Hoshiai no Sora

Constantly outperformed by the girls' club, the boys' soft tennis club faces disbandment due to their poor skills and lack of positive results in matches. In desperate need of members, Touma Shinjou is looking to recruit capable players, but he fails to scout anyone. Enter Maki Katsuragi, a new transfer student who demonstrates great reflexes when he catches a stray cat in his classroom, instantly capturing Touma's attention. With his interest piqued, Touma ambitiously asks Maki to join the boys' team but is quickly rejected, as Maki doesn't wish to join any clubs. Touma refuses to back down and ends up persuading Maki—only under the condition that Touma will pay him for his participation and cover other club expenses.

Maki joins the team, and his incredible form and quick learning allow him to immediately outshine the rest of the team. Although this gives rise to conflict among the boys, Maki challenges and pushes his fellow team members to not only keep up with his seemingly natural talent, but also drive them to devote themselves to the game they once neglected.

As the members of the boys' soft tennis club discover their own capabilities, they endure personal hardships and deal with the darker side of growing up in middle school.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Katsuragi, Maki Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Shinjou, Touma Main

Hatanaka, Tasuku Japanese

Asuka, Yuuta Supporting

Yamaya, Yoshitaka Japanese

Mitsue, Kanako Supporting

Mineda, Mayu Japanese

Ameno, Itsuki Supporting

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Tsukinose, Nao Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuusuke Japanese

Soga, Tsubasa Supporting

Toyonaga, Toshiyuki Japanese

Ouji, Arashi Supporting

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Futsu, Rintarou Supporting

Satou, Gen Japanese

Takenouchi, Shingo Supporting

Satou, Keisuke Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Itou, Shousei Producer

Kyoutani, Tomomi Producer

Mukaichi, Motoki Producer

Reviews

Dec 26, 2019

KANLen09

Recommended

This show truly has the definition of "don't judge a book by its cover", because it ain't just a sports anime, but one that is rife with the daily affluences of family drama and matters that's spread all over it. And knowing director Kazuki Akane on this show's influence taken mostly from his creation of "Noein" and planning this original story for over a decade, I'd say that while this has caused A HELL LOT of backlash, like Satoshi Mizukani's Planet With, the end result is truly the icing on the cake, whether you'd decide to take it literally or not, I believe that what ... Akane-san wanted out of it, he truly accomplished it to its feet with his unorthodox method of storytelling.

You must be wondering why the title literally says "Stars Align", but it's Kazuki Akane's way of foreshadowing that no human is ever perfect, and we're like the stars of the sky, when life beats us down harsh, the common interest in question (soft tennis) aligns us in the thread of fate, that is adolescent trauma (which happens to be his favourite theme). Being grown-ups, the world that they know is never a bed of roses, so the harsh reality of families growing through the different pangs and uncertainties must know how to counteract on their very own. While the school/soft tennis club part is there to help expose and alleviate their true natures of the sufferings going through with parental disabilities, or expectations as simply you would call it, all kinds of nature are laid in bare sight. What these adolescent teens (i.e. Maki, Toma and the others) must do is not to take that emotional attachment and let it be the ridiculing point of their lives, but rather, no matter how much understanding others may have on their struggles, it's the reconciliation that leads to the amalgation of their feelings and work it out to experience their joy (which again, is in the soft tennis club) as an output.

And to this point, all the dysfunctional boys in the Shijo Minami Boy's soft tennis team, budding artist but introverted and bullied Kanako Mitsue, and Kinuyo Kasuga the student council president, all face different but similar parental dysfunctions that affect them both physically and mentally, but not without some help from the same outside community that was once split but now bonded with understanding and acceptance, to push past their fears and limitations to be the best they could be. Even the worst of issues have a silver lining that despite how much relentlessness was given, any amount of joy would overcome the overglaringly terror and rebuild it into something special. All were alone, but the least of forgivings were not enough to separate each and every single member to reunite and conquer these harsh battles together.

Studio 8-bit's visuals have never looked so better, especially with the soft tennis matches that seem to glide by every so often with the amount of exceptional precision and realism. While the overall stance is decent, the character designs are one that pops out in the slew of recognizing who's who and what's what, being that informative for reasons I cannot fathom, but with the puzzle pieces put together, paints a canvas that excels better than my initial thoughts about what this could be. Light-hearted visuals but not without the more serious moments (a.k.a parent-child arguments) make this one of those shows that stand out for reasons.

