Dive!!

Ok, this is my first time writing a review so..

Well, where do we start? I guess from the begining. Dive!! is an anime about, you guess it, diving, but it does little to nothing to get you exited for it. As we all know, at least the ones that have already watched an spocon, you don't have to like the sport that the series is about, you don't even have to know about it's very existance to like the anime itself and that is one of the many things this show does wrong. The anime fails in selling you the sport, they barely explain how ... the scores work and how the judges judge, and what the difference is between a good and a bad dive, an so on. So, having failed with one of the most important things of this anime genre we naturally proceed to take a look at the next most important thing, the characters. You would think that this is were the anime shines, but you'd be wrong, this is the worst part of the anime. But how? Well, by making them totally generic archetypes or worse, making them less than that. You have the protagonist which... likes to... dive? Yeah you don't know much about him other than that and the fact that he had his ex-girlfriend taken by his douchebag brother (yeah, you sure like that NTR shit). Ok, but we have a supporting cast right? Of course, we sure have! We have Yoichi which is the talented boy with no other trait, we of course have the underdog Okitsu which at first dislikes diving but... guess he starts to like it further into the series. And theeen we have the rest of the cast which are only there because the world is suposed to be habiteted by other human beings, but in this case you don't give a fuck. Now that we are done with the "characters" we can analyze this beautiful story. They want to go to the Olyimpics, that's it. Soooo, what else can i tell you? The artstyle is fine and so is the sound, but at this point you don't care about that.

In conclusion Dive!! is a bad anime, don't waste your time watching it unless you want to stack another anime to your list ;)

I trudged through 4 episodes of this anime just so that I could write this review. Y’all better upvote my review so that I’ll know that those 80 minutes of my life weren’t a COMPLETE waste.

Basically, Dive is what you get if Haikyuu and Free had an illegitimate child – with none of the good looks or character development of Free, nor the long drawn technical jargon or complicated strategies of Haikyuu. Granted, that’s being a little tough on the anime, seeing how only four episodes have aired, but, come on! That’s a quarter of the show right there. You can *tell* that this ... anime is gonna be another cliché fest and has been released only to satiate the eyes of fans. Why do I say that? Because of the cliché story, cliché characters and mediocre animation. Don’t believe me? Well –

The Mizuki Diving Club isn’t doing too well (Haikyuu) and is on the verge of shutting down (or so the students thought) when suddenly, this gorgeous hard ass of a lady, Asaki (similar to that one girl from Haikyuu with that typical shounen female strength and no character development) shows up as the knight in shining armour, promising to take the MDC boys to the Tokyo Olympics (Free). We have the star of the MDC, the tsundere Yoichi (who totes looks like Sugawara and is definitely gonna be the most popular guy from the series), the wide-eyed-tsundere-worshipping MC who suspiciously has the same eye and hair color as Haru (from Free), the bumbling manager (seriously, every sports anime is incomplete without one) and the side characters (who are there just for comic relief). In the second ep, we are introduced to a super a ripped dude (who could easily be 25) who previously dove only in the ocean but is now ‘forced’ to compete on a national level (again, Haru much?). So the Suga look alike tsundere and similar to Haru but 25 yrs older super tsundere have a problem with each other, but we don’t know why that is. Bc what’s better for fangirls and boys than two ‘hot’ dudes having it out for each other? SMH.

I also love how Asaki (the female coach) has huge breasts and wears shirts to school that are buttoned right from the point her cleavage ends…. because this is EXACTLY the kinda stuff a largely female fanbase is thirsty to see. WTF??? And my God, if this is how ‘good’ voice actors are, I’m glad I stick to dubs. Especially seeing how annoyingly high pitched every female is until and unless she’s portrayed as someone serious or someone who should not be messed with. A+ to the realistic depiction of girl/women’s voices.

