Those Snow White Notes


Those Snow White Notes is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Marimo Ragawa. It was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Magazine from December 2009 to August 2022, and has been collected in thirty-one tankōbon volumes. An anime television series adaptation produced by Shin-Ei Animation aired from April 3 to June 19, 2021, on the Animeism programming block.

Characters

Tsugaru Shamisen Appreciation Club

;Setsu Sawamura
;Shuri Maeda
;Yui Yamazato
;Kaito Yaguchi
;Rai Nagamori
;Keiko Koyabu

Other characters

;Wakana Sawamura
;Umeko Sawamura
;Seiryū Kamiki
;Sōichi Tanuma
;Mai Tanuma
;Yuna Tachiki
;Ushio Arakawa
;Takaomi Kaji
;Sakura Yamano
;Matsugorō Sawamura
;Hiroshi Ōtawara
;Taketo

Media

Manga

The manga is written and illustrated by Marimo Ragawa. The series was serialized in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Magazine from December 5, 2009, to August 5, 2022. Kodansha compiled its chapters into 31 individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on October 15, 2010 and the final volume was published on October 17, 2022. An omnibus edition with the first three volumes released in Japan on March 17, 2021.
Kodansha USA has licensed the manga for digital release in North America.

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced in the September issue of Monthly Shōnen Magazine on August 6, 2020. The series is animated by Shin-Ei Animation and directed by Hiroaki Akagi, with Kan'ichi Katō handling series composition, and Jiro Mashima designing the characters. The Yoshida Brothers will supervise the music in the anime. The two opening theme songs "Blizzard" and "Ginsekai" was performed by Burnout Syndromes, while the ending theme song "Kono Yume ga Sameru Made" was performed by Miliyah Kato and the Yoshida Brothers. The series aired from April 3 to June 19, 2021, on the Animeism programming block on MBS, TBS, and BS-TBS. Crunchyroll streamed the series outside of Southeast Asia. Mighty Media has licensed the series in Southeast Asian territories.

Reception

Manga

Those Snow White Notes was nominated for the 4th Manga Taishō, and it was ranked third in the 2012 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! Top 20 Manga for Male Readers survey. It also won the 36th Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category and an Excellence Award at the 16th Japan [Media Arts Festival] Awards. The series was nominated for the 23rd Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2019. Volume 9 has sold 70,223 copies as of October 20, 2013.
Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network reviewed the manga's first volume in 2021, giving high praise to the opening "Track 0" chapter for its introduction of Yuna, criticized the story going downhill once she leaves for less interesting characters but felt there was potential going forward in subsequent volumes, concluding that: "There's definitely more for this series than against it at this point, and I'm looking forward to continuing to be proven wrong in my earlier assumptions about Marimo Ragawa as a creator."

Anime

Fellow ANN editor Nicholas Dupree placed Those Snow White Notes at number three on his top 5 best anime list of 2021, saying despite being "woefully incomplete", he praised the "heart-wrenching and deeply human journey" of its main character and the "excellently animated instrumentation" throughout the musical numbers, concluding that: "It desperately needs an encore, but only because a really good concert leaves you wanting more."