Extreme Hearts

Hiyori Hayama is an aspiring singer who moved to Tokyo to make her debut. She has always loved singing and hopes to stand on stage like her favorite artist. Unfortunately, the entertainment industry is not all fun and games, as she fails her auditions one after another and struggles to sell her songs.

Finding herself still standing at the start line, Hiyori pursues her only opportunity to take the next step forward—partaking in Extreme Hearts. The popular event is a Hyper Sports tournament where participants compete in various sports using ability-enhancing gear for a chance to make their big break. Despite being athletic, however, Hiyori's lack of familiarity with Hyper Sports poses a problem for her. Fortunately, she befriends girls experienced in different sports, and they join the tournament alongside Hiyori, hoping to see her rise to the top.

Now playing under Team RISE, Hiyori and her teammates learn about the unspoken rule of Extreme Hearts—all competitors must be entertainers or aspire to be one. For the members of Team RISE, facing the competition head-on is an inspiring endeavor that paves the way to discovering newfound interests and everlasting friendships.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Extreme Hearts was released on Blu-ray in Japan from October 26, 2022 to December 21, 2022.

Episode Videos

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Extreme Hearts S×S×S

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Characters & Voice Actors

Kodaka, Saki

Main

Okasaki, Miho
Japanese

Kohinata, Lise

Main

Ozawa, Ari
Japanese

Hayama, Hiyori

Main

Noguchi, Ruriko
Japanese

Nono

Main

Hashimoto, Chinami
Japanese

Maehara, Sumika

Main

Yuuki, Kana
Japanese

Tachibana, Yukino

Main

Fukuhara, Ayaka
Japanese

Tomonaga, Miharu

Supporting

Tanaka, Chiemi
Japanese

Sakurai, Hazuki

Supporting

Abe, Rika
Japanese

NaO

Supporting

Ninomiya, Aiko
Japanese

SaKo

Supporting

Senbongi, Sayaka
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Nishimura, Junji

Director

Tsuzuki, Masaki

Script, Original Creator

Ozawa, Ari

Theme Song Performance, Inserted Song Performance

Okasaki, Miho

Theme Song Performance, Inserted Song Performance

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Opening Theme

"Infinite (インフィニット)" by Miho Okasaki

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Ending Theme

	"SUNRISE (Ver.First 2)" by Hiyori Hayama (Ruriko Noguchi), Saki Kodaka (Miho Okasaki) (eps 2-6)
	"SUNRISE (Ver. RISE)" by Hiyori Hayama (Ruriko Noguchi), Saki Kodaka (Miho Okasaki), Sumika Maehara (Kana Yuuki), Yukino Tachibana (Ayaka Fukuhara), Lise Kohinata (Ari Ozawa) (eps 7-)

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Reviews

Oct 10, 2022

Deathspike

Recommended

It's hard to grasp what Extreme Hearts is based on synopsis alone. It's not a sports anime. Nor is it an idol anime. And even with Sci-Fi elements, it's not a typical Sci-Fi series. And it's certainly not somewhere in between those three. This series is best described as a journey about challenging oneself and staying true to your own goals. It's about relating to others, forging new friendships, and it does so with brimming positivity, and a diverse cast of well-thought-out characters.

The story begins with Hiyori, an already debuted singer/songwriter with an extremely small following, and her kouhai, Saki. When Hiyori's contract is terminated, ...

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Sep 24, 2022

Grain_of_Salt

Not Recommended

Funny

You've seen sports anime about teens who were new to the game, and you've seen idol anime about struggling idols. But have you ever seen an anime about an entire tournament of people who are bad at BOTH?

