Lately, I was hooked with this manga. I didn’t have big expectation but then I realized this manga is totally good and admirable. The art is also pleasing. The art delivers the emotion of characters well. This manga also makes me helplessly listening to Koto music.
What is the story about??
Kono Oto Tomare! tells a story of Kudou Chika, a former delinquent who want to join Koto club in his high school. He found out later that the Koto club only has one senior left, Kurata Takezou, a glasses man, who is hardworking but with zero air of presence.
During their struggle to understand each other and to keep Koto club continue on living, they met Houzuki Satowa, a young prodigy of the Koto world.
Three of them possess different and opposite character. They also have different tragic past. Even so, they worked together and their characters turned out to complement each other and everything started to be on the right path!
Along the way, they met other friends and they worked together to be the best in Koto national competition!
What is the genre?
According to My Anime List, Kono Oto Tomare! genre is action, shounen, school, and drama. It’s suprising for me because the art looks like shoujo. I guess, it doesn’t belong to shoujo manga as there is no explicit love story.
What makes Kono Oto Tomare! special?
Put it simply, the story is great!! and the author delivers it in a natural pace. There is no results that come in instant way. The characters are struggle to reach to be what they want to be. There is no rush in developing the love story between characters, the feeling comes naturally which make me craves for more.
Other than that, each character has distinct characteristics and they complement each other and create a dynamic interaction. I also love how the author is not only focusing on developing the main characters but also the side characters which make the story richer.
Furthermore, the story gives a positive vibes. There are so many lesson learned in this manga. How the characters work together to achieve their goal. We can see their struggle but they never give up. In the end, hard work pays off!! And that there is no people left alone. There must be family or friend who take care of us.
Kono Oto Tomare! is also special as it promotes Koto, a traditional Japanese string instrument. I never heard this instrument before but now I at least know how Koto work and some types of it.
Here I present some links of Koto performances that were played in the manga. These covers help me understand the emotion delivered in the manga.
Ku-On
This performances was delivered in Chapter 26 during their first competition.
Ryuuseigun
This song totally has sentimental feeling for them as they practiced hard to master this song for 1 month before they performed this song in front of the entire students. Their performance of this song decide whether the school will keep the koto club or not. So, of course failure is not allowed!
Just before the song ending, you can listen to six of them play the koto together intensively, burned with their passion. You can’t help yourself but seeing a six dragon flying, soaring the sky.
Double Personality
This performance was delivered by Himesaka high school. Their main principle is “perfectly in unison”. You can listen that at 3.31, the kotos start to intensify. In the manga, this music was played by more than 20 people. Can you imagine that?? An intensive song like this can be perfectly played!!
The Thousand Pieces of Me 