sports – Anime QandA

The Real Losers – ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 12 (Finale) Review

The Real Losers – An Anime QandA Review for ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 12

This is a part of a collaboration review between myself and Irina (of I Drink And Watch Anime) with my parts represented by bold text and Irina’s in regular.

Hey look Irina, we did it, we finally did it, we’ve finished Cinderella Nine! I wasn’t sure we’d ever get here. I think we deserve a drink! Maybe several.

So this episode continues immediately after the previous and almost the entire episode is devoted to the same game of baseball… which on the one hand I thought was a nice change of pace–I mean this is a baseball anime after all it’s about time we spend some time with our girls playing the game. But, much like everything this show does, it’s not particularly interesting and for the last half of the game is basically just several minutes of still frames with various pans and zooms to ‘simulate’ a sense of animation and movement. It was basically impossible to follow what was happening after the first inning or so (I hope that’s a word) so you couldn’t even get that vicarious thrill of cheering along with your team. Most of the time I honestly couldn’t have told you who was winning or losing. Even ‘Harukana Receive’ was better at focusing on the match and in that show, it was basically just an excuse for front or back cleavage. Not that that’s a bad thing but they could afford to have people lose track of the match ‘cause there was something else going on, here, without that aspect, there’s really nothing left.

I liked the bit with best girl Akane having her mother see her catch a ball, it was sweet, probably the highlight of the episode. No comment…

I found that scene with the opponents having a flashback and character development moment in the middle of the game (during a time-out) to be utterly pointless–especially given it was the final episode. What did you think of it? Exactly the same. I was screaming at my tv that it’s ridiculous to try and force audience attachment at this point and I don’t even remember the main team, forget these girls. You need to do that midway through the season and build up the rivalry. Pfft amateurs.

And so after spending over 20 minutes on this single game it ends off-screen, with us finding the result via a newspaper article on a bulletin board… which kind of felt like a cheap slap in the face. The offscreen conclusion thing is a pretty common sports anime trope and I didn’t mind it. Maybe ‘cause I’m used to it, maybe cause just wanted the still shots to be over…

So yeah, they won that game but lost in the second round. But that’s not what’s important, their achievement has inspired their kohai’s and classmates to become interested in baseball too! Which I mean is nice and all but kinda seemed like it was sequel-baiting more than anything, which let’s face it, is never gonna happen… It did seem like sequel bathing and yeah never gonna happen. The really sad part is all the potential new characters seemed more interesting.

This girl has a pet squirrel and we’re only *now* meeting her in the final episode?!

This said, I really feel bad for the other team that lost. They were so much better in the practice and they have also been working equally as hard since but they weren’t good enough to beat the worst team around. Those girls must be so bummed out. I bet heir school cancelled the girls’ baseball team again. If not, I mean this was the first time they agreed to pay for fun and it was a resounding failure so I’m guessing if the team still exists, no more fun Ever! That catcher is in so much trouble!

Because they were so inconsistent at showing us team development, the first victory felt unearned and the loss was inconsequential.

Anything else you wanted to add/mention before we wrap this up, Irina? Please don’t base your opinion of the Sports! genre on this anime?

For me, Cinderella Nine was an example of absolute mediocrity with some vague glimmers of interesting moments and characters interspersed throughout. I don’t think the show was beyond fixing but it seemed like that the budget wasn’t large enough to make it visually compelling enough and the writing and acting wasn’t good enough to elevate what was on the page. Also it was devoid of any kind of anime-inspired gimmick (stylised art, fan-service, etc.) that could have at least made it entertaining. What are your final thoughts on the series? I saw your ratings of the week post and it seems like you enjoyed the last episode at least, considerably more than I did. I thought the series was generally below average and just seemed low effort. I’m uncertain if anyone wanted this to be anything more than a time filler.

I’m sure these still frames with baseball ‘stuff’ on it is interesting to baseball fans…

That’s all I can say really. We made it. It wasn’t as painful as I make it sound but I could have skipped his series and not lost much! Thank you for sticking with it Matt! I certainly wouldn’t have made it alone. Likewise Irina! And thank you all for reading these reviews, hopefully they offered some enjoyment!

