Hanebado!

I have conflicting opinions about Hanebado. It's a melodrama show disguised as a sports anime. Now don't get me wrong, the animation was definitely not subpar; every match was well drawn out that it just looked explosive. The facial expressions during tense moments were outstanding and I dare say it sent shivers down my spine at times. You can tell a lot of dedication and hard work went into making this anime very pleasing to the eye.

Now, where do the flaws kick in? If it has good animation then surely it must be good right? You're about half right. You don't get into the ... juicy drama until about a few episodes into the show. Ayano is the daughter of an Olympic athlete, Uchika. She was considered one of the best professional badminton players of all time. She trained her daughter from a young age to play badminton. Pretty cool right? Well not so much after. Serigaya was another badminton player in middle school that had a match against Ayano. She caught a cold and contaminated Ayano to "play even" and the latter lost. Now the genius mother thought with her Giga brain that abandoning her daughter when she needed support was an amazing idea to make her become a stronger badminton player. She had no guarantee nor proof this was going to work, but it miraculously did when her best friend Elena convinced her. She later left Japan and adopted another child and trained her instead. This person was Connie, a professional player from Denmark. It's also baffling how she thought they would reunite as a family.

Now realistically this would work. But not so morally. Ayano became a monster; cold-hearted and ruthless to her opponents, destroying most of them. The mother ultimately accomplished her goal at the expense of her daughter's loving and innocent nature.
What really made everything worse was the ending. Ayano, self-doubting herself on the brink of losing a match against Nagisa and being a dick to her teammates prior, all she needed was a little encouragement from one of her mates and she completely changed. She turned over a new leaf and basically forgave her mother, as if to say "I'm sorry for acting this way, I now know you did it for me so everything is back to normal". The mother got away with being a terrible parent and that's it.

Honestly, it was an utter disappointment, and felt like the buildup was all for naught. In the end we were given a terrible happy ending bullshit.

The friendship/rivalry between the two main characters is filled with angst, i love it. The story was not very memorable for me, but the moments that these characters shared together and how they grew from their hate was entertaining to watch.

What stuck to my mind though, was when these two would play against each other, the animation of their movements, the sound of their rackets the moment it hits the shuttle cock, the passion they have when they play, the emotions they feel like anger or indifference are well shown through their eyes. I think it was a really well done anime when it ... came to these moments. It's nerve-racking yet also really exciting, a lot of scenes gave me goosebumps.

Hanebado is an anime about tennis' decidedly less popular cousin that gets some things very right and other things very wrong.

STORY

It's been pointed out elsewhere so I won't belabor the point, but the pacing of Hanebado - the speed at which the story is told- is so fast you'd think it was strapped to the front of a Bullet Train. A lot of the traditional plot points of a sports anime are rapid-fired at you, just to point out one example, by the halfway point of this 13 episode series we already have major characters playing their final high school badminton matches- it's portrayed as ... this momentous event but we've had so little time to actually get to know the cast that you can be left feeling "Wait, what, we're already HERE?" Now I'm not saying it's wrong for a sports series to have a faster pace than average (one of my chief complaints about the sports genre is its often extremely decompressed storytelling which can leave you having to trudge through volume after volume of manga to reach the next significant plot point) but you can go too far in the other direction.

ART

Now I do have to give Hanebado credit here, the series looks GOOD. Perhaps not the *very* best thing I've ever seen, but this is higher-end animation quality. I especially respect the fact that TOHO Animation used a lot of shots with different lighting- changing the lighting of a scene changes the entire color palette of a scene, and you'd be surprised just how many anime opt to simply have all their scenes take place in broad daylight or a brightly lit room. As for the characters, their designs are solidly done, but they don't really break out of established archetypes. The art is also a bit excessively fan-service-y at times; let's just say some girls were 'endowed' with more than just athletic ability and some of their badminton outfits looked pretty outlandish compared to what came up in my Google image search of 'Women's Olympic Badminton'.

SOUND

Mallorie Rodak voices Shiwahime Yuika. Shiwahime is automatically Best Girl. But I digress... Ahem, anyway... Otherwise sound is fine, but I can't point any one thing that really pushes it above 'decent' and 'solid'.

CHARACTERS

This one is a mixed bag. On one hand, the Bullet Train pace of the story means major characters arcs are often blazed through with little impact, and cast members can end up doing heel-face or face-heel turns on a dime. On the other hand, Hanebado did something I legitimately wasn't expecting with Main Character Hanesaki Ayano: there were times she was straight-up played as the villain. In most sports stories I've seen, when a character is The Jerk that's their whole character- they ARE The Jerk. But without going into excessive spoiler territory, the more we learn about Hanesaki the more we see that while she has positive characteristics and is generally nice and likable under certain circumstances she has this nasty streak to her personality that completely takes over. And this bad part of her isn't glossed over, nor do they rely on the old trick of hiding a character's flaws by pitting her against someone far morally worse, there are times when you'll be left thinking "OK, this girl needs to lose and get some sense knocked into her." It just wasn't something I was expecting from the moe MC who is clearly going to be the character selling the merchandise.

