I won't lie what got my attention to this anime was the "shipping" of the main characters. So much creativity has been spent on them and the genuineness of love for these characters and between the characters, I thought it remiss of me not to sample the actual series.
Volleyball? Toss a ball over a net? I've been in volleyball games in gym. Everything goes so fast how could anyone pretend to control let alone strategize such a game?
Well... despite my being maybe the worst audience for a sports anime I got pulled in. No this wasn't a BL story but when you see people care about something... I mean the sport... and their heart is on the line... well, if you can care about the characters you start to care that what they are trying to do gets done. I actually cared about every damn move they struggled over.
This I suppose is art, to make you care about the characters and story. You could say I didn't go very far from my art roots. But to make me care about a sports game? And feel for athletes? I'm still in wonder about it. I have a lot of rethinking to do.
As for the ships, a trivial note only, the opening title scene of some of the episodes focuses on one of the shipped couple's ass, then closing credits ends on a very warm smile of love from the other half where it's clear who he's smiling at off screen. It may not be BL but I feel this has got to be one of the best ship couples ever. And somebody making this series knew it :-)
