Prince of Stride: Alternative

"Stride"—an extreme sport that combines parkour, free running, relay, and sprinting—is what made first year high school student Nana Sakurai enroll in Honan Academy, after being captivated by the school's stride team. Sharing the mutual intention of joining the team is fellow first year and stride maniac, Takeru Fujiwara, and together they request to join. Much to their dismay, however, the stride club is no longer active due to lack of members, and they are now operating under the shogi club.

In order to revive the stride club, Nana and Takeru recruit first year Riku Yagami—a fast runner who is interested in almost every sport. With this new team, the club now aims high at a new goal: to win the prestigious End of Summer competition, and bring the Honan stride team back to their prime.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:

Prince of Stride: Galaxy Rush

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Yagami, Riku

Main

Kimura, Ryouhei
Japanese

Fujiwara, Takeru

Main

Okamoto, Nobuhiko
Japanese

Kuga, Kyousuke

Main

Suwabe, Junichi
Japanese

Kohinata, Hozumi

Main

Ono, Kensho
Japanese

Hasekura, Heath

Main

Ono, Daisuke
Japanese

Kadowaki, Ayumu

Main

Shimono, Hiro
Japanese

Sakurai, Nana

Main

Hanazawa, Kana
Japanese

Suwa, Reiji

Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru
Japanese

Hasekura, Diane

Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka
Japanese

Himemiya, Yuuri

Supporting

Yamashita, Daiki
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Ishizuka, Atsuko

Director

Aketagawa, Jin

Sound Director

Shiraishi, Michita

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

"Strider's High (ストライド)" by OxT (Masayoshi Oishi x Tom-H@ck)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Be My Steady" by Galaxy Standard [Reiji Suwa (Mamoru Miyano), Shizuma Mayuzumi (Daisuke Hirakawa), Bantarou Chiyomatsu (Takuya Eguchi), Tasuku Senoo (Tatsuhisa Suzuki), Asuma Mayuzumi (Yuuki Ono), Kaede Okumura (Toshiyuki Toyonaga)] (eps 2-7, 9, 10)
	2: "You're My Courage" by Galaxy Standard [Reiji Suwa (Mamoru Miyano), Shizuma Mayuzumi (Daisuke Hirakawa), Bantarou Chiyomatsu (Takuya Eguchi), Tasuku Senoo (Tatsuhisa Suzuki), Asuma Mayuzumi (Yuuki Ono), Kaede Okumura (Toshiyuki Toyonaga)] (eps 11)

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Mar 22, 2016

MozillaFennekin

Not Recommended

There's no real explanation to it, so let's just assume that "alternative" in the title of Prince of Stride implies that you should watch an alternative show.

So, anyone willing to tolerate sports anime thought this would be pretty cool. Running with some parkour elements? Shit, parkour’s awesome, this oughta be good. But instead, we’ve been given a thoughtless, soulless, utterly boring show with no point in watching to completion unless you really, really like sports or writing yaoi fanfics.

Fortunately, Stride conveniently makes all of its fuck-ups clear within the first episode, so this doesn’t require a lot of work. Every major character (with the exception ...

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Mar 22, 2016

karlstein12

Recommended

Prince of Stride: Alternative was one of the first new Winter show to be announced just as the new year arrived. It was also among the first ones to be aired in the season, much to the build-up that was added to it. With one of the masters in the industry working behind it, i.e. Studio Madhouse, Prince of Stride: Alternative was well worth the hype it had accumulated thus far, but as the season progressed, it quickly started to fade away. Why? Let's look into it in detail.

The show brings no creativity at all to begin with. It has been done countless time in ... sport anime's before. Famous high school club now in ruins and desperate for new members. Atleast try to be a little more creative. The game of Stride does bring a sense of freshness to the show. Basically its a sport where you run all the while competing with the another 'Strider' within your block. It consists of five different members running from start to finish as all the five team members play a part in the whole sequence and give a touch for the next teammate to continue running. One of the problems with the show is that twelve episodes were always not enough to begin with. There are have been countless other similar shows being successful solely based on the fact that they run for a longer time. Time was an important asset to them and they had plenty to utilize it with the execution. This is something Prince of Stride: Alternative lacked big time. On a side note, I cannot understand why there's a 'Alternative' in the title. I've come to light that the source material was a visual game and the show can be taken as a spin-off of that.

The characters on the show do it no good, with all honesty. All of them are like a basic stereotype with nothing to set them apart from any other generic characters. The MC is a light-hearted and silly guy with a dim-wit personality who just likes to run and is aiming to be on as many of the high school clubs as possible. There's the very cold looking teammate who acts as a direct rival for our MC and who doesn't talk much, and of course, does not get together early with our MC. Then there's the only girl in the show who's in fact the very first characters to be showcased and is another main character in focus in every sense who is inspired by the Stride club's achievements in the past and is aiming to be in the team as a manager. She eventually acts as a Relationer in the team who serves as a guide to the running teammates offering guidance with a speaker directly to the Striders. Then there's always a trap in the group along with a nerd who isn't interested being with the club to begin with. Two more senior characters are there in show, one's a cool, handsome looking guy who seems to be a senior worth relying on, and the other, literally having nothing worthy of praising, in my opinion. The manager however, was an interesting characteristic with his regular inspirational proverbs with a traditional discipline to them. Sad that he didn't get called a "King" when someone who only afterwards in the show arrived got to be called one.

The art totally makes the show cool, and the aesthetics are on the positive aspect of this show. The OP/ED sequences with the music, too, do justice for the show but no OST's or background musics or other character songs worthy to be talking about. But all in all they're on the better side of the show. The frequent use of English in the show, as for the club names and the outfits, really make them appealing to the western audience too.

