I don't mean to be Simon Cowell, but his series was just dreadful. The series was mainly about music, but any other themes involved did nothing to improve the series. There were hints at romance that irritated rather than made me interested and the overall message of this series was just poor. Assuming that the author likes music (cause well-it is a music anime), she really did not bring that out well. I mean the basic plot is about a girl using a magic violin and getting an opportunity which she clearly doesn't deserve through music! Hello! Bad plot anyone? But you know to each his own. If you are not too keen on the story line and are just in it for the bishonen and the music then I guess this one's for you. I do appreciate music despite never doing it, other than the one year I did it in sixth grade, but this series to me was just bland that I'm surprised they actually want to feed us a second season!

This story is about a girl name kahoko i think who one day meets a fairy name Lili and gives her a magical violin to play because she is the only one who can see him and she was put into the school musical competition and met a lot of guys but as the story keeps going she discover she loves the violin but doesn't want to be dishonest with the people because after all the violin is magical so she asked Lili to take the magic away but when she starts playing it without the magic it sounds terrible so how will she continue to play? i guess your going to have to find out for yourself!

Len x kahoko 4 eva!

In the hopes of being of help, I'm not going to pull any punches and rate this series a 5 because I thought it was "okay." I'm going to be as honest as I can get about each aspect.

The title La Corda d'Oro is not French, as sometimes thought, but Italian. It can be loosely translated as the golden string but what it actually means is The Golden Bond, as in a priceless bond. This is important to the whole story concept.

It lasts for only one season. The secondo passo is not a season, as the subtitle implies, but a special.

GENERAL OVERVIEW:
La Corda d'Oro is based on a romance RPG by KOEI. The title refers to the eventual bond of friendship between the main character, Hino Kahoko, and the friends she meets during her musical adventure. In a wider sense, the title also refers to the bond between her heart and her magical violin (which works as a mirror into her being) and so, also refers to the human soul and music. On the surface, the phrase translated as a synonym, the golden string, literally refers to the golden string used on her violin. It's a brilliant title. Unfortunately, the title is the deepest thing about the series.

While it shares surface features with Nodame Cantabile, Kaleido Star, Glass Mask, HoneyxClover, and even Snow Fairy Sugar, it is, to use a phrase often uttered in the show itself, "Not of that level." If you enjoy anime about the arts, or so called harems, you might just like this series. However, if what you want is a deep slice of life romance with the emotion of Honey and Clover, or a philosophical story about the performing arts, like Glass Mask, this is neither. If you have never seen any of the above, I would recommend watching any of those first.

Above all, La Corda d'Oro most seriously disappoints because it doesn't know what it's supposed to be. A romance? A coming of age? A supernatural mystery? A slice of life about artists? A magical girl series? In not deciding what it is it misses the boat on all of them, and, other than overwhelming boredom, I felt overwhelming disappointment at the loss of potential.

STORYLINE:
La Corda d'Oro is most like Snow Fairy Sugar. Both portray a schoolgirl who, with the help of a spirit friend, finds her true self through the music she loves. Unlike Snow Fairy Sugar, which had a very strong storyline despite the apparent childishness of the series, the theme isn't grasped strongly. This title was not fleshed out properly in order to be a feature show. The supernatural background of the school and its founder is never discussed. The character of Lili/Riri, the music spirit, never becomes more than an excuse to start the show. The lead character is not required to overcome poverty, as in Snow Fairy Sugar, or loneliness because of the loss of her family, as in Fruits Basket. Nor is she required to succeed despite being clueless and making disastrous errors, as in Kaleido Star ... Neither is this series about her one big shot to fulfill a life need despite hardship, as in Glass Mask, Kaleido Star, or Honey and Clover.

