Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life
Kono Oto Tomare! Sounds of Life is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Amyu. The series began publication in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine in August 2012. It has been reported that over 7.5 million copies of the manga have been sold. An anime television series adaptation produced by Platinum Vision aired from April to December 2019.
Plot
The story focuses on the Koto club of the Tokise High School in Kanagawa Prefecture. Takezo Kurata, in his second year, is the only member left in the Koto club, after all the senior members have graduated. While he is trying his best to recruit more members into the club, Chika Kudo submits his application. But, since Kudo is known to be a delinquent, one who destroyed his own grandfather's koto shop, Takezo is apprehensive about him. Things change when he discovers the truth. Also joining the club is the Koto prodigy, Satowa Hozuki, who has her own agenda. More members join the club in time, holding their own reasons for joining. However, in the end, they all have the same goal – to play at the Koto Nationals competition.Characters
;Chika Kudo;Takezo Kurata
;Satowa Hozuki
;Hiro Kurusu
;Tetsuki Takaoka
;Mio Kanzaki
;Saneyasu Adachi
;Michitaka Sakai
;Kota Mizuhara
;Suzuka Takinami
;Gen Kudo
;Takeru Kurata
;Mashiro
;Isaki Kudo
;Shizune Nishina
;Kazusa Ōtori
;Fumi Hanamura
;Ōsuke Kiryū
;Sentarō Miya
;Haru Kasugai
;Akira Dōjima
;Uta Suzumori
;:
;Asano Izumi
Production
Born into a family with a mother who was a Koto teacher and a sister who was a professional Koto player, Amyu first started playing the Koto at 3 years of age. When Amyu was in elementary school, she aspired to be a manga artist, and eventually had hopes to draw a manga using Koto as its theme.Afterwards, Amyu debuted as a manga artist with her Koto-themed one-shot manga. Thereafter, she spent her days announcing one-shots in the Shueisha Shoujo Manga Magazine, Ribon. At the time, although Amyu had the thoughts of "I want my first serialization to be a Koto manga", she did not get a good response from Ribon
In addition, according to Amyu, originally Satowa was meant to be the main character, but it was pointed out that she had too gloomy of a personality, so in response, it was changed to our current main characters, Chika and Takezo.
Characteristics
Style
This work is set in the Koto club as a youth group drama, detailing the joys and struggles of boys and girls. Amyu expressed that rather than the focus of the manga being on the Koto, she carefully wrote it around the idea of "a youth group drama".As mentioned above, Amyu has had experience with the Koto since childhood, with her experience reflected in the work. As an example, the accuracy of the positioning of the Koto pillars, as well as the characters' troubles regarding the Koto being from a part of Amyu's personal experiences. On the other hand, due to playing the Koto at a young age, Amyu says that they didn't understand as much the difficulties that beginners may have in learning the Koto. To counter this, Amyu deliberately requested for her chief editor not to study the Koto and she asked advice from her mother and sister, who have Koto teaching experience.
Original Koto Music Pieces
As mentioned above, this work contains various Koto pieces, including original Koto music. As of this current time, original Koto pieces featured in this work include the piece performed by the Tokise High School Koto Club in front of the student body to save the club "Ryūseigun", the piece performed by the Tokise High School Koto Club in the Kanto Music Festival "Kuon", the piece performed by the Hakuto High School Koto Club in the Kanagawa Preliminaries "Katakago", the piece performed by the Tokise High School Koto Club at the Kanagawa Preliminaries "Tenkyu". These 4 pieces are all made by Amyu's family members.- Ryūseigun - Amyu's older sister
- Kuon - Amyu's mother
- Katakago - Amyu's mother
- Tenkyu - Amyu's older sister
Media
Manga
Series is written and illustrated by Amyu and began publication in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine in August 2012. As of October 2025, it has been compiled into 33 volumes.Anime
An anime television series adaptation aired in two parts from April 6 to June 29, 2019, and October 5 to December 28, 2019, on Tokyo MX, BS11, AT-X, GYT, Wowow, and HTB. The series is animated by Platinum Vision and was directed by Ryōma Mizuno, with Ayumu Hisao handling series composition, and Junko Yamanaka designing the characters. Shouta Aoi performed the series' opening theme song "Tone", while Yuma Uchida performed the series' ending theme song "Speechless". Aoi also performed the series' second opening theme song "Harmony", while Uchida also performed the series' ending theme song "Rainbow". Funimation has licensed the series, and released the dub as it aired.Stage play
A stage play adaptation ran in 2019 in three locations: August 17–25 in Tokyo, September 7–8 in Fukuoka, and September 14–15 in Osaka. The play starred Takuma Zaiki as Kudo, Kazuki Furuta as Kurata, Hinako Tanaka as Satowa, Kouhei Shiota as Adachi, Kotori Kojima as Sakai, and Tatsuki Jōnin as Mizuhara. In preparation for the play, the cast members trained for four months to learn how to play the koto.Reception
As of October 2021, the series had surpassed 5.5 million copies in circulation. Particularly, the amount of junior high school and high school student readers have been increasing, and there are junior high school students who have started learning the Koto after reading this work.In addition, the videos of the Koto players performing the work's original pieces have been increasing in views, with "Ryūseigun" passing 1 million views on January 1, 2018.
On March 8, 2017, the album "Kono Oto Tomare! ~Tokise High School Koto Club" was released by King Records, receiving an Award of Excellence in the Records category at the 72nd National Arts Festival by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. It also won the Traditional Japanese Music Album of the Year Award at the 32rd Japan Gold Disc Awards.