Time to review another one of the MAL top 100! At least at the time of this review it's in the top 100. Run with the Wind is being hailed as one of the greatest sports anime of all time. While I feel it got a little overhyped and overrated, it's certainly a good anime and well worth checking out!
Wind is the 2nd novel from author Shion Miura to be adapted into an anime. The first was The Great Passage back in 2016. Remember that one? It was about a 30 year old guy with autism that struggled with interpersonal skills, but found an ideal career editing a new edition of the Japanese dictionary. It was an extremely unique and ambitious anime, but my old buddy Zeph said it was boring and it got absolutely crucified here on MAL. Since Zeph is MIA, Miss Miura's 2nd novel got a much warmer reception here...despite actually being even slower and more boring than Great Passage!
So what is Wind about? This is an anime about a ragtag team of college misfits trying to enter into a marathon relay called the Hakone Ekiden. The H.E. requires 10 runners for each team, with each athlete needing to run between 18 and 23 kilometers. The guy trying to make all this happen is a literature major named Haiji. Haiji is in his senior year and only has one chance to assemble a team and try make this happen. His father was a great track athlete and Haiji himself was an incredible prodigy back in high school. However, he injured his leg and had to take a break from running. A mere injury couldn't kill his love of the sport though and now he's determined to gather a team no matter what...by pressuring and pestering his dorm mates.
The first 10 episodes go like this. Haiji: "Hey, you guys should run the marathon with me". Everyone: "No! We don't wan to run the marathon. We're out of shape!" Haiji: "Come on guys! It will be fun! At least practice with me!" Everyone: "Ok...we'll at least practice, but we still aren't running in the stupid marathon!"
That's literally all that happens for the first 5 hours. This is the slowest sports anime I've ever seen. To be fair, it's much more of a character study and drama than it is a traditional sports show. It's adapted from an actual novel after all, not a shonen manga.
One of the recurring themes of Wind is simply how daily exercise can improve your life. Each character has their own struggles and issues, but the seemingly simple task of running each day manages to help everyone. Daily exercise instills discipline and increases the ability to delay gratification. It also boosts self confidence and improves health.
Like any drama, Wind is heavily focused on character development. Sadly, I don't think Miss Miura wanted to actually write 10 characters. She just needed 10 to fill out the H.E. requirement. So we get 2 identical twins who just want to have sex. We get an otaku whose character is that he's an otaku. Some of the characters like King, Kakeru, and Haiji get wonderful character moments and development, but it's not evenly spread. To be fair, it's really hard to properly flesh out 10 characters in just 23 episodes.
The art by production IG is one of the highlights of the series. This anime looks absolutely GORGEOUS. Not only is it fluid and bright, but also very consistent. Another IG anime I've been watching is Vinland Saga, which looks great one minute and then you get smacked in the face with some AWFUL CG. Fortunately, Wind is a lot more consistent. Whoever was animation director really did their job. What's even more impressive was that this is an entire series about running, which is hard to animate. Walking in general is hard to animate. Why do you think cheap anime like to show characters from the waist up? It isn't just bad anime studios that fuck up walk cycles. Studio Madhouse back in the 1990s use to do it all the time. Watch an episode of Trigun and wait for any scene with a crowd. Random characters will be moving across the screen at a different pace than their footsteps, leading to what my offline buddy has dubbed "The Madhouse Moonwalk". Basically, Wind's animation is stellar. No complaints there.
Overall, this series starts out slow but grows into something pretty damn good! While I prefer Great Passage, Wind is still a great experience. I tried really hard to avoid any spoilers in this review, but just be prepared for one of the most random, out of nowhere romantic confessions I've seen in anime. I don't want to talk more about that and spoil it, but it REALLY should have had more time play out. Other than that, it's an anime I recommend. If you like Wind, be sure to support Miss Miura and also check out Great Passage.
