Those Snow White Notes first aired in April of 2021 and was published by Shin-Ei Animation Studios. It was adapted from a manga by Marimo Ragawa. Those Snow White Notes follows the story of Setsu Sawamura, a talented young man with a passion for the Shamisen, a traditional Japanese instrument. After his grandfather, his shamisen mentor, dies he moves to Tokyo to try and find his own sound and understand what it means to play a Shamisen.
Those Snow White Notes is one of my favorite anime in terms of musical design. I stumbled across this one when going through musical anime and when I tell you it hit like a truck. I mean hard enough for it to become an isekai trope. This show is breathtakingly gorgeous. It has some amazing sound design with beautiful story telling and music that is so well developed it makes you cry.
What it Means to Play
The entire purpose of this show is to tell the viewers that your own music takes time to develop. Sometimes all your life and you cannot simply copy the sound of others. While others act as building blocks your own story must be told. Your own music can only be developed by you.
I love the visual style this show has, it’s among the best I’ve seen in a long time. A lot of the subtext is shown through flashbacks and voiceovers which serve well when they speak about how the music and its composition are crafted to specifically convey a certain emotion or mix thereof. It is crafted by people who understand completely what their craft is, and they nailed it.
Those Snow White Notes and the Medium of the Soul
There is a lot of themes and messages being told per episode which can use the music of the shamisen as mediums in which to present them. Such as the way the tempo of the song slows only to reawaken and emerge faster shows the story of how Sawamura has finally caught up to his brother. Watching him start quicker shows his skill has surpassed him.
There are many ways in which this story could have been told. Telling the viewers mini stories through the microcosms that are the songs is genius. I can tell almost exactly the emotions of the characters based on purely how the music structure has developed. Slow to fast showing defeat but a rise from said defeat to victory. And that’s in only one sequence of the whole song.
The Feel of Those Snow White Notes
The songs themselves also have meaning to them. Watching how Sawamura and his brother refer to a song they made that has no name but encapsulates their relationship and their upbringing. It’s pure cinema and I adore it.
If you have the chance give this show a watch. I highly recommend it as it is a masterpiece on musical theory and how it pertains to anime and on-screen representations of emotions. That was a bit of a long sentence, but the point still stands! Give this show a watch and I guarantee you won’t regret it!