I finished this manga (Piano no Mori) nearly two months ago and I’ve been planning to write a review on this for a while but life, procrastination, and other things delayed it so I’m only starting the piece now. It is one of my favorite manga and has no reviews so yeah. All that being said, let’s get straight into it!

Not sure how to go about this but the story is about the protagonist’s journey from being able to play the piano well to becoming a true maestro and a truly world-class pianist. It is a pretty standard and not too complex storyline but it’s handled elegantly in such a hard-hitting way that it resonates with you even if you may not have any musical playing experience. It’s a very hopeful and positive story and quite inspirational one at that and it does strike a chord.
The protagonist (whose name is Kai) is the son of a prostitute who had him as a teen. He has spent his entire life raised in a house alongside other prostitutes in an area referred to as the Forest Skirts. This area is a lawless ghetto inhabited by criminals and other people of the underworld and this is where dreams go to die and where people are stuck without being able to fulfill their ambitions. Kai is no different. Like any other resident, he believes that even though he can play the piano excellently, there isn’t much he can do to escape his current circumstances. His teacher, a former legendary pianist who had to retire due to a major car accident, becomes his mentor and yeah basically it’s an adventure to the top.
What I liked about this serious though was that it didn’t preach anything to you. It didn’t. There have been series both manga and otherwise that I’ve seen that had segments and stuff where they tried to lecture you on their morals on prostitutes or whatever and this and that but this series never does this which I appreciated. If you feel it does any of that preachy nonsense don’t worry it doesn’t it’s very practical. At the start of the series I was thinking in my head that it was going to be more man-bashing or whatever feminist nonsense but it surprised me because it wasn’t like that at all. It’s just a story about a boy who with the help of his mentor and friends and rivals rises above his circumstances to become someone truly admirable. I suppose one of the core messages or themes of the story was that you shouldn’t let the circumstances be your permanent situation which I believe resonates with so many of us. Basically, the opposite of a certain Gundam pilot. Do NOT blame things on the circumstances of your birth or maybe not just that but try to do whatever you can to move past it and rise above it. Of course, like anything in manga it may not be 100% realistic or grounded but I think things are fairly realistic depiction-wise and that the message is still cogent.

There was a “rival” (if you can even call the guy that) but the author makes it clear that it’s not about him and that the story is solely about Kai by elucidating through different things that Kai is just simply…better. I liked this a lot haha

Anyways, give this one a read. It’s definitely worth it!