Previous ‘Cinderella Nine‘ Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
No Glove, No Love – Episode 2 Review
A Wild Cheerleader Appears – Episode 3 Review
For The Love Of The Game – Episode 4 Review
Oh Right, Baseball – Episode 5 Review
Striking Out – Episode 6 Review
Episode 7 Review
The Cost Of Success – Episode 8 Review
Episode 9 Review
Swing And A Miss – Episode 10 Review
Episode 11 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Swing And A Miss – ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 10 Review

Swing And A Miss – An Anime QandA Review for ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 10

This is a part of a collaboration review between myself and Irina (of I Drink And Watch Anime) with my parts represented by bold text and Irina’s in regular.

Oh hey look, this show is still going… I don’t know about you Irina but there’s something somewhat depressing about the fact that this show was delayed by 2 weeks and therefore we’ll be still watching this show when everyone else will be watching all of next season’s new shows! Not to say that this episode (or any of them) are depressing just very ordinary… We’re special that way. If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure we were the only ones watching his show anyway, so nothing will change.

Pay no attention to the derp faces on the foreground characters!

Probably… anyway, we get an episode almost entirely devoted to a full game of baseball! Fancy that, baseball in a baseball anime… and it’s kinda good? Maybe? I don’t know, I’ve never watched a game of baseball in my life but I could at least understand what was going on for the most part! The only other baseball I’ve watched was Ace of Diamond. They also used balls and stick thingies so everything tracks so far! I believe this was, in fact, supposed to be baseball. YAY Matt, we did it, we talked sport…

That said, it’s a shame this show didn’t have a bigger budget (I’m assuming its budgetary that the show looks as mediocre as it does–I could be wrong) because the “action” is pretty limited–it hardly makes for the most exciting experience. There was even a moment where Tsubasa scores a home-run and it was so poorly animated you don’t even see the bat connect with the ball–I don’t know if you caught that, it was a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ kinda thing. I did not catch that. Good eye Matt! I mean it was a cute game generally speaking. I think if we had seen this episode at the beginning of the series before we got so over it, we would have genuinely enjoyed it… maybe.

I even bothered to make a gif of the “home run” hit. They bother to animate her feet taking a stance but not the ball hitting the bat? Lame…

Oh I guess I should probably talk about the plot of the episode, our girls are challenged to a baseball match by the “ace” of one of the top high-school baseball teams in Japan! So they accept only to find out they’ll be versing the school’s third-tier players–not the cream of the crop they were assuming! Also the aforementioned “ace” [I can’t remember her name, I’ll add it in later–maybe] is kind of an interesting character? She’s got a big ego and treats her players harshly and it’s almost something to break the boredom. What’d you think of her and her “evil” lollipop sucking ways? She seems kinda like a fanservice archetype? For a long time, I thought it was the girl from the previous episodes with the long blonde hair that had just put it up and I was wondering why she was so mean all the sudden. I may have had a drink before the show…

I like this bitch. Too bad we’ll probably never see her again!

Oh oh the super fragile girl had a moment in the spotlight. You like her no? I like her yeah but her “moment” was kind of ordinary and easily resolved–par for the course really!

Anyway our girls win and it’s all happy and I just hope the production has saved some money for the final two episodes so that even if it’s not a ‘great’ episode there’s hopefully something worth looking at… Like I said, I think we are just completely jaded by this show. The episode itself was actually not bad at all but I won’t lie, I’m looking forward to putting this series behind me. Ping Pong Girls remains my favourite moe sports mashup to date. Agreed, Cinderella Nine needs more sweat! Wait, that’s what you meant right?!

Bring on nationals! I’m sure it won’t be disappointing at all!

Previous ‘Cinderella Nine‘ Reviews:

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The Cost of Success – ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 8 Review

The Cost of Success – An Anime QandA Review for ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 8

This is a part of a collaboration review between myself and Irina (of I Drink And Watch Anime) with my parts represented by bold text and Irina’s in regular.

Wow! So we had two weeks off because irl sports were showing on Japanese TV in Cinderella Nine’s timeslot, did you miss the show? Because I sure as heck forgot it even existed… I only remembered it because it’s on top of my Crunchyroll queue but I honestly could not keep track of how many episodes were skipped. 1? 14? No clue….

And I think the actors forgot about this show as well. Is it me or was the voice acting not great this episode? Individual voices were cute and all but it sounded a bit like they were phoning it in…

I won’t say I was dreading watching it, because it’s “fine”, it just doesn’t leave much of an impact as we’ve reiterated week-after-week–and this episode–expectedly was more of the same. It was pleasant enough while watching it but it didn’t really leave much of an impression. It’s the Akari of anime shows. Except Akari rocks and this show is, as you put it, “fine”. That seems like such a huge insult here.

