Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life - Season 1

Ayano Hanesaki, a first-year student at Kanagawa Prefectural Kitakomachi High School, has a badminton ability able to surpass others effortlessly yet avoids playing the sport. She meets Nagisa Aragaki, a third-year student who practices day and night aiming to become the best player in Japan. Encouraged by coach Tachibana Kentarou, supported by club colleagues, and fired up by various rivals, the two engage in their youth and adored sport so thrilling like a shuttle flown at high speed!

One evening in fall, with one month left before the school festival, the last member of the ruined light music club, Haruki Kitahara, looks out the window and plays his guitar in the direction of the festival stage set up outside. This was the simple little adventure that the conscientious honor student had hoped for two and a half years to achieve before his graduation in half a year. But then, when a flowing piano melody and a bell-like singing voice joined the clumsy sound of his guitar...

A tranquil tale about two boys from very different upbringings. On one hand you have Kai, born as the son of a prostitute, who's been playing the abandoned piano in the forest near his home ever since he was young. And on the other you have Syuhei, practically breast-fed by the piano as the son of a family of prestigious pianists. Yet it is their common bond with the piano that eventually intertwines their paths in life.

Spring in the first year of high school. Kumiko, a member of the brass band in junior high school, visits the high school brass band club with classmates Hazuki and Sapphire. There, she comes across Reina, her former classmate from junior high. Hazuki and Sapphire decide to join the club, but Kumiko can’t make up her mind. She recollects her experience with Reina at a competition in junior high school.

Matsugorou Sawamura is a shamisen player of legendary talent. Upon his death, his grandson, Setsu Sawamura, lost his ability to play. Having lost his beloved sound, Setsu finds himself in Tokyo in search of a new sound to love. Tachiki Yuna, who works at a club, hooks him up with a gig to play there as a warm up act. Setsu imbues the sound of his shamisen with his many thoughts and feelings he has of others, still searching for his own sound and his own feelings.

The best way to fit in at a new school? Start a band! Anon has just transferred to Haneoka Girls’ Academy where girl bands are all the rage. But she started school late, so there aren’t many girls left to recruit. Then she meets her first friend and Haneoka’s misfit, Tomori, who’s hesitant to join. Still, Anon is determined to persuade Tomori and experience the true power of friendship and music.

Sora joins the high school basketball club, but his unmotivated teammates don't care about the game. To get anywhere, he has to change their minds.

Chihaya Ayase has spent most of her life supporting her sister’s model career. When she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, he thinks Chihaya has potential to become a great karuta player. As Chihaya dreams of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends. Now in high school, Chihaya still plays karuta in the hope that she will one day meet her friends again.

Kotarou Azumi and Akane Mizuno became third year students at junior high school and are classmates for the first time. These two, along with fellow classmates, Chinatsu Nishio and Takumi Hira, relate to their peers through mutual understandings and feelings. As their final year at junior high school progresses, the group overcome their challenges to mature and become aware of changes in themselves.

Yuu Haruna, a loner and an avid Twitter user, has just transferred to a new school in Tokyo. He ends up befriending a unique high school girl named Fuuka Akitsuki, despite some initial conflict, and the two wind up forming a band together with their classmates. Their relationship becomes strained however when Koyuki Hinashi, Yuu's childhood friend who has become a popular idol, contacts Yuu on Twitter and attempts to rekindle long lost feelings.