'Piano no Mori' Latest News: Television Anime Adaptation of Makoto Isshiki's Manga Premieres on April 8

By Emmanuelle Espiritu, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, February 28, 2018

The official broadcast schedule has been announced for the upcoming anime adaptation of "Piano no Mori (The Piano Forest)."

The series is based on the Japanese manga of the same name written and illustrated by Makoto Isshiki. It ran for 26 volumes from 1998 to 2015, and was adapted into an animated feature film in 2007. It tells the story of two boys named Kai Ichinose and Shuhei Amamiya, whose lives will be connected by an abandoned piano in the forest. It also tells the tale of their mutual goal of becoming excellent pianists and the music teacher who will help them get there.

Kai is described as a boy who lives in the red light district. In order to develop his talent, he escapes each night to play an abandoned piano in the forest that has been thought to be broken for a long time. For some reason, Kai is able to get sound out of it.

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On the other hand, Shuhei is the son of two prestigious piano players. And it is only because of a challenge from some bullies that he is forced to come to the forest and bear witness to Kai's exceptional piano playing skills.

Ryoko Shiraishi will be providing the voice of a younger Kai, and Soma Saito will be taking on the role of a young adult. Shuhei's younger voice will be provided by Yo Taichi, while Natsuki Hanae will be in charge of his voice as a young adult. Sosuke Ajino, the former master pianist, who will help hone the two boys' skills, will be voiced by Junichi Suwabe.

Fukushima Gainax is animating the series under the direction of Gaku Nakatani, who previously worked as the CG supervisor for the 2012 comedy animation film, "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted." The series composition will be handled by Aki Itami and Mika Abe, while Sumie Kinoshita takes charge of the character designs. Kinoshita is also credited as chief animation director.

The ending theme song titled "Kaeru Basho ga Aru to Iu Koto (To Have a Place to Come Home to)" will be performed by Aoi Yuki. A CD single is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, April 25.

"Piano no Mori" premieres on Sunday, April 8, late night at 12:10 a.m. JST on NHK. Information on the official broadcast schedules and online resources will be available on the series' official site at a later date.