Ryman's Club

This felt like a slower pace, more mature Haikyuu. I liked the tragic backstories and trauma resolution, as well as the inter-office drama subplot. It was something really easy to throw on in the background while I did other things. The animation wasn't particularly stunning and I could not pick the characters out of a line up if you put a gun to my head, but the storyline was gently compelling enough that I continued to hit 'next episode' whenever the last one came to an end, and effectively got through the whole thing in one sitting. I also appreciated that they didn't try to ... be more than they were; they weren't hoping for the Olympics or anything, so everything mostly got solved by the end. It was also refreshing to have an anime's cast largely be adults or close to, rather than high school/middle school kids.

Would I rewatch? Probably not. I might recommend it to someone who enjoys sports anime with latent "subtext" though lol.

As an adult, keeping up with your exercise arguably holds even more value than when you're a teenager. But being an adult, the toll life has already taken on your body can also show. You can get injuries you don't recover from as swiftly anymore, if you're gone from your sports for a while you may be gone for good. There also isn't any money in it if you're just doing it because... you can. No matter how good you are, it'll pretty much always be for fun only. Nevertheless, there is a lot of value to be found!

Ryman's Club is clearly made by someone ... who loves sports stories, but may not have loved that most of them end with a high school graduation. In those stories, the characters spend years together, growing as a team, chasing their dream of competing in a big torunament, if not the national one, but eventually, they'll have to graduate from school and ultimately enter the workplace. And much like Class S stories - in Japanese societies, dreams and ambition can often end with school. People are expected to be serious. And because of that, characters in these stories tend to treat the sport as everything that matters to them. Their entire life revolves around training, tournaments, or at best hanging out with their teammates. The matter of school usually takes the back line, maybe as a "funny" filler episode about how everyone's failing school and has to get back on track, or else they won't be allowed to continue playing. Characters can also get downright reckless when it comes to their health - neglecting sleep, training from dawn till dusk. They are pouring everything they have into their sport. Though once you've graduated... where do you go from here? Like sure, once in a while a narrative about a single character and their career in their chosen sport comes to mind, but especially in more team-based stories, that's usually it. Maybe you get a cheeky future-episode about the characters meeting up, now having careers and familie and such, and that's about it.

And to that effect, Mikoto, the first of the main two characters we're introduced too, might have as well come from one of those stories. He picked up badminton when he was a child, and even developed amazing observation skills because they help him perform better. He and even seeked a company known explicitly for its strong team - and was then prompty fired for underperforming at work.

The show delights in having the coworkers in his new company point out to him that he IS supposed to be working and wasn't hired only so he could play in the corporate badminton team - forcing him out of his fixation on the sport and actually engage with his coworkers and team members, and, as a consequence, life as an adult overall. And from there, the show becomes a fun Sports-SoL-Hybrid and pretty much equally divides its episodes between the characters training, playing in tournaments and such, and having them work as salarymen for a beverage company. Selling products, developing new ones, marketing, getting drunk together and brainstorming... it's all here. And with that groundwork, the show manages to present very human, if not terribly complex characters. Everyone gets their own arc about adult problems - like struggling to get back into an old hobby after your life changed with marriage and kids, comparing yourself to your siblings and how they were faring since graduation, struggling to fulfill your own potential. It's all a bit basic, but it helps greatly to acquaint the viewer to characters who may just mirror your own coworkers in many ways.

And likewise, these characters have to mangage adult problems as well. They have injuries and insecurities to overcome, as well as responsibilities like a family, but approach them with the understanding and reasoning of an adult. They know they can't just run on a broken limb, they have to learn to adjust and allow themselves to heal, or to move on. They help each other out and talk - and not in a dramatic, overly emotional fashion. It grounds the show in realism - save for maybe two, three little things that seem just a tad too anime in parts.

