While the story is like any other sports series where we focus on the team practicing and getting into drama amongst each other, the concept of the sport is unique. If anyone realized already, "Stride" is a fictional sport (a mixture of relay and parkour). One of the more positive things I can say about the show is the execution of the sport, which is also its strong point.
Other than that, the backstory and drama has been done before, but it still fits in this case. Though, I will say some of these recycled plot elements felt like they are added there only to get emotion from the viewers. One in particular (which I will refrain from mentioning), brought onto us during the last few episodes, gave me that notion. Also, the series suffered from a rushed ending that had not much of an impact that it could have had.
For characters, I could only vouch for the Honan team (our main set of characters), because they are the ones we focus on the most. We also get their backstories, why they are on the team, as well as their personalities. Their opponents, not so much, save for one that appears more than the others.
The animation, at best, is adequate. It might come as a shock to many when they see that this is a Madhouse production. Still, I will not point fingers for not making the greatest animation (there's at least one with every studio). However, much like how the races are the strong point of the story, it is the same in regards to the animation.
In the end, like I said before, the series doesn't really stand out, even amongst all the other sports anime out there. Again, this doesn't make it a bad series, nor does it make it a good one. Despite that, I would still recommend this to people who are into sports anime. But, for me, it wasn't anything all that special.
