Heart: Wild Striker(HHWS) is a story about main character (MC) who wants to be a Professional football player and be like his brother who is already a Pro. The MC is constantly compared to his successful brother, which causes a lot of friction in MC's life.
The story line is one of the strong points of this anime. The story is inspirational and uplifting. What makes this anime standout from rest of the sports anime is its slice of life approach in telling the story. Also unlike other shounenish sports anime, where story is driven by the MC, this anime provides ample amount of space for supporting characters.
There are lot of obstacles that the MC and his team face on and of the field which engages the audience on emotional level and the victories are so much more memorable.
Art 6
Art is the weakest aspect of this anime. Sometimes art can be used to enhance story line and a lot things can be communicated to the audience without saying it. This anime does not rely on art to enhance the story line. Even though this anime is about football, art could have been used to improve the viewing experience. Many a times the anime relied on same scenes to show the passing and dribbling of the football over and over again. Considering the anime is made in 2000's I expected artwork to be much better.
Sound 7
I liked the background music that is used in this anime. Whenever the background music starts playing it was able to change the vibe that the anime gave. There have been times when the background music starts playing, my heartbeat would go up and body temperature rose just from the anticipation of what was going to happen in the next few scenes. I also liked the OP#1 "2nd Stage" by Kids Alive, i do listen to it from time to time just like the story it is pretty uplifting.
Character 8
The anime has done pretty good job of fleshing out the MC and how he evolves over time. Even the supporting character got ample screen time and even they evolved as the anime went on. One gripe i had with this anime was unlike the MC and his team the antagonist didn't get much character development. If the antagonist were given some character development the victories that MC and his team achieved would have been much more meaning full.
Enjoyment 9
The enjoyment that I derived was from the goals that the MC' team scored and ultimately from winning the matches. The matches between the teams were well done. The MC's team faced opposition teams that were evenly matched or teams who had good players who could win the matches or teams who were much better than MC's team. The goals that were scored or attempted were pretty enjoyable to watch. Some of the goals were scored from an awkward position or when the MC's team was in dire straits this also added to the enjoyment factor.
Overall 9
There are many things or combination of thing that can make a anime great. What makes HHWS great is its ability to use slice of life approach to tell a sports story and they are wildly successful in it. The story line is inspirational, memorable and highly re-watchable. I have already watched this anime 2 times and i am confident that i will be watching it again and again in the coming years.
I would recommend this everybody but especially to people who are facing personal or professional difficulty this anime will be a much needed respite and you will watch it again and again from time to time.
