You probably could have gotten that from the summary, actually, but I'm here to say that, as someone who enjoys shipping, both gay and not, Cheer Danshi!! is just... not a good anime. It has a cool premise and a catchy ED, but that's where, for me, the enjoyment ends- Cheer!! suffers from a spectrum of other problems, varying from bad pacing to an over-inflated cast to blatant bl-lovers' fanservice.
Story: 6/10
The story isn't that bad. Cheer!! doesn't have a lot of substance, but that's not necessarily a bad thing for a light slice-of-life sports anime. The storyline is pretty basic sports anime- a bunch of kids join (or in this case, form) a team for X Sport, aim to win nationals/semifinals/other large X Sport event, and develop meaningful relationships.
In this respect, Cheer!! has a decent stand. Haru has an alright backstory, the issue of why an injury that would keep him from doing judo competitively ever again doesn't matter when he's being flung in the air by a tower of ten other people aside, and the only thing that sucks in the story is the pacing of the character introductions, which I'll get into in the character section.
Art: 7/10
The art is decent. Nothing that anyone would watch the show specifically for, but nothing that would really put you off, either. It feels kind of choppy or plain sometimes, but Bandai Visual isn't KyoAni.
Sound: 8/10
Voice acting and music is decent. It gets an extra point for the catchy ED.
Characters: 4/10
This, in my opinion, is the biggest issue with Cheer!!.
I can't remember any of the fucking characters.
Aside from the first few who were introduced- Kazu, Haru, Ton, Mizo, and Shou- most of the characters had absolutely no introduction whatsoever. I came back from the recap episode and- bam! timeskip. Suddenly, there were fifteen more guys with unique haircuts in the gym with no introduction. What the fuck? They proceeded to pair up into convenient shipping couples in the span of three episodes. I understand that introducing such a huge cast AND developing a plot in 12 short episodes is difficult, but really, the only way I remember any of the characters is by either their physical description or which other character they were supposed to be shipped with. And I didn't really care about any of the main characters- Haru, Kazu, Mizo, Ton, and Sho- either, despite the fact that the writers could have easily developed them deeply if they had cut one or two goddamn gay-bait scenes. (Mizo is the exception. I'm fond of him because I have a weakness for the megane trope, which is a personal preference and does not affect the fact that he was badly developed.)
Another thing that really irked me was the tone of the anime, which can be best represented by one scene I remember from about halfway through the anime. The main six or seven characters were on the roof, practicing, and nothing was going well- at some point, it devolved into them shouting about their problems, complaining about how the issues they faced were worse than anyone else's. When Haru- the main- was the only one who hadn't spoken, he opened his mouth.
At this point, you would expect a rousing speech of leadership, right? Haru is our mc, the "average joe" dragged into the world of men's cheerleading by his overly positive best friend's story about his dead parents. He should say something about how all their struggles are important, but they should always get back up. That kind of emotional validation is what I'm watching slice-of-life shows for, goddamnit. Instead, he screams and bitches about how nobody around him understands how difficult /his/ life is, and why /his/ problems are so much worse than anyone else's. I almost dropped the show at this point, honestly.
I also disliked that the only female characters were a) Haru's sister, a judo prodigy who apparently can't win a single goddamn judo match unless her brother is there to cheer, b) a "cutesy" love interest for Haru who the writers cleverly eliminate by making her turn out to be Ton's elusive gf so they can continue with their fujoshi-baiting, and c) the hardass coach stereotype. Oh, and all the other cheerleading teams, who are never mentioned or shown for more than a minute. At one point, I'm pretty sure the show almost explicitly stated that boys were naturally better than girls at sports.
Enjoyment: 4/10
I like gay shipping, but I'm not into fujoshi bait, and I didn't really care about any of the characters.
Overall: 5/10
Not a great show. Cheer!! doesn't bother to hide its fanservice, and, imo, doesn't live up to any of the hype that's been surrounding it as a "fresh, new sports anime". I finished the show out of a sense of obligation, and will probably never rewatch it.
