Sora no Woto - Episode 1

Despite the recent announcement of an armistice in a war that has swept its nation, you wouldn't really expect to see a young girl jumping at the chance to join the army... even more so when it appears that her one passion in life is to learn to play the trumpet. Nonetheless, that's exactly how Kanata Soremi's life is panning out as she travels towards her life as an army private.


So goes the first episode of Sora no Woto, which sees the easily distracted Kanata arrive close to the Time-Keeping Fortress to which she has been assigned, before being led astray into the midst of a festival being held at the nearby town, succeeding in finding herself drenched and messy as part of their local traditions. Luckily for her she appears to have made a friend already who ensures that she's cleaned up and made presentable once again, only for Kanata to go wandering after the other girl loses a necklace which appears to be rather precious to her. Luckily, despite getting lost and wet yet again, Kanata finds the pendant, returning it to Rio in a fashion which inadvertently causes a little panic only to find that the girl in question is in fact her sergeant and trumpet instructor.

Given its aesthetic, characters (and indeed character traits) and aspects of its setting (i.e. "the music thing"), it's no surprise that the name of K-ON! is on everybody's lips when it comes to this series. To be honest though, it's hard to draw too much of a comparison beyond the obvious from this opening episode. Yes, there are some clear similarities (Kanata could easily be the new Yui for starters), and there seems to be a hint towards the everyday cuteness that Kyoto Animation's mega-hit thrived upon, but at the same time Sora no Woto leaves a distinct feeling that there could be more beneath the surface. For starters, we've only really had any kind of introduction to two of the major characters, the story of the town's legend and some of its associated plot points go way beyond simple slice-of-life anime, and the whole war setting (armistice or otherwise) thrusts an interesting angle upon the show. Will it choose to follow those more intriguing paths rather than going for cuteness and friendship? Who knows, but surely the episodes to come will reveal more about Sora no Woto's true intentions.