And speaking of the music, I do enjoy the music and sounds of the show, with some realistic voice acting in the parental issues and OP and ED (of which the former comes VERY often), playing into sound design of the show that's just well done IMO. Always been a fan of Megumi Nakajima's music and this OP shows, while the ED's music is also good, and the dance...let's just say that copyrighted material needs to be attended to foremost.

More than just a realistic drama-ified anime, Kazuki Akane's Hoshiai no Sora brings one important point to start and end its story: "Wherever you are in life, everyone goes through thick and thin, and it takes two hands to clap, so grab a partner that can help spur each other's life forward and achieve things you couldn't have imagined you'd accomplish." Love it or hate it, Stars Align truly will forever be misunderstood under Akane-san's direction, but for those who got the gist of it, make your life count, and keep moving forward.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 10, 2020

Hei41

Mixed Feelings

I'm usually the one that only reads reviews but I felt like I had to write something about this show.

Why ? Because I felt kinda disappointed at the end. I've watched the firsts 7 episodes straights because the show had a good rythm, but it lost it during the last episodes, that are either too slow or too rushed (especially the ending)
I am somewhat frustrated because it began really nicely and thought there was finally a show that deals about serious subjects such as abuse, bullying and LGBTQ+ characters but is also "plot focused" (on sport events).

I think this show had some good ideas but ... in the end they were poorly executed. I read somewhere that there had to be 24 episodes at first but then they decided to make only 12 so it can explain this brutal ending. Maybe it lacks of "normal" supports characters (who have no tragic background or shitty parents to deal with)
So, I'm not gonna blame the story writters for daring to make something new, but I hope there will be more slice of life animes which deals with serious issues and with more character development.

Also, I am sorry if my review is hard to read but english is not my mother tongue. I hope it is still understadable for yall,

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 26, 2019

Kaidu-

Not Recommended

You have heard of “monster of the week”, now get ready for “bad parent of the week.”

What was that final episode, anyway?

Really, what was that?

Before talking about the anime in general, I just have to say that the final episode is one of the worst things I’ve ever watched.

Now, let’s begin.

... Drama is something that has been walking side-by-side with the sport’s genre for a long time. It’s the most common element used to drive the characters’ motivations and fuel their development.
Anime such as Ashita no Joe, Touch, Ping Pong the Animation, and many other well-regarded sports anime all fit in this category, and what do they all have in common that Hoshiai doesn’t? The answer is that, at their core, they are still sports anime, and the sport has a reason to be there. It serves a purpose that couldn’t be fulfilled otherwise.
Hoshiai didn’t needed to be a sports anime. In fact, strip away every instance of sport this show has and replace it with something like a cultural club or something and the results are not very different.

Edit: news got out that the show was meant to be 25-episode long. While that does answer why many plot points were not resolved, it's unlikely this will ever get a second season, and even if it does, the points I made here remain the same for these 12 episodes. What is done is done and +13 episodes wouldn't take back what happened during this "first half."

The show has eight main characters. That is alarming enough given it wants to dramatize all of them in just 12 episode, while still holding into the soft tennis aspect, but it seems the show wasn’t satisfied with just that and decided to dramatize the side characters too.
It is as if the only way it knows how to make those characters fit into the story is to put them in some kind of predicament. However, it doesn’t even do that right because it’s more worried about setting up dramas so it can have a moment of tension during the episode, rather than solving those issues in a compelling way. It’s like a mystery show holding its mysteries’ resolution until the final episode, while introducing more and more mysteries as the story goes by for the sole purpose of holding the viewer’s attention, since it doesn’t know of any other way to do that.
I will give credit where credit’s due, though. The characters are well written enough to stand on their own initially; they have unique personalities and unique traits. However, none of that matters when the show only uses them to incite drama. They are like punching bags only waiting for the blow to give the audience some kind of conflict.

The term “forced drama” has never been more fitting. The show is desperate to make the viewer feel some kind of tension, but setting up soft tennis matches, creating interesting rivals or compelling and well-written conflict is too much work, so it relies on the cheapest tricks in the book to do so. And believe me, it goes beyond the “bad parent of the week” everyone talks about.