And for what it’s worth a lot happens in this episode, and yet quite a lot of it felt like it was just spinning its wheels–eating up air time to pad out to the 12 episodes while having as least amount of actual sports as possible. To be fair Matt, a lot of the shows we’ve watched together had that problem. They just had much better character models to distract us from it. But we’ve seen our share of fairly thin plots that got dragged out. I think the problem here is that nothing is particularly good.

There’s no stand out character, no beautiful art, not even someone to hate. Even the soundtrack is just kinda there. Without at least one element to rally around, the entire thing just seems particularly aimless.

The girls face their biggest opponent yet–bureaucracy and budgeting! They need more money to be able to partake in a tournament (for gear and stuff), but they need to be certified as a club to get money. But standing in their way is a woman (I don’t actually know who this woman is, is she like a vice principal or head teacher? Do they actually say in the episode). But the girls rally behind their club advisor (whose name I’ve also forgotten) and they collect some signatures from their classmates and all is well by the end of the episode! I think vice principal….don’t quote me. You know, and this is probably just because I’m an enormous nerd, but I kind of liked this. Seeing a bit o the behind the scenes of school clubs and their administration. I don’t know… You usually only get a very superficial mention of budgets or what it means to be an official club and seeing how it comes together, paperwork and all, it made it seem more realistic. I know it’s weird. I like the teacher character but keep forgetting she exists (there’s a pattern here) so I was glad we got to see her more.

Also, both of them were blushing when the budget proposal came together, like some deep yuri romantic scene and I thought that was hilarious.

I think Irina sees Yuri where I don’t, either that I was just bored by this part.

It’s worth mentioning we meet a bunch new female classmates who all look a hundred times more interesting than our core cast of characters–I’m guessing these are characters from the mobile game, hence why they have crazy hairstyles and accessories. They only appear for a few seconds each so it’s clear this is just fan-service (the “non-sexy kind) for players of the mobile game. I loved pompadour girl. I want her to get her own show!

Best girl of the whole show only has 1 line of dialogue.

Speaking of “non-sexy” there’s a weird moment where Ayaka (the girl who goes ‘nya’ a lot) sprays the other girls and their teacher with a hose while their tending to the sunflowers and everyone gets all wet and they laugh and I’m like is this suppose to be fan-service or is this just showing them having light-hearted fun? Either way it was pretty awkward, but that could be down to the animation being mediocre again too… I literally wrote down wet t-shirt fail in my notes. If you haven’t seen this episode, whatever you’re imagining, it was less sexy than that. I don’t even think it was meant as sexualized – just goofy and cute. But the voice acting was weird. As for the art quality, I think it was fine in this scene. There were some moments in the teacher’s lounge tough, that were just a complete mess.

The only part of the episode that stood out was when Ayaka (who’s also a budding reporter along with being part cat) regails the girls (but mostly the audience) with the history of women’s baseball in Japan. I did like that they weren’t afraid to mention how unfair it was and how hard it was for women’s baseball to be officially recognised and supported–even if the way this information was imparted to the audience was incredibly dry. Girls couldn’t have high school baseball teams before 1995, because the sport was considered “too extreme” for girls. 1995! I was alive then! And we are not talking professional here or anything. High School!?! Crazy… I know mysterious possibly vice principal lady said it was an expensive sport, that may have something to do with it, but still. And how expensive could it be? More than hockey? I doubt it! You need to create ice!

It was a long road, but they got there. (Assuming all this stuff was actually true)

I feel like I may have gotten off track here. Wha were we saying? Something about how basketball seems cost efficient? Even better, dodge ball. No hoop or net needed, they should play that instead.

And that’s more or less the episode, I can’t say I’m on the edge of my seat in anticipation of the ‘big game’ they’re going to play (eventually) but maybe it’ll prove worth the wait and give us some exciting anime! I hope we get to see the seedy underbelly of high school sports. Parents paying for their untalented kids to get a spot on the team, vice principal lady funnelling off the bribes to fund a rival boys team in the school. A high school set racketeering crime drama. It’ll be grand!

