more anime series here and there. Believe me when I say that this moe train is going to be going on for quite a while with more stops on the way. Maybe not as consistent as one would think, but it’s going to be going through this blog until I stop. Who knows when that will be? Not for a while because I have a lot on my watch list. Here we are to discuss more moe girls with tanks in the military. Stick around for next week when I change up the formula and talking about moe fishing boys and space aliens! That’s a promise, I think. I’m finding some fun variability with these sorts of shows, so as a person who used to look down on the art design I’m really sorry I was a jerk. My tastes used to be so biased and bad. Gah, I love finding more good things to watch more matter what the art designs are.

Spoiler alert for Sound of the Sky after these three sentences. If you haven’t watched this series before, I’m about to spoil some aspects of the show. You have been warned.

Sound of the Sky starts with our air headed protagonist, named Kanata, joining the military so she can learn how to play the trumpet/bugle. (The only difference are the valves on the trumpet.) A very unique reason to join the military if I’ve every heard one, but I can understand falling for the instrument after hearing a beautiful rendition of a song with a lot of meaning and heart behind it all. At the beginning of the series, Kanata is stationed in the middle of nowhere town called Seize in the country of Helvetica. Immediately getting lost in the fire maiden festival, who saved the town a long while ago, ceremony in that town and getting her uniform dirty, Sergeant Rio finally finds her and takes her back to the military base to join the ranks with the four other female soldiers. From there, Kanata learns how to play the bugle and enjoy living with these good girls. Can you guess what happens in the series?

So yes, Sound of the Sky is mostly a slice of life sort of series. I say mostly, because there is something always going on in the background that is more realistic and world ending. A sprawling desert and a no man’s land event that is still effecting the world as it is know. So spoilers kind of, Sound of the Sky is a post apocalyptic series with humanity barely holding on to it’s existence. These kids and older teenagers are playing games and living their lives while it’s obvious how messed up the world is in the background. Playing tag to check on those ancient machine protecting Seize or what about the fact that there is a empty desert space called No Man’s Land directly outside of Seize itself? There is a lot of thought and heart put into this series to make this series what it is. Great and Optimistic. Fantastic world building for a 12 episode series.

The real shot of optimism in this series comes from Kanata’s appearance in the series. All four of the other girls: Kureha, Rio, Felecia, and Noel are either very realistic sort of people or are weighed down by something from a past they want to runaway from. Kanata is the usual anime air head in these moe shows, but stands for more then that here. Her past isn’t harsh, because this is her first time encountering war besides an incident where she saw a beautiful blonde play a trumpet. She’s the optimism that everybody needs to get along with their day and their lives. While she doesn’t change besides learning how to play an instrument, she definitely pushes the others to go forward and live their own lives in their own ways. Or at least relax a bit at the minimum.

Tying into that sense of optimism comes the song that everyone is infatuated with. It’s Amazing Grace. As a Christian that has heard and even sang this song a lot many years, Amazing Grace has a whole lot of heart and meaning behind it that really clicks with this series’ story. That’s why I was mad at Arkada’s review from a long time ago where he complained about it. It’s a song about people finding redemption after who knows what has happened and it kind of works for a series set on humanity after a post apocalyptic event of some kind. I can see why Kanata and everyone else would dig the song so much because I would probably do the same to be honest. If there is one song that survived humanity’s destruction and pushed people forward into another generation, I hope it’s Amazing Grace.

I can’t honestly move onto this show without at least talking about the rest of the girls a little more. Quick aside about the town of Seize before that. Very loving city full of interesting and fun people that I would love to meet sometime in the future. But anyway, the girls themselves. Rio and Kanata are sort of connected by knowing or seeing the blonde woman who played the trumpet, so it’s like they are fated together. That’s the reason why Rio played the trumpet as well. There are also some clear signs that Rio is holding something back due to her own sense of apprehension and talks with Felecia that hint at something bigger. All of which gets paid off in the finale in some meaningful ways. Rio and Kanata are a fun pair.

Then there the other girls who are a lot of fun and full of life. Felecia is the oldest member of this unit and also withheld commander of the Seize unit. She got rid of the rank system in her base so the girls get to know each other better on a personal level. Something we don’t learn about why until the right moment. Completely different from the youngest member, Kureha, is completely serious about the military and even has some major military idols. She wants to be treated with respect from Kanata because she’s been their longer and of course admits that there isn’t anything major for them to worry about because they are stationed out in the middle of nowhere. Until later on that is. Last but not least is Noel who is the quiet genius with a warm and welcoming personality. She seems like a robot at first, but that is easily proven how wrong it is as you continue watching Sound of the Sky.

I really do like the art and animation from Sound of the Sky quite a bit. Well, besides one major thing. You know the trumpet playing? Yeah, the players never move their fingers with the right timings or even hit the right valves at all which continually frustrates me. But other then that, it’s all great. I like how each of our characters are given distinct ways to move and walk along with having their own good sort of facial expressions. That’s why moe character designs are pretty great honestly. I also really do like the art designs of the city and everything else. The washed out color palette in this series really does do the end of the world sort of story telling and meaning a lot of justice thematically. There is some CG tank stuff that does stand out a bit, but it doesn’t hurt this part of the anime for me. Especially since the tank and fighting was never the point.

If Sound of the Sky has a major flaw, I do think the ending came around a little faster then I expected it to. There was a major event here that appeared in the last few episodes with some excellent build up and then ended on a high note. Other then that, I can’t really think of a bunch of serious flaws that Sound of the Sky has besides the lackluster trumpet playing here. Other then that, Sound of the Sky is a real piece of art that I quickly fell in love with as I watched more episodes. What can I do here besides just giving in my solid label here. I feel like I’ve had a lot of good anime to watch recently because I keep finding some creative and fun ones. Only more to come with that now though. Hehe.

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