After losing his grandfather, Sawamura finds himself lost in life, without seeing meaning or value in music he goes to Tokyo to try to discover his purpose and what gave meaning to both his grandfather's music and his own. Upon arriving in the city, he finds people involved with his purpose and with his mother's involvement in his plans, he ends up being forced to play the instrument and seek the same excellence that his late grandfather had.
Mashiro no Oto is an anime that explores the mind of a frustrated musician, unlike the ones that are released annually, it doesn't talk about achieving success or large spaces in the industry, but what gives meaning to making music, in the case of the protagonist, the search for your "true sound" through Shamisen.
We follow much of the work through the eyes of Sawamura, who through his life in Tokyo understands that art above all must have a meaning, and that even frustrations can be turned into music.
The anime does well when exploring the drama of the main character, although it often seems to be something simplistic, as much as it is clear that the work is about maturing and seeking meaning in what we do, it seems to be an empty shell. As much as Sawamura goes through several moments that apparently impact him, we don't see drastic changes in his personality, which ends up being understanding when we realize that these situations affect his music, this being his best way to express who he is, but it's still strange that there is no impact on their behavior.
The secondary characters, on the other hand, appear to be in much more interesting situations than the main ones, not that they are carefully developed, but it is clear who they are and where they want to go, whether those whose objective is the music or not, in addition to showing traces of Personalities much larger than the protagonist also generate more empathy for acting and reacting according to the situations they go through, these supply what is expected of the main character.
Another compliment that I must leave the work is how it expresses the music through the characters' comments and artistic concepts, for example a character says that the music makes him feel a gentle breeze in a field, then the color palette turns green and in the background we heard a faint rumble of the wind.
The soundtrack is also wonderful, it would be terrible if a musical anime used repetitive and boring songs, but that's not the case, the compositions are great and for someone who had never listened to Shamisen so often, I was delighted with what it was. Presented here.
I hope to see a second season soon, this is an anime full of potential to become something big if worked carefully, until then I consider it just good, but recommendable, mainly for lovers of drama and good music.