Prince of Stride: Alternative also suffers from the problem of not being able to convey the story properly in my opinion. It could've have become a good show even with the distinguishable flaws it had, if it had put more effort in giving the concept of Stride a little more spotlight. The sport is cool by all means, but for me it fails to properly deliver some important stuff to the viewer. For example, the tournaments the Stride Races take part in are a little difficult to understand. They do time-trials at times but nothing on the opposing team is showcased (And trust me there are some) on how they got so far. This is where as I said the time limit plays a huge part in. Stride races also offers a lot of cool moves and spectacular jumps, if they had put on something like additional points for that, then I think the games would've become a lot more enjoyable.

Prince of Stride: Alternative was never a profound show to begin with, as is the case with most of the sport shows. But what make them great is the reality aspect and the execution for it, that's where Prince of Stride: Alternative won and lost 50-50 for me. With the pacing and time limit the show had been given, I could see the ending being like that from a mile away, still Prince of Stride: Alternative has the little charm that's the beauty of every sport show, even if it was a short anime with just twelve episodes.

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Mar 22, 2016

Stark700

Not Recommended

Prince of Stride, a show based off of an otome game with a bit of sports and competition added in. Advertised as a sports series, yet it’s obvious that the show appeals to the female audience with its cast of pretty boys. What is striding? It’s basically a fictional extreme sport of running similar to that of parkour but with unique obstacles.

Produced by Madhouse studio, the show runs pretty fast on its feet, literally. The first episodes introduces the main characters in standard fashion. Nana Sakurai, the main heroine transfers to Honen Academy and quickly becomes the manager of the Stride club, a club ... dedicated to striding. The members of the group consists of a variety range of characters and personalities ranging from the cheerful Riku Yagami to the cool Takeru Fujiwara. Each member of the club also possesses individual skills and characteristics that makes them unique on the team. While this is all good and dandy, the show doesn’t capitalize on their traits but instead follows a generic route of competition. Yes, there’s risks and strategy that is adapted into each race. However, the ending result usually is predictable. And that’s honestly something that isn’t so admirable.

The story structure is designed as more carefree although striding is the main course of the plot. Other times, the show feels like it’s taking a breather such as fashion shoots, hot springs, and even the infamous beach episode. In general, the story turns into a mixed affair of comedy and competitiveness. If that makes any sense, the series also takes every advantage of the boys to make them stand out as bishounens. There’s nothing wrong with that except the show focuses perhaps a bit too much on it for the first half of the series. It takes the serious nature of the striding when the boys are presented more as fan service rather than athletes. On the other hand, the show does take its game mechanics seriously. Every relay race is designed aesthetically and never the same. In addition, the show adds commentary to explore the physical aspects of the obstacles, short-cuts, and potential strategies runners can use to their advantage.

However, the story isn’t the main problem with the show. The main problem lies with the characters. It’s hard to feel attached to any of them. Takeru is like a Free clone of Haru but hardly has a strong relationship that can be relatable. Riku adds a bit more of casual atmosphere that people can get used to quickly but it’s hard to accept his character. He’s just too damn carefree. Heath Hasekura, the half-man, half-model is probably Mr. Fan service and there’s little depth about his character at all. Finally, Hozumi Kohinata exposes almost all the weakness of the show with his non-existent characterization, girly face, and weakly timed jokes. Luckily, there’s some characterization and background storytelling through mid-story but the overall execution lacks steam. Don’t expect Honan Academy’s rivals to be memorable either. They have cliché written all over them with easily forgettable characteristics.

If you’re interested in some fun excitement, then Prince of Stride might be a show for you. While the storytelling and characters are easily forgettable, the relay races themselves lives up to the hype on most occasions. Stride is apparently a fictional sport so the rules and risks are a refreshment to any sports fan. It invites speculations on what strategies can work and what may fail. The risk is also realistic as well that includes near fatal injuries. Furthermore, the show does a clever job highlighting the body movements of the athletes. Each episode is choreographed consistently whether it’s jumping across shortcuts, bypassing obstacles, or just running against the wind.

The artwork is like colored rainbows. Bright and flashy are just few of many words that can describe the background visuals. It also has a sense of flamboyant feel as each relay race has a different style unique to each competition. And of course, who can forget about the boys? They are the main stars not just for being athletes but an eye candy for the female audience to see.

Soundtrack is surprising attractive with a good amount of psychology mixed in. There’s good timing during crucial points of each relay race to capture the thrill of competition. It’s also creative enough to be legitmently entertaining to the ears. Character voice mannerism is moderate although I personally find them lacking with the exception of Riku. Meanwhile, the OP and ED theme songs are rather mediocre in respect.
In essence, Prince of Stride is more of a show that seems to appeal to a certain demographic and advertised for the audience to play the game. It isn’t an entirely awful show despite the lackluster story or mild characterization. Rather, it doesn’t deliver with the premise and each episode seems to lack more and more steam as time drags on. I find it hard to also get attached to many of the characters and in the end didn’t really find liking any of them. Blurring the lines of fictional sport and modern man service, this is a show that easily feels like an advertisement.

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Poll: Prince of Stride: Alternative Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Mar 22, 2016	157 replies	by Muow »» Dec 20, 2022 7:08 AM
Poll: Prince of Stride: Alternative Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Feb 23, 2016	72 replies	by Muow »» Dec 19, 2022 12:23 AM
Poll: Prince of Stride: Alternative Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Feb 9, 2016	90 replies	by Muow »» Dec 18, 2022 4:44 AM
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Prince of Stride: Alternative

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Prince of Stride: Alternative

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