Previous ‘Cinderella Nine‘ Reviews:

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Striking Out – ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 6 Review

Striking Out – An Anime QandA Review for ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 6

This is a part of a collaboration review between myself and Irina (of I Drink And Watch Anime) with my parts represented by bold text and Irina’s in regular.

Back at it again with the baseball girls, only more of an emphasis on “drama” and “relationships” and “character building” than actual sports in this episode. I like how you added in “this episode”.

Basically, the girls have exams coming up which means studying is going to have to take priority over training. This is Tsubasa’s edict–something that Tomoe isn’t particularly happy with because she knows she can do both and as somewhat of the weakest link on the team needs to keep training so she can be better. I understand that Tsubasa has to focus on her studies since she’s likely to fail everything even without distractions but I wasn’t all that certain why it was applied across the board. Mind you skipping a few practices isn’t the end of the world either.

Tomoe finds a quiet place to train and bumps into Jinguji from the school they played their practice match against, Tomoe begs her to help her train and she obliges only for two of her teammates to see her and tattle on her to Tsubasa. The two have an argument and then stop talking to each other as a result. And I’ll admit, at first I kind of rolled my eyes at how abruptly and explosively Tsubasa reacted–almost like Tomoe was cheating on her or something. Well she was but Tsubasa was withholding the good stuff so…you know… a girl has needs.

But as the episode went on I kinda understood where the two of them were coming from–if nothing else this episode sold this ‘temporary’ bust up between the two girls and tied it to baseball surprisingly well. I’m sure you’ve seen something like this in other sports anime, Irina, how did you think they pulled it off? Um. Well I do understand both of their points of view o in that sense yes but their reactions were pure nonsense. Then again it could have been that time of the month or something. You remember Scorching Ping Pong Girls? That show had some early manufactured drama with the jealousy arc that was much more effective. I really liked that show. I should stop comparing these more sports anime to it.

I kinda wish someone slapped someone. The way Tsubasa was acting certainly made it felt like that was an option!

I kinda liked the character if Jinguji (I keep reading that as Jumanji–is that racist?) even though she came off as sort of snooty it kind of showed the difference between our girls and girls who are taking the baseball seriously–like career seriously. I also really like her. I hope they actually develop her but I feel like they won’t have time. Most of our team is still pretty 2 dimensional so we can’t be putting effort into secondary minor antagonists/support roles.

I’m going to bet we’re not going to get anywhere near nationals in the span of this season, just a hunch…

The other girls were mostly relegated to the sidelines (literally) and so this episode more was about two girls who were already best friends–reassessing their relationship in the shadow of a game that maybe doesn’t have a place for words like “best friend”. Though I’d argue that a lot of these girls aren’t taking it as serious as Tsubasa and Tomoe are so it seems kinda half-hearted. That said I did shed a tear when Tsubasa had her little breakdown and Tomoe went in for the big hug. Good emotion.

All-in-all, kind of a slow episode but it was pretty good. Anything else to add Irina? I had a tough time staying awake through it to be honest. The art was a little wonky now and then. I’ve been trying to find an “appropriate” or at least not “horribly insensitive and offensive” way to say that in some scenes the girls looked like they got spontaneous down syndrome because the proportions were completely off. I did not find a way. Matt you should probably censor this heavily. Is this what you had in mind? Probably not… lol

We are halfway through the season but I must say, it feels like not much has happened. I’m starting to agree with you when you say that the only reason to watch this show is because you have to for reason outside of your control. And if that isn’t a ringing endorsement, then I don’t know what is! Join us next week on Irina’s site for Episode 7!

Kudos to the person doing the subtitles for this episode, they even smudged the subtitles when Tsubasa’s tears dropped on the page!

Previous ‘Cinderella Nine‘ Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
No Glove, No Love – Episode 2 Review
A Wild Cheerleader Appears – Episode 3 Review
For The Love Of The Game – Episode 4 Review
Oh Right, Baseball – Episode 5 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

For The Love Of The Game – ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 4 Review

For The Love Of The Game – An Anime QandA Review for ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 4

This is a part of a collaboration review between myself and Irina (of I Drink And Watch Anime) with my parts represented by bold text and Irina’s in regular.

So this week we found ourselves in flashback central as we seemingly constantly switched between the past and the present (at least in the first half of the episode) to learn more about where Tsubasa and Ryo’s rivalry came from and the big middle school game that shaped both of these girls’ futures in baseball!