For example, the two main characters, Mikoto and Tatsuru, met when Mikoto was a child - they have a 10-year-gap - and that encounter inspired each other to keep on pursuing badminton. Tatsuru then found out about him, and convinced his manager to hire him which is just a tad bit odd. At that point, them meeting each other again throgh sheer coincidence, or because they've been following the same path - like how Mikoto met his former middle school partner in a tournament again - would have perfectly sufficed. It's not a huge distraction by any means, but doesn't quite fit in with the more subdued nature of the other relationships in this one. And of course you have a climax with the future of the team at stake.

But I found myself willing to look past all that because the rest of this show was just so pleasant. It's nice to see adults hanging out for a change. It's nice to see that you can enjoy and continue to be ambitious in your chosen sport even if your body may not be able to keep up as easily as when you were young. Heck, you can still even aim for the world championship! Sport is important. Sport is fun! Playing with others is fun! Just remember to sleep enough, drink enough and arrive to work on time.

As someone who played badminton regularly in primary school, Ryman's Club looked like it would do a good job at presenting the somewhat simple sport. I say somehwat because although on paper it looks simple, there is more than what you see on TV or spectacting a live match in the gymnasium. Ryman's Club job was to illustrate elements & rules of the game in layman's terms but it didn't, the show didn't even need to spend an entire episode explaining the basics of badminton but instead throws you right in. Someone who has no idea what Badminton is would have no clue what was ... going on screen, the lack of any actual badminton rallies further enforces that. If this was a purely Badminton sports Anime, this show would have gotten a much lower rating than a 6/10 and this is me being nice & lenient towards it.

What compelled me to give it this score is because its simply just refreshing, seeing that almost all Sports Anime are set in High School, barring a few exceptions like Run with the Wind, Ryman's Club's setting in a corporate environment gives the viewer a different perspective of what older or mature people are like in Sports & just getting a sneak peak at the corporate world, even though the story overall very simplistic, to a fault actually.

There was very little depth to the story, it is very predictable and stereotypical like for example Mikoto's backstory, while it is not inherently bad, I wish the show took time to explore it a little more in detail, not just throwing in flashbacks for the sake of it. The simplistic nature of the show also meant that the characters also weren't properly fleshed out. I feel as though good characters in Sports Anime particularly are important because it allows the viewer to be able to put themselves into the character's shoes & sympathize with them while also having a connection with said character. At the end of Ryman's Club, I didn't feel any sort of attachment to any of these characters, while I do understand & sympathize with their struggles and past trauma, I couldn't relate to them as much as other characters from other Sports Anime, like Haikyuu or Chihayafuru.

Touching on visuals & animation here, I do like the artstyle of the show, its simple yet does the job as it appropriately portrays a slightly more mature yet laid-back setting (idk if I made sense there). The Animation could be better, there were some scenes in the Badminton rallies that were abit wonky when it came to joint movements especially, there were definitely some inconsistencies. But overally, the artstyle & animation get a pass, nothing groundbreaking but it gets the job done.

Overall, Ryman's Club had a lot of potential as a Sports Anime with a different perspective/twist on it but it definitely failed in doing some of the basics of a Sports Anime & had defiencies in other areas. However, being someone who rates Anime based on pure enjoyment, I definitely did enjoy watching the show, for better or for worse or maybe my taste is too simple to the point where a simplistic show like this can dig enjoyment out of me.

I watched the series without much high expectations. I am not a huge fan of the sport Badminton but I do know the basic amateur knowledge. SO this review POV is from an amateur without much technical knowledge on the sport. If you are the same, then please read ahead...


In a nutshell, if you want to learn about the sport and it's technicalities, this is not the right anime for you. However, if you want to pass some leisure time, like sports in general and are a office worker, then I would suggest to try it out for the sake of it.

Overall, it's a one-time ... watch anime, so I would probably not think about this anime again in future. Which also means that the impact of this anime is not that huge.

Art- The art style was average for me. The strangest part for me was that they failed to make the lead team members distinct in their physical characteristics. Quite a few characters have the same hairstyle, same facial features with a slight difference in hair tones. Honestly, in initial episodes, you might feel confused about which character is which if you are not paying enough attention. But you can tell, that the production team tried (in vain) to make as many characters pretty and flashy as possible.

