Back and forth that voice of yours keeps me up at night
Help me search to find the words that eat you up inside
What They Say:
“The Shadows Whisper”
The Maihou Music Competition has started and Kousei is starting to feel his fears catching up with him. At the same time some old rivals have appeared and are set on competing with Kousei.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The episode begins with the black cat—likely the one from the opening, a recurring motif thus far—talking directly to Kousei. This episode isn’t entitled “The Shadows Whisper” for no reason. The cat is the very shadows that surround Kousei’s music playing mind, trapped from the rest of his consciousness. A representation of the childhood he never had and the childhood that’s trying ever so faithfully to return him to, through music and through Kaori. It says, outright, that Kousei is not Beethoven. He is not Chopin, the man who’s music he’s about to play. “Who are you?” it asks, largely rhetorically. There is so much meaning behind the one question. Who really is Kousei? Is he a music player? Is he a transcriber? Does he even like music anymore or is that part of him locked away? Is the person he is to Tsubaki and Kaori and Watari outside of the swing he so carefully pushes himself on, past the shadows? It’s a question that can’t be answered until he plays Chopin at the Maihou Music Competition.
Emotions, to Kousei, are missing. Through Tsubaki and through Watari, the viewer experiences exactly what Kousei wants to. Tsubaki cost her team the game last episode and Watari did the same this episode. They both put on a face, just as Kousei has in his life, and stands strong in front of their teammates. When Tsubaki is with Kousei and when Watari is in a stall, they cry. It’s the only thing they know to do and the only thing that Kousei has likely been unable to since his mother’s death.
This episode also marks the first time we really hear Kousei play the piano. Accompanying Kaori, his keys were muted most of the time, a mere shell of what he was really playing. This time, we hear him play in the music room. We hear the sound the piano makes as he hits the keys. The very next scene, he’s practicing on his desk. The same dull tones that Kousei hears reverberate on his desk to our ears. This is what Kousei really hears when he plays, but his visualization is perfect. His playing is perfect. As we learn later, he is the marionette playing the song as the composer intended. Even when he was a child, his playing lacked emotion. Perhaps they weren’t locked away by his mother’s death, but by his mother herself.
Kousei’s own playing isn’t quite reached—we don’t even get to either of his rivals, so to speak—but there’s so much before that speaks to Kousei’s reticence and hesitation. Kaori again quotes Charles Schulz saying, “When you’re depressed, it always helps to lean your head on your arms. Arms like to feel useful.” Charlie Brown. He does exactly this in the competition, showing just how much Kousei himself leans on Kaori. Her overwhelming emotion will hopefully well into his playing.
The shirt he wears simply reads “No life is enough.” It is perfect for his mindset right now. Does it mean that having no life, as Kousei has up until now, enough? Or does it mean no life can be satisfying, as it seems Kaori lives? The performance will tell all.
The episode ends with Aiza about to hit the piano with his hands. Not violently or in frustration, but in a bout of passion. He’s playing at this competition, passing up a chance to play in Germany for it, to prove his worth against Kousei, gone from the scene for two years. It’s a perfect ending to an episode full of emotion.
In Summary:
We get mere piecemeal of what’s to come in terms of piano playing. The first performer seemed to play the piece just fine, but there’s not the emotion we come to expect of the virtuosos that grace Your lie in April. This was a perfect intermediary episode between the high energy episode five and the next episode eight, where Kousei is likely to play or at least his rivals will. The playing, and the energy of the episodes, will only go up as this competition keeps moving forward.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV, LG NB3530A Sound Bar
