Ao no Orchestra

Once a prize-winning violin prodigy, Hajime gave up on music after his father, professional violinist Ryuuji Aono, was involved in a scandal that led the media to harass his family. Now living alone with his mother and entering his final year of middle school, Hajime struggles to find a new career path. However, the sound of his classmate Ritsuko Akine playing the violin inspires Hajime to dream of a musical career once more.

With the help of Ritsuko, Hajime prepares to take the entrance exam for the prestigious Umimaku High School. But if he wishes to join Umimaku's orchestra, Hajime must overcome his past trauma and open himself up to new musical horizons.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Akine, Ritsuko Main

Kakuma, Ai Japanese

Aono, Hajime Main

Chiba, Shouya Japanese

Saeki, Nao Main

Tsuchiya, Simba Japanese

Kozakura, Haru Main

Satou, Minako Japanese

Harada, Sou Supporting

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Machii, Mizuki Supporting

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Ayukawa, Hiroaki Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Aono, Ryuuji Supporting

Okiayu, Ryoutarou Japanese

Suzuki Supporting

Izumi, Fuuka Japanese

Takemaru, Izumi Supporting

Gotou, Ayasa Japanese

Uchida, Sayako Producer

Yamamoto, Heiseki Producer

Sumi, Manabu Producer

Nakajima, Yuuri Assistant Producer

Reviews

Nov 25, 2025

patkarunungan

Recommended

Humorous Title: Asuka’s Doppelgänger Tsundere's Araragi’s Doppelgänger Into Playing the Violin Again, Season One

I can't believe some have the nerve to call this boring. It's a great musick anime, and this is my favourite anime that I binge-watched in preparation for its sequel for the Fall 2025 season.


§ Overview

The promising violin prodigy, Aono Hajime, has stopped playing the violin because he associates it with his father, the professional violinist Aono Ryuuji, who cheated on his wife and got entangled in a media scandal.

He would have wasted his talent until he met Akine Ritsuko.
...

§ Notes

1. Let's talk first about the studio and staff:

⚫ This anime's studio is Nippon Animation, one of those old studios that has existed for half a century. Among its well-known anime are the original adaptation of Hunter x Hunter (the 2011 adaptation was made by Madhouse) and numerous anime from the World Masterpiece Theatre (Romeo's Blue Skies, A Little Princess Sara, Swiss Family Robinson, etc).


⚫ The director, Kishi Seiji, has been working in the anime industry since 1993. His previous work I've seen is 'My Bride is a Mermaid.' I haven't seen this, but his 'Tsuki ga Kirei' is highly regarded by some people I know.



⚫ The character designer, Morita Kazuaki, has made the characters a bit distinct. The hair colour of the main characters draws your eyes in due to how seemingly saturated they are.


⚫ The duo of sound director Iida Satoki and Yamada Kaori for sound effects is a two-punch combo. They provide the necessary mood that's pleasant.

Iida Satoki has been working as a sound director since the start of the millennium. His more well-known projects include Apocalypse Hotel and Toilet-bound Hanako-kun. In Hanako-kun in particular, the sound is eerie but not quite.

Yamada Kaori has worked on sound effects since 2009. If there's anything I am thrilled about this person's portfolio, it is the sound effects in 'Days with My Stepsister.'


⚫ There is no chief animation director, but this anime has a team of 19 animation directors. The animation is not exactly jaw-dropping, but they are above average, especially in the OP and ED.

This anime uses CGI when the characters are shown performing and using their musickal instruments. A number of people tend to criticise anime using CGI, but I don't think the criticism is founded. Its use of CGI is justifiable and not really ugly, as some claim. The CGI allows each character to move faster as each manipulates their instruments.


⚫ This may seem subtle, but I also like the colours in this anime, which are related to the character design.

Colour designer Itou Sakiko makes sure that the colour of each character's hair doesn't clash. I like the blue colour motif, which seems to signify coolness rather than sadness. It facilitates the somewhat introspective (but not really too melancholic) tone.

___________________________________

Let's talk about everything else.


2. Let's talk about the characters at length because the characters, more than the plot, are what make this anime stand out:


⚫ We have our protagonist, Aono Hajime, aka Araragi’s Doppelgänger.

He used to play the violin, but stopped because it's associated with his father, a person who left him and his mother.

