First Impressions – Those Snow White Notes

This is my first impression of “Those Snow White Notes” a fresh new anime that follows Sawamura Setsu, a shamisen player who lost his “sound” after losing his beloved grandfather. Having lost his beloved sound, Setsu finds himself in Tokyo in search of a new sound to love…

Tachiki Yuna, who works at a club, hooks him up with a gig to play there as a warm-up act. Setsu imbues the sound of his shamisen with his many thoughts and feelings he has of others, still searching for his own sound and his own feelings.” – via Crunchyroll

Genres:  Drama, Music, School, Shounen, Slice of Life

Those Snow White Notes (Mashiro no Oto) is an adaptation of the manga of the same name, brought to life by the Shin-EI Animation studio.

You can watch this anime on Crunchyroll, and new episodes are currently released on Fridays 7:45pm BST.

Why do I want to watch this show?

This anime came highly recommended to me by a friend, so I thought I’d finally give it a look. Immediately I really like the promotional material, the show looks so colourful and unique. I also have never watched any anime that focuses on musical instruments or music as a subject before, so think it would be really cool to see what they do with this genre!

The trailer outlines that the main character Setsu experienced the loss of his grandfather and that his music no longer brings him joy. It looks like he goes on a journey to find himself and his groove, so he can find a way to love music again.

It starts quite sombre, but the vibe picks up when it shows us that he is meeting new people that are also interested in music, I’m thinking maybe they reignite some kind of passion in him and pull him out of his depression state?

In the trailer, we see a moment with his mother where he briefly narrates to us his negative relationship with her. He goes on to express that despite his feelings of disdain towards her, her singing voice still mesmerises him.

My predictions from the trailer are that this show will have a ‘soul-searching’ focus, where we get to see Setsu develop and regain his love and be inspired. I don’t expect the story to be particularly happy all the time, and probably quite emotional at parts – given how music strongly plays on the emotions of those playing, and those listening. I hope it has a happy ending but we’ll have to wait and see.

Characters

We are introduced to quite a lot of characters in the trailer, but it isn’t easy to see how they all piece together from first impressions. Im quite curious to know why Setsu’s relationship with his mother is rocky, and I’m also curious to know what she does – is she also a musician?

Setsu looks interesting, quite brooding and quiet at first glance, with good reason but I am curious about how his personality develops and if he ever comes out of his shell!

The school friends that we see in the trailer look pretty cool, and I wonder what they will be like. I hope they will be a positive and wholesome influence.

Opening and Ending Sequences

The OP’s for this anime are both by Burnout Syndromes. The first is aptly named ‘Blizzard’ and the second which cycles in half way through the season is called Ginsekai.

Burnout Syndromes quickly became one of my favoured artists for anime openings and endings, thanks to their legendary contributions to Haikyuu!! This song is nothing short of catchy and it is an excellent example of the vocalists’ capabilities. I also really love how they included the shamisen in the song to personalise it to the show! I listen to this often on Spotify, and I haven’t even started watching yet!

I believe Ginsekai is brought in from episode 6 and onwards, I like this one as well. It has a much different feeling to Blizzard but its just as catchy. The vocalist yet again blows it out the water and it feels a lot more upbeat than Blizzard – hopefully this is reflective of a possibly upbeat second half of the show?

Final Thoughts

Overall I am really interested in seeing how this one plays out. It will be my first ‘musical’ focused anime so I am curious to know what it will feel like to watch. I really enjoy music and find myself easily affected by powerful or emotive pieces, so I wonder if this anime will draw a lot of emotions out of me. I don’t have any ‘stand-out’ characters that are really gripping my attention but that may change over time, mostly my intrigue comes from the genre and that it has been so highly recommended and rated on MAL.

Will you be watching? Let me know your thoughts below in the comments or come chat with me on social media!