Kuroda's writing quality and consistency invokes the opening lines of A Tale of 2 Cities. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."
How do you convince people to watch an anime about women's golf? No seriously, I'm asking the reader! I know 6 guys offline who watch anime and I've failed to convince any of them to watch a single episode of Birdie Wing despite begging them for 2 months straight.
I know everyone else is going to mention this, so I may as well address it. Birdie Wing is officially the gayest sports anime ever made! Yuri on Ice has NOTHING on Birdie Wing. Yuri on Ice is the story of a depressed, down on his luck skater who has to recapture his passion for the sport and bounce back. He kind of has a thing for his coach, but there honestly isn't a lot of sexual tension in most of the scenes they share together. Birdie Wing feels like the main 2 girls are going to throw their clubs to the ground and frantically start making out in basically every scene they share. There was even a meme article called "There is literally no heterosexual explanation for Birdie Wing". However, Birdie Wing isn't tagged as a yuri. It was never advertised as a yuri. The studio has never said that it's a yuri. I thought that surely if this was intended to be a yuri, they would have said so at some point during Pride Month and yet they didn't. So, was this accidental? Is it all a joke? What the fuck is this? I have a hard time believing that this was done on accident. The first Top Gun was probably an accident. Birdie Wing was almost certainly on purpose, so I can only conclude that this is a stealth yuri that doesn't want to advertise itself as such. Possibly to avoid it getting banned in certain countries. That's honestly my best theory. Now fans in Indonesia can buy Birdie Wing. Fans in Saudi Arabia can buy Birdie Wing. Fans in Russia can...pirate it like you guys always do anyways.
Finally, I'll get to the conventional part of the review. Birdie Wing is a mixed bag overall. Firstly, I'd like to start with the positives. The characters are really fun. The plot takes turns going from predictable to being utterly insane. Birdie Wing is often laughably ridiculous, but that's the point and it doesn't take itself too seriously. I also really like Eve and Aoi as a couple. They are so cute together! The OP is also amazing, and I've not skipped it a single time. On the negative side, Birdie Wing's sheer stupidity can be off-putting to many people. I've never had to work this hard to sell my offline friends on an anime. Usually, I can get at least 1 of them to watch any given anime. The CG is also pretty egregious at times. This was not made on a high budget and certainly won't be winning awards as the prettiest looking anime of the season. Lastly, the relationship between Eve and Aoi at this point is simply bait with no official confirmation that they're actually a couple. I will actually be pissed if Eve and Aoi don't kiss at some point in S2. For the show to bait THIS hard and then chicken out because they're afraid of the show getting banned in countries that don't legally purchase or stream anime anyways would be pretty shitty.
Would I recommend Birdie Wing? Yes. This is definitely one of the must-watch anime of 2022, for the absurdity if for no other reason. I found it highly entertaining, and I hope anyone who I convince to try it out will be entertained as well!