OVERALL ENJOYMENT

Hanebado is fun, but it has its flaws, some of them significant. I won't tell you to skip it, but I can't say it deserves to be near the top of your list either. Watch it if you're in the mood.

HANEBADO! Review

As of recently, my appreciation for sports anime has grown from what it initially was. Much of my appreciation for this genre has come from my love for Haikyuu!! and Free!! Both of these shows have managed to become some of my favorites in the sports genre of anime and perfectly demonstrate the appeal of their own respective sports in numerous ways. I didn’t want my newfound appreciation of sports anime to dwindle out immediately, so I took it upon myself to search for other well-received sports shows. The anime that I ended up stumbling upon was a series called, HANEBADO! In this review, ... I’ll be talking about the story, characters, animation/art, music, and my overall thoughts on the show.

Story: 6/10 (Fine)

HANEBADO! is a badminton anime about hard work, determination, and the purpose behind pursuing the things we love. At first glance, this show may look like your typical sports anime, and you’d be 100% right in thinking that. Unlike Haikyu!! or Free!!, HANEBADO! doesn’t strive to do or say anything all too different from what you're used to. It plays around with interesting themes and concepts, but given the short length of the series, not much was ultimately achieved. Unfortunately, the story of HANEBADO! is its weakest aspect.

Characters: 6/10 (Fine)

One of the things that stood out to me in this series was how most of the characters were handled. As mentioned before, HANEBADO! is a fairly short anime. With only 12 episodes to get the viewer attached to its characters, I suspected I’d be walking away unimpressed. While not bad, most of the characters can be described as ok. This applies to Ayano Hanesaki as well. Despite being one of the two main characters in the show, Ayano came off as unlikeable and bland in almost every episode. I think a large part of the reason I felt this way about her was because of her antagonistic nature. Shortly after Ayano’s return to badminton, her personality is completely flipped. She goes from being timid and friendly, to someone who neglects her friends and only thinks about winning the next match ahead of her. I understand that she needed time to develop as a likeable character, but this drastic shift in her personality left me a bit conflicted at times. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought of this, but Ayano sometimes comes off as the villain for a large part of the season. In fact, I found myself rooting for her rivals more times than not. Thankfully, Ayano isn’t the only main character in HANEBADO! The second main character I’d like to talk about is Nagisa Aragaki. Initially, I wasn’t a big fan of Nagisa. She came off as cold, rude, and downright cruel to her teammates at the start of the season. To my surprise Nagisa actually acknowledges these faults, and does something about them. She starts living up to her reputation as captain of the team, and even learns to support her teammates as best she can. With that in mind, I think it's safe to say Nagisa is my favorite character in HANEBADO!! She’s smart, kind, and a great representation of “hard work pays off,” in a show that’s largely focused on that exact theme


Animation/Art: 8/10 (Great)

Animation is always something I’ll value in an anime. When done right, it can really affect my enjoyment of a show. In the case of HANEBADO!!, they absolutely knocked it out of the park. Movements felt fluid and really helped demonstrate how intense a match of badminton can truly be. If there’s one thing that makes this show worth watching, it's the animation.

Music: 7/10 (Good)

For the most part, the OST does its job right. Some of the best matches are usually accompanied with some stellar music, which made some of the scenes all the more memorable. If you want some uplifting and motivational music to listen to, I’d definitely recommend some of these tracks.


Final Score: 6/10 (Fine)

Overall, I’d say HANEBADO! is a fine show. Aside from the beautiful animation and top-notch music, there’s not much here to talk about. If you're looking to feed your hunger for sports anime, I’d recommend checking out this series.

This review is spoiler-free!

Finally, a sports anime I can watch fully! As a badminton player myself, I was really excited when this show was announced. I had high hopes for the matches because I could finally understand what was happening on court. But did this show live up to my expectations? Let's find out!

Remember, people are allowed to like or dislike whatever they want. This review is mostly for myself to collect my thoughts.

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STORY:
The first half was messy and awfully paced, but the second felt more focused. Weirdly, the story focuses less on the supposed protagonist and more on her rival. I found that the ... protagonist's character arc felt extremely rushed, so by the time I finished watching the entirety of the show, it didn't even feel like she was important to the story. Everything else I have to say about the story is more related to characters, so I'll save it for later. Most of the plot some pretty standard story of a mother/daughter relationship turned sour. I did think it was interesting in the second half, but I know it's nothing new.

