Ao Ashi

In a quiet rural town, the spotlight of a local junior high school football team rests on one player: Ashito Aoi. Known for his unpredictable moves and self-centered playing style, Ashito is the sole powerhouse pushing his team through an important high school preliminary tournament. However, their win streak is short-lived—an opponent causes Ashito to lose his temper and act violently, resulting in his removal from the rest of the game.

Without their star player, the team is quickly eliminated from the tournament. Just as he believes all hope is lost, Ashito is approached by a youth team coach named Tatsuya Fukuda who senses potential in him, and Fukuda invites him for tryouts in Tokyo. In an unfamiliar setting surrounded by talent, Ashito must bring out the best of his ability to prove himself and secure what could be a life-changing career.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Aoi, Ashito Main

Oosuzu, Kouki Japanese

Ichijou, Hana Main

Kawase, Maki Japanese

Fukuda, Tatsuya Main

Kobayashi, Chikahiro Japanese

Akutsu, Nagisa Supporting

Takeuchi, Shunsuke Japanese

Ootomo, Eisaku Supporting

Tachibana, Tatsumaru Japanese

Togashi, Keiji Supporting

Yashiro, Taku Japanese

Asari, Marchis Jun Supporting

Katou, Wataru Japanese

Aoi, Noriko Supporting

Sonozaki, Mie Japanese

Kuribayashi, Haruhisa Supporting

Umehara, Yuuichirou Japanese

Kaidou, Anri Supporting

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Morihiro, Fumi Producer

Kuroki, Rui Producer

Iwasaki, Sayaka Producer

Reviews

Jun 11, 2024

realanimelover

Recommended

I watched Blue Lock a couple of months back and I thought it stood alone as a great soccer/football (however you wanna call it) anime. I was wrong, Ao Ashi is a severely underrated anime that adds realism and a better story than Blue Lock. While I still do think Blue Lock is a bit better than Ao Ashi, I believe that Ao Ashi has potential to become a much better anime because of its character development and public views of what soccer is.

Aoi Ashito, the protagonist of the show, is similar to Haikyu's Hinata in the sense that they are always excited for a ... new challenge and never get disappointed when playing against a player stronger than them. The very likable protagonist develops more maturely as he starts to understand the basics of soccer while having a specific trait that makes him different from the others. What I loved about Ashito was how his struggle with money impacted his rise in soccer in a positive way. His realistic tendencies to force thoughts away and only focus on soccer adds an interesting aspect to the story and how many professional players might do the same. Ashito is a great protagonist who serves as an emotional support for the team and also explains how he isn't always perfect which can cause trouble sometimes.

The side characters in the show are all different in their way. What I like about this anime is that they all carry their own perspective of soccer and while some focus on the basics, others try to make soccer an interesting complicated sport. I enjoy watching each side character go through struggles to improve themselves in their own match while not overshadowing Ashito. The balance between the side characters and main character help the anime remain entertaining and informative about the world of soccer.

What is extremely underrated in Ao Ashi is its underlying concepts and themes. There is some romance involved throughout the show which enables the show to become more diverse. Ao Ashi also provides arguments that athletes are also just humans at the end of the day which have their own issues, relationships, and complexity in their everyday lives. The attention to detail the author has when writing this story is one of the reasons why the show can be so impactful at sometimes too which helped create a better dynamic.

The actual games, while very simplistic, offer an engaging dynamic which make it interesting. Although the art is nothing compared to Blue Lock and isn't as action-packed Ao Ashi still offers a great dynamic. It does this by showing how difficult soccer is through exhaustion, emotion, and psychological breakdown. It also provides how hard-working one has to be in order to just understand the basics of the sport like the drills that Ashito did in the first episode just to learn one very basic move.

The realism and emotion throughout the story make Ao Ashi a must watch to many readers as it grasps human emotions when playing the sport.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 2, 2023

Zagaimo

Mixed Feelings

Funny

I don't understand this anime. The whole anime and character development of the MC is based on the double talk, lies and reverse psychology of the people in his team. I mean not one person who contributes to MCs development through honest talk. People borderline abuse the MC emotionally to the point of insulting his mother, but somehow it is supposed to be some sort of motivational push INTENTIONALLY done by the said people. I know it's a fantasy story, but I doubt anyone will grow to be better with such treatment in real life. Anyone with a little self-respect would find another way to ... succeed than to bow down to people who insult his/her family. It started off really well, personally disappointed as the story progressed.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 16, 2023

OneTrueNep

Not Recommended

Funny

This anime is what would happen if Kuroko no Basuke and Haikyuu had a child, but the mother drank heavily, overdosed on crack daily and threw herself down every flight of stairs she saw for the whole pregnancy.

I haven't used this account in years but I had to dig up the password and log back in just to write a review for this absolute pile of trash. Morbid curiosity was the only thing keeping me going throughout because lord knows the most boring cast, basic plot and impossibly generic main character weren't nearly good enough for something rated above 8/10 here. The animation is ... a slideshow at best, the voice acting is uninspired, the art is dull and most of all the football on display is just beyond bad.

If you're from a country where football is popular, you probably know more than the protagonist of this show. If you've watched football more than once you're probably top 10% of all characters in the show. If you've played it then you're top 1%. I get suspension of disbelief for the sake of the narrative, but I can't believe a professional club's youth academy would sign someone who doesn't know what a diagonal run is, how defending works, what passing triangles are and much more. I half expected the offside rule to be explained to our mentally challenged MC at some point.

It gets a 2 instead of a 1 because Hana is a cute and likeable character.
That aside, if you are thinking of watching this sludge, take my recommendation: Ronaldon't.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	Poll: Ao Ashi Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) KANLen09 - Sep 24, 2022	226 replies	by Uguu_Tsukimiya »» Jul 19, 2:42 PM
	Poll: Ao Ashi Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Jun 18, 2022	78 replies	by Uguu_Tsukimiya »» Jul 16, 10:14 PM
	Poll: Ao Ashi Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Jun 11, 2022	76 replies	by Uguu_Tsukimiya »» Jul 16, 2:32 PM
	Poll: Ao Ashi Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) KANLen09 - May 7, 2022	149 replies	by Uguu_Tsukimiya »» Jul 15, 3:16 PM
	Poll: Ao Ashi Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Apr 30, 2022	75 replies	by Uguu_Tsukimiya »» Jul 15, 1:43 PM