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La Corda d'Oro: College Arc Manga Gets 'What-If' Endings With 4 Routes
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The January issue of Hakusensha's LaLa DX magazine revealed on December 10 that Yuki Kure's Kin-iro no Corda Daigakusei-hen manga will enter a new arc that will portray four different parallel "endings" to the original La Corda d'Oro story with Kahoko ending up with each of the four male leads of the story: Tsuchiura, Shimizu, Yunoki, and Hihara.
Kure's first manga adaptation of KOEI's original game ended in 2011. Viz Media published the 17-volume series in North America. Kure also drew Linden Hall no Aria -Kin-iro no Corda Series- (Linden Hall Aria: La Corda d'Oro Series), another manga that followed La Corda D'Oro 3's Kanade. She drew the main La Corda d'Oro Blue Sky manga, which ran from 2013-2014 and adapted the La Corda D'Oro 3 game. Kure launched the La Corda d'Oro 4 manga in LaLa DX in February 2016, and ended it in August of the same year. Kure launched a new manga titled Kin-iro no Corda Daigakusei-hen (La Corda d'Oro College Arc, seen right) in LaLa DX in December 2017. Hakusensha shipped the manga's fourth volume in December 2020.
The latest major game in the series is La Corda d'Oro 4, which shipped in Japan in February 2016, and continued the story from the La Corda D'Oro 3 game. The Kin-iro no Corda 2ff (La Corda D'Oro 2 Fortissimo) PlayStation Vita remake of the original Kin-iro no Corda 2f (La Corda D'Oro 2 Forte) PlayStation Portable game shipped in December 2017. Koei Tecmo Games also released PlayStation Vita ports of Kin-iro no Corda 3 Full Voice Special (La Corda D'Oro 3 Full Voice Special) and all three Kin-iro no Corda 3 Another Sky (La Corda D'Oro 3 Another Sky) games in Japan in September 2018.
The La Corda d'Oro Octave game for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, and PC (via Steam) launched in February 2019.
The franchise inspired a 26-episode television anime series in 2006, and a two-episode television special sequel, La Corda D'Oro ~secondo passo~, aired in spring of 2009. A third anime, La Corda d'Oro Blue Sky, premiered in 2014 and ran for 12 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed all three anime and Sentai Filmworks released La Corda d'Oro and La Corda d'Oro Blue Sky in North America. Koei Tecmo Games' Ruby Party brand revealed in November 2020 that it is collaborating with Aniplex to develop the new Kiniro Corda: Starlight Orchestra (La Corda d'Oro Starlight Orchestra) smartphone game, which will launch this year.
Update: Clarified that the new manga is specifically a new story arc for the Kin-iro no Corda Daigakusei-hen manga.
Source: LaLa DX January issue
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