QUICK RIDE | #6 All about sports PART 3

Oct 23, 2016 by Chrys Prolls in Animation | Manga

【 All Out • Haikyuu S3 • Yuri On Ice • Keijo 】

Last article of the All about sports trilogy (part 1, part 2) dedicated to anime freshly out of the oven (fresh… oven… anyway) : indeed, the first episode of each series was broadcast during the first week of October.

ALL OUT!! (2016)

オールアウト (Ooru auto)

Synopsis (myanimelist) : In rugby, there is no ace striker, there is no number four batter, so who is the star of the team?

The story begins at school entrance ceremony of Kanagawa High School where Kenji Gion, a small but gutsy go-getter joins the rugby club. He joins with his