Piano no Mori: The Perfect World of Kai Season 2

Alternative titles

Piano Forest
The wolf
The Piano Forest

Synopsis

Piano no Mori is the story of two boys from different backgrounds, brought together by a shared love of the piano and the dream of becoming the best pianist in Japan. Set in a rural town, Shuhei Amamiya is a transfer student from Tokyo whose father is a famous pianist, and Kai Ichinose is poor and fatherless, but raised by his loving mother, Reiko, who is a prostitute and gave birth to him at the age of 15. While Shuhei has a classroom with a grand piano in his house, Kai plays a broken piano in the forest that mysteriously only works for him.

Background

Piano no Mori began as a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Makoto Isshiki that was serialized by Kodansha from 1998 to 2015, first in Tops for Young Magazine from 1998 to 2004 and then in Weekly Matinée from 2004. The series ended after 26 collected volumes. The manga is published in English by Kodansha Comics.

In 2007, the series was adapted into an animated feature film produced by Madhouse and directed by Masayuki Kojima with performances by renowned pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy.

The first season of the anime adaptation was produced by Gaina, with Gaku Nakatani and Ryutaro Suzuki directing, Aki Itami and Mika Abe writing the scripts, Sumie Kinoshita designing the characters, and Harumi Fuki composing the music. The first season aired from April to July 2018 and ran for 12 episodes. The second season of the anime, also produced by Gaina, sees Hiroyuki Yamada take over as director, with many of the staff from season 1 returning. The anime premiered on January 29, 2019. Netflix has acquired exclusive worldwide streaming rights to the series.

Characters

Kai Ichinose (Japanese: Soma Saito, Ryoko Shiraishi (young) / English: Johnny Yong Bosch)

The son of a prostitute, Kai is able to remember any piano piece he hears and play it perfectly by ear.

Shuhei Amamiya (Japanese: Natsuki Hanae, Yo Taichi (young) / English: Griffin Burns)

A transfer student from Tokyo, Shuhei quickly befriends Kai over their love of piano.

Sosuke Ajino (Japanese: Junichi Suwabe / English: Kyle McCarley)

Kai and Shuhei's music teacher, Sosuke, was a famous pianist in his youth who won several awards. However, his career was cut short after an accident injured his left hand and killed his fiancée. After discovering his talent, he became Kai's coach.

Takako Maruyama (Japanese: Aoi Yuki / English: Cristina Vee)

A participant in the regional piano competition who was inspired by Kai to become a better pianist.

Reiko Ichinose (Japanese: Maaya Sakamoto)

Kai's mother. She is a single mother who does her best to raise Kai.

Namie Amamiya (Japanese: Mariya Miyake / English: Julie Ann Taylor)

Shuhei's mother.

Yoichiro Amamiya (Japanese: Hideyuki Tanaka)

Shuhei's father, a famous pianist.

Wei Pang (Japanese: Yuichi Nakamura)

Participant in the Chopin Competition. He is a winner of the Chinese International Piano Competition and the favorite of the Chopin Competition.

Lech Szymanowski (Japanese: KENN)

A participant in the Polish Chopin Competition. His father, Dimitri, is a famous pianist. He entered the Chopin Competition to fulfill his father's wishes.

Sophie Ormesson (Japanese: Mariya Ise)

A participant in the French Chopin Competition.

Karol Adamski (Japanese: Katsuyuki Konishi)

A participant in the Polish Chopin Competition, he has been a popular pianist since his youth.

Kosei Hirata (Japanese: Toshiyuki Toyonaga)

Chopin Competition participant, Japanese pianist studying in Poland in hopes of becoming the competition's youngest winner.

The Saga of Takeshi (Japanese: Koji Yusa)

Judge at the regional piano competition.

Shiba Kotaro (Japanese: Hiroshi Yanaka)

Judge at the regional piano competition.

Arisa (Japanese: Ryo Hirohashi)

A young girl who lived near the forest where Kai grew up.

Daigaku Kanehira (Japanese: Motoko Kumai)

Kai's classmate in elementary school. He often fights with Kai.

Jean Jacques Serrault (Japanese: Bin Shimada)

A world-famous French conductor, he is an old friend of Sosuke.

International streaming

• Netflix