What did you think of these flashback scenes? I enjoyed the flashback to the big game–seeing Tsubasa’s positivity lead her team to a ‘come from behind’ victory was pretty inspiring. It was cute is a little too sunshine and rainbows. Nobody is that happy about losing. Then again, Tsubasa got really depressed about winning which makes me think one of us doesn’t quite understand how competitions work.

Joking aside, it was a nice inversion. The classic trope is to choke in a big game, lose your nerve and quit before cautiously returning to the sport. It was interesting to see the idea of a team falling apart under the pressures of success. Not something we get to explore too often but it does exist. Not that we got to delve too deep into it in this episode either. I still liked it as a concept.

I also enjoyed the flashback with Tsubasa’s best friend Tomoe getting her back into baseball after she decided to give it up. It was next level sappy friendship pr0n. I wish the girls were just a touch better distinguished from one another. It was still very cute.

It was interesting how she mentioned that she couldn’t continue with her current team because her goals weren’t in line with the boys. I kind of wish they’d elaborated on the ~exact~ reasons, I don’t know if I missed something but the only thing I could infer was that Tsubasa wants to play for fun and not for serious–which I’m not sure how I feel about that… I’m going to bet that the moral of the season is that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. You can really care about the sport and take it seriously while having fun, or something along those lines. You know serious fun!

Sometimes this show is pretty. The backgrounds mostly.

The second half of the episode–while good–I don’t think was quite as good as the flashback first half. And while I hate to bring it up because I generally don’t have an issue with it, there was some really average art (particularly in the facial department) that kind of undermined the overriding emotion of the episode. I actually noticed it more in the flashback friendship scenes, At one point Tomoe’s proportions and really her entire shape was really weird. I have to admit, I found the second half a a little boring. I zoned out a few times and had to remind myself to pay attention. Not that the show was awful or anything, but it was just not that gripping to me.

One of these faces is not as detailed as the others…

Also, I didn’t think they’d have our rival character join the club so quickly, I thought they’d stretch it out a bit further but hopefully that means we’ll get to playing some baseball with our team soon! (Oh hey look, I’m actually looking forward to some baseball in this baseball anime.) Well we’re already a 3rd of the way into the season. The have to have one training as a team episode. Then they need to lose their first match, one of them has to have some personal issues, Tsubasa needs to get super moody and disillusioned over something, then they need to fight sexism, win the big game, prove that girl’s baseball is valid and become bestest of friends!

I watch a lot of sports anime…

Nobody knows what Irina’s “deal” is, that’s part of her charm!

Point is, they still have a lot of ground to cover!

Anything else you wanted to add, Irina? I’m think now that the rival girl with the long hair is NOT the president but I’m still not entirely sure which is not a great sign. But I am looking forward to all that stuff I said. I wonder how much will actually come to pass.

Oh oh – do they need a coach? I now mean girl is kind of their coach but they need a faculty advisor, don’t they? Think they get a pervy one like in Pretty Derby? It would be extra creepy in this show since it doesn’t fit the vibe at all. (Pretty sure they already have a faculty advisor—she was the one who helped them find their field in Episode 2…)

Anyway, that’s our review for Episode 4–join us next week on Irina’s site for more!

Previous ‘Cinderella Nine‘ Reviews:

Episode 1 Review
No Glove, No Love – Episode 2 Review
A Wild Cheerleader Appears – Episode 3 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

No Glove, No Love – ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 2 Review

No Glove, No Love – An Anime QandA Review for ‘Cinderella Nine’ Episode 2

This is a part of a collaboration review between myself and Irina (of I Drink And Watch Anime) with my parts represented by bold text and Irina’s in regular.

And here we are with episode two! It seems to roughly follow the formula of the first episode–trying to recruit new girl who has some desire to play baseball but has some emotional/physical boundary impeding her from doing so. What do you think about this being the episodic formula for the time being? So far this is almost beat for beat the first season of Free!. If it was just a bit more fanservicey and they were playing in swimsuits, I would have trouble telling the two shows apart… It is a deeply formulaic but then again so are most sports anime. It’s part of why they are comforting.

This time it’s Waka we’re introduced to, who previously was the adviser to her big brother’s little league games when she was (presumably) in elementary school. And while she was somewhat a savant at the strategy side of the game, she’s always wanted to get off the bench and play the game itself. I liked her story, it was endearing to have such a strong character type offer her vulnerabilities to the audience but keep them mostly secret from the rest of the club. The OP tells us exactly who’s gonna be on the team so now we’re just going through the motions to recruit all the girls.

