Simply speaking, the basics of the story are similar to Free!. We are introduced to the main character named Minato (aka Haru), who abandoned his beloved archery, after developing target panic. After a faithful meeting with the coach Masaki, he nevertheless joins his school's archery team, where he is joined by his best friend Seiya (aka Tachibana), an archery rookie Ryouhei (aka Rei), cheerful Nanao (aka Nagisa) and tsundere Onogi. We are also very early on introduced to his childhood friend Shu (aka Rin), who competes for the rival school's team. The story, therefore, follows an already seen format towards safe waters with mixed success. The themes being touched upon, such as team spirit, not giving up and determination are presented and executed well, especially when the team of the main characters competes with the rival team. The differences in competing philosophies of the main rivals Minato and Shu are also an execution highlight. However, the story would sorely need a few more episodes to really flesh out its characters' motivations and unique personal struggles. The anime also suffers from introducing too many new characters at the same time (exact same issue as with Free!), with a few of them being demoted to basic stand-ins after a while. There should definitely be more character development, so one could really emote and start caring for these characters, however after finishing all 13 eps one was left with a general 'nice but nothing special' feeling.
Obviously, the production aspects of the show are lovely. The animation and the character design are superb and nothing to complain about. The archery scenes are very realistic and they do create tension. The sound is top-notch.
Honestly, this is a decent outing for any fans of sports anime or KyoAni. The anime is genuinely fun to watch but it leaves something to be desired, especially when compared with better sports anime, such as Haikyuu, Kuroko or Run with the Wind, which all managed to score higher in storytelling, animation and characterization departments. Since the second season of Tsurune was recently announced, maybe these shortcomings will be mended into a stronger outing for KyoAni. The sport is exciting and unique enough to deserve another season and a more polished storyline, which would complement already outstanding animation.
