The Piano Forest

Shuhei Amamiya is a young boy from a family of musicians who moves to a small town. At his new school, he is pressured by classmates to play a mysterious, supposedly broken piano located in a forest. While Shuhei cannot produce any sound from the instrument, he meets Kai Ichinose, a boy with a natural talent who can make the piano play. The two develop a friendship centered on music, though they eventually face conflict as they compete in a musical competition.

Directed by Masayuki Kojima, this animated drama was released in 2007. It is the second film in Kojima's directing career, following Leave it to Kero! and preceding Tibetan Dog. The movie features the voices of Ryunosuke Kamiki as Shuhei and Aya Ueto as Kai, with additional voice work by Mayuko Fukuda, Chizuru Ikewaki, Rica Matsumoto, and Hiroyuki Amano. The screenplay was written by Ryuta Hourai.

Produced by companies including Madhouse, Shochiku, and Sony Music Entertainment, the film earned 2 million USD at the worldwide box office. It has been received positively by viewers, maintaining a rating of 7.1/10 on IMDb from 1,900 votes and an identical score of 7.1/10 on TMDB from 125 votes.