The anime comes from Zero-G, an unheard of studio, and I’m not surprised they chose a sports anime as their ‘breakout’ anime. After all, such anime are unanimously popular among their fan bases. However, I have to say that even though I did not have very high expectations from this anime, its art was a complete disappointment. I wouldn’t give it more than a 5. Granted that Zero-G is a new studio that may not have a budget as big as KyoAni (remember Free’s gorgeous animation?), but guys, if you wanna stand out, being mediocre is not the way to go.

The biggest grudge I have from the anime, apart from its art style and completely cliché existence, is its body proportions. They are way off. The heads of all the boys in the MDC are too big for their bodies. Plus, how many 15 year olds can really have such rock hard abs? I know I’m not an expert in swimmers’ bodies, but come on! And then, there’s the fact that their bodies are SO well developed, but their faces are all baby faced…. I mean, when you have such a dazzling body, your face automatically loses all the baby fat and becomes sharper. But, nope! Plus, their teensy weensy swimming suits made me uncomfortable – I mean, why couldn’t they cover up their asses just like the Free guys did with theirs? In fact, Rin, Sousuke, Haru and Mako (the most popular guys from the series) had pretty much their entire thighs covered when they wore their swimsuits. But of course, I know this is a personal preference and a lot of the fans of the show wouldn’t want the Dive boys to wear anything longer, which is understandable. I’m just ranting here. Anyway, getting to the positive points – the 4th ep was by far the best ep out of all the ones that aired. However, by that time I’d lost interest in the anime. This anime simply has nothing new to offer. I’d have appreciated good visuals to compensate for the lack of a genuine plot or even characters, but ah, I was hoping for too much.

The OP and ED are generic, the use of CGI was minimal, and the art is reminiscent of the early 2000s shounen/comedy anime. This anime was hyped up a lot, especially among the fans of the sports anime genre, and for those looking for nothing but fan service, you’ll be satisfied. But if you’re looking for something more, look elsewhere. The reason I gave it a 6 and not a 5 (which is my score for a mediocre anime) is because I’m glad more and more studios are creating content aimed at a largely female audience. This is definitely a step forward.

*Minor spoilers*
Side note: I think this is the first sports anime that I’ve seen where the MC accepts and then rejects a girl’s proposal. Hahahahaha. And we all know why that is, don’t we?

Dive!! is a sports anime that isn’t. Just a few glaring flaws:

- Not enough energy / adrenaline
- No explaination of scoring / scores
- Hardy any explaination of techniques + why they are difficult
- Lack of development of rival oragnizations

BUT I Dive isn't a sports anime. It is a character-driven story about the coming-of-age of our main characters – and it does this very well. Instead of a focus on one main character, the show introduces, and heavily develops multiple characters, showing them experience new things together and alone, growing as teenagers. It is a brilliant coming-of-age story with unique, no cliché characters, using competitive ... diving as a prop for development. I see it quite similar to Yuri on Ice. It is not about a sport, it is about the characters playing the sport. If you come in expecting a sports anime, you will be disappointed. If you come in expecting a great cast of characters, good story and decent art, you will love the show.

So.

Story: A super interesting take on the less glamorous side of high level competitive sports – discussing issues like fairness and touches on using connections to get unfair advantages in the selection process (in this case, the Olympics). Ending… :(

Characters: 10/10. Unique, uncliched characters, each of which is grounded in reality. It honestly feels like the characters are real, with real motivations, setbacks, emotions, and logic. I never feel that any character chooses to do something completely unreasonable, and I never feel the show uses any ridiculous coincidences to push their development. Instead, the show focuses on the coming of age of the cast and it is such a wonderful story.

Art and Sound: Eh. Decent art, although sometimes quality drops / some CG that looks slightly out of place. Music is nothing special, although shout-out to the voice actors, I think they did an absolutely amazing job of conveying the characters’ emotions and general feel.

Overall, I went into the show expecting a competitive diving sports anime and was sorely disappointed. Instead, I found a criminally under-watched story about the growth of a brilliant cast of unique characters that really made this show the hidden gem of the summer 2017 season. I would give it an 7/10, but I would 10/10 recommend giving it a shot!