He is bound to keep his talent wasted until he meets Ms Tsundere — Akine Ritsuko.

Hajime is voiced by Chiba Shouya, the same seiyuu as Taiki from Blue Box. Since I like Hajime more, I reckon his voice acting here is better.


⚫ Akine Ritsuko, aka Asuka's Doppelgänger, is a novice violin player. Despite her strong personality, it doesn't stop a group of girls from bullying her. (She got into their crosshairs because she defended her friend, who was being bullied.)

As a result, she often skips class and practises in the infirmary, and that's where Hajime and Ritsuko meet.

Their meet-cute doesn't lead to a Kousei-Kaori situation, if you know what I mean.

There is attraction, but there's no romance as of the first season.

Their homeroom teacher persuades Hajime to teach Ritsuko, which leads him to play it again.


⚫ Kozakura Haru is Ritsuko's friend I mentioned earlier. She is a talented violinist and has known Hajime from way back.

She is a confirmed Hajime simp. Since there's no romance in Season One, her attraction for him remains a cute moment, and it remains to be seen if it will be explored.


⚫ Machii Mizuki is this hidden cutie and sempai who provides some pep talk to Hajime.

It's easy to overlook her, but once you notice her, you will be captured by her sweet demeanour.


⚫ Hajime's mother is a single mother and works hard for the sake of Hajime. She is quite sacrificial but has a cool personality.

She is voiced by Satou Chiwa.


⚫ Saeki Nao is Hajime's rival, but it's not a toxic rivalry. They're friends, and I love their dynamic.

There's more to him, and a patient watcher will be rewarded in Episode 17, where it gets dramatick enough but not quite.


⚫ I referred to Ritsuko as Ms Tsundere. What's funny is that she met someone who out-tsundere'd her.

Tachibana Shizuka, voiced by Lynn, proves pivotal for Ritsuko's growth as a violinist.


⚫ Last but not the least is Harada Sou. It's his final year, and he wants to end things with a bang.

Whilst his character design is generick, as a character, he is anything but generick.

He is charismatic and draws many people to be of one mind. In other words, he has great leadership qualities. He tends to steal the show whenever he is around.


3. This is one among some of the anime that features classickal musick such as Nodame Cantabile and Your Lie in April. (I will limit my discussion to these two, as I have seen them. I haven't seen Hibike! Euphonium, so I don't know how it compares.)

Unlike Your Lie in April, the drama seems subdued, and it doesn't dwell on the trauma to the painful degree.

Emotional moments burst in certain episodes, but it's not all about drama. It's about how to achieve mastery by means of repeated practice.

Most of the anime is about practising one's instruments. Unlike in Kousei's situation, the characters are joining an orchestra, and the point is to make their performance blend better with the other members.

On the other hand, there is underlying trauma behind Nodame and Chiaki in Nodame Cantabile, but that anime is all about being light-hearted, slapstick even. Thus, this anime achieves the fine balance of not being overly dramatick and not being totally unserious.

In my judgement, this is the best I've seen so far in its genre, supplanting Nodame Cantabile in my heart.


4. Aside from the CGI, one potential criticism might be its pacing. With 24 episodes, it has a slow pace and takes time to get going. That's why I recommend this for a binge watch, or at least 3 episodes per sitting. It might have been frustrating to watch when it was airing, but it's reasonable on a binge watch.

I can say the same thing for Season 2 of this anime. It might be a good idea to binge-watch 3–6 episodes rather than watch one episode and wait another week for the next episode to drop.

Note also that it's better to watch the final two episodes in one sitting.


5. I don't count the OP and ED in my score, but having good songs is always good. This is especially true for musick anime. I love how the OP — 'Cantabile' by Novelbright — is used as background musick, and it's easy to hum.


§ Conclusion

I enjoyed this so much. Among those anime (I haven't seen To Your Eternity at this point) that I am bingeing to watch the prequels for the Fall 2025 season, this is my favourite.


NOTA BENE: A grade of 8 out of 10 means that I find this anime is very good and three notches above average. I enjoyed watching it.

