There’s just no other way to describe it. To be honest this series hasn’t been as impacting (at least emotionally) as some of the other high-rated shows that I watched, but what it loses in the wow factor it makes up for with its consistent, and well articulated writing.
Japanese literature, especially anime recently, have a tendency for bloated monologues that sound smart and mean nothing, and which you promptly forget about five seconds later. I won’t name any examples here, but I used to think I just wasn’t smart enough to “get” it, though I now realize that it’s just bad writing that detracts from the flow of natural conversation. Of course, this show isn’t entirely faultless in this front, but where other japanese writers trip and fall in their faces, the scenes in this show keeps cruising through, at a pace that is both poignant and human.
Where this show really shines is with its characters. With a cast of 10 main characters (or 9, because let’s be honest: the twins were pretty much the same for 90% of the episodes), I grew a bit worried that it would end up like the countless other anime across nearly every genre in which all of the character development are focused on the protagonist, and the side characters are left in the dust. Not so, not so. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the closest that fictional beings have seemed real people so far. I think the key here lies in character development and longevity, because it’s not the only show with a cast of unique characters. It’s easy to see how much the characters have changed when you compare the introduction in the first episode to each individual’s leg of the run in Hakone. This guy likes manga, this guy smokes, this guy is an African transfer student: it’s easy to label characters this way in order to differentiate between them, but that’s not what’s done here. For the length of time that it had and the amount of characters that it contained, this show did a relatively amazing job at exploring each of the characters in a genuine and believable way. Again, it’s not entirely perfect. Some of the characters, such as King and Shindo, I felt were a bit weaker than others. There’s also the fact that it’s highly unrealistic for a group of ten random college students to suddenly become so devoted to running. But hey, this is fiction, and sometimes being too realistic makes it boring.
There’s also the fact that these people have relationships, however cheesy it may be, and not the artificial love triangles (quadrilaterals? Pentagons?) or shallow romance/best friend type stuff that plagues a lot of other anime. You can really see that these characters form relationships within the group based on their age and personality, just like in real life, whereas in most other stories everyone would only be friends with the main character and that’s the only thing that mattered.
Then we get Kakeru, who has got to be the best male protagonist I’ve seen in years. In most anime you would see this cool guy that doesn’t stand out too much other than for having a harem of girls follow his cardboard cutout personality. But Kakeru is defined by himself, not what others think of him. He struggles to make friends, he is easily irritable, and he is rather arrogant. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a good person. He just needed the right group of people, people who could understand him for what he is. His character growth was enormous, from a narrow-minded goal of speed and more speed, to realizing that running was about people, not numbers.
That brings me to my final point. In reality, I think this show is not about running, even though it is a sports anime. What is remarkable about this show is that’s it about the people doing the running. However cliche it may be at times, it breathes new air into an industry which has become somewhat stale in recent years, focusing more on plot and excitement than characters you can relate to.
The only, if minor, flaw I see with this show is that there’s always a good ending. Everyone reaches an official record, kansei just makes it to the qualifiers, they also just make the seeded spot, and kakeru beats the record by one second. It’s true that these characters persevere through adversity to reach that point, but it would be interesting to see how these characters react to working for their goal but falling short.
All in all, this wasn’t the most memorable or emotional show that I’ve watched, but it’s certainly polished. You can tell that the source material came from an author who cared about writing a good story, and even. If it’s not all fireworks, at least it feels like running in the wind.
