Re-Main

When Minato Kiyomizu wakes up in a hospital, he learns that he has been comatose for 203 days. As it turns out, a car accident has caused him to lose all memory of his middle school journey. Eventually, he discovers his former glory in water polo and desires to continue where he has left off. However, embarrassingly becoming aware of the massive disparity between his old and current self, Minato begins intensive rehabilitation in hopes of starting anew—a life without water polo.

Yet, Minato is promptly reminded of his past prowess and a promise on his very first day in Yamanami High School. Soon enough, despite being completely aware of his ineptitude, he joins the school's water polo club! While needing to relearn the sport's basics, he, along with his clubmates, must recruit new members to attain the required seven-man roster. With that, Minato tries to rekindle his deeply buried talent for water polo—and become one of Japan's renowned players once again.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

Re-Main is also streamed on the Ani-One Asia channel on Youtube.

Episode three of the anime was delayed for one week due to the special broadcast of the British Open 2021.

Episode Videos

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Kiyomizu, Minato

Main

Uemura, Yuuto
Japanese

Joujima, Jou

Main

Kimura, Subaru
Japanese

Oka, Eitarou

Main

Nishiyama, Koutarou
Japanese

Kawakubo, Chinu

Supporting

Lynn
Japanese

Inomata, Yutaka Babayaro

Supporting

Hatanaka, Tasuku
Japanese

Ushimado, Yoshiharu

Supporting

Hirose, Daisuke
Japanese

Amihama, Shuugo

Supporting

Saitou, Souma
Japanese

Momosaki, Riku

Supporting

Uchida, Yuuma
Japanese

Ejiri, Takekazu

Supporting

Furukawa, Makoto
Japanese

Kakihana, Keita

Supporting

Yashiro, Taku
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kimura, Makoto

Producer

Ootsuka, Manabu

Producer

Nishida, Masafumi

Director, Sound Director, Script, Original Creator, Series Composition

Matsuda, Kiyoshi

Director

Edit

Opening Theme

"Forget Me Not" by ENHYPEN

Edit

Ending Theme

"Kowareta Sekai no Byoushin wa (壊れた世界の秒針は)" by Shuugo Nakamura

More reviews

Reviews

Oct 7, 2021

EDOSHINRATENSEI

Recommended

To remain or to re-main

It’s summer season, so it’s a great time for some water ball, I mean water polo. Sport movies/series genre in general are about underdog story. It’s almost impossible to deviate from this trope. Because of this, many sport anime become predictable. RE-MAIN didn’t stray away from this trope, but to my surprise I actually enjoyed this anime more than I expected.

The reason for this is the character. The dementia aspect helped making our main character interesting and conflicting, not just within himself with also in other people around him. Although his character transition near the end was a bit rushed ...

Open

Gift

Oct 2, 2021

calce

Recommended

This anime as a whole does not deserve more than a 7. I'm not being honest putting an 8. But the last chapter has made it so for me.

The first 7-8 chapters do not deserve more than a 6, the important event that happens made the series a 7 until chapter 11, but the last chapter.... ah!!! I loved it so much. it has made me bloom many beautiful emotions. There are many anime that I would recommend before Re-main, but if you have time and want to see a nice story of a group of students who become friends playing a sport, give it ...

Open

Gift

Oct 2, 2021

KANLen09

Mixed Feelings

Re-Main: the old term for "offside" in water polo, but honestly, this anime can be also said in this manner: it Re-Mains to be seen of the potential calibre of how much this show could've had, that squandered some liberties to make this show a decent one.

Paraded as one of many shows at the MAPPA Stage 10th Anniversary event, Re-Main is the brainchild of Tiger & Bunny author Masafumi Nishida, of which this not-so-young director has oversaw the anime and movie adaptations of his work in the past. And now, Re-Main is his 2nd self-directed series, and imagine someone like him has to manage all ... of these positions: Chief Director, Original Creator, Series Composer, Scriptwriter, Sound Director. That's 5 main staff roles all burdened into one for some creative control, and I feel that while Masafumi Nishida might've overworked himself to the core (as with MAPPA's inhumane work standards), with the upcoming Ex-Arm "successor" lookalike show that is Tesla Note (which is also written by this guy), I'm not sure if Nishida-san is able to cope with the backlash that was the full-on CGI abomination when the anime comes out next season in Fall (trying to futureproof if it does look like Ex-Arm, which I hope it's not).

