Is this worth watching?

It's a great soccer anime that's more realistic than blue lock and focuses more on the players personal lives and struggles in about equal parts with the soccer playing itself. Not sure how well it adapts though.

The manga just finished, and it is an 11/10 for me until the end. It's very realistic and grounded in portraying what soccer is in real life, similar to Giant Killing. You can expect the MC to struggle quite often in the beginning and throughout, but the payoffs are unbelievable as the team works together to develop themselves, and their strategies and plays. There is also a very well-written romantic pairing that takes up a good amount of focus in the story until the very end, so be wary of that. However, while I dislike most FLs in sports series, I found their pairing to be brilliant, and both of them develop long ways throughout the story.

I would highly recommend the manga over the anime, though, since the still-feeling anime art and animation just do not compare to how dynamic and breathtaking the panels in the manga are. That isn't to say the anime isn't worth watching, but that it just cannot compare to how incredible the manga is in comparison.

yeah, but season 2 is being done by a different studio that is pretty buns. if you want to continue after watching season 1, i’d recommend you read the entirety of the manga afterwards.

Do the characters besides the protagonist get any character development outside their soccer playing skills/Teamwork?You mean the protagonist and a FL as a romantic pairing right? Not sure how I would feel if it was a strong supporting male character, since you said it takes a lot of story focus.That's a bit surprising, Production I.G tends to excel when it comes to animation and creative decisions from my experience. And although I haven't watched any of them yet, haven't they adapted quite a few popular sports manga (like Haikyuu)Might give the manga a try then depending on whether season 2 improves the adaptation or not

would definitely recommend, It's my favorite football/soccer anime, but I'm not sure how well it does when compared to the manga (haven't started it yet xD)

But talking about the anime, unlike Blue Lock, Ao Ashi has a more realistic approach (although it has a mystical feel to it in some parts of the anime), would highly recommend it if you like something more slice of life or football in general, it talks a lot about tactics and training that could be/are applied in real life and the character development is decent.

Idk why but it feels a lot like a football version of Hajime no Ippo.

@WIllowkeeper



Absolutely. I won't spoil much, but even certain characters you may not like in the beginning have very complex motivations and stories behind their actions that you will find yourself changing your perspective on them throughout the series. There's many, many characters I was introduced to in the manga that I became heavily attached to. I am already really missing this manga so much.



Yes, it's between the protagonist and a FL. This isn't BL. Also just to clarify, it's a slowburn romance as they chase towards their own goals, but have moments of understanding and care that really help them form their own special bond throughout the manga. I did say it has focus, because of how concisely it's written (with a proper conclusion) without taking too much time out from the rest of the important moments, but it's still in the background of everything else.



I personally doubt S2 will be able to come to par with the manga's storytelling and artwork, but that's up to you. I just don't find that seinen anime adaptations get much of a budget.

Actually yes, you're right about that. I guess I am dismissing it too fast, but I'm just too used to keeping my hopes low now whenever something I love gets adapted. I've been disappointed enough, that I barely watch anime anymore unless it's an original. I jump straight to the original source unless I hear lots of praise on the quality of the adaptation.

Also yes, I was just clarifying that there's no BL in case there were any misunderstandings.

Honesty, the main reason I made this post to begin with was because I'm being a lot more careful about what anime I watch with big rating differences between the anime and the source. Ever since I got disappointed with the recent Whisper me a love song and Roshidere adaptations (especially Whisper), I've gotten very paranoid since they were my first manga and LN I read. So unless I see people praising the music, voice acting, or literally anything that makes the anime worth watching even if it's still worse than the source material, ill probably just read it.

An example would be Re:Zero and Danmachi, I would say the LN for both are much better than the anime, but the music alone is an enough reason for me to watch the anime anyway. Or Call of the Night and solo leveling (don't kill me), where I find pointless to watch because I feel neither gives me anything that the source doesn't, or just does things worse.

That's also why I asked in the third question if there was any interesting creative decision in the anime.

@WIllowkeeper Haha, are you me? Seems we're on the same wavelength about anime adaptations. Although, I'm not sure what "third question" you mean? I just re-read through our conversation and didn't notice where you ask about that. To answer your question, there isn't anything I personally find specially creative or well-done in S1 of Ao Ashi. It is alright on it's own as an adaptation with lesser animation and art, but there's no reason to not pick the manga over it if you are open to that option. The artwork and dynamic flow of the panels in the manga just cannot be missed, as I found the anime was much too still and lifeless in comparison. Now as you said, I will leave S2 up in the air as it has not aired yet.

Yeah. I think season 2 will come out next year. That's probably a good enough reason. It was different enough.