Story & characters- Overall, they did attempt to bring the story and plot together. However, when you mix two major professions, sports and office worker in an anime, it's important to keep the right balance of each aspect. One would think, how a salesperson who has one of the most tedious job that impacts your physical stamina would keep up in a continued basketball practice, especially when you are ageing. Well the anime does show the age aspect in certain characters. However, except a few of the main characters with just a slight glimpse in their past, the character development is extremely subtle, if any at all. The past is what makes a person into a sport that they could care about. For that, you will need to show the viewers enough to understand each character's personality and why they play the sport. It's crazy how one of the ML almost does not even get their past featured enough. This flaw in itself makes you fail to connect to the characters as you should be able to. The story itself is pretty rushed. Has quite a few obvious loopholes (that no one bothered to do anything about). Personally, it felt that enough thought or efforts was not put into the sport itself as it should deserve. We know barely anything about the rivals in the matches except for their relationship with the MLs and yet they failed to justify that relationship enough. [Personally, this fact itself made it a little frustrating and didn't grab my attention in any of the matches except the final game]. The series DOES NOT do justice to Badminton, DOES NOT show the intricacies of the sport and neither does it show enough of the matches that lead to the ultimate game. It's almost before you know it that the team reaches their last game.

Music- Decent overall, but not particularly catchy.

The whole anime overall just felt extremely rushed and half-assed efforts at presenting the sport and story. There might have been a budget issue, I don't know. But I can tell this much, the anime had potential if done right.

Hence, I was simply glad the show ended without making me feel sorry that it did end. It failed to grab my attention and made me click next episode just to make it end. Nonetheless, the anime has it's comedic moments throughout, makes you like only 1-2 characters (for me Miyazumi), but it's not enough to make you last.

So I will suggest that you watch this if you have enough time to spare. Or else, please do go for all the other amazing sports animes out there if you wanna watch something worth your while.

Ryman's club is a slice of life anime with absolutely no suspense and very little badminton play. For those who want a Shōnen sports anime with training arcs, an underdog mc and epik plays that require an in depth understanding of sports theory, I am terribly sorry but you arrived at the wrong place.

Story (5)
In the first 3 episodes Ryman's club has managed to introduce the characters not in any interesting way, create only one hook (being the main character's reluctant nature to play doubles) and showcase badminton for only 15 minutes or so (out of 3 episodes). Ryman's club is more of a ... slice of life anime than a sports anime displaying the life of a salary man. The comedy is lacklustre and the characters do very little to make the life of a salary person at least somewhat interesting. I found myself crawling by the third episode only encouraged by the fact I could make this review if I finished the third episode. When there is badminton play on the screen, I was left utterly disappointed at the lack of depth Ryman's club showcased (not diving into any badminton theory and instead relying on a gimmick only the main character has). The action is heavily reliant on art and fluid animation, there is no story and the show has not got me invested in badminton itself. Pretty boys doing badminton living a life as a salary man, that's all you'll get watching the show.

Art (8)
The art is the only saving grace for this show. All their movements are coherent, fluid especially when they were playing badminton. I was impressed by how they animated the shuttlecock and integrated that with 2D animation.

Sound (6)
I'm not sure how to rate sound, there was nothing noteworthy. (Imo) the main character's voice was off putting at times (I'm not sure why xd)

Character (5)
All the character's were mediocre, they didn't carry any specific traits or stereotypes (which I think would've made them more appealing imo) but was just there to fill space. The main character was not your typical Shōnen protagonist but an emo boy who was traumatised because of something he did in the past. What makes Shōnen protagonist so fun is how they're an underdog and they beat everyone and everyone's shocked. What makes this protagonist so boring and a pain to watch is his ego and his reluctance to change his attitude and beliefs when someone points scrutinises them.

Enjoyment (5)
This slice of life was not what I wanted and in fact there are other slice of life + sports anime that execute this way better. I'm not watching the 4th episode because I'm simply not invested in the anime.

Overall (6)