Yesterday I finished watching the first season of Sounds of Life. This is another one of those Slice of Life series based around the members of a high school club, but this one is rather different to the usual stories. The club in question is the Koto club, a Koto is a large traditional Japanese stringed instrument.
With all but one of its members having graduated the sole remaining member is looking for new recruits to keep the club from being disbanded but the members he gets aren't quite the sort he would have wanted because several of them have, well earned, reputations for being delinquent trouble-makers and fighters and another is a highly talented Koto player from a prestigious family who is rather scathing about everyone else's skill level. The club has a lot of problems ranging from hostility from other students, a vice principal who would like the trouble-makers expelled and the Koto club shut down and a club advisor who'd rather the club didn't exist.
The Koto club isn't the harmonious happy group of friends that we normally get in this sort of series, but as the series progresses we learn the backstories of the main characters and their reasons for joining the club and we see the club slowly coming together.
While I wouldn't say I enjoyed watching this series, it's not a fun storyline, but on another level I did enjoy watching as the characters tried to overcome their pasts and strive to produce something good between them
The artwork and animation are of a decent quality and it has quite a good and interesting storyline so I'm looking forward to watching the second season.