Back to the anime, Re-Main tells the story and plot of water polo from the perspective of Minato Kiyomizu, who was a prolific water polo player in his middle school days, until a traffic accident led him to comatose and being an amnesiac. Exactly 203 days later (which I really find it very specific, anyone can tell me why), Minato is awakened, but he loses 3 years worth of his water polo memories in exchange, both skill and expertise. The challenge is that with his "newfound" brainwash of a memory, Minato remembers that he has done water polo before (at the slightest hint), and that everyone idolizes him because he was part of a winning team, so much that they tried to recruit him. Nonetheless, he would come back to water polo being the newbie veteran that needs to jog his memories every so now and then, abetted from a fellow girl athlete that challenged him to be Japan's top water polo athlete. Win, and they'd be boyfriend-girlfriend; lose, and 110,000 yen (taxes inclusive) would be paid out from Minato's hands to her. If you can't tell already, Minato has a lot of things going for him at the height of his passion for water polo garnering fame and popularity, but alas the accident would tell a different story about a handsome guy like Minato, wearing a facade that breaks all expectations and reveals their true colours.

Since this is a sports show, no doubt that the characters will have to play the most important aspect of the anime: sell their characters of their teamwork, camaraderie, and objectively their likeness reflected towards us the audience. But this is where Re-Main shows it's Achilles Heel of characters that are nothing more than one-note motivational spokespeople, while having their backstories as simple as possible to fit into the context of the entire anime. That's not to say that it's bad though, it's just that there was something missing towards the overall execution that kinda hampered my watching experience of watching so many sports shows come and gone, using them as bookmarkers of comparison. Maybe it's the idea of knowing who is your rival, should at least help to have a goal for yourself, that the anime failed to focus on what's important at certain scenes.

Starting off with the MC Minato himself, the first thing you'd see him of is the cheerful and innocent young boy look who kinda resembles the mentality of a 6th grader. And you'd be right because of the loss of his memories that exhibits his youthful self to others. Turn things up a notch, and you'd see a darker side of Minato, which is nothing like who he was initially. And take everything that I said about the "Light" Minato and turn it on its head to see a boy who is quite proud, arrogant, spiteful and full of ego because of his accomplishments, thinking that it's all a one-man show (which is painfully, obviously not). Minato, maybe you should learn this adage not to "take things too far". Minato's "stalker" Eitarou Oka is a spirited, bubbly boy who is like a walking encyclopedia about all things Minato related and not to mention water polo as well. But like Minato himself, Eitarou bases on lies and deceit just to follow the icon around in his tracks and acts whatever is appropriate to be like the water polo ace in every regard.

I'll touch on the other players in a lightning round (because there isn't much to say about them):
- The fellow Yamanami High players of Captain Jo Jojima, Shugo Amihama, Takekazu Ejiri, Yutaka Babayaro Inomata and Yoshiharu Ushimado, along with Minato and Eitarou. Captain Jo has to bear the beginning grunt of recruiting members into the water polo team. Shugo has a beef with his older brother, Shogakukan's Keita Kakihana, because he always felt that as much as he is a fellow sibling, he's also a rival that Shugo looked up to in swimming, before Keita's tonal shift to go water polo broke his momentum and gave up swimming altogether. It's the efforts of Jo and the rest that brought him back to water polo. There's the hot-tempered Ejiri, the sweet-making Inomata and the soft-spoken Ushimado, and that fits the 7-men water polo team.
- The "rivals" that are all against Minato because of his expertise: the Rikka Academy's "Hokuriku Three" of a hilarious trash losing joke team (Takeshi Toyama, Akihisa Fukui, Norimichi Ishikawa) and the serious contenders from Minato's former rival team Shogakukan High (Riku Momosaki, Koki Toguchi, Akimitsu Bizen) which gives them a real challenge.
- The girl at the very beginning, Chinu Kawakubo, she's just there to fill in where the plot breaks are to "smoothen" relations between herself and Minato. Like she's a LITERATE plot device, and that kind of characterization is always a no-no when it comes to AniManga, especially an original series like this one. To say the least, she acted out of sympathy and spite towards Minato, so she's no love interest or anything. What a sad thing to squander her character like that.