The conflict is generally the same. Almost all the kids have bad parents who do not approve of their behavior and want to dictate how their children should live. The show tries to pass a message about that, but fails miserably when every single drama feels so incredibly forced.
Unlike the main characters, the parents (which in a way are the “villains” of the show) are one-dimensional and stupid characters. Every word of dialogue that comes out of their mouth feels like it were generated by a computer that had a very basic idea of how these characters should be. They are purposely selfish without any given reason and end up being literal plot-devices meant to create drama. And when the show does the same thing for the 5th time (that is, introducing a bad parent), you just kind of don’t care anymore.
The only bad parent that could have been interesting is the main character’s father, which was completely forgotten after a certain event and never mentioned again. However, even he felt like a generic one-dimensional villain that you could find anywhere. He is bad because he has to be, and that’s it. It’s like that with EVERY bad character. This is beyond lazy writing, it’s offensive.

The drama itself is terribly handled. Some dramas take a whole episode while others take ¼ of one, with absolutely no set-up whatsoever. The characters are hardly affected by it and they only act as if it matters when it’s meant to create more conflict. Said conflict also doesn’t matter because most of the time it’s inconsequential. Episode 9 is probably the worst offender when it comes to this: Nao traps Shingo’s sister in a room for absolute no reason and everyone just laughs it off. It’s not brought up ever again and Nao is fine and dandy in the next episode.
Some dramas are also completely forgotten, like the matter with Yuuta’s mother or the family conflict of the student council president. Some are resolved in a very rushed and cheap way that makes you wonder why they even exist in the first place.
I can’t put into words just how desperate the show is to get some kind of reaction out of the audience.

And then, at the end of the anime, almost NOTHING that was brought up was resolved.
The show is also trying to pass a message about social matters, but it fails at that, too. It obviously tries too hard at it, taking me out of the experience. When a character talks about a delicate topic, it feels like they are reading a self-help book about it rather than giving their perspective as a teenager.

If that was not enough, it can’t even do soft tennis matches well. The opponents are mostly uninteresting. Coincidentally, the only interesting opponent got like that after he stopped being an opponent, showing just how one-dimensional the show is trying to make its villains look like. I feel like it’s doing it on purpose, honestly. The matches are very cheaply written too, following a formula of having the character adapting to the play-style of their opponent, but taking forever to realize obvious things, only dragging the match to pretend there is conflict.
On the technical aspect, the show started beautifully and declined to a depressing state. The animation gets so inconsistent it’s hard to ignore. Character models sometimes look off and there’s an intense reutilization of animation during the tennis matches. Enough to be noticeable.
To put it simply, it gets ugly. It’s a shame when the first episode had such a consistent production and fluid animation.

There’s a constant overutilization of songs, too. The opening theme is played constantly in key moments, making me desensitized to it when I should be feeling sad or happy. The theme with the piano is also overused during the matches, playing non-stop as if the show only has that one song. It’s not bad, it’s just tiring and lazy.

You might hear that Hoshiai no Sora “got bad” or “went downhill” after a couple of episodes, but I disagree. I honestly believe the show had problems right off the bat. It’s just that the culmination of drama with little to no resolution became more evident as the series went on.

Before I end the review, here are a few arguments I have read defending this show:
-In real life, not all problems are resolved, so it’s okay for the show not to solve everything
This is not real life, this is a work of fiction created by humans (although in this case a computer algorithm might as well have created it) and it’s meant to tell a cohesive story with a beginning, middle and end. This rule also applies to the subplots. There’s absolutely no reason to bring up a conflict if it’s not getting resolved or doesn’t play a role in the main story, and, as I said before, many things in Hoshiai are almost inconsequential, and even when they are consequential, it’s meant to force the plot to go in a certain direction, making it even more forced.
-This was never a show about sports, it’s primarily about drama
But it still has a sport. Putting it aside and rushing the games is still lazy.
-The character don’t appear affected by their family drama because they don’t want to show it
That is true to some extent, but it doesn’t excuse ignoring said dramas altogether, while having characters feel bad when it’s convenient.

Hoshiai no Sora is a show that has desperate desire to create conflict, alongside one of the cheapest and most dishonest writing I’ve seen, created one of the worst shows I’ve watched this year. It forgets the unnecessary plot points that the show itself had introduced, and rushes others. It tries to send a message, but it feels like it’s lecturing you about it. It fails at everything it attempts. There’s not a single redeeming quality besides the decent production of the first episode. There’s not a single thing to take out of this show, except maybe a good involuntary laugh.
Had it been a comfy slice of life soft tennis anime, maybe the end result would’ve been better.
Saying I didn't enjoy it would be an understatement though. This gave me good laughs.

Thanks for reading, and forgive my poor writing and bad English.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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