Lost Song

Lost Song tells the stories of the cheerful Rin and the reserved Finis, two songstresses who are capable of performing magical songs. Rin grew up in a remote village with her family and was taught to keep her power secret, while Finis lives and performs in the royal palace.

Rin's happy and peaceful life is shattered after she saves an injured knight named Henry Leobort with her song of healing. She was seen by soldiers who proceeded to attack her village in hopes of capturing her. With nowhere else to go, she and her inventor brother Al begin a journey to the capital.

Finis finds herself falling in love with Henry and, knowing that the greedy and spiteful Prince Lood Bernstein IV desires her, must hide their relationship. She wants to help people with her songs, but with war on the horizon, she worries that Lood will order her to cast her magic in the battlefield. Only time will tell how her destiny and Rin's will intersect, as the two of them struggle to find their paths.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Rin Main

Suzuki, Konomi Japanese

Finis Main

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Al ing

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Leobort, Henry ing

Yamashita, Seiichirou Japanese

Goodlight, Pony ing

Takahashi, Chiaki Japanese

Looks, Monika ing

Serizawa, Yuu Japanese

Mel ing

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Corte ing

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Looks, Alyu ing

Seto, Asami Japanese

Corps Commander ing

Ugaki, Hidenari Japanese

Shioya, Yoshiyuki Producer

Oomori, Shinji Producer

Morita to Jumpei Director, Sound Director, Script, Storyboard, Original Creator, Series Composition

Panetto, Anthony Script

Reviews

Jun 28, 2018

taelhime

Recommended

Lost Song is by no means a revolutionary anime that's going to change the game forever. That doesn't mean that it isn't still unique and surprisingly enjoyable. In fact, I would say it's that surprise itself that lends a hand to my enjoyment of the series overall.

I went into Lost Song with low expectations, given from the first few episodes it seems to be a standard fantasy era war show without any interesting gimmick that made it stand out. Only reason I kept with it was because I watched with a friend and we wanted to predict what would happen.

Predicting what will happen in Lost ... Song is a feat that proves much more difficult than you would expect. As I said, it was the surprise of how much we couldn't predict what would happen that made it so enjoyable. Partway through, the series pulls off one of the best plot twists I've encountered for such an unassuming series, and it's how discreetly packaged this show is that made it such a wonderful, delightful surprise.

That isn't to say it's only the surprise that makes it interesting. You find that groundwork had been laid out this entire time, and unbeknownst to you, a well crafted and clever series had appeared beneath your feet before you knew what you were watching.

All I can say is to give Lost Song a chance, and it certainly won't disappoint you. I wish there had been just a bit more time for better pacing to give a few more characters some spotlight or unfold a few more threads they'd lead with and tied off loosely at the end, but all in all, it's still satisfying and a very fun ride until the very end! The art is decent at worst and great at best, the music is enchanting, and the two protagonists are the characters who really sell the story. Lost Song is the hidden gem of its season.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Mar 15, 2019

lastfight5

Mixed Feelings

If there's one thing I have to say about this anime: It's incredibly generic. The music and art is very nice and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it seemed like the anime played way too safe to the point they're not taking any risks.

Story: This part is its weak point. The story felt like those generic original stories you find on Wattpad, Fictionpress or Quotev trying to be the next Disney movie. Because it is. It's very predictable to the point that you can just go in blind and able to make an accurate picture of what's going to happen next, plays way too safe ... and the context of the story has been done a million times over every media you can imagine. Now, that doesn't mean they screwed up the most generic story a 5 year old can think of, which thankfully they didn't, and I do like to watch it when I get home from uni, there is this plot twist that kinda got me off guard and I thought this anime starts getting interesting, but other than that, it doesn't have anything that'll excite me.

Art: I find the art style to be pretty good. The environment is pretty and the characters look nice. Although that chest on Pony is distracting and out of place for this anime. The animations, I had to say is alright. Most part, the animators did well, but there's some part that are choppy that my eyes snap to and I get distracted because of it. Like someone disappearing on a horse out of thin air. I didn't know how that happened since it's 2D.

Sound: The music is pretty good. Konomi Suzuki's and Yukari Tamura's singing were pretty excellent and I do find the OP and ED catching and got me in. But compared to other animes of the season, the music is generic. As for the sound effects.... ehhh alright I guess.

