TV anime Forest of Piano
Shuhei Amamiya, Kai Ichionose and Wei PANG
Text by Mai Takano
As of April this year, the final episode has aired, concluding the second season of Forest of Piano (The Perfect World of Kai). This anime was one of the hottest one among music lovers, because its stories were plotted over young competitors of the International Chopin Piano Competition, struggling for the future of classical music.
Forest of Piano was the manga serialized and ended in 2015, which was written and illustrated by Makoto Isshiki. This is the music manga with the outline as follows. The series protagonist Kai spent his childhood, playing the abandoned piano in the forest as a substitute for his toy. One day, his talent came to Sousuke Ajino’s attention, who was formerly known as a prodigious concert pianist. Through the meeting with other remarkable talents like Shuhei Amemiya, a son of great concert pianist, Kai’s talent was developed and eventually he has come to challenge Chopin Piano competition. As anyone who has already read the manga knew, Kai and “music” equally form the story. And there you can see author’s full of love to music. Therefore it is quite obvious the pianists, who are the shadows of “music” in each episodes, play important rolls. I was very impressed by the casting direction to chose Kyohei Sorita, who is currently acclaimed and famous pianist, as Ajino’s roll, a mentor of Kai.
In reward of successful casting, CDs produced by and designed along with each characters in the story, have been recording amount of sales. Forest of Piano as TV anime, also has been drawing anime fans’ attention by virtue of the casting of talented voice actors such as Soma Saito (Kai), Natsuki Hanae (Amemiya), Yuuichi Nakamura (Pang Huey), Junichi Suwabe (Ajino). It is true there are many music fans with good taste in music, so are Character’s Voice fans. I suppose those CV fans enjoy these CDs produced by each character as they usually do so with CS (abbr. character songs). And here, you can call it “CP (abbr. character pianos)” for CS! The titles given to each CD are also nicely sharing the mood of each character.
The first release of those CDs was that of Shuhei Amemiya’s, who is the best friend of Kai and his competitor. Music compiled the original footages of TV anime, follows the story from the period of his elementary school student to the stage of the Chopin Piano Competition, realizing his talent as genuine concert pianist. Amemiya’s piano parts were mainly dubbed by young pianist, Ryoma Takagi, who won the international Edward Grieg piano competition 2018.
The second one was that of Kai Ichinose, which unveiled the name of pianist playing for the character. Piano Sonata #2 by Mozart, La Campanella, Waltz in Db, Op. 64 No. 1 (’Minute’), Polonaise No. 6 ”Heroique” As-Dor Op. 53 played on stage of the competition, Etude 10-1 arranged as the opening theme “Toward the Sea” - the symbol of this anime, and some more famous standard piano classics are compiled on full-length. Furthermore, Chopin’s piano concerto No. 1 1st movement played at the final of the competition in the story, was recorded with The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, which accompanies the contestants of the real competition, at the philharmonic hall Warsaw. This authentic performance and its sound will surely remind us of touching moment of the story.
And the third one comes with the pianist from China with misfortunes, one of popular characters, Pang Huey, who is considered to be the most likely to win the competition. It is Niu Niu who plays the all piano parts of Pang Huey. Not to mention Etude Op. 10 “Revolutionary”, “Scherzo No. 3”, “Piano Sonata No. 2”, the piano concerto recorded in Warsaw, is included on the disc.
As well as original Soundtrack of TV Anime Forest of Piano Music Collection by composer Harumi Fuuki, Forest of Piano - Piano Best Collection II, which includes many famous piano works featured in each episode, has just released. These tracks including such important pieces played at the second round of the competition, are put out for the first time. Those CDs would give us a good chances to recollect hot and passionate performances on the stages of the competition over and over.
Since April, fans have been enjoying the rebroadcasting Forest of Piano on ETV. I believe there is genuine essence of music, which does not deserve only night people’s attention.
Translated by Kazuki Takami (Intoxicate)
