坂道のアポロン

SAKAMICHI NO APOLLON

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
9
RELEASE
January 28, 2012
CHAPTERS
53

DESCRIPTION

Nishimi Kaoru has moved from city to city and school to school because of his father’s job. So the first day at his new school was just routine for him. Being intellectual and the new transfer student, he has always been seen as an outcast and all Kaoru had to do was bear it until the next time he moved. But things were slightly different this time. First, he started to get close to the class president, Mukae Ritsuko, and, secondly, unlikely as it seemed, grew closer to Kawabuchi Sentaro. Sentaro was infamous for getting into fights, skipping class and was an overall bad boy. Strangely enough, the three of them find common ground in music, namely jazz, and Kaoru finds himself actually enjoying the new town.

Notes:

Includes 8 extra chapters.

Won the 57th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga.

CAST

Sentarou Kawabuchi
Kaoru Nishimi
Ritsuko Mukae
Junichi Katsuragi
Yurika Fukahori
Tsutomu Mukae
Seiji Matsuoka
Mariko
Kaoru no Oba
Shigetora Maruo
Nishimi Kaoru no Chichi

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO SAKAMICHI NO APOLLON

ANIME DramaSakamichi no Apollon

Cover Art for Sakamichi no Apollon: Bonus Track

MANGA DramaSakamichi no Apollon: Bonus Track

Cover Art for Sakamichi no Apollon - Official Fan Book

MANGA Sakamichi no Apollon - Official Fan Book

REVIEWS

GGShang
85/100
A drama filled story about what it's like to be a teen
Kids on the Slope is definitely a manga that you'll like more if you're a fan of drama, but even for those that aren't, there's still a lot to enjoy and get out of it. I'm personally not a fan of dramas, but I still found myself enjoying it by the end.

The story revolves around the friendship between two unlikely people: the smart newcomer Kaoru and the delinquent looking Sentaro. Their friendship is based on playing jazz, something that Kaoru is introduced to when he sees Sentaro playing the drums. No matter what happens in the story, be it girl problems... mostly girl problems, the two stick it out and find a way to rekindle their friendship every time through playing together. They are joined by a cast of side characters that, for the most part are there to move the story along and cause drama for the two to work out. Overall, I'd say that the characters weren't the most stellar. They felt pretty tropey for the most part, but the interactions that they had in the situations they were placed in were the most interesting parts.

Now, like I said earlier, I am not a fan of dramas. I think that they are too filled with people overreacting and making dumb decisions, but I felt like they were really natural in this case. I'll be honest, I didn't really like this manga the moment I finished it. Everything felt really rash and rushed, and conflicts resolved so fast it was like nothing even happened. I thought that the characters overreacted a lot to very little, like suddenly falling head over heels for a girl you only just met to the point where it becomes crippling. It was only after thinking about it for a little and putting myself into the shoes of these kids did I come to appreciate it for what it had to say. To me, this manga really just personifies what it means to be a teenager: bond over the smallest things, get into fights easily, make up even faster, overthink about how other people feel, putting all your eggs into one basket, etc. For every arc of drama that came up in the series I felt like it could have been me just a few years ago. I felt like me and my friends were going through very similar things when we were younger and didn't know any better. I understand what it's like to push myself aside 'for the sake of my friends'. I know what it's like to be angry and upset with a friend but make up immediately after playing some games together. I know what it's like to just blindly follow what my parents want me to do, despite not wanting to do it myself. I see so much of myself in this manga, and that where I think it excels.

Overall, Kids on the Slope is at its core is a manga that understands what people are like when they're kids. We're all a bit rambunctious, prone to make rash decisions and value the precious friends that we have. Yes, there were unnecessary characters and drama that occurred throughout the manga, but it all served to highlight the beautiful friendship formed through jazz, unbroken by time, reminding us what it was like to be a teen again.
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rfonzx
85/100
Jazz, through the lens of Sakamichi no Apollon.
During my semester holiday, I was bound to bore myself off. And this would make me scroll through the internet to look out for mangas that might be compatible with my preference, and that's when I stumbled upon this manga about jazz. Prior to reading this manga, I'm already charmed by the intricacies of jazz in general, I would regularly listen to jazz records here and there, with no specific subgenres. To my surprise, reading this manga reaffirms my fascination with jazz.

To begin with, I believe that there's only one specific criterion of what makes good music, good music. This doesn't only apply within the genre of jazz, but we're talking about the bigger picture here. That prerequisite itself is whether that music can evoke any sort of emotions in the listeners sonically. I do not necessarily regard the technicalities of musical craftsmanship that high, as long as it can evoke emotions in me, I would consider that music to be a good one.

In any case, the way this manga depicts the core characteristic of jazz music somehow aligns with the way I also perceive music in general, not just jazz. It's able to flawlessly elaborate on what exactly distinguishes jazz from the other musical genres out there. While the other musical genres tend to pursue musical perfection, it's not the same with jazz. Jazz, in and itself doesn't necessarily seek the objective of achieving musical perfection, instead, jazz is all about improvisation. Thus, the concept of perfection does not align with jazz in general. Then, what exactly is the ambition of jazz, if it's not for accomplishing perfection?

And this manga answers just that, in a way that also aligns with my criteria of what makes good music, good music. Jazz is all about being present in the moment, casting aside all external distractions, and solely focusing on feeling the emotions that stem from the jazz music itself, that's what jazz is all about, which is just enjoying yourself in the moment. While technicalities do matter in jazz, what matters the most in the bigger picture is whether it is able to reverberate emotions, not just into the musicians themself, but into the listeners as well; in other words, it's all about the liveliness, the more lively the music is, the better the music will be.

This manga aims to express the mangaka's love of music, and they were successful in that regard. Sakamichi no Apollon is all but a love letter to jazz. Depicting a musical manga is hard, as you can't necessarily listen to the musical performance within the manga, but you have to make sure that the readers are still capable of feeling the emotions that stem within. At the end of the day, this manga is still able to evoke emotions into the readers, without even having any music to accompany the readers.
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