Characters: Just like the story: incredibly generic and you can predict their personalities just by face value. That glasses boy? An aspiring scientist and the smart guy of the group. The knight guy? Knight in Shining Armour that's always good and the princess falls to. That General? General Ripper. Hell, even the two main characters? Pretty much Anna and Elsa in anime. Hell, you could tell their personalities just by their attractiveness. If they look good, that's because they're good. If they look dark and/or ugly, expect them to be against you or dicks. That doesn't mean I don't like them (in fact I do like the glasses boy who wants to be a scientist and the smart guy of the group, and Anime!Anna), but nothing about them is any original. I've seen these tropes applied to these guys with slight variations.

Enjoyment: While the genericness of the story and characters distract me a lot, I do enjoy the anime especially for the music and maybe the art. I've heard that this is Konomi Suzuki first take on being the MC of the anime and honestly, she did alright.

Overall, this anime is generic and doesn't stand out in that season. It tries way too hard to be a family friendly Disney anime, but it comes off as a team of amateurs trying to write a story that's BEING a family friendly Disney anime. If I wanna watch something similar to this, I'd go and buy a ticket or stream some Disney movie like Frozen, or go to Wattpad, Fictionpress or Quotev and read their stories there.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 12, 2018

NalarueAni

Not Recommended

My favorite part about anime is when music, specifically singing, is a main focus. Japanese voice actors work tremendously hard to deliver their lines as realistically as possible, so it's a real treat when I get to hear their characters sing on top of that. That's what I was most excited about when I happened across an anime titled Lost Song on Netflix one day while I was cooking. The narrative told by the synopsis proved to be very intriguing as it described a setting in a fantasy world where two women are blessed by the power of song in a land where war is ... about to break out. Captivated by the apparent uniqueness of the story, I pressed play without hesitation. Across the twelve-episode journey, I quickly found that the anime wasn't as great as I intended it to be.


Story | 2/10
Lost Song tries and fails in many aspects that are more successful in other popular anime. It plays with drama, comedy, and suspense. The problem Lost Song has with these tropes is that the story is so poorly configured that the tropes hardly work together in a seamless manner. Plot twists are tossed around from left and right in the midst of dramatic moments, each with an introduction that acts as if they're these huge, surprising discoveries that should be completely unexpected to the audience. I, however, found each plot twist to be entirely predictable due to the fact that the foreshadowing of events was less subtly hinted and more obviously thrown in your face through character interactions and expressions. For example, when I heard a line such as, "Don't ever sing the Song of Mortality," it became detectable to me that the song would be sung anyway at some point, because why mention the song and how dangerous it is if no one is going to sing it in the future, right? That kind of dialogue, while sometimes can work in favor of foreshadowing, is used a lot in this anime, making it too easy to guess what will happen later on. This is a problem I noticed as a recurrence throughout the first half of the anime, and I was extremely disappointed because being able to predict future events in a show takes away the excitement involved. It also proves that not much clever thought was put into the story as a whole.

On the other hand, the various bits of comedy that were included only seemed to be added as a means of preventing a moment of awkward silence, or as a means of slowing down a scene that was becoming too dramatic. The delivery of these jokes also felt forced instead of natural, and none of them really made me laugh either. Having a character scream out, "There's food!? Where? Where's the food!?!?" ever so often when another character randomly mentions food is not funny. Having a character attempt to explain why something isn't scientifically correct while the other characters interrupt him with, "We don't care," isn't funny either. If anything, these types of lines are childish and cringy, and there's nothing funny about an adult or teenager acting like a child. Plus, I've seen these exact same jokes before, so these aren't even original. I know comedy isn't a huge focus within Lost Song, since it isn't even listed as one of the genres, but there are hundreds of other anime that EXCEL in delivering good comedy when the focus also mostly revolves around drama and suspense.

The story development in general isn't the best either. Pacing fluctuates between harshly rushed to push out as much information as possible and agonizingly slow as a consequence. Rinse and repeat. On top of that, the anime takes a drastic and questionable turn at the halfway mark where the story becomes way less predictable and a LOT more confusing. I can understand that the creators of this anime wanted to inflict shock within its audience by making such a sudden change in the story, but to me this change was too much for the type of setting presented in the beginning and felt as though the same idea could be accomplished with a change that was toned down a bit. Essentially, it seems like the story presented in Lost Song is trying too hard to achieve a ground-breaking plotline. By attempting to wow its watchers with such drama, heartbreak, and unexpected events in its twelve-episode time frame, the anime ends up tripping over itself and instead showcases a chaos of ideas and characters that aren't deeply explored.

