Print Review: La Corda D’ Oro volumes 1-4

Review La Corda D’ Oro volumes 1-4Written by WarpshadowRating good

In my opinion what separates a really good genre story from a simply mediocre one is that a really story has the ability to reach an audience outside of it’s audience. La Corda D’Oro is a decent shojo story but lacks that special spark that makes it worth readings to those outside it’s audience, namely teenage girls.

Although Shinsei academy had a prestigious music contest Kanoko Hino thought nothing about it because she has no experience with an instrument. That changed the day that she ran into the musical fairy Lili who gave Kahoko a magical violin and entered her into the contest. This development landed Kahoko in a veritable pot of hot water with half of the school who are in the music program and who have been shafted in favor of her. On the other hand most of the other contestants are cute guys.

If asked to give an analogy I would compare this manga to chewing gum; both are mildly pleasant with some taste but in the end aren’t really of any consequence. Perhaps this manga’s biggest problem is that the pacing is rather slow and events take a while to happen. This manga is based off of a ren ai game much of the plot dithering is due to the fact the manga has to follow five different love interests and their respective plot routes. While there is the vague possibility that it might get better as it is right now La Corda D”Oro is little more than an average shojo manga. It’s fine for those that will read it for the bishonen but even though it has a decent story it isn’t strong enough to give the manga a broad appeal.