ART:
The main setting of the school gym is unlit, making everything inside difficult to see. I thought about why this might be, and it's probably because it makes it easier to see the birdie when playing badminton (you'll see that in badminton matches, the area surrounding the court is often pitch black). As for characters, the art style is extremely inconsistent. Take for example Ayano. She's always been drawn as a cuter type of character, but during the final two episodes, she looks much older. Another girl who always has her eyes closed suddenly had them open in one scene. It's really bizarre. Colour scheme: Hanebado tends to use more realistic colours both for their settings and characters. There's nothing that stands out about it.

SOUND (OP/ED):
I personally skipped both the opening and ending pretty much every episode. Right now actually, I'm listening to the ending for the first time to give my comments on it. I don't mind it, it's nice but I don't think it's necessarily iconic. The opening's chorus is catchy, I can sing it in my head but the rest of the song is completely forgettable. There isn't much to say about either of them.

CHARACTERS:
This is going to be a long section. Like I said before, the protagonist Nagisa really doesn't FEEL like the protagonist. She finishes her character in a maximum of two episodes, and feels like an empty husk after since her only character trait doesn't exist anymore. Ayano, who I believe is the real protagonist, was a lot more interesting to watch. You can visually see how her past affects her and she is by far the most developed character in the show. Other than Ayano's mom and Connie, everyone else is absolutely irrelevant, barely developed, and could be removed from the series without changing the story. Speaking of Connie, she's my personal favourite character from this show. They still don't do a good job with her, she's a complete asshole when you meet her but later she's shown to be very pure and kind. There's no explanation given for her change in motivation later as well, which is weird considering her motivation is essentially the complete opposite of her previous one. She's still my favourite though, because she's the only character with development that is likable to me.

THE BADMINTON:
I decided to add this in because I can actually speak about the show's portrayal of the sport for once. At first, I couldn't say anything or really enjoy the matches. The cuts barely showed the court and matches ended too quickly for me to care. Later on, starting from Izumi's match, I found the matches to be decently done. I remember Izumi's match well because I related to her player style. The other match I remember is the final match between Nagisa and Ayano. I thought it was done really well, there was a lot of unspoken strategy that I could enjoy. The one thing I didn't like was the lack of tension from just simply needing to receive. Other than Ayano and Nagisa, the other members should not be able to receive every shot so easily at their level. Badminton isn't just about smashes and net shots, but that's all the show chooses to animate. None of the rallies back and forth are emphasized at all, but those are important in badminton. The whole sport is using the other player's receive against them, it's not playing hot potato with the birdie. Kind of disappointed that they didn't explore other ways of losing the point. Also, I watched the final match with my dad (who introduced me to the sport + trains with me). There was a move he noticed that was named, and he laughed because it's not a real strategy or move in badminton.

ENJOYMENT:
It's overall an okay anime. I don't think it's worth remembering, it seems like something that will end up on YouTube one day so people can binge an entire playlist of all the episodes. I think the show struggled to find it pacing until around episode 6, and from there it was a decent watch. The ending was done well, there are shows that are really popular that have a worse ending than Hanebado. I don't think I would recommend this anime to anyone other than my badminton teammates who might be interested in seeing an anime about our sport.

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That's all! I feel like I went kind of hard on this show, I didn't find places to compliment it other than the ending of the final match. I'm curious what others think of this show, I found myself fluctuating between 4-5-6 ratings while watching, but I've finally settled it.

Thank you for reading my review!

Hanebado! is the first of my attempts in the sports anime world and even though the story certainly won't wow audiences, there's so many little things that they did well that made me, at the very least, appreciate what this anime series is. As someone who used to play badminton a lot, though not at a high level, I loved those finer details.

Story & Characters: Hanebado! starts us out with us viewing Nagisa Aragaki, who is very clearly competing at a tournament, and lost 21-0. This is obviously a hard blow to anyone who plays badminton competitively and sets us up real well ... for what's to come. Skip forward to her high school days where she is now captain and basically bullying students who don't appear to be putting in the same passion that she has. Then, a surprise - Ayano Hanesaki, who humiliated Nagisa, is set to return to the world of badminton after a short hiatus. What proceeds is us viewing how our characters go through their club training for tournaments, and hashing out various problems between themselves, and other rival schools.

