Harmony of Mille-Feuille

Harmony of Mille-Feuille — A decent attempt at a musical series that, unfortunately, has glaring problems from the start. I do love me some musical shows from time to time, though it's quickly apparent that shows like Bocchi the Rock! are a niche that takes eyes of relevance to quickly see where the reputation is built upon. Case in point, the collab of Caligula and MILGЯAM's creator Takuya Yamanaka and production company Pony Canyon's Utagoe ha Mille-Feuille, a.k.a. Harmony of Mille-Feuille, about high school girls and complex themes of a cappella, that I feel is nothing more than just a feature for the mixed-media project thatsurprisingly hasn't sprung much since its inception in April 2022. It's rare to see the musical art of a cappella being shown in the anime medium because there's just not much like it, and I guess props to this show for being the first to feature the niche art on a "wide" scale? With that said, an original story like this has got a long way to go to make it work, and for the brimming group of Temarizawa High School's a cappella club of 6 girls, featuring the senpais of Rei "Reirei" Konoe and Airi Kojo, joined by the juniors of Uta Komaki, Musubu Mayumori, Urū "Ururu" Miyazaki, and Yako "Kuma-chan" Kumai, it really feels as if they have a hurdle ahead to work together to showcase a club of niche stature. Sure enough, all 6 girls have their own quirky personalities that are accompanied by rookie and brand-new VAs that bring their character forth into this rather short 10-episode series, and what comes out of it is a plot that, honestly, feels like it was planned on the bare minimum to let the a cappella segments stand out more amidst the usual high school drama of stark differences that make and/or break the club's dynamics, maybe a bit too much for negative points earned. And for what it is, take it or leave it, because the show at least doesn't do a horrible job honouring the musical aspect of its delivery, which is decent at best. I'd expect Jumondou's production to be bad, but this is quite the surprise I was not expecting, though it still fairly keeps it under the usual expectations from the 3rd-rate studio itself. Even the only theme song of the series, being the OP done by the a cappella club girls in total a cappella style, gets plus points for being a decent song led by voices alone. Utagoe ha Mille-Feuille, a.k.a. Harmony of Mille-Feuille, is a show that doesn't really have the attention to warrant time from anyone...but maybe, just maybe, give it a try; it'll hopefully surprise you.

An anime with a well-carried story, everything I saw was already made a million kisses, but as long as there is good writing in the script, clichés can enrich the plot. The scriptwriters, for me, knew how to bring the subject of a cappella singing. I liked that it was taken in a realistic approach instead of exaggerating and creating exaggerated groups. It felt realistic when they talked about the worries of those who stop singing when they drop out of school and want to become professionals. One of the successes was the personalities of the characters, nothing out of this world, but there waschemistry in the conversations that made you want to know more about the characters. The animation was excellent, the character designs shone at all times, and the movements in the concerts did not look robotic. The music surprised me, the two groups that the plot presents were a great breath of fresh air after listening to a lot of idol and alternative rock groups. And finally, with the ending, I hope they leave it as a self-contained story. It is not necessary to drag this story out. In my opinion, a good anime to watch on a weekend and relax