The animation of course is old. It lacks the luster and details, and fluidity of more recent animes. The colors are dull and at times the character features are seriously out of shape. Plus, there is a lot of sequence repetition. However - and this is important, the animation has its positives. The char features and build are consistent and the facial art style is somewhat unique and at times even attractive. They have repetition, yes - however they do manage to pull of unique sequences when required as well. And as someone who has followed a decent few recent animes, the animation is bearable. It is needed at this point to be understood that it is not an anime which features amazing graphic tennis but a story about a personality and a player strengthening separately and their journey through many hurdles.
After having filtered out people who had issues with animation - the question pops up - is the anime good in the rest of the aspects? As far as story goes - it is a present cliche of "talentless protagonist going the distance to be one of the best" which wasn't as big a cliche then and even if it was, it is executed at a really good pace. You sort of know the ending and direction, but you watch for how it is executed. Each event - which is 1 to 2 episode long, manages well to keep your attention and doesn't let the show get too slow and boring or two fast and exciting to put you off.
As for characters, well - for one, I love the characters in it. The main chars at least are pretty believable, their cues, expressions, and dialogue truly reflect an average school life. Meaning, moods just don't 'appear' or 'feelings' don't just develop out of nowhere. Plus, the protagonist isn't the total cry baby that just loses hope. And if that IS your first impression about her, it does change as the anime progresses. Some may rightly claim that certain chars are 1 dimensional however the anime does hint that they are showing a certain 'aspect' of their life, or their personality as they wish to show and their intentions, thoughts may be different and/or they may act differently given different situations. That is NOT shown for every single char, but it did help enough to keep me happy with the chars.
There is one issue after watching many recent animes perhaps and it is that there are instances where you can guess which character to pop up to boost/demoralize the protagonist or add tension in the storyline, however unless one is overly critical about such matters, it is something that can be overlooked.
The sounds are old, quirky and seem like something my parents might like. But they do manage to compliment the anime considerably and that is their purpose in essence.
So over how would I describe it? An anime with old school, yet bearable and at times 'good' animation, believable progression of a tennis players skill and personality build with certain embarrassing, certain comical, and certain frustrating events that one does face in real. The episodes progress in a well thought manner, nudging you to see further and when I finished it, I was certainly happy to pick this up.
It is a recommendation to all people who like sports, and good char development, and rather then looking for an extremely unique story are more satisfied with good execution and story line.
Thank you for reading and feedback - positive or negative (not random insults - FEEDBACK) is always welcome!
