Bandai Namco: Hold my game controller.
The enjoyer of Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story will be a person that can appreciate the culture of the OP as the lead singer cries out "my, my, my I have a VENUS!" in a thick Japanese accent. They kept the OP for S2 as well, big W play by Bandai Namco. Listening to the OP alone is worth it for the lulz, but the Anime itself is also hilarious if you've ever golfed before or have some idea how the game is played. The story and golf tournament arcs also manage to keep hype levels high and have you rooting for the MCs, Eve and Aoi, so oddly Birdie Wing manages to succeed as a comedy, traditional sports Anime, yuri-bait and character drama while focusing on... golf. We live in strange times, friend.
Some of the biggest laughs Birdie Wing got out of me were from the ridiculous golf power system introduced for the various golfers as they compete, some of them even yelling out the name of their "attack" as they swing on the ball "GREEN BULLET-O!!!" or "SHINING WINGS!!!". The affinity that organized crime has for using underground golf matches to squash various beef in this Anime is also a major highlight. Categorically impossible shots like driving a ball between two cars of a moving train, hitting the flag on purpose to drop the ball straight down into the hole, or clearing a specific branch in the forest out of the way with your first drive in preparation to hit your next shot off the tee on EXACTLY the same trajactory so that you can get out of the forest back onto the golf course now that the branch is no longer in your way are some choice examples. Had me rewinding and laughing harder each time, and the fact that Bandai Namco managed to hit the mark almost everytime on these "Golf the shonen way" gags is really what kept me engaged with Birdie Wing and looking forward to the next episode.
The balance betweeen the level headed supporting characters and golf fanaticism is particularly funny because it is a great jab at real life golf nuts. Often they have most of their life sorted out, they tend to be successful family people - but they will do ANYTHING to improve their laughably trash golf skills. Lessons, clubs, ridiculously expensive golf balls, thousands of dollars on golf trips and green fees, the anger of the spouse left alone with the kids for 8 hours every Sunday and/or Saturday every Summer... it gets a bit crazy. This Anime manages to make fun of that without making fun of that, by taking it to the absolute extreme and representing mob bosses, C-level executives, and frankly most of the show's cast as obsessive golf weirdos whatever their other talents and responsibilities. It's important to mention that you absolutely do not feel like you're being forced to watch golf as a sport the whole time, or like you're an unwilling participant in a golf lesson. The golf knowledge is fairly lite, and gets dropped into the middle of high stakes moments in adequate but concise bouts of exposition at a slow drip just so you have what you need to appreciate the gags and sick plays. It felt like this was the right decision, not to take things too seriously and to keep it light.
Overall, it's a bit of a shock to see this combination of Anime nonsense and golf have such good chemistry. You can sense the fun that the production staff were having with it, and overall the storytelling is also quite smart which keeps the understated humour from getting stale. The plot navigates a many twists and turns for multiple characters throughout, with one big reveal after another, but still manages to wrap up with a good ending. IMO the story holds up mainly because the clowning is limited to the way people approach golf strategically. The anime-ification of their golf powers basically extrapolates their "winners mindset", whatever their personal philosophy on what it really takes to win, into a golf-related JoJo's stand. The rest of the story, the aspects that bring characters into and push them out of the various golf dramas, is thematically more mature and that helps a lot with buy in and hype levels as we go through the many, many golf tournament arcs. It's also commendable that the tourny arcs are short and sweet. You aren't forced to wait on a cliff hanger repeatedly until you don't care about the outcome anymore. In fact the pacing is a strength of the Anime.
Character arcs outside of the golfing are just super satisfying as well. A lot of the characters are just brats with a good heart, but they each have an admirable work ethic. In general, they also either adopt the approach of their mentor towards competition or have their own unique philosophy on it, which sets up clashes of ideas played out through golf. Many characters end up with a rather adorable, complicated working relationship to each other and these evolve over time. In general the characters going through these moments of growth, connection, and realization as to what they need and what they want from each other professionally for their careers to move ahead, are cute girls and there is a fat dose of yuri-bait in the show - how do you get people interested in a golf Anime, gay girls innit? It's also quite apparent at a certain point that not just the young upcoming talent, but also the over the hill adults in this industry are in some way just being used. Their passion for the sport traps them in unfavorable and outright awful personal circumstances, but they accept them as the price of pursuing it. This more cynical theme that runs through the plot isn't overemphasized, rather it's just this background feel to the whole thing that still allows for moments of exuberance and meaningful wins and losses for the characters and I quite like how it was handled.
While I doubt this will be anyone's favorite Anime of all time, and it probably won't win or contend for anything or make many "top X when Y specific criteria" it really does show that with the right approach you can make anything substantial into a worthy Anime even golf. The worlds slowest and most boring spectator sport, that is insanely frustrating to play, yet this Golf Anime is a gem. If you're into sports Anime and if you have some exposure to golf you'll probably find Birdie Wing worth the fairly small time investment of two seasons.