A last point I would like to mention before moving on is that Lost Song tries desperately to appeal to all audiences. On the surface it looks as though the anime is aiming for a younger female demographic with its shoujo-like art style and lack of raunchy themes, but with added gore, profanity, and a female character with breasts so big they look like they're about to spill out of her clothing, it seems like the anime is also trying to bring in an older female and male audience as well. This desperation to create an anime worth watching by all was so obvious that it was infuriating and distracting to the narrative trying to be told.


Character | 2/10
Throughout Lost Song, the story switches point of views between the two main characters: Rin and Finis. Besides their ability to control the elements with their songs, there's nothing about these characters that really stands out. Rin is optimistic and kind-hearted, and Finis is a naïve damsel in distress. For the two characters that are supposed to carry the whole story on their backs, the types of personalities they were given are ones that are extremely overused and boring. The goals they have are also entirely lackluster, and they give off the impression that the only reason these motives exist is only to advance the story. Rin's character in particular wants to find her true purpose in the world, which isn't a goal that encourages character development. Thus, Rin doesn't really develop at all due to the fact that she's already a "good guy" who has almost no reason to change or redeem herself. Finis, on the other hand, goes through a rapid development once her goal is hindered by the enemy of the anime. If done correctly, I might have thoroughly enjoyed Finis's sudden change in character considering it was probably the most interesting thing that happened. Unfortunately, with Finis's development came the unsatisfactory warping of the plot. The added confusion alongside her change really made it hard for me to appreciate the only piece of character development that was delivered.

As for the abundance of ing characters, it was easy to see not much thought was put into them either. This part of the cast is one full of stereotypes; the glasses character is the smart guy, the knight is the savior, the ugly guy is the villain, etc. so there's not really anything interesting about them. Over half of these characters are added with zero purpose to fulfil the plot other than using them to make conversation when things slowed down. All of these useless characters could have been cut from the anime entirely, and their screen time could have been replaced with scenes that explained the plot better or improved the pacing. Some anime do a great job managing a large cast of characters, but this isn't one of them.


Art | 2/10
I really hate judging an anime for its art, especially the older ones, but the art presented in Lost Song is utterly amateurish for the era of its release. It's 2018. Earlier this year we saw Violet Evergarden, and only a few weeks after Lost Song ended came Banana Fish. Compared to those two, the art style and animation of Lost Song looks as though it was released in the early 2000s. Multiple times throughout the anime, the movement of the characters felt really choppy and the least bit smooth. This was especially a problem when the characters were walking. It's clear to see that the animation budget was almost entirely spent on the animation of the characters singing, because it was only during those moments where it felt like the animation was somewhat up to par with other 2018 anime. It hurts me to say this, but I also didn't like how the character designs looked at all. Besides the villain being purposely made unsightly, I didn't find the rest of the cast to be pleasing to look at either.


Sound | 2/10
The music within this anime was what I was most excited for and most disappointed with. Lost Song features several insert songs that each represent their own power. There's a song of fire, water, Earth, wind, healing, and mortality. Some songs were more catchy than others, but none of them really stood out to me as exceptional compositions. Though the characters looked like they were having a blast singing their songs, I couldn't say I felt the same way while watching them. Rin's voice was tolerable since her character is a bit younger, so it makes sense for her voice to be higher pitched, but I wasn't particularly a fan of Finis's voice. Her singing was extremely nasally, and it was clear to see that she was trying to hide the fact that she couldn't really hit the high notes by making her voice go softer. The softness in her voice also takes away from the power of the song, which is incredibly unfortunate considering Finis is the one who sings the most powerful song in the anime. Moreover, when both Rin and Finis sing together, their high-pitched voices tend to blend in with one another instead of being distinctive. I really think that they should have cast a VA with a bit of a deeper voice for Finis, like Saori Hayami (VA for Yunhua in the anime Kanata no Astra, she also sings in this anime on two occasions) for example, not only because she could probably hit the notes better and make the songs more powerful, but her voice sounds a lot more mature for someone like Finis. Either way, for being the selling point of the show, the songs in this anime failed miserably at meeting my expectations.


Enjoyment | 1/10
This was not a fun anime to watch. The plotline and characters are packed full of generalizations and stereotypes, and the whole premise of the story just jumps all over the place. Honestly, if someone told me that a child wrote the script, I would believe it. As a female approaching my 20s, I saw no appeal for this anime beyond what I read in the synopsis. So much could have been done to improve everything we were given, but with the evident low budget this anime seems to have, I can see why it turned out this way. Lost Song was a one-and-done for me, so I have no plans of ever coming back to it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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