Forest of Piano

A delightful combination of classical music, piano, chasing your dreams and well developed characters! It is serious, yet upbeat and holds its ground well for an underdog story, including some nice clichés of that type of story without tiring the reader at all. It starts with the meeting of 2 children, brought up entirely different; one was born and lives in a red-light district with his loving mother and the other in a warm, rich family that gives everything to him, but their true common ground is the piano which came early into their lives in very different ways. There are no big twists and thelike; it is almost a very calm slice of life work where we see the everyday life of the main cast and their efforts and hardships at trying to achieve their goals at being professional pianists, each on their own way; from lessons to fights to self-doubt to conviction. There is a wide array of characters that move the story along giving it more life with their own distinct personalities and while they may not all get a detailed background, they offer enough to make them stand apart from cardboard cutouts. If they are not all relatable, they are certainly likeable! Although the story might seem really long as it has 26 volumes, in reality it is very easy to read through as it gives sometimes a lot of attention to specific events which can last a couple or more volumes and it feels as if time goes by really fast when reading. That being said, the pacing does not drag and it feels natural most of the time as it starts from the main characters’ childhood and expands to years later in their almost adulthood. There are some timeskips along the way, which may feel abrupt, but there nicely placed flashbacks along the way that bring more depth instead of just having a feel of info dumps or just fillers. Despite the fact that the premise might sound really sad and does indeed contain drama as well, the main character, Kai, is very stubborn and upbeat and the art complements his personality. It gives the entire manga a very happy feel and only makes the reader anticipate more, even when the drama can be heavy sometimes but it handles it smoothly as it avoids getting dark just for the impact of it. The art may also seem childish as it is deceptively simple, but there is care in details in the background and the characters are very distinct and their faces may even seem familiar in a way. The only true negative I would give this is that sometimes it seems to try hard at creating sad pasts or dramatic events, but even that does not feel much of a flaw in the grand scale of things as it gives a bit wider variety without focusing that much on the dark places; it lets everything express itself through the piano playing. I thoroughly enjoyed this and for utmost pleasure, I would even suggest listening to each specific piece they perform at the same time as there is a lot of detail given and it is just magical!