*** SHORT & SPOILER FREE REVIEW ***

If you have seen any sports anime, there is one thing common in all of them, i.e., Adrenaline Rush. But I find it missing. Maybe it's because of a not-so-mainstream sports, diving.

Story(5/10): I thought I will watch it till 5-6 episodes, because 1st episode of any sports anime can't give you enough content and that feel which gives you a reason to go on with the anime. And guess what! I dropped this anime just after 4th episode. After watching those disastrous 88 minutes including OP and EP, i guess that mangaka thought about making a cool ... and "different" anime.
"AH! What shoud we do? What should we do?... BINGO. let's make an anime about Diving about which no one gives a fuck and we'll also introduce some typical out-of-the-box lame characters." In the climax of episode 1, they mention Tokyo Olympics (not a spoiler, reconsider), so it indicates that there will be much in later episodes. But there wasn't anything except introducing some shit opponents.

Characters(3/10) : They managed to create good ART(7/10) but they tried to create unique characters, and mind you, UNIQUE is not always GOOD. Neither they developed the characters in a standard way, nor very different, so in a way, LAME!
Giving 2/10, but +1 for unnecessary but good Fan Service.

Sound (2/10) : OMG! The mixing of soundtracks with the voice acting is dreadful. I would say that voice acting was very natural but the mixing was awful Blame this new studio for that. Some soundtracks were directly copied from some metal bands, if you listen closely.

Guys may not like this anime, you'll know the reason when you'll start with it.
People are claiming that the story and characters are kinda plagiarized from anime like Haikyuu and FREE!

FINAL VERDICT : I have dropped this anime on 4th episode. If you wanna watch any sports anime, watch anime like Hajime No Ippo, Kuroko NO Basuke, Haikyuu, etc. This should be your last preference.

It certainly sounded promising at the beginning and I was so hyped but honestly I just ended up being disappointed. From the first episode it was obvious that DIVE!! was aiming for a kind of Free! vibe where you have beautiful, muscular guys and a little bit of sport-related drama but this anime just went down the wrong path I guess.

The two main flaws are nonexistent plot line and poor character development. I mean plot is nonexistent even if you turn your head like 180 degrees. All characters do is talk talk talk. And no, they’re not explaining us diving rules or anything ... about the sport. They’re basically only encouraging each other to be better and reach some major competitions like Olympics but ironically when the time for those competitions finally comes, anime just skips them like they didn’t even happened. So sometimes it’s really confusing. And sadly often is just the beginning of the jumps shown or how it ended. And I’m like did the character even jump? Is this really a sports anime? Also the characters are really plain and their development is so poorly done that sometimes it’s just frustrating to watch. Their main goal was to reach Olympics and everything revolved around that goal. It was of course nothing new and the story was similar to other sports anime but somehow it kept me interested. I was wondering how will they do it and can they even reach that level and so on. But then the main character went downhill towards the end of series and for some random reason just destroyed the whole point of this anime. I was at shock like wft just happened.

So if you’re looking for a quality sports anime with satisfyingly realistic factor or you’re just looking for something similar to Free! because you miss our Kyoto Animation's water boys, I wouldn't seek it here if I was you.

Dive!! is...
Well, it's an anime. A sports anime. About diving.
I wish I could say more about it, but it hasn't left much of an impression on me, despite having watched all the episodes that have been aired at the time I'm writing this.
It's probably not the best idea to write my first review on this rather.. forgetable anime but hey, I can do what I want.

And that's what I'm gonna do.
Keep in mind that this is very subjective, though, and I don't mind if you don't share my opinions. But let's get this over with.

Story - 3/10
Sports anime often aren't anything new, and ... that's okay. The story of some underdog team or player fighting their way to the top is good enough usually, but Dive!! really doesn't offer anything in that department. So the diving club will close down if they can't show results, a new coach comes to teach them, they've got their goals set on the olympics.
That's cool. And really, that's it. Nothing really... happens. Now, lots of sports anime either tend to show a lot of sports related stuff like matches or training sequences (Kuroko no Basket for example) or focus a lot of the friendship, rivalries and so on of the characters (Free! to name one). Some like to do plenty of both (Haikyuu!! does it well, in my opinion). Some anime try doing both, but kind of fail at it by cramming it into the too short timeframe (Yuri on Ice, I'm sorry, but you could've done better).

