Spring 2021 First Impressions – Those Snow White Notes

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Story Summary: When Setsu’s grandfather and shamisen teacher passes away, Setsu loses his will to play the instrument. His feeling of emptiness prompts him to leave home for Tokyo, where he has no plan and no place to stay, but where hopes to rediscover what his own true sound is and to play the shamisen again. He ends up living as a guest in the studio apartment of a hostess named Yuna, whose quest for show business fame has encountered yet another dead-end after a failed audition. She feels like nothing more than a wallet in support of her boyfriend Takuto’s musical aspirations, and her boyfriend is ungrateful about it. When Yuna and Takuto break up, this causes disarray that threatens one of Takuto’s live shows. It’s Setsu, who’s only just begun to try playing shamisen again, to smooth over the performance. As Yuna leaves town in pursuit of her own goals, Setsu is suddenly approached by a rather terrifying woman.

Impressions: It could be said that I enjoy offbeat anime. I think, more so than live-action entertainment, anyway, that anime (and the manga from which much of it is drawn) tends to do a good job of creating entertainment from niche interests. Human beings as a whole have come up with a nearly endless number of hobbies, and I find the breadth of those interests and how they’re portrayed in entertainment to be fascinating. That said, I’m to the point in my anime viewing life where novelty on its own isn’t satisfying. I need something else to lock on to – compelling characters, an interesting story, great animation – something that catches the eye or the heart more than an idiosyncratic subject-matter focus. I recall one of the moments where this really hit home for me; I was anticipating the anime adaptation of Welcome to the Ballroom, because the idea of an sports anime framed around an activity that would stretch the concept of “sport” for many fans was like catnip for my otaku brain. The animation and character designs also looked really good (to me, anyway… although the characters’ necks were definitely out-of-control). But in practice… well, my strongest memory from the 4 or so episodes I watched was that I found the characters’ attitudes and personalities to be completely insufferable. Even the show’s unique focus couldn’t convince me to stick around.

Likewise, Those Snow White Notes initially enticed me with its focus on traditional Japanese musical arts; the opening scene, during which the protagonist’s grandfather plays a piece that represents the culmination of his life’s pursuit of the art form, is stunning. However, I’m concerned the beautiful shamisen music might hit a bit of a sour note when it comes to the character interactions and plot. Simply put, the characters behave in an overdramatic way and the plot feels a bit too convenient or contrived to support the more genuine emotion that’s easily elicited by the mere pluck of the shamisen strings.

Admittedly, my initial thought upon finishing the episode was that the story feels a lot like the sort of idealistic, overly-romantic tales cooked up by certain artfully-minded friends of mine when we were all in high school. It’s the story of things we longed for when we didn’t know any better about the broader world – freedom from a dull life, a no-strings-attached, pseudo-romantic encounter with a member of the sex to whom we were attracted, an airy story whose details just sort of work out and which comes to a convenient end following a cathartic moment of self-discovery. It’s the tale of every teenager with an old guitar and a dream, and as someone who inhabited that mindset once-upon-a-time, I can’t really fault a story like this one which indulges those feelings. That said, watching this episode play out in such a neat, convenient way for Setsu also felt a little bit cringe to me, because it reminded me of an adolescent mindset that I’ve attempted to leave in the past.

Aside from that, I think this series feels generally earnest and I like listening to the shamisen music. I’m just not sure about the thinness of its other harmonies.

Pros: Again, the music is great. While the sound of the shamisen is familiar enough to me, I don’t necessarily have the trained ear that it would take to distinguish between an excellent performance and an okay one, so I think some of the drama related to Setsu’s desire to “find his own sound” is lost on me, but I enjoy hearing the music.

Cons: When I was 15, I traveled to Chicago with my flute teacher and another of her students to attend the National Flute Association’s annual convention (I know, huge nerd). We stayed outside of the city with her relatives, one of whom was her 19-year-old cousin. He was too old for me to ever consider as a serious boyfriend candidate (and I too young to be of any interest to him), but I had the biggest crush on him and I held on to the idea of that time we spent together for the remainder of the Summer. Setsu’s encounter with Yuna reminds me of that – she’s a beautiful woman who entered his life at a crossroads for both of them, and left his life in such a manner that only his innocent feelings toward her and the lingering wisps of her kindness remain. It’s convenient to the goal of keeping the story lean, because Yuna doesn’t have to be anything other than a fantasy woman or a “manic pixie dream girl,” as they say. But as someone who’s less tolerant toward stories that indulge very simple (and very straight-male-focused) desires, this element left me cold.

Content Warnings: Some street violence (kicking and punching). Financial manipulation. Emotional abuse. Lingering trauma related to the death of a relative.

Would I Watch More? – My feelings about this anime are positive enough that I’ll probably keep my ear to the ground to hear if the story becomes more nuanced in the coming weeks, but for right now it’s going to be on hold.