Each character has a different story to tell and basically the only similarity between them are that they want to work them out through badminton. This has obvious cons to them in that the 'solution' always feels somewhat the same, but they are told ever so slightly that I didn't mind it here. Nagisa is likely the most physically fit and most passionate about badminton than anyone in her school, and it very much gets to her head, even at the caution of her best friend Riko Izumi. I really enjoyed the story elements surrounding these two because there's so much to like, and cheer for. It allows Nagisa to open up, all while not throwing her central characteristics away. She stands out because she's really tall her age and clear favours smashes over any other hit type. Ayano, by polar opposite, is really not a character that I enjoyed watching. Her mother walked out on her at a young age and while this is a decent attempt to build up a decent backstory, it completely flops when you consider Ayano's complete disrespect for her classmates and opponents when it comes to crunch time. This stays mostly in check through the first half, but it makes the second half of the series difficult to watch. Her standout is that she's a lefty and excels in defending more than anything else.

Riko is clearly not as talented, but she's still a strong addition to this series. She comes off as a voice of reason and attempts to be patient with her classmates. Elena has been Ayano's friend since a young age, bit she feels too similar to Riko, outside of the fact that she doesn't play. Her characteristics feel the same, and tries to not intervene until things start to boil down. Individually, these two are strong, but being in the same series, they feel kind of redundant. Various teammates have short character arcs and they were all individually nice to watch, but though don't stand out as much as our main two characters. Kentaro Tachibana is brought in to help coach the badminton club early on and I really appreciated advice he has in this series. He finds a way to get through to Nagisa, and is a decent character outside of the really odd first episode appearance he has.

When you're watching a sport, you really do need to mix up the story formula because it's already predetermined that the sport itself will be one of the focusing points throughout the whole series. When you watch your characters play through the story, you realize really early on that a lot of the story elements aren't terribly interesting. Nagisa's plot points are strong because you see character development happening. She has problems that she wants to resolve herself, but clearly needs a second hand to help her along. I appreciated this. However, Ayano's your other main character and I didn't enjoy any of her story. It doesn't develop her character at all and you're not really left with a sense of relief. Once more, while the setup for the finale was decent, I thought Ayano really brought down the mood.

One of my favourite aspects of Hanebado! was all the little touches that make you feel like you're watching real badminton players play the sport. From the familiar brands like Mizuno and Pocari Sweat, to the correct terminology used to describe hit types, everything feels so refined. Similar to Sound! Euphonium, much of the focus is getting to the national stage, and even though that part of the story didn't have room within one series, those details makes me appreciate this series just a little bit more, despite the rough story and character development. (Story: 6/10, Characters: 6/10)

Art: Hanebado! is a beautiful anime series, no doubt. It takes most every angle imaginable when watching our characters play the game. It could feel a little fan servicey, though not in the traditional sense, and the extra effort put here makes this series really stand out. I'm not sure if this is the norm is sports anime though. Regardless, my eyes liked what they saw. (9/10)

Sound: The OST kind of meshed together and never really played a favour here. You'd like it stick out a little more, but there wasn't much here. The OP, Futari no Hane by Yurika, attempts to create a happy mood here, but this series really doesn't feel like it for most of the run time, leaving this to feel like an odd choice. The ED, High Stepper by Yuuka Ohara, felt similar. Voice work was really strong here with many well known VOs not really using their well-known voice tones, including Amber Lee Connors (Ayano), Jill Harris (Riko) and Sarah Wiedenheft (Elena). Still, they worked well here. One oddity that occurs here is the way in which the characters say badminton in the English dub. I'm not sure if that's because they wanted the lip syncs to look better with the sound, but it sounds really awkward - a strange decision for sure. (9/10)

Overall: Hanebado! felt like a bit of a longshot for me because of my unfamiliarity with the genre, but I'm glad I watched it, despite it's shortcomings. I haven't seen a series do some many little things well in quite some time, and if only the story and characters were more likable, this would have been an easy recommendation. (7/10)

Youtube recommendation brought me to this with all the cool animation sequences of the matches. Weirdly I ended up reading the manga first then I think that influenced my feeling for the anime.

Hanebado!'s manga isn't necessarily that much better, but I think it presented the ultimately similar tone of the story in a more balanced way than the anime did. The anime's biggest issue to me I feel like is just that, it feels very unbalanced. The show is a mixture of upbeat appearances from the color, the character design and the OP, the first tier animation, and then really unlikable characters throughout, plus ... melodrama dial to 15 out of 10. All in a show about high school girls playing Badminton. I think the premise is certainly interesting and no worse than any other sports manga, just I think its quite a bit overdone in the melodrama department.

Without the influence of knowing the story beat of the manga and watching the anime on its own, I think I might not have ended up finishing it just because of how crazy the MC and I guess the main rival acts. But because I ultimately enjoyed the source material I wanted to see the series to its end. And the animation was still top tiered.