Sakamichi no Apollon

During my semester holiday, I was bound to bore myself off. And this would make me scroll through the internet to look out for mangas that might be compatible with my preference, and that's when I stumbled upon this manga about jazz. Prior to reading this manga, I'm already charmed by the intricacies of jazz in general, I would regularly listen to jazz records here and there, with no specific subgenres. To my surprise, reading this manga reaffirms my fascination with jazz.

To begin with, I believe that there's only one specific criterion of what makes good music, good music. This doesn't only apply within the genre of jazz, but we're talking about the bigger picture here. That prerequisite itself is whether that music can evoke any sort of emotions in the listeners sonically. I do not necessarily regard the technicalities of musical craftsmanship that high, as long as it can evoke emotions in me, I would consider that music to be a good one.

In any case, the way this manga depicts the core characteristic of jazz music somehow aligns with the way I also perceive music in general, not just jazz. It's able to flawlessly elaborate on what exactly distinguishes jazz from the other musical genres out there. While the other musical genres tend to pursue musical perfection, it's not the same with jazz. Jazz, in and itself doesn't necessarily seek the objective of achieving musical perfection, instead, jazz is all about improvisation. Thus, the concept of perfection does not align with jazz in general. Then, what exactly is the ambition of jazz, if it's not for accomplishing perfection?

And this manga answers just that, in a way that also aligns with my criteria of what makes good music, good music. Jazz is all about being present in the moment, casting aside all external distractions, and solely focusing on feeling the emotions that stem from the jazz music itself, that's what jazz is all about, which is just enjoying yourself in the moment. While technicalities do matter in jazz, what matters the most in the bigger picture is whether it is able to reverberate emotions, not just into the musicians themself, but into the listeners as well; in other words, it's all about the liveliness, the more lively the music is, the better the music will be.

This manga aims to express the mangaka's love of music, and they were successful in that regard. Sakamichi no Apollon is all but a love letter to jazz. Depicting a musical manga is hard, as you can't necessarily listen to the musical performance within the manga, but you have to make sure that the readers are still capable of feeling the emotions that stem within. At the end of the day, this manga is still able to evoke emotions into the readers, without even having any music to accompany the readers.