Sound of the Sky: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Sound of the Sky: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 14, 2017

If you've ever attended an official military function where it's been played, or if you grew up in a military family like I did, perhaps you’re aware of the almost unbelievable power of hearing “Taps” performed live by a competent bugler. While the tune has a somewhat mysterious past, at least in terms of its title (with some saying it refers to “tapping” kegs of beer, as funny as that may sound), there's no mystery in terms of the powerful effect the song has on listeners. Despite its enigmatic origins, its emotional resonance is undeniable, at least for those who’ve experienced it in a live performance environment, especially at military funerals, where it can be overwhelming (I say this from personal experience). Kind of sadly, our military is experiencing a drought of decent bugle players, and so there’s a “new, improved” solution being offered where a soldier comes to a funeral with a “pretend” bugle that has a recording of “Taps” stored on some kind of storage device like an internal hard drive that can be accessed as the soldier “lip syncs” (so to speak). There’s an ambitious young bugle player at the core of the intermittently interesting and formulaic Sound of the Sky, one who would chafe at the thought of pretending to play such a redolent piece of music, though perhaps unexpectedly she's a fairly young girl named Kanata Sorami. Kanata is graced (or cursed, as some with this ability might say) with perfect pitch, meaning when she hears tones like the jingle of a necklace trinket, she can instantly identify what note it is, and she also seems to have an almost metaphysical connection to what those notes “mean” (some of you with Sirius XM who listen to the Symphony Hall channel will know that have a series of ads highlighting various keys and what they supposedly evoke, though I often find their allusions odd at the very least). That said, her bugling skills are still nascent, and so in a perhaps perplexing decision, she joins the army in the hopes that she’ll receive appropriate musical training there. (As weird as this plot point sounds, something else from my personal experience made this ring true—when I was finding it hard to make a living as a musician in my early twenties, I actually called a recruiting station because I knew they were looking for musicians to join the various bands that our armed forces have.) Sound of the Sky has a number of unusual plot elements, a largely female cast, and a really fascinating visual aesthetic that is based at least in part on the evocative work of Gustav Klimt (as odd as that sounds). But it also tends to fall into pretty predictable shōnen territory a lot of the time, this despite the fact that the girls at the center of the tale aren’t in school but instead man (woman?) an impressive fort in the (fictional) town of Seize.

While there’s a context of battle running beneath the surface of Sound of the Sky, as is quickly alluded to early on in the series, actual hostilities have ceased. Though it may not initially be clear, the vintage look of the series is not due to an actual timeframe, but due to the debilitating effects a long conflict has had on society. There’s also some passing content that is in the “blink and you’ll miss it” category detailing some of Kanata’s traumas as a child when the war was in effect (this aspect is dealt with at least marginally more content, which relatively speaking isn’t saying all the much, in the alternate version of episode 1, detailed below in the Supplements section).

The series relatively quickly introduces a host of supporting characters, chief among them being Rio Kazumiya, who initially seems to be simply a bystander watching Kanata stumble her way through an ancient festival rite in the village town square, but who soon enough is revealed to be Kanata’s music teacher. While there are any number of girls belonging to the platoon, Sound of the Sky perhaps wisely waits until some later episodes to really get into some of their stories, with at least some of them assuming a first person narrator’s role when they’re the focus of what’s going on.

The “lessons” (no pun intended, given the series’ musical elements) Sound of the Sky imparts are fairly gentle and well meaning, never approaching the profundities of more intellectually astute anime, but the show has a rather sweet ambience a lot of the time and it offers some kind of unusual visual delights. Teamwork is at the core of this story, but without any really visceral threats and without even any traditional conflict to speak of, this is more of a mood piece than anything aiming for philosophical heights or innovative content.

Sound of the Sky: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sound of the Sky is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Right Stuf with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is an often visually sumptuous looking series, especially with regard to some of the obvious homages to Gustav Klimt, which admittedly occur in completely tangential ways (as in the credits sequence, though there are a number of other examples in the Key Art Gallery included as a supplement). The cliffside locale of Seize provides lots of scenic opportunities which the series exploits at regular intervals. Colors are vivid and varied, though some scenes feature an intentionally tamped down palette, and line detail remains strong throughout.

Sound of the Sky: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sound of the Sky features a pleasant sounding LPCM 2.0 mix in the original Japanese, with two sets of English subtitles, one just providing translations and the other also including a few extra tidbits that provide context for certain moments. The series really doesn't have any outsized sonic ambitions and as such this track does perfectly well. There are occasional bursts of activity, as when Kanata arrives at Seize aboard a roaring motorcycle with a sidecar, but on the whole, a lot of the series plays out in quieter dialogue moments. As might be expected, there are some evocative musical elements as well as interesting sound effects like the jingle of jewelry which provide some interest and which are rendered cleanly and clearly throughout.

Sound of the Sky: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Alternate Version of Episode 1 (1080p; 25:41) has the opening credits sequence that the rest of the episodes do, instead of the interstitial sequence in what is the "official" version, meaning that some of the scenes that are in that interstitial opening in the other version are presented in a slightly different context here. Otherwise, there's not a huge difference between the two versions (the other version runs 25:48, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you exactly where those seven seconds are).


• Episode Previews (1080p; 3:08)

Disc Two

• U.S. Trailer (1080p; 1:35)


• Background Art Gallery (1080p; 2:51)


• Character Art Gallery (1080p; 1:26) also features biographies of some characters.


• Key Art Gallery (1080p; 3:31) reveals more of the Klimt influence.


• Line Art Gallery (1080p; 2:35)


• Watercolor Gallery (1080p; 1:17)

Sound of the Sky: Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Despite the fact that Sound of the Sky has the very word "sound" in its title, this is a rather quiet and unassuming anime, and so one has to approach it without any overarching expectations. It's a sweet little character study with an unusual location and contextual setting, but which really doesn't have gigantic ambitions other than to detail the story of a gaggle of girls learning to work together, not to mention make music together. In that regard, it's considerably less frenetic than anime like K-ON!: Volume 1, though even its subliminal emphasis on music and even music education is similarly commendable. Technical merits are strong, and Sound of the Sky comes Recommended.