I have to admit, I didn’t quite understand Waka’s trauma. Like she’s bad at sports so it made her sad but now she’s not sad anymore. Not that it bothered me at all. I’m not expecting great character craftsmanship here. The brother is potentially the most generic side character I’ve ever seen. It was almost endearingly boring. These kind of girls are almost ~exactly~ like this, you need to watch more CGDCT shows, its basically a staple by now! Badly written? That’s mean Matt. I’ll have you know there are some great CGDCT shows! Don’t put words in my mouth!

I was kind of surprised they found a place to train so quickly, I thought this particular dilemma was going to last a few more episodes. But it was nice to see them come together to bring it back into usable order. I hope they spend more time restoring the field. There’s great relationship building potential in trying to build something together.

Also, I’m glad that Akane’s slowly getting better at various aspects of baseball and they haven’t rushed through her development. She’s probably my favourite girl so far, mostly due to the fact that I was hopeless at sports too–also she’s adorable. I think Akane is suppose to be everyone’s favourite. It even looks like they have a higher budget for animating her than any other character on the show. It’s sort of weird. Scenes where she’s in are of consistently higher production value. I wonder if they’re going to make branded hoodies are just figs and body pillows for merch…What do you think? I think I’ll need to buy that body pillow… I mean what?!

What was your favourite part of the episode, Irina/did you have anything else to add? Honestly, not that much happened. I did like the explanation on how to shape and soften a baseball glove. I always like it when it sounds like the writers care a little about the sport, it makes the character’s passion seem more authentic.

In fact the only note I took is: Is Matt going to name this post “No Glove, No Love?” Damn, that’s a good review title, Irina… Imma steal it! Thanks!

Join us next week on Irina’s site for Episode 3!

Previous ‘Cinderella Nine‘ Reviews:

Episode 1 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

It’s Virtually A Sport – ‘Circlet Princess’ Episode 1 Review

It’s Virtually A Sport – An Anime QandA Review for ‘Circlet Princess’ Episode 1

What’s the show? Circlet Princess, Episode 1.

So how’s this episode? First of all, let me just say I’m a little worried with this seemingly consistent trend of certain anime titles not being licensed by Western streaming services, first in Summer 2018 it was ‘Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou’, then in Fall 2018 it was ‘Han-Gyaku-Sei Million Arthur’ and now in Winter 2019 it’s ‘Circlet Princess’ and it’s not like these are small budget short anime, these a proper full releases. And, at least in the case of ‘Circlet Princess’ can’t speak for the others, apparently it’s a Chinese company called ‘Bilibili’ to blame–they are blocking international distribution for these shows because they have the leeway to do so by putting money in to making them. This is not something that should be overlooked, China has the money and power to block more and more anime from reaching the West and that’s worrying. I feel like I needed to bring this to everyone’s attention before continuing with this review.

Right, so in other words? Yes, this is a review of a fansubbed anime–thankfully there’s still people out there doing remarkably quick and high quality fansubs.

Fair enough, just thought I needed to make that clear for anyone wanting to pick up the show themselves. Indeed, but with that out of the way we’ll get back to the fun of reviewing.

True, so how is the show? I was going to say “surprisingly great” but that would have assumed I had any preconceptions going in–I didn’t. All I knew is this was going to be girls playing future sports slash also a school anime. And that’s exactly what the first episode delivered!

You say “future sport” what is it exactly? It’s called a ‘Circlet Bout’ and its basically a bit like kendo (maybe, I don’t know much about that sport either) where two opponents face off with swords attempting to block one another from scoring a hit. But other than that the show doesn’t give us much information, we know first knock out wins but are there any other rules? Also, for some reason it takes place in a ‘virtual arena’ with even the participants clothes being projected onto them and for some reason the backdrop of the arena is meant to look like surface of the moon looking down at Earth.

That’s a lot of unanswered questions! Yep, but it’s the first episode so I’ll cut them some slack.

