A fantastic story that could've greatly benefited from a slower pace spread between two or three seasons (I'll dig into the pacing later). Sound of the Sky is a military slice of life at its core, and had very little to do with music aside from one character who only focuses on the musical aspect of this show in a handful of scenes spread thin and widely across twelve episodes. Many people seem to relate Sound of the Sky to K-On! and while some of the character dynamics are similar, I think some of these recommendations are simply because both anime are tagged under "music". It even got me confused writing this review originally. Editing this review in hindsight, I would recommend a viewer of either anime to watch the other.

The story of Sound of the Sky is the spotlight. Slice of life as a genre generally relies on character interaction to keep the viewer watching, but Sound of the Sky generally trickle-feeds you the tale of an in-depth story and a lively world through the lives of a group of soldier girls stationed in a quiet town at the edge of the world. The world of Sound of the Sky is incredibly unique and intriguing, offering a great platform for interesting lore and life-like enjoyable characters. "A world on the brink of a mass-extinction apocalypse, engulfed in war" is something I rarely see in media, new or old. People have been fighting a civil war fueled by the petty squabbles of politicians and generals for decades, and everyone has lost friends, family, and their homes. Nobody wants to fight, but they are forced to. The viewer learns how the average peoples of this world view such a war through the lives of the main characters and their interactions with the people they meet. It's really an incredibly intriguing story that portrays war in a very realistic and human manner.

All that said about the story, it does suffer from a major flaw; it's simply too complex and overflowing with lore that 12 episodes simply don't do it the justice it deserves. The majority of lore, both the world and its characters, is revealed in the last two episodes. The majority of that majority is in the last episode alone. Sound of the Sky would've been an absolute masterpiece if the creators were given the span of two to three seasons, or two seasons and a movie to work with. It's probably an issue more with the funding rather than any creative decisions, though.

The art is just as unique and memorable as the story. It consistently gave me slavic-Witcher-3 vibes, though the main setting of Sound of the Sky is geographically based off a town called Cuenca in Spain, and it was seems to be as lovingly recreated as some of the scenery in Initial D (if you don't know how much that is, a lot of the scenery appears to be traced from real photography). Any shot of the atmosphere in this show could be framed and make a great piece of art to hang on your walls. It's unique, yet believable to be on Earth and immersive. The world is gorgeous, yet gritty and scarred from decades of meaningless and brutal war. Though it could be said that the scarring can make it even more beautiful in a dark way.

Music really is only a loose focus of Sound of the Sky. It's just one character's infatuation, and the creators use it as a message for the overall story that I will not spoil. The actual soundtrack of Sound of the Sky is very nice and fits the setting perfectly, though. Catchy OP/ED as well.

I see some people criticize the characters of Sound of the Sky for being boring or stereotypical, and I feel they completely miss the point of the show. This isn't some epic gundam battle anime where the main characters are all incredible supersoldiers. The characters of Sound of the Sky are just average citizens wrapped up in a civil war they never wanted to fight, and I think that makes them all the more interesting. Sadly, the characters suffer just as much as the story from the lack of time and freedom of pacing the creators were given to work with. I still think everyone involved did a fantastic job doing the best they could with what they had. Sound of the Sky mostly a slice of life show, and it succeeds in being that. You move with the emotions of the characters and you grow to become attached to them.

Overall, I really enjoyed Sound of the Sky for what it offered. This could've been a perfect 10/10 and become a solid favorite of mine if the pacing wasn't such a hackjob. Military slice of life is my favorite niche genre of anime, and I enjoyed Sound of the Sky as a slice of life, while being pleasantly surprised by its intriguing and unique world lore. I'd give this a very strong 8.5/10 to a weak 9/10.