Other weaknesses aside, the script's biggest problems are pacing and focus. Instead of following a likely pattern of introduction, slow build-up, big reveal, deeper evolution, second big reveal, then grand close, La Corda d'Oro languishes in a series of halfhearted episodes and unrealized issues. Each of the 26 Episodes drag up to a moment of possible importance, then end. It's as if the only purpose of the show was to pull the game events out into an 11 hour story without adding anything else to the script. Maybe that's what happened.

The morale to the story, that music should be viewed as an expression of the soul and should be enjoyed, is not well focused. The romance (and this is a romance title if nothing else) is incredibly weak. Wishy-washy would be a good term since there is virtually no real love at all. For that matter, there's no real tenderness or friendship. Character interaction is awkward and it seems as if this lack of emotion is unintentional.

As if to own up to this, Ep 26, a recap, exists only to punch through the romance idea in a "very special epilogue." This episode itself is like a 20 minute romance RPG where each character is given a few minutes in their special romantic setting.

The special bond between Kahoko and her friends is similarly wishy-washy. We are never really shown why any of these characters are ever drawn to each other at all other than being in the same location at the same time. And that's the main failing of the script -- that it tells rather than shows, which, for a visual program, makes for a very confusing story. The big turning in the middle of the series, which thankfully begins to set the story on a more natural rail, makes no sense because we see no emotion behind it. In retrospect, it can be understood as one of the characters telling Kahoko she is a failure if she cannot own up to her own emotions, and that this makes her both an unattractive person and an unattractive competitor. However, I just said this 100 times better than the anime. The way this plays out is so weak, viewers are left wondering what happened, what the big deal was, and why the characters are all so upset. Even the characters themselves wonder.

Characters being upset is another issue. There is a lot of whining in this series, and not about various things -- about the same things over and over, and for no real reason. We do not know why Kahoko is so upset when the spirit of music has explained very clearly to her why she shouldn't be upset, but, if she didn't remain upset, the only thin conflict in the story would go away. Sadly, in keeping the conflict going, she betrays the actual concept of the story -- that she has the spirit of music inside of her and has been chosen to bring it to all who surround her. This is supposed to be why everyone loves her -- because they sense something special and free about her spirit -- but we don't ever really see this. We see a lot of moping. Speaking of Kaleido Star, the main character Kahoko is just as redundant as Sora, but where Sora's repetition is in her upbeat nature (and thus easy to forgive), Kahoko is redundant in her continual whining when the only problem she has is being patroned by a spirit of music.

If a series of conflicts had been introduced through character development the script could have had ample opportunity to show Kahoko as the charming girl who thrives in the face of adversity. Instead, we are expected to believe that's who she is because this is supposed to be that sort of story. Imagine Fruits Basket gone terribly wrong. I gave the script a "bad" rating instead of "horrible" because if you pay attention, you can see what the story was supposed to be doing. However, IMHO, this script needed to be thrown out and completely rewritten to be effective. It's almost as if the writers were so against introducing any conflict or weakness they were willing to shoot their own series in the foot.

CHARACTERS:
The characters serve their purpose. They are what you expect from a harem, but disappointingly, only that. There is the scattered main character -- a normal, yet somehow uniquely brilliant person who we see coming out of her/his shell. There's the comforting friend character. The un-threatening, energetic character. The superficial mannered one who can never find a place to be themselves. The cool "tsundere." The wilting flower with an iron soul. There's even the nosy school journalist side-character who winds up saying something encouraging.

What makes some romance series exciting is how these stock parts only remain so until after the initial introduction, developing into unique characters as the story evolves. In La Corda d'Oro there is no development like this. Not for lack of time or chance but simply because the script chooses to bring up possible conflict after possible conflict and ignore each. If character development isn't that important to you, then this might not be a problem. Be forewarned, however -- if you are bored or frustrated at episode 4 or 5, that feeling won't change.

