Piano no Mori

Piano no Mori: The Perfect World of Kai
Cover of the first volume of Piano no Mori: The Perfect World of Kai as published by Kodansha
ピアノの森 -The perfect world of KAI-
Genre	Drama
Manga
Written by	Makoto Isshiki
Published by	Kodansha
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Young Magazine Uppers Weekly Morning
Original run	1998 – ongoing
Volumes	20
Anime film
Directed by	Masayuki Kojima
Written by	Ryuta Hourai
Music by	Keisuke Shinohara
Studio	Madhouse
Released	July 21, 2007
Runtime	101 minutes
Anime and Manga Portal

Piano no Mori: The Perfect World of Kai (ピアノの森 -The perfect world of KAI-^?, lit. "Piano Forest") is an ongoing manga by Makoto Isshiki, about Shuhei Amamiya, who transfers to Moriwaki Elementary filled with hope and ambition about his new life. But it doesn't take long before he gets picked on by the class bullies, and gets involved in a dare to play the mysterious piano in the forest, leading to his meeting an enigmatic child that goes by the name of Kai Ichinose, who seems to be the only one capable of getting sound out of the thought-to-be broken piano. His ability earns him the respect of Shuhei and his music teacher, former master pianist Sosuke Ajino. At first Kai is resistant to refining his art but after hearing Sosuke play a Chopin piece he just can't seem to play by himself, he relents.

It has been serialized by Kodansha since 1998, initially in Young Magazine Uppers before transferring to Weekly Morning. Serialization is irregular, and went on hiatus in 2002 before resuming in 2006. The serial chapters have been collected in 20 bound volumes to date.

The series was adapted as a 2007 Japanese animated feature film by director Masayuki Kojima and production company Madhouse. The film featured performances by the renowned pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Contents 1 Development 2 Media 2.1 Manga 3 Reception 4 References 5 External links

Development

Makoto Isshiki was inspired to write Piano no Mori when he watched a documentary showing Stanislav Bunin winning the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in 1985.^[1]

Media

The series is licensed by Sharp Point Press in Taiwan.^[2]

Manga

No.	Japanese release date	Japanese ISBN
01	August 6, 1999[3]	ISBN 978-4-06-346030-8
02	August 6, 1999[4]	ISBN 978-4-06-346031-5
03	October 8, 1999[5]	ISBN 978-4-06-346040-7
04	April 7, 2000[6]	ISBN 978-4-06-346056-8
05	August 7, 2000[7]	ISBN 978-4-06-346067-4
06	March 7, 2001[8]	ISBN 978-4-06-346097-1
07	September 7, 2001[9]	ISBN 978-4-06-346118-3
08	May 17, 2002[10]	ISBN 978-4-06-346142-8
09	November 8, 2002[11]	ISBN 978-4-06-346169-5
10	July 22, 2005[12]	ISBN 978-4-06-372449-3
11	December 22, 2005[13]	ISBN 978-4-06-372483-7
12	April 21, 2006[14]	ISBN 978-4-06-372509-4
13	December 22, 2006[15]	ISBN 978-4-06-372554-4
14	June 22, 2007	ISBN 978-4-06-372610-7 (normal ed.)[16] ISBN 978-4-06-364699-3 (limited ed.)[17]
15	May 23, 2008	ISBN 978-4-06-372675-6 (normal ed.)[18] ISBN 978-4-06-362113-6 (limited ed.)[19]
16	August 21, 2009[20]	ISBN 978-4-06-372752-4
17	March 23, 2010[21]	ISBN 978-4-06-372881-1
18	July 23, 2010[22]	ISBN 978-4-06-372917-7
19	November 22, 2010[23]	ISBN 978-4-06-372917-7
20	September 23, 2011[24]	ISBN 978-4-06-372980-1

Reception

Piano no Mori received the Grand Prize for best manga at the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2008.^[25]

The movie adaptation debuted in 9th place at the Japanese box office the week it came out, unusually high for a non-franchise animated film.^[26] By the end of the year, it had grossed the equivalent of $1,555,297, ranking 119 on the overall yearly box office chart for Japan.^[27] In South Korea, the film played for 50 weeks and grossed the equivalent of $182,884.^[28] The film was nominated for the 2008 Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.^[29]

References

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Piano no Mori (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Piano no Mori at the Internet Movie Database