I'll give credit where it's due: whether you'd think that MAPPA is turning into the modern Madhouse where it used to be quality over quantity (and now the other way around), you cannot deny that there're some good production artistry within Re-Main. All of these are still heralded by Masafumi Nishida, who devoted himself to research about water polo, even the effects that you see in the anime are all actually based off from real-life water polo sports, add in the effects for some colorful visuals that's culminated in the show's OP. MAPPA always pumps out some good animation and visuals, and Re-Main adds itself into the catalogue of being artistic more than anything for a nice touch.

Music, top-notch. The experimentation of K-Pop bands resurging in anime has been a popular choice to break away from the usual J-Pop stuff that becomes more stale overtime, and look no further than ENHYPEN's debut into the J-Pop scene with the OP song "Forget Me Not" I find it quite the fascination that while I'm not so much of a K-Pop hypebeast fan or anything, this inclusion (which is slowly becoming the norm) is a great one to diversify the music scene in Japan and for good reason. But to me, Shuugo Nakamura's ED was a pure winner because of one main reason: it's pellucid tones and lyrics (which foreshadows Minato's character development in the entire show) which makes the song a lot more enjoyable, one of my absolute favourite EDs of the season worth the listening repeat loop. In the backdrop of Summer shows of pretty mediocre OSTs, Re-Main managed to stick the landings for both songs.

I don't know about you, but while Re-Main isn't bad (or good for that matter), both the base and its foundations are quite shallow-thinking if you sum the anime up altogether as a whole. It's interesting if you're a pure Yaoi fangirl to gleam at the guys' naked 6-pack bodies with sporty underwear to cover privates, but as a sport, Re-Main falls short of something that is prevalent in most sports shows: consistency and good build-up, not rando situations that feel off and doesn't transition well with the core themes of the show. It's great for eye-balling naked bodies, but it's not on a story-character level, and the potential was there that sadly didn't get developed much. A shame, really.

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Anime with a Water Theme

by underyourcouch

14 Entries · 39 Restacks

feb march anime to get through

by Berrylix

49 Entries · 3 Restacks

vaguely gay anime/ bl undertones

by Berrylix

30 Entries · 47 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

More news

Recent News

North American Anime & Manga Releases for September

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for September. Week 1: September 6 - 12 Anime Releases Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Set 13 Blu-...read more

Sep 6, 2022 11:53 AM by Aiimee | Discuss (1 comment)

Summer 2021 Simulcast List [Update 7/31]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime acquired for simulcast release during the Summer 2021 season. Anime series licensed for home video rel...read more

Jun 25, 2021 3:45 PM by Snow | Discuss (68 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

I desperately need a second season already Elma_fer - Sep 26, 2021	24 replies	by KitsuFrost »» May 21, 12:45 PM
Poll: Re-Main Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Oct 2, 2021	63 replies	by WatchTillTandava »» May 14, 10:18 PM
Poll: Re-Main Episode 5 Discussion KANLen09 - Aug 7, 2021	33 replies	by vlascoe123 »» Jan 11, 11:32 AM
Poll: Re-Main Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Jul 3, 2021	85 replies	by Pymodder »» Dec 29, 2022 12:38 PM
Poll: Re-Main Episode 7 Discussion KANLen09 - Aug 28, 2021	32 replies	by doctorminsuks »» Sep 25, 2022 10:45 PM

Re-Main

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Characters & Voice Actors

Kiyomizu, Minato

Joujima, Jou

Oka, Eitarou

Kawakubo, Chinu

Inomata, Yutaka Babayaro

Ushimado, Yoshiharu

Amihama, Shuugo

Momosaki, Riku

Ejiri, Takekazu

Kakihana, Keita

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Re-Main

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-