Because that's the concept of Extreme Hearts, both the anime and in-universe tournament. Our MC is a failed idol who joins a league of potential idol athletes where the common goal is to use the tournament's notoriety to go pro. Their world has pro athletes and pro idols without combining the two and adding weird unexplained technology, it seems like all players here NEED this tournament of losers ... to become successful. While this COULD be an interesting commentary on the entertainment industry and how fame and success is much more thanks to luck and marketing and riding a wave than raw ability, this is the seasonal garbage anime so none of that is here. Extreme Hearts is a fast paced tournament where its contenders must become pro in every sport and in music, which...isn't normally how attaining pro status and skill in anything works? Luckily the show absolutely refuses to show as much of the games and concerts as possible so we don't even see most of it to need to argue that they're good or justify why, and we also don't spend much time showing meaningful training to need to visualize the concept of improvement or strategy. And when we do...oh boy does it look bad. What isn't just a slideshow of still shots or narrated about without showing is incredibly poor. Most of the girls' games are won by a new team member entering mid game, surprising even the team. Which, sure let's say the first one already had the new players on the roster. The rest...didn't. How did they come in? And even then it's still usually clip show or a quick cut to the ending as if the anime is afraid to show it. What little is animated is very poor quality and unexciting though so I can't say I wanted more. In the final game of the tournament, we actually do show a large portion of the game and I found myself very confused and very bored wondering why we were focusing on it. Clearly nobody on staff was particularly interested in writing staging or combat.

So what is the point of Extreme Hearts? As mentioned it sure isn't the sports. Even the practice is montage and offscreen. So is it the idol part? That's a money maker. But the music is given even less time, with concerts glossed over or even skipped and mentioned in passing. Like with the sports, we also never show much practice despite most of the cast is new to music. If this is supposed to be an idol anime, Extreme Hearts does a miserable job at selling its idol waifus. Even their designs are the blandest most uninteresting girls I've seen in ages. Who would want a figure of any of these girls? Even within their own show, the main team Rise is very noticeably more homogenous, boring, and uninteresting than every other team they face. I understand simplicity for the budget's sake, but maybe you'd have more funds if you could expect anyone to want to buy merch of this show.

Ruling out sports and idols....the two things the show markets itself on...maybe the characters are interesting? But I'm sorry to say they're the most bland and forgettable roles possible. Even the word "archetypal" doesn't fit because that implies some level of interest to grab onto. Our MC is boring the point the final episode even has a discussion about how she's never been seen crying, or overtaken by laughter, or angry, or any strong emotion. Whenever shows have to justify how cool their character is by them being a blank slate, I have to ask...are you trying to convince yourself that's cool? Because I find it boring as can be. Meanwhile every girl that hesitates to join the team is because they're TOO GOOD at sports and hurt someone physically or emotionally and were shunned because of it. So they avoid the team until they learn ITS OKAY TO BE TOO GOOD. Other characters claim its an offscreen responsibility holding them back, or they have no hesitation at all. That's really...everything there is to these girls, and it doesn't even matter because after their intro episodes they fade into the background and have very few lines, let alone development.

So what does Extreme Hearts do with its run time if it doesn't focus on sport, idols, or characters? Honestly I'm not sure. I watched every single episode and every week it just felt like we were either stalling to avoid more exciting things, or we were rushing through events as fast as possible. I understand this show was clearly low budget in an era where we've been having many delays and issues. But this goes beyond adjusting to handle problems because fundamentally from the first moment nothing was working. The designs were bad, the writing was uninteresting, and the pacing was terrible. The show also fails to explore every concept it creates, from what it's Extreme Heart tech really does or how it works, or how much AI melds into society and how that functions, to even how these new hybrid sports idols function in showbiz that also includes actual athletes and entertainers. Whether it's a character beat, the end to a conflict, or a whole theme of the show, Extreme Hearts seems not only hesitant but downright unwilling to work with its own premise.

I have to admit, both idol and sports anime are not my particular favorite genre. While some are unarguably fantastic, I feel like these genres can let in even more forgettable trash than some others. However usually there is something about a pitch to latch onto, or to be disappointed about if it doesn't succeed. But Extreme Hearts is such a...nothing from beginning to end. I was bored out of my mind and resented the time I spent, but at the same time I never cared to begin with to feel let down. It really felt like nobody on staff wanted to be there, and so I didn't either. For a show about the rejects of the entertainment industry, they sure made a poorly entertaining show itself.

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Sep 24, 2022

KANLen09

Not Recommended

Funny

Extreme Piss, the Queens (or rather, Princesses) of Hearts of a formula already done before, but that it is also subpar. People just don't learn, that's the hard-and-fast rule and unfathomable truth.