Dive!! doesn't really do either. Sure, there's some training shown, a competetion, the characters talk to each other, but it's almost as if the anime tries using those to hide the fact that a lot of the episodes consist of exposition (and not in the "Let's explain the sport to the viewers"-way) and... filler. It might just be me, but nothing really goes on a lot of the time. With a training-camp arc of sorts coming up, things might be get a bit of a jumpstart, but so far, the story itself just is... dragging by.

Art - 5/10
Where Free! and Kuroko no Basket have their colorful, attractive characters and Haikyuu!! and Ballroom e Youkoso have the interesting anatomy and more down to earth but charming (and no less attractive) designs , Dive!! again has... neither. It also lacks the dynamic animation those anime have.
The style itself is easy on the eyes, though the anatomy is somewhat weird to me. During the surprisingly well animated diving scenes, the characters' long limbs and lean muscle look good, but a lot of the time the characters just... stand there, lacking a lot of detail. The backgrounds however look nice, and I enjoy the somewhat realistic (in a sense of "This looks like a place that could exist") environments.

Sound-7/10
This might be my personal bias, but Dive!! has to offer some great voice actors. Which... is why I gave the anime a 7 on the sound department, because the rest of it isn't that great. The BGM is... also there, and it's decent enough. It offers a nice backdrop to the animation and isn't overly in-your-face. The OP's chorus is a little catchy, but the song itself is forgetable. So is the ending. But, I mean, the voices are mostly good, and the voice actors did a solid to good perfomance on most of the characters

Characters - 4/10
The good voice actors don't save the characters from being boring to medicre, though. None of them really stick out. Sure, it's nice to have the protagonist be more on the cute and introverted side instead of being brash, but ultimately, his character is pretty... flat. So is Yoichi, the stoic prodigy character who comes across as patrononizing without having much of a personality beyond that.
The coach is headstrong and strict (I guess to have the only important female be more than just squealing eye candy?) but doesn't really have much to offer either. The only character who seems somewhat refreshing is Shibuki (who's apparently sixteen or seventeen but looks like twenty-five to me), the wild young man who doesn't want to play by the diving-rules.

Overall, the characters are just... boring, most of the time. They don't really stick around in your head, and even I, who tends to latch on the characters for shipping reasons and fanfic, can't find much enjoyment in them. They lack the bond of friendship and comradarie present in most sports anime, and honestly, I don't even remember their names aside from... three of them, as compared to the entire casts of Free! and Haikyuu!!

Enjoyment - 5/10
I don't... hate it.
I don't really like it either.
Unfortunately, I still have to force myself to watch it by promising myself that I'll see the characters who's design I like and who I want to know more about. But otherwise, the anime unfortunately is so slow and mediocre to me, that watching it feels like watching TV and waiting for your favorite show to come on, so you watch whatever is playing before it to not be bored.

I will finish the anime, sure, and I'm hoping that it'll be more fun during the training-camp arc - cause hey, I like those!- but for now, it's just the epitome of mediocre to me. It's not so bad that it's good/funny or something I hate so that I can watch it and be mad. It just.. lacks impact.


Overall - 5/10
And that sort of sucks.
The first episode sort of promised a summer-y anime about a more uncommon sport, and it could've been good, but due to the slow progression and the long stretches of nothing happening it's ultimately just boring to me. Pair that with the one- to barely two-dimensional characters and often lackluster animation and you have an anime that tries to make you feel like going out and jump from a diving platform but fails to do that.

I might update this once the anime is over, and I might even read the manga to see if the writing is better in there, but for now, I just have to say that Dive!! manages to be a mediocre anime through and through. It's not bad. It's not good.
It's right there in the middle, watchable and passable. Nothing that deserves hate, just something that fails at really doing what it wants to do.