My enjoyment spectrum lies from 4 to 10. If I have scored an anime below 4, I actively dislike it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by patkarunungan (351)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jan 3, 2024

tsuki1891

Mixed Feelings

This anime feels like a cross over of "Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso" and "Hibike! Euphonium" but isn't particularly good at anything. It lacks in the drama part compared to "Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso" and in the orchestra/music part compared to "Hibike! Euphonium". A lot of parts are filled with cliche and slow story development. The characters are mostly dull with the occasional event thrown in to make the story work. For the music part they could have added more pieces rather than repeat the same piece over and over. The animation is mixed with CGI which ruins the music performance since it can't ... convey the intensity of the performance like "Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso", "Kono Oto Tomare!" or "Nodame Cantabile" do.

Overall it's a 5/10 for me. If it had less CGI and a more varied selection of pieces together with a bit more characters development it could have gotten a higher rating from me because the story is actually decent.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by tsuki1891 (4)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Dec 9, 2023

passing_through

Not Recommended

Funny

Preliminary (3/24 eps)

I expected this anime to be like Your Lie in April. Unfortunately, it is not. In fact, it's just another average rom-com anime but with music.

There are some interesting plot points. For one, the fact that the father is divorced instead of dead brings some uniqueness to it. Maybe in another episode he'll come back or something? And what about Haru who might have had a childhood crush on him? How did they know each other? And the other characters in the opening theme song? But I'll never know, because the rest of the story plot is so painfully average that decides to tell and ... not show, with an even more agonizing meat cute, that I don't want to push onward.

And the thing that made me realize how bad it was? The ugliest CGI since Ex-Arm. I don't care if Ex-Arm came after this anime, it is so ugly and used so unnecessarily. Like I noticed one weird moment in the first episode where they decided to make a door closing CGI and I went, "Oh, well that's weird." And then the third episode came up. The entire orchestra. And the conductor. In CGI. Looking like FNAF animatronics in 2013 MMD. And what made it even worse was the lighting showing every outline and every flaw, making the ruffles of the shirts look like deflating balloons. The arms were moving mechanically, the fingers were UGLY, the instruments were nice I guess but I'd rather have flat instruments and nice looking people than shiny instruments and a peanut gallery of grandma's possessed dolls. Absolutely nauseating. If that's what it's going to be like for the rest of the freaking series, then I can't bear to watch it.

Oh yeah, and I hate Pachelbel's Canon with a burning passion and the fact that they decided to use that as an emotional beat in episode two makes me feel utterly disappointed to no end. Even more upsetting that it's interpolated in the ending theme.

Yeah, I don't like this one. Go watch Your Lie in April.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by passing_through (35)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

✩₊˚.⋆ one-of-a-kind (slice of life + comedy) & educational anime ☾⋆⁺₊✧

by gen_0117

33 Entries · 33 Restacks

Iconic classical music, traditional & remixes

by coffeedrops

49 Entries · 25 Restacks

Music is Life!

by jack_stryder

23 Entries · 18 Restacks

Second Season of 'Ao no Orchestra' Announced

The 24th and final episode of the Ao no Orchestra (Blue Orchestra) television anime ended with announcement on Sunday that a second season is in production. The ani...read more

Oct 8, 2023 9:26 AM by Vindstot | Discuss (17 comments)

'Ao no Orchestra' Reveals Additional Cast

The official website of the television anime adapting Makoto Akui's Ao no Orchestra (Blue Orchestra) manga revealed additional cast members on Thursday. The ani...read more

Apr 6, 2023 10:49 AM by Hyperion_PS | Discuss (11 comments)

	Poll: Ao no Orchestra Episode 9 Discussion KANLen09 - Jun 4, 2023	23 replies	by EverySportsAnime »» Feb 1, 5:13 PM
	Poll: Ao no Orchestra Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Apr 23, 2023	50 replies	by EverySportsAnime »» Jan 29, 4:52 PM
	Poll: Ao no Orchestra Episode 17 Discussion KANLen09 - Jul 30, 2023	40 replies	by dreamingneon »» Dec 15, 2025 12:05 AM
	Poll: Ao no Orchestra Episode 5 Discussion KANLen09 - May 7, 2023	23 replies	by 1List2RuleThemAl »» Nov 22, 2025 11:53 AM
	Poll: Ao no Orchestra Episode 4 Discussion KANLen09 - Apr 30, 2023	31 replies	by 1List2RuleThemAl »» Nov 22, 2025 11:33 AM