Anime Infatuation

“No whistling, not even hymns!”

Storyline

Maria Kutschera goes to Salzburg in search of the strictest convent to become a nun. After getting accepted, learning to become a nun is a lot more difficult, with a lot more rules than Maria expected! Is this the right path for her?

This is the 1991 anime version based on the story that was turned into ‘The Sound of Music’. About a girl who leaves the convent to look after captain Trapp’s children.
Intro

Music: Hohoemi no Mahou - Eri Itou

Although very dated, the music fits the mood of the anime, which is the main thing. Maria looks so happy in the introduction clips: a girly, exciting, romantic image of life in the countryside/mountainside.

The Scene

Salzburg, this brings back memories! I went to Salzburg when I was 15 and I loved the huge, white castle at the top of the hill, it’s the biggest castle in Europe. The pictures here do well to capture some of the prettiness of Salzburg.

Some pictures of the real Salzburg for comparison.

Maria is sent on a search through Salzburg to look for Nonnberg Abbey. She looks out for the spire in the shape of the red onion. When she gets there she is mistaken for someone poor and hungry and given soup!

Now this is what they should have been wearing in that Nun Cafe in Akihabara. She’s so cute, she wants to find a mirror to see how she looks as a Nun!

She sees it is about to rain, and the washing will get damp in the courtyard…I know…I’ll take the quick route: absailing nun! (This is way cooler than a Nun Cafe):

Maria tries to take the quick route back too, introducing herself to people on the way! This made me laugh. :)

Maria makes friend with another novice Rafaela. She quickly gets them both in trouble!

I prefer her character design to Maria. I wish she was the main character!

The other novices aren’t so friendly. Nun bitches? That sounds…so wrong…

There’ll be no climbing towers, no talking, no whistling…

…and certainly no sliding down hand rails!

The Mistress of Novices doesn’t appear to be very amused!

End theme: ‘Ryoute wo Hirogete’ - Eri Itoh. Again dated by the right bright mood.

I like the pictures of the cows! I feel all nostalgic for the countryside. :’(

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this and was pleasantly surprised by the humour, animation quality and cheekiness in this episode. The background music was really suiting too. My main issue was the character design of Maria, at least her personality makes up for the artwork. I hope they release more soon…they should show this on TV in those Nun Cafes! :)

Number of tracks: 19
Music style: classical, romancy, charming.

I enjoyed the guitar, piano solos and recorder music. However, I’m biased because I enjoyed playing the recorder/ocarina when I was younger. For both ‘Silhouette of a Breeze’ and ‘Solitude’ I prefer the recorder versions, they seem to lend themselves to the emotion in the music more.
I really didn’t enjoy tracks with the harpsichord, and no particular track seemed to stand out from the others.

Notable tracks:

2) Love at first sight - really chilled guitar music.

9) Silhouette of a Breeze (piano solo) - I prefered this to the title track, think it’s the lack of bells!

10) With him - this is borderlining on the prettiness of the guitar music in Aria.

13) Solitude (Recorder ver.) - melancholic, but better than harpsichords!

16) Menuet for EMMA (Piano ver.) - surprisingly better than the recorder version. :)

19) Silhouette for a Breeze - bouncy group of recorders mp3.

Not a CD that’s going on my mp3 player, but not a bad soundtrack either. Just not really up there with the ’special’ quality like Aria or Mushishi.

If you want to hear more by Ryou Kunihiko, he has also created music for: Fantastic Children, Saiunkoku Monogatari, and The Twelve Kingdoms.

Overall rating: C

“The useless ones are smiling at each other!”
I’m never going to have indepth things to say about this show because 1. the episodes are 3:30 minutes long and 2. my motivations to watch them are to make me smile and make ‘Eee’ noises. I’m simply blogging them as a record of my favourite images becuase I don’t have a complete photographic memory!

I wonder if one day humans will have a chip in their brains that allow us to improve the way we record and retrieve memories and replay them visually. Would that be a healthy volume of information for an anime fan who is trying to hoard all the anime they had ever seen in the safest place of all? Anyway, I’m rambling, which is never a good thing…
Favourite images
5 - The Black Demon At The Edge Of The Forest

Poor Uruno doesn’t want to meet the monster!

Oh no!

Luckily it’s only Peganosuke, the pegasus. Even so, I wish all the characters were just cute a furry, I’m not a fan of horse/unicorn creatures, I think perhaps it’s the hooves and lack of fur. I wanted it to be a huge furry bat!

The useless ones are smiling at each other. *Giggles*.

6 - My First Friend

It’s adorable how useless animals can talk so easily to each other…

…and make the world seem a happier place. <3

7 - The Green Tragedy

Happiness…is a present from a friend! kawaiiiiiii.

We should share…or should we? Uruno with a split personality, I love it! Hehe. This is my favourite image.

8 - The Talented Youngster and the Family of Cat Girls

Trouble with cats on the lookout…they fall asleep! The three new cat characters from left to righ are Pigu-chan the puma, Rinku-chan the mountain cat and Kuron-chan the panther.

Silly Uruno..asking for something from that rabbit. Cute though!

My favourite of these episodes was definately ‘The Green Tragedy’. Uruno trying to decisde what to do was just so funny! Poor thing.
Well I’m thoroughly cuted up now. I suppose I should go and read my history book and do some ‘real’ work…