And who are our characters? First there’s Chikage Fuijimura, a 50 wins in a row undefeated pro who we briefly learn is having all her wins bought by her “sponsor”–which she is none too happy about it. Then there’s our protagonist, a plucky country girl named Yuuka Sasaki who’s visiting the big city for the first time and through a series of misunderstandings gets mistaken for Chikage’s new opponent. The two end up having a fight, Chikage going all out because she’s sick of sticking to a scripted fights and Yuuka managing to pick up the sport remarkably easy to the point where she even pulls off a ‘legendary block’ against the reigning champ. It’s pretty contrived but it’s also entertaining and I’m sure they’ll have some reason to explain why Yuuka was so good at a sport she didn’t even know existed 10 minutes before.

Right, anything else happen? Mate, that was just the first half. We cut to ~two years later~ and Yuuka has convinced her parents to let her enrol in a college that’s famous for Circlet Bout. Apparently in all this time no one has seen Chikage who disappeared after her match with Yuuka. And as a result (probably) the college no longer has a ‘Circlet Bout’ club much to Yuuka’s dismay. She moves into a dorm (along with a programming girl named Ayumu who helped her out earlier in the episode) and that’s about it. Except it’s not just about it as this show has ~so~ much going on in and around the peripheral that I could talk for ages about it!

She can be surprisingly assertive, even to complete strangers!

Condense it down and give us the basics. Okay, well first there’s a superpowered attack that Chikage gives that her ‘coach(?)’ advises her against using. Also there’s talk that the reason the super attack didn’t work properly is that the computer couldn’t handle it, meaning that these attacks are being rendered by a computer which makes sense because they’re in a virtual world but that brings up some interesting possibilities for matches–and of course for creative plays and sabotage considering we’ve got a ‘programmer’ character on the show too. Also the world is really cool, it’s basically just Japan in the future which doesn’t look that much different except everyone has really high-tech personal devices that overlay information in the real world like holograms. I like this grounded and not-so-distant future tech, it was very believable.

And what about the characters themselves? They’re all pretty great too. The protagonist’s performance is very quirky and cute but different enough to not seem too tropey, like a couple of her line readings were a lot of fun to hear. Everyone else seems pretty standard, but I don’t mean that in a bad way.

Okay then, so overall thoughts for the first episode and a recommendation? If you like club/sports anime with cute girls you’ll probably find something to like here. Overall its an intriguing beginning to a series that could have a lot of potential and it seems like there’s a lot more going on then is presented on the surface. I think this show will be a lot of fun!

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Cheering Aid – ‘Anima Yell!’ Episode 12 (Finale) Review

Cheering Aid – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Anima Yell!’ Episode 12 (Finale)

What’s the show? Anima Yell! Episode 12.

So how’s this episode? It was predictably adorable, or adorably predictable or both!

One sounds a lot more positive than the other. Predictability in cute girl shows isn’t a bad thing. It means it’s familiar and comfortable, it can be a great feeling–as it was in this final episode. That said, this episode both simultaneously opened up the potential for future seasons as well as made it clear that they would be absolutely unnecessary all within the span of one scene, but I’ll get to that later.

Right. So what happens in this episode? So the girls participate in their first cheerleading tournament but not before the usually bright and energetic Kohane comes down with a bad came of nerves! She becomes suddenly self-conscious about slipping up and ruining everyone’s hardwork so much so that she gets caught up in a spiral of self-doubt and nervousness. Thankfully, she comes to the realisation that she has her friends around her to support her, not just her fellow cheer club members but all her friends and family supporting her from the stands. Unfortunately she only comes to this realisation half-way through their performance and so the lackluster first half of their cheer routine means they don’t make it to the second round of the competition.

Oh dear. It’s okay though, because Kohane rides the high of the second half of their routine and everything is fine.

And what about Hizume’s previous cheer squad, is the potential for drama that you thought might occur, occur? Not really, no. But it kind of doesn’t matter, there’s a confrontation between the previous group’s cheer leader and Hizume and she pretty much just apologises. But not in a way that feels forced or just trying to make everyone friendly friends for the sake of it. The lead cheer girl acknowledges that they had a genuine issue with how Hizume was back then, but that they went about fixing the issue in the wrong way but most of all she was just happy that Hizume’s found a place where she can be happy and a part of a team. It was a really nice scene.

Naww, now if only they’d told her this 3 months ago instead of letting Hizume’s PTSD fester!

