Reviews

Ao Ashi (Anime) add (All reviews)
Sep 24, 2022
“I don’t know much about soccer/football” - but I really liked this show.
There's probably a big misconception as if you need to know about the sport in order to enjoy story about it.
In fact you don't. I don’t follow soccer/football in real life and yet I found this series very enjoyable.

What’s more important is the logic behind games, and mainly, behind people. I think more people with various backgrounds should watch realistic sport series. There's just something really wholesome about them.

You don't need to know about soccer/football to understand the essence of this anime. In fact, in this show there are two characters who keep saying the same line throughout the series. That it’s just soccer and they don’t know much about it.

It’s kind of funny, isn’t it? The fact that in a sport series about soccer/football there are essential characters telling us that it’s not that important at all. They are pointing it out that there’s more to life than just one thing. It’s cool if you are good at that one thing, but don’t forget that you are a friend to someone, a brother or sister, or a child to your parent.
Don’t get too worked up over one thing.
And don’t forget that you are not alone. This becomes more apparent when you see characters playing in matches. Don’t try to do everything when there are other people out there capable of assisting you. Talk things out, have discussions, stay true to yourself when voicing opinions.
What I want to say is that this series is like a package full of good life lessons. Many sport series have managed to do the same. And it’s a good thing: since every instance of life is different, situations are different and every time you find a good sports anime it all comes back but from another perspective. And Ao Ashi will be my next, newest favourite in that regard. And this time from the perspective of soccer/football.

This misconception I mentioned earlier has probably been fading away over the years since the spike of sport anime after the success of Haikyuu and several others which have influenced animation studios to create similar shows.
Ao Ashi has been created by the same studio which has created several successful sport series. This time as well, they have done very good job with it. Aside from games there are moments of sadness and happiness that comes from focusing on your goals in life. There is cute first-love and love-triangle subplot that I really enjoyed due to how natural they were. I really liked how this series focuses on the thinking part of soccer/football since I never really understood it before.
And what’s great is that you actually can learn some aspects of a soccer/football game. It’s a game that people have been playing for years and have deep connections to. Despite having no particular interest, you can learn to appreciate something on a more deeper level.

The main thing I see this series lacks is that it’s only 24 episodes. But they managed to fit it all in nicely. Overall a really well balanced series that deserves more attention.

I guess when you are a person who likes to see and understand the essence of things, you can enjoy Ao Ashi despite having no real interest or skill in soccer/football. Impressive. :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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