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Few months ago me watching Haikyuu: Wow even though as usual these guys are focusing on flashy impossible moves like smashes, I am loving this show because even with these non-realistic moves to capture the audiences they are significantly focusing on the defense as well as strategic elements of the game. Few episodes in OMG net-blocks, strategy to avoid them, analyzing and covering their holes in their game awesome I am loving this Anime as well as these awesome characters.
Some time after, while starting anime "Baby steps" me talking to myself: I don't think any sport anime will try to cover technical, mental and physical aspects of a sport because their main aim is to entertain people who otherwise will not watch the actual sport. So similar to myriad of Tennis anime this will be the usual emotional cliche sport anime which will never come close to Haikyuu. Few episodes in: WTH is going on there is no way people will like this kind of detailed story but I am loving it. After few more episodes: This is too much of sport technicalities even for me to handle. After finishing 306 chapters of manga: Me watching and reading this story was the best decision of my life. I wish there was a similar story about badminton.
Me today browsing through MAL: OMGGGGGG there is an anime about badminton. Awesoooooom. I am fu*king excited.
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Review:
If you have read above paragraph, you can guess that I started watching this anime with too many expectations. I myself being a (local) badminton player and an enthusiasts who follows international badminton I had set the benchmark too high to cross. But to my utter disappointment this anime came nowhere close to it. After watching the 5th episode I realized I couldn't take this anymore. I must drop this utter disgrace to the sport of badminton.
Story: Average
It the usual cliche sport story with one hardworking girl who loves badminton and is struggling through a past traumatic loss. When a cliched GOD-GIFTED lefty player joins their team who had suffered since childhood because of oppressive parent. Then you have rivals and other things, the usual stuff you find in other sport anime. Just like any other sport badminton is also a game of skills and strategy. But this anime shows neither of those. Rather whatever is shown is either a stereotype or a complete wrong tactics. It gives zero insights into the game. Story and characters are lackluster as well. Read the spoiler at the bottom to know why I hate this anime.
Characters: Bad
All the characters in this anime are average. The interactions and personalities of the characters felt artificial. Aragaki Nagisa, their team captain felt too much out of character when she changed from badminton obsessed relentless captain to an accommodating team player who puts faith in the team. Same can be said about Hanesaki Ayano who is the left-handed prodigy with shy personality. Side characters are also average or below average. I didn't feel any connection or understanding with any of them.
Art: Very Good
First episode is extremely well animated. Trust me after watching badminton for so long I was awestruck by the details of the sport the animation covered. The quality of the animation dropped after the second episode but it was by no means bad. I think there was nothing for me to complain.
Sound: Average
Even though the sound tracks are good they felt out of place in certain situations. For example in initial episodes during a serious match between Captain Aragaki and new member Ayano the pleasant music ruined the mood.
Enjoyment: Very Bad
I literally hate this anime. I usually don't drop anime no matter how bad they are. But may be this being too close to my heart I was unable to stand it to the end. May be some of you will find this enjoyable if you ignore the sport aspects of the show or view it from some other perspective.
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Spoilers:
Episode 5:
In the last doubles match between Kitakomachi high-school and other team, the girl from other team decided to play solo against the two girls and goes on to win the match. Are you kidding me. This is total bullshit. Even if assume that the single player is 'that' good all she does to win is to hit strong smashes. Even from an entertainment point of view all we get is how emotional they are during the game and zero strategic thinking from both sides. To add to this utter disgrace the coach gives advice where the two girls will play front-back which is THE WORST thing you can do to defend against an attacking player. For those of you who don't know much about badminton let me put few things in perspective. In badminton if we combine two 'singles' players who have won lets say Olympics and ask them to play again an average 'international' doubles pair. They will lose the match because those two game categories (singles and doubles) are that different. So if an Olympics medalist is playing one on two match with any two local 'serious' players he will lose very badly. And here we get to see two talented players (who I am sure are going to win in future) loosing from a single player without any strategy. Hope you got my point.