And what was this about a scene that as you said: “simultaneously opened up the potential for future seasons as well as made it clear that they would be absolutely unnecessary”? Right, so there’s talk of future competitions and getting better and doing bigger and better cheer stunts and that’s interesting to me, like the competitive side of cheerleading was barely touched upon but what we did get in this episode was a nice change. It felt like a sports anime for the first time and that was a fun feeling to get from a CGDCT show. But they also mentioned that they had cheer requests for the basketball team (again) and a festival (again) and Uki’s brother’s soccer team (again). And as fun as those things were the first time through it just kind of brought home the point that there’s not a lot to do with this series if it’s going to stick to the club anime formula. This isn’t a complaint about the show we got, I’m more than happy with it, rather just that I’m fine with the episodes we got and unless it went full competitive cheer sports anime I don’t think I’d need a second season.

Can’t say I’ve ever seen *that* look on Kohane’s face before!

I guess that makes sense. Overall thoughts on the final episode? It’s not the best episode but it’s still as consistently entertaining as the majority of episodes and that’s what is important. Overall just a damn fun and wholesome time with a bunch of cute cheer girls, what more could you ask for? Well maybe more gay stuff… but still, lots of fun to be had!

Previous Anima Yell! Reviews:

The Cutest Sports Anime Ever? – Episode 1 Review
An Echoing Cheer – Episode 2 Review
Love Knows No Gender – Episode 3 Review
Fighting Form – Episode 4 Review
Food For Thought – Episode 5 Review
Something To Cheer About – Episode 6 Review
Piggy Bastard Does Not Dream Of Snacks – Episode 7 Review
Get Well Tsun – Episode 8 Review
Girls and Goals – Episode 9 Review
Drawing Closer – Episode 10 Review
Yuri On Nice – Episode 11 Review

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Yuri On Nice – ‘Anima Yell!’ Episode 11 Review

Yuri On Nice – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Anima Yell!’ Episode 11

What’s the show? Anima Yell! Episode 11.

So how’s this episode? It’s a (continuation of a) beach episode!

Oh god… Don’t criticise, this show is wholesome and cute, nothing lewd about this beach episode! Well until they decide to practice shoulder straddling and Uki learns that Kohane will have her head positioned between her legs and let’s just say that’s a dream come true for the gay girl. And it’s not the only time a character’s ~gayness~ is reference in this episode too, but that comes a bit later.

She’s lovin’ every minute of being between those thighs!

Right. So what happens with the rest of the episode? Well they perform at the beach ~thing~ and that goes well, Kohane overcoming her trepidations about the shoulder straddle thanks to the power of friendship! Afterwards they get part time jobs over the summer so they can pay for new cheer uniforms (which we only see in a brief montage) and the rest of the episode takes place at the cheer shop as they try and decide on colours and patterns and designs.

I had to look up what “glomped” means, I feel old.

Thrilling. You joke but its all the little character moment and jokes that make this series is so satisfying. Like Hizume’s “artistic” interpretation of her ideas for the cheer uniform and Kotetsu getting ~genuinely~ angry at the thought of needing a loose fitting outfit for if she gains weight. But of course that’s not all that happens at the cheer shop as the girls run into Suzuko and Tamako, a pair of twins who used to be on the same cheer squad as Hizume and Kana back in the day.

Oh? And is that the source of some drama? I’d say it’s the promise of drama rather than ~actual~ drama in this particular episode, these two girls seem a bit too passive in their personalities to actually drive any antagonism. What they do do is give us a bit more backstory to how Hizume and Kana were back on their old cheer team. Though the comment I was more interested in is how they straight up call out Kana on being “into yuri” which the too innocent Hizume confuses for her being into lily’s (the flower) as its the same word in Japanese.

And why’s that comment more interesting to you (aside from the obvious). Well it is the obvious that’s interesting to me. This show more than a lot of CGDCT shows that i’ve watched seems to lean into the actual gay rather than the implied gay, I mean obvious I’d prefer confirmed couples and dating and kissing, but having girls straight up saying they are into other girls is a nice step.

Fair enough. So overall thoughts? Terrific, honestly really enjoyed it (not that I hadn’t previous) but despite spending a lot of time in one location in the second half of the episode I was thoroughly entertained. And is it lame if I say I’m really looking forward to what they’re uniforms end up looking like? Probably, but I don’t care this show is just too damn ~kawaii desu~!

I could watch these happy girls cheer all day!

Previous Anima Yell! Reviews:

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