The people who surround Kahoko love her instantly (because they are supposed to) and are all upset when she becomes upset (because they are supposed to be). There doesn't seem to be a sensible reason they all begin to lose themselves in sadness. We are shown no reason why this "bond" exists. The most bizarre example of this is

A similar example is

MUSIC:
In a series like this, the music, characters, and story should be so closely tied as to echo one another. Japanese animation usually excels at this, but here, ironically, it doesn't really work out. There is an attempt to define story arcs by themes used in the school competition, but I frequently found myself forgetting what the selection theme was supposed to be as Kahoko wandered around in the meantime. The music itself fades in both presentation and purpose. Many of the episodes in between the selections are taken up by procrastination; saying they don't know what to play, talking about practicing, talking about not practicing, shopping, crying, and so on.

The pieces each character plays for the selections are questionable. Some pieces are too literal in a series where the music students express their superior ability to "get it." Some are downright unsuitable for the characters. Yes, these are musical pieces that have remained popular for hundreds of years so they're all going to be excellent anyway, but isn't that a little lazy? The choices should have been used to broaden the characters. Here again, is a great example. Each piece is cut so short as to provide us with little time to do anything but see the cut scenes of a crowd, and while they're still wonderful pieces, the anime does no justice by selecting only the most well known of well known pieces then cutting them to oblivion.

The Opening and Ending themes are okay. The opening is sweet pop. The song grows on you. The ending theme is forgettable and not appropriate or enjoyable, IMHO. I'm sure there are other tracks being played in the background but if so, these are also forgettable.

ANIMATION:
Viewers seem to either love it or hate it. I think it's ... average. It's not terrible, but reused scenes get tiresome, the expressions are lacking and at many times flat, and most disappointingly, a fantastic opportunity for some technical animation went ignored. This could have been the music series to end all music series. The rendering and animation of the instruments and fingerings alone could have been so much more exquisite and been a real highlight of the entire production. In a way, that this opportunity went unused is just another facet of the series not being what it could have been -- an emotional series about the life of musicians.

The characters are very well played, especially that of the main character, Hino. It can be a good romance, and seem slow going at times, but overall it is a pretty good series. I liked it a lot. There were some parts I found boring, but not many. I really liked to see whose relationship developed more. In the end it was a satisfying anime, and I very much enjoyed it.

I love listening to music, so I love this anime. I've watched this season like two times already, and have the DVD of it. I love this anime and I reccomend you to watch this if you are so interested in music. It's a lovely anime, and music is the central theme in it. You should get a chance to watch this.

The show was very interesting and great! I had loads of fun reminiscing about my own past as I watched this show! I too remember just how fun I used to have when I played the violin as well as the lovely music sound it makes! I kinda wished that I was her though, surrounded by very unique people with unique backgrounds. I wonder how she ended up in that school though. Everyone there seemed to be somewhere like from a RICH family. But I guess......hmmmmm.... anyways, I just adored the show, but I still really wanted to know what the result for the competition was. Even though it wasn't what the show was about, it would have been nice just knowing..hehehe.. For all those who enjoyed classical music, I recommend watching this show. I was very delighted and satisfied with the music as well as the lesson learned in the show!!!

This show, is about music.A girl, who one day met a fairy,receives a magical violin from the fairy.She then plays the violin beautifully,and joined the school's music competition.There,she met new musicians(Friends).One of them plays the trumpet;One of them plays the Violin;One of them plays the flute;One plays the piano;And one of them plays the...I don;t know what the instrument is called><
This show also have some romance.The girl faces a difficulty in one of the competition.She broke the string of her violin...What happened next? Watch the show to find out for yourselves!

Byes!~

Kahoko Hino is a person who gets into the academy and plays the violin because of Lilis command. There are a lot of intresting things in primo passo............... and there also is a lot of romance. Kahoko struggles when her violin breaks on the stage.

The first season is full of interesting plots that should come together at the end of the season, but it doesn't seem to happen.
Viewers stay behind with a lot of unanswered questions and keep asking for a second season.
Unfortunately de 2nd season is only 2 eps. and they made them to promote the game.


But nevertheless its a good story and very addictive if you ask me!