English Dub Review: Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life “Another Chance”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After the events of the previous episode, Akira turns in her resignation with Mr. Takinami, telling him she’s unfit to teach the club. He accepts but slyly makes her agree to keep teaching until he can find a replacement. When she arrives in the club room later that day, she’s astonished to find the koto club members playing with such a different tone.

As the practice progresses, Akira is taken aback by how driven and passionate everyone’s love for the koto is. Adachi’s repeated attempts at achieving perfection remind her of the words her brother said to her about becoming an expert all those years ago. She breaks down in tears, and the club members rally around her. By the end of the day, she’s decided to continue teaching them… but Grandma Dojima is becoming suspicious.

Our Take:

After spending the last few weeks getting to know Akira, she’s finally gotten to know herself. Another Chance is a very fitting title for an episode that has the talented koto player nearly quitting the teaching gig before thinking twice after realizing just how serious the club members are about their performances and the koto itself. It’s an affecting entry in the arc of Akira coming to terms with how she feels about the koto, and while none of the individual scenes were that groundbreaking or entertaining, as a whole it held together nicely.

When this episode began, I wasn’t sure how dark we were going to get when it came to Akira. At the end of the previous ep, she was in a pretty grim mindset. It culminates with her quitting her unpaid job as their instructor. We also get a nice flashback showing how she initially presented the offer to Mr. Takinami. While I was a little unsure of why he was so trusting of her to begin with, this helps clarify that he was already thinking about hiring an instructor, and an unpaid one with a satisfaction guarantee was too hard to pass up.

The main thrust of the episode deals with a lot of things involving Akira’s self-worth and identity. One of the big ones is that she doesn’t feel like she has anything to offer. Even though she’d been perfecting Mizu No Hentai for two years, she wouldn’t allow herself to feel qualified to teach the students, much less Hozuki. But once they’ve shown her how serious they are about practicing and taking her words into consideration, Akira begins to let a little light into her dark world. Even though she hasn’t been teaching them long, they’ve already gained so much from her instruction. It took a little while for her to realize it, but now she seems to be on a good path. I just wish I could say the same for Grandma Dojima, who is definitely going to be scheming up some trouble next week.

The dub this episode was good, although I wish Caitlin Glass would let a little more emotion through as Akira starts to open up to the world around her. Mr. Takinami may be a jokester, but it seems he’s serious about his ambitions: “I truly believe that our club can go to Nationals. In fact, I know it.” “Yeah! I almost never get compliments from teachers.” Kota being so happy about a little tidbit of positivity from Akira was cute.  “When I do something wrong, I can hear you saying ‘stop’ even if you’re not here.” As a teacher, that’s how you know you’ve affected your students.  “I’m gonna charge you one drink for every mistake you make.” Chika’s methods may be harsh, but they’re effective. “Sure, but you love it too, right?” Takezo’s question to Akira was the highlight of the episode for me, and her too I think. “I’m worried I won’t be good enough to teach them.” Her attitude of mild indifference is there to mask her severe self-loathing.

Another Chance redeems Akira and gives her a new lease on life as the bonafide instructor of the koto club. It’s very rewarding to watch how far she’s come thus far. Her duet with Hozuki was sweet to see, and I’m really enjoying her as a character now that we’ve gotten acquainted. I’m a little worried about how living with a lady like Grandma Dojima will affect her newfound sense of purpose, but I’m confident that the club members will be there for her if she lets them.