Every so often, a film comes along that¡¯s so fresh and distinctive, your immediate impulse is to stand up and applaud it. This indie anime by director Kenji Iwaisawa, adapted from Hiroyuki Ohashi¡¯s cult manga, gets the year off to a terrific start.
A magical realist paean to the mind-altering powers of music, ¡°On-Gaku: Our Sound¡± feels like an instant classic. To call it the best high school band movie since Nobuhiro Yamashita¡¯s ¡°Linda Linda Linda¡± (2005) may be faint praise, but it¡¯s that as well.
With deadpan humor and a laconic style reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch, it follows the exploits of a trio of misfits who find their calling as outsider musicians. Their leader, Kenji (voiced by former Yura Yura Teikoku frontman Shintaro Sakamoto), looks more like a construction worker than a student, with his shaved head, scraggy moustache and perpetually blank expression.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.