As I would like to call it, the now famous Uma Musume formula of involving sports and idoling, CGDCT style, it certainly has seen a major success incorporating such a genre that back then, didn't have a lot of competition. And CyGames definitely took advantage of that formula by being the first anime adaptation of their popular mobage game to do so, such that it was the precedent going forward. And many similar other ... tried to replicate this exact styling from the likes of "PuraOre! Pride of Orange" and now this show, but it's very clear that the concept didn't work out as it should, being a novel concept on paper but forgetting about everything else that came with it. And this is exactly what Masaki Tsuzuki, the creator of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Dog Days did, that try as hard as he might to hope to make a splash, but like the useless Pokémon Magikarp that takes long enough to evolve into a Gyarados, this show couldn't evolve from having a now generic formula, with basically nothing unique to show.

I do love underdog stories, and Extreme Hearts' story plot shows a newbie group's rise to fame: Team RISE, consisting of team leader Hiyori Hayama, members Saki Kodaka, Sumika Maehara, Yukino Tachibana and Lise Kohinata, does feel just that. The always enthusiastic team leader, Hiyori has actually made a name for herself as a guitarist, but even with a solo debut, that's still not enough to break even. That's where her one and only fan Saki Kodaka comes in to persuade her not to give up music, for this competition/tournament for idol groups that's known as Extreme Hearts provides her another avenue to use her talents in a better way. Subsequently, with the rise of the team, comes more girls that bred from the necessity of evolving the team to greater heights: Sumika Maehara with her knowledge on Hyper Sports, Yukino Tachibana in baseball and last but not least, Lise Kohinata...in just making the team complete in numbers, that's all. That to me, screams inconsistency, though props must be given for having members that are of necessity other than just a want "because I'm a fan".

The other girls of rival groups, yeah...it's just how PuraOre! did the same thing to satiate the tastes to generic boringness, though there are some that I like. Case in point: the 2-member team Snow Wolf compromising of Michelle Jaeger and Ashley Vancroft, both dedicated to their craft of robot manufacturing and making the world a better place. It's just absurd how an even smaller side group like this ironically is my favourite team, though they ultimately become assistants to Team RISE, which isn't all that bad.

Honestly, director Junji Nishimura has recently been in a rolleroaster of shows that director-level or not, hasn't really been working things out for him. Being the director and one that has the most input on Mamoru Oshii's Vlad Love, it's a very unique take on the madman's creative side that however, just feels like it's a "style over substance" show. And most certainly as studio Seven Arcs's in-house director, shows like Bermuda Triangle: Colorful Pastrale really only cater to the kids style, and I'm left wondering if like Extreme Hearts, he's gonna screw up the upcoming anime adaptation of Mato Seihei no Slave (which the original source material is actually quite good). But I can only judge what he has now, and it's starting to feel like Junji Nishimura is feeling his ripe old age whom he is at the limit of making good decisions and leaving everything else to his production staff team. And truthfully, it is sad and a shame.

The OST...forget it, it's the same generic idol-ness that doesn't really stand out in its uniqueness, or might as well that I say that character-centric songs are somehow getting worse, at least it is to me.

I've already said this once in my PuraOre! review, but like a certain Touko Machida, Masaki Tsuzuki's writing prowess is leagues behind the times, and although the enjoyment may have sufficed with both Nanoha and Dog Days back in the day, Extreme Hearts is a comeback that honestly, it's better off without in its entirety. Just don't waste time on this show unless you have a penchant for similar shows like these that you'll enjoy, no matter its overall quality.

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Poll: Extreme Hearts Episode 12 Discussion KANLen09 - Sep 24, 2022	28 replies	by Gvendoline »» Feb 19, 9:51 AM
Poll: Extreme Hearts Episode 11 Discussion KANLen09 - Sep 17, 2022	12 replies	by Gvendoline »» Feb 19, 3:53 AM
Poll: Extreme Hearts Episode 8 Discussion KANLen09 - Aug 27, 2022	12 replies	by Gvendoline »» Feb 16, 6:23 AM
Poll: Extreme Hearts Episode 6 Discussion KANLen09 - Aug 13, 2022	13 replies	by Gvendoline »» Feb 14, 6:20 AM
Poll: Extreme Hearts Episode 4 Discussion KANLen09 - Jul 30, 2022	9 replies	by Gvendoline »» Feb 13, 5:44 AM

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Kohinata, Lise

Hayama, Hiyori

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Tachibana, Yukino

Tomonaga, Miharu

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