And that's too bad, because I feel like more could've been done with it.

I recently finished this anime and all those reviews made my question all this false marketing. I see a lot of critique about the relationship being forced and I do see where everyone is coming from, however, you can still understand the main character. Do I see this anime as I masterpiece? Absolutely not. Is it worth watching? Yes. It is a good anime that shows the struggles of someone trying to achieve their dream. Yes, it's lacking a lot but we're talking about a 12 episode anime. It's not all that easy to wrap a whole plot in 12 episodes without rushing the story.

People ... also compare it to Free! which really isn't the thing here, yes both of them are about shirtless men in swimming pools, but Free had more focus on the relationship between each and every member while Dive!! was focusing on every individual's struggles with themselves. if I had to compare it to an anime I would compare it to March comes in like a lion, due to it following the main character and his struggles to reach the top. Some of you might attack me with "March comes in like a lion was a better anime" and I have to agree, however considering that March comes in like a lion is a 2 seasons anime with approximately 50 episodes makes the show have more depth.

It's pretty hard to imagine that there would be a way to make an anime about competitive diving interesting. Dive!! does nothing to change your mind in that regard. What you end up getting is a very average, typical sports anime.
The story itself is okay but any efforts to add dramatic or comedic elements fail for the most part. The art is good although I do have a little gripe with how the reflection of light off the water's surface looks on the divers bodies. The best chance the anime had of drawing me in I thought would have been the way they chose to ... animate the dives. With the exception of the final episode, I thought the animation was just about average. The soundtrack was good and it was utilized well throughout the series. The characters were okay for the most part although they were insufferable when it came to scenes that contained drama.
Dive!! isn't bad but if you're looking for new sports anime to watch, then it should be low on your priority list. The show has potential to have a better second season should that happen but to fully take advantage of that potential there should have been better story development.

Well..where do I start? I cannot say I did not enjoy the series, but if I think back to it this feels like the storyline was ripped of from Free!, which holds a similar concept of the storyline. Even the main character looks a bit similar to Haruka, from Free!, and considering that it was aired about 4 years after the release of Free!, it feels like a rip off. Not saying that I did not enjoy the story regardless, but I do feel like the storyline should have been a bit more original. One point though, I did enjoy the soundtrack, as it is ... rather catchy.

I suggest to those who love sports anime, please take this as just another sports anime. If you're here to watch and compare Dive to other sports anime like Haikyuu, Yuri on ice, Free!, you'll be sorely disappointed. But if you take it as a normal sports anime, without holding any expectations or benchmarks, this is a very good anime that you can take quite a bit from.

The character development was great. I can say that this was pretty realistic in showing the diving industry in Japan especially if you're not very familiar with it. The characters all managed to change and improve in their ... own ways. They're not super flashy about it but if you pay attention, you'll definitely see them grow.

The art was simple but beautiful and the OP and ED suited the anime very well, in my opinion.

I would say give this a chance. If you're someone who can appreciate a unique sport that is neither flashy nor dramatic, and if you can keep an open mind, I think you will enjoy this.

anime felt pretty boring to me to be honest, i don't think it really focus on the main plot which is "Diving". there isn't much explanation about the sport related topic as well.

additionally, the characters' drama seems to overshadow the plot. too dramatic for my liking to be honest.

even though, i like watching "diving" sport during olympics etc., i think there should have been explanation on their points grading during competition because not many people would have understand how they are being graded.

but in general, can't really expect much from anime that ends in twelve or thirteen episodes as many things will be ... squeeze into such little episodes and a lot of explanations are left out which always keep people guessing when the anime ends.

So I was looking through the "Summer Stack Challenges" and saw Dive!!, I like diving sports so I took a shot at this anime. It's missing everything that the other sports animes have, for example, there's a lack of energy and adrenaline that the characters give off making them forgettable and a bit boring. Additionally, there's a lack of information about the diving techniques, scoring, and difficulty levels. Furthermore, in other sports animes, there is competition and we get to see the teams progress in order to beat the other teams, in Dive!! there are hardly any competitors shown; it makes us ... (the audience) question what pushes these characters to improve and train harder.