I meant the third question in the post, “And is there any interesting creative decision in the anime?”. Sorry for the misunderstanding there.Honestly, if season 2 is the same as season 1 when it comes to creative decisions, there's just not really a reason for me to pick up the anime. I need more than just being a faithful adaptation or pretty colors for me to watch an anime now (besides originals). Even dropped both The Apothecary Diaries and Rurouni Kenshin remake after season 1, although both of them look fine to me, just something about them felt lacking (never even heard of Rurouni Kenshin until the remake came out).

From the explanations I've been getting on this post, makes me feel like I'll just have another Apothecary Diaries situation. Faithful to the source, good animation quality, but no actual reason to choose the anime over the LN (or in this case, the manga). I don't really need something like March comes in like a lion or Monogatari when it comes to creativity, just enough to make the anime worth choosing over the source material.

No worries, it's my fault. I somehow missed it, but I do see your question now.

I hope you enjoy Ao Ashi in whichever form you choose to watch it in. I am also a huge novel reader for The Apothecary Diaries (haven't read much of the manga), but I did find S1 worth watching given it's incredible production values and the care put into the adaptation. Seeing everything come to life was well worth it. I have yet to watch S2 of The Apothecary Diaries, though, since I was waiting for it to finish airing first. As for Rurouni Kenshin, there is a lot of charm in the original anime compared to the remake when it comes to the OST and certain fight scenes. However, it does have a lot of filler, and it doesn't fully adapt the manga, so the manga is vastly superior and more worth your time in that regard. I would definitely not skip out on the Truth x Betrayal OVA of Rurouni Kenshin though. It's one of the best OVAs I've ever seen.

It pretty much follows the manga 1:1, and has a great soundtrack, visuals and animation, probably one of the few anime where I’d say it doesn’t matter if u pick the anime or manga.

It’s probably the most realistic sports anime I’ve watched and it has the perfect blend between actual football and themes like the struggles with going pro, adjusting to a new setting comraderie and even hints of romance.

If you asked me to name any flaws I seriously couldn’t think of any (although it’s been 3 years since I watched it so maybe I forgot) only thing I could possibly say is that some people might think it’s a bit slow paced outside of matches, but I think that’s cos most people have fried dopamine receptors these days, cos tbh even when there aren’t matches going on it’s still very interesting to see the more drama and human-relation focus plots and moments unfold.

A solid 9/10 although there is only 1 chapter left which is coming in the next few days, so u may not want to wait for s2 and continue from s1 to manga, which I can heavily recommend cos it only gets better, stakes get higher, stage gets bigger, teams get way stronger, drama gets more intense, it’s just amazing in every single aspect.

Hope you enjoy

Sorry, in case i made another misunderstanding, when i said "but no actual reason to choose the anime over the LN (or in this case, the manga)" i was refering to The Apothecary Diaries LN, and the Ao Ashi manga. Sorry if that caused another misunderstanding.Personally I don't mind filler (unless it's just really bad filler), been watching the original Ranma 1/2 anime and enjoyed the filler quite a bit so far.Thanks! Probably will read the manga unless season 2 is actually really good. Either way tho, if I like the manga I'll probably watch the anime anyway at some point for "fan service" since it seems to at least be a decent adaptation.I think the reason why i personally didn't like it that much was because a lot of the scenes just look visually "boring" to me. It didn't really help that they reused scenes sometimes when Maomao was solving a mystery. There are other problems I have with the anime, but I don't really want to judge those problems so early since I've only watched 1 season.

@WIllowkeeper


No worries. I did assume that though? That's why I mentioned the novel for Apothecary Diaries.


I also don't mind filler, but the original anime for Rurouni Kenshin has very few good fillers. Much of it is washed out, quickly written, and terrible as a result to give the mangaka more time to finish the manga as the anime was airing. I would use a filler list if you do decide to check it out, and you can most likely find a small list of the fillers worth checking out over on reddit or so.


That's a fair criticism. I also noticed those things, but it wasn't very hard for me to overlook given how incredible the other moments of S1 were. I do hope S2 lives up to your expectations, but I can't say for sure since I haven't watched it yet either.

Anyways, I wish you the best of luck. This was a great discussion, and I hope you have a great time with these three series however you experience them!

its a peak if u like sport and romance

Just wanted to clarify it since I didn't really phrase my sentence that well and could have potentially caused some confusion (glad it didn't tho). When you said "(haven't read much of the manga)" I just assumed you thought that I was talking about The Apothecary Diaries manga since I phrased it in a way that could be implied that I specially meant the manga due to putting it in brackets right after talking about the LN. Will definitely give it another try, at least until the plot points come together. I watched it twice, so it's not like I dislike the whole thing anyway, just most of the second half I found boring (besides a backstory). I apologize if I rambled on for too long, bad habit of mine. Anyway, have a good day or night, and thanks for the discussion!