English Dub Review: Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life “Starting Line”

Overview

Satowa’s mother, Chiharu, confronts her after her performance. She formally apologizes for all the things she’s done to Satowa. She says she understands if she doesn’t forgive her, but asks her to give her one more chance if she can. Satowa breaks down, sobbing that her mother finally understood her. Chiharu holds her as she cries, and the reunion is interrupted by Kota, who comically joins in on the hug, weeping. The eavesdropping team scolds him for interrupting them, but Chiharu gets to see what close friends Satowa has. She also thanks Kudo for being so supportive of Satowa. Later, Kazusa confronts Kudo, apologizing for telling him he wasn’t worthy of playing the koto with Satowa.

It is announced that Tokise is going to nationals. The gang celebrates their win. Isaki congratulates Kudo while Mashiro congratulates Kurata. Keishi finds Akira and congratulates her as well.

Meanwhile, Kasuza’s cries about not being able to take her and her team to nationals. Her team tells her to use this chance as a fresh start. Yamamoto apologizes to his team for letting them down, however, the team asserts they let him down. Mio cries about letting Yamamoto and the team down, but they all realize no one is to blame.

After Kasuza and Mio wish Team Tokise luck in nationals, Kudo places his trophy near his grandfather Gen’s property. He feels his spirit. In the future, the gang prepares for Club Presentation day and begins practice.

Our Take

While it was kind of a no-brainer that Team Tokise won the Qualifier, there were still a lot of sweet emotional points about this episode that were expertly done. First off, Satowa’s voice actress had an incredible performance. Her crying during the hugging scene felt very visceral and real, which set a great tone for the episode. Despite the initial focus on Satowa, though, Kudo quickly rose back to having a lot of great moments. The emotional consistency continued throughout the episode with Kasuza’s reaction to losing — and, most importantly, Mio crying. Having a character like that express such emotion is very cathartic. Yamamoto, in a way, won, because he was able to help Mio unlock his full potential.

The final emotional sucker punch was when Gen had a moment (or, at the very least, dreamt about having a moment) with his Grandfather’s spirit. It really hammered in Gen’s growth as a character over the course of the season — a perfect way to top things off.

Overall, this was a great finale that really tried to include every last character-relevant interaction. One of the most notable things about this finale was that it highlighted the value in music being a universal language. In short, it proved that “traditional” music (or instruments) don’t have to be needlessly complex or purposefully archaic in order to be objectively good. While some might say a piece that “anybody could understand isn’t a good piece,” this episode slammed the pretentiousness of that moral — emphasizing the need and value of prioritizing the emotion that a good performance can bring.