Additionally, there are moments in the anime that build tension, however we don't get to see anything come out of those scenes. The characters hardly develop, and we don't get the chance to see them push or challenge themselves to overcome these hardships.

This is definitely not the best sports anime by a long shot but it was interesting enough to binge and be somewhat engaged with. I was intrigued with the plot and actually wanted to know what was going to happen. However, it definitely had its boring, generic moments and everything felt contrived, from the fan service, to the dialogue, to the "convenient" ending. You'll know what I mean if you watch this...

I think you should watch this if you like sports anime and enjoyed Free, but expect way less entertainment value. It's a low-budget version of Free tbh.

I thought the art was nice, but ... there was less emphasis on the actual diving portion of the show. Other sports anime actually go in-depth on the sports and explain the scoring, and take you into the inner psyche of a character before they perform, but this was mostly about their life outside diving. Even then, there was barely any character development or backstory. We never saw a single parent figure. One little thing happened with the main character's brother at the beginning and then we literally never saw his brother again.

All in all, I am glad I saw this, it was on my list for a while, and I don't regret the time I spent on it, but it's a solid 7.

I binged the show I think it's a good show, but not a masterpiece and not many people may like it because the anime has some negatives in my opinion which can be a huge turndown for some people.

Let's start with the negatives:

- Rules of diving and the scoring system are not explained. This is a problem because not everyone who will watch the series is a fan of the sport and it's not famous or intuitive enough for people to understand the sport.

- While I think the main cast is good enough, the secondary characters are in my opinion not well developed and/or ... serve just to drive the story forward and put struggles to our protagonists.

- We don't know enough about the personal lives of the three main characters except for Shibuki. We do see some bits like Youichi being the son of one of the coaches and Tomoki being left alone with his brother. However, I think we need to know more about these two. I know because they are competitive divers they don't have a lot of free time, but that doesn't mean they don't have any private life.

And here are the positives:

- The art is very good in my opinion. I like the aesthetic design of all the characters. And the diving animations look good in my opinion. However, I didn't like the reflection of the water on the character's skin.

- I think the story overall did a good job in portraying the growth of Tomoki, Youichi and Shibuki. Both in their athletic improvements and personality.

- I think it does a good job at showing how terrible the life of a young professional athlete (they aren't paid, but they are aiming for the Olympics) can be. Because you give up a huge portion of your free time which could be used to spend more time with some of your friends, relatives and studying a little more if needed. And many times those efforts do not pay off.

Even if the number of positives and negatives I listed is the same. Personally, for me, the positives outweigh the negatives. I think the series is good, but I think it's a bit of wasted potential. I think 12 episodes just weren't enough for the series and should have been more.

I watched Dive!!. Here are my thoughts:

So, as you might have guessed, this is a fairly typical sports show that is focused on diving. Much of the show revolves around the preparation, and selection, of athletes for the Olympics. Going to the (Tokyo) Olympics is certainly relevant to recent world events at the time of my writing this. Overall this show has a pretty amateurish feeling and seems low budget.

Considerable attention is paid to the technical aspects of diving, certainly moreso than I expected. This is a very unique feature of this anime and one of the main reasons I stuck with it. It was ... interesting to learn about the sport of diving through this medium. In fact I would have liked to have seen even more focus on the details of the sport (maybe I should've just watched a documentary, haha).

Although it was a little melodramatic, I was grateful for the absence of comedy in the show. I could consistently feel the tension in the show and the pressure the athletes were under. There was a pervasive feeling of anticipation of upcoming competitions. I much prefer this over a comedy-heavy show. So although people complain about melodrama, I just want to point out that the alternative scenario could have been much worse.

Overall the characters were fairly weak and a little underdeveloped. However, I did like the female coach (Kayoko) and the ocean-cliff diver guy (Shibuki). Shibuki was one of the reasons I stuck with this show; he was a cool character. Kayoko was also cool and I enjoyed her presence. Unfortunately the MC was a pretty lackluster character; he didn't have much of a personality and added little to the show. A better MC could have gone a long way to improving this show, or at least somehow making him more sympathetic and likable would. I found the coaching staff more intriguing characters than the divers themselves (there is a fair bit of drama revolving around the diving organization and its members). There is also a lot of focus on the athletes' state of mind – I appreciated this, even though it could have been done better, and would have been augmented by better characters.

The visuals are serviceable but certainly nothing special. There wasn't any discernable art style. Although there were no major visual flaws, the animation is basic and lackluster, and definitely not a selling point for the show. Which is kind of unfortunate because this anime could really benefit from a high animation budget; there was tons of (squandered) opportunity for visual flair. I try not to place too much emphasis on visuals, but there was definitely a lot of wasted potential here in that regard. This anime could have looked awesome if only it had the budget. Also I can't end this paragraph without mentioning those hot muscular slender diver bodies – they are indeed tight and sexy, and there is a lot of fanservice, albeit with lackluster animation. One thing I will say about the fanservice is that there was never ever screentime devoted strictly to it – it was always just incidental and never particularly intrusive. I say this in contrast to so many other shows that basically put a neon sign up saying "THIS IS THE FANSERVICE SCENE" (I'm being hyperbolic) and proceed to jiggle breasts in front of you for the next minute straight with nothing else of entertainment value on-screen; the fanservice in Dive was way more tasteful and nondisruptive than this, which is certainly preferable to the alternative. Also it's just unavoidable that a show focused on male diving athletics is going to have a lot of naked lean muscular men on-screen.

The audio is underwhelming; the OST is not bad but fairly generic, and the voice acting as a whole is quite mediocre. At least the ED song is nice and soothing.

Even though it was amateurish, there was nothing about this anime that was particularly awful. On the other hand, there was nothing about it that significantly impressed me. It is a fairly typical sports show, just focused on diving and maybe with a bit more voyeuristic flavour than usual. A bit more melodrama as well, but I still much prefer that over excessive comedic relief. On the other hand, I wished they focused even more on the sport and experience of competitive diving itself, rather than all the melodrama regarding the Olympic team and its support staff. The last few episodes definitely had some forced drama laid on heavy.


My overall rating: 5/10
It wasn't THAT bad. Although amateurish, it doesn't have any major flaws. It's a little heavy on the melodrama but personally I still prefer that over excessive comedy; I appreciated this anime maintaining a consistently serious mood. This anime doesn't make any major unforced errors, but also isn't particularly ambitious. Although the characters are forgettable, it was an adequate sports show. I was adequately entertained and would watch a second season.

People who like sports anime should consider giving this a chance. It's a shame about the budget – I really think this anime could have benefited from better production quality, moreso than other shows. This definitely doesn't deserve to be one of the lowest-rated shows on MAL.

For the record, at the time of writing this, I have not yet seen the Free! anime (it is often compared to Dive).

I remember a long time ago when I was a child, multiple times I attended a summer camp hosted at a university with an Olympic-style pool. I swam in this giant pool frequently, and I still vividly remember the diving platforms. It was set up exactly like in this anime. It brought back some memories. I've had recurring dreams over the years about being back in that pool. It's a prominent memory in my mind. I remember jumping off those concrete diving platforms. As a kid it was really cool. I still vividly remember the feeling of those concrete diving platforms beneath my bare feet, and the feeling of jumping off them.

SPOILER COMMENT: nobody actually goes to the Olympics...during the show. The last episode takes place before the Olympics, during a preliminary competition from which the Olympic team is determined. Personally I tend not to fixate on plot milestones like this, but I know this will bother other people. The ending isn't entirely unsatisfying though. An Olympics arc would have been nice to see, but I suppose the Tokyo Olympics were still years in the future when this anime aired. As I've already alluded, most of the show's drama revolves around the preparation for the Olympics, not the actual event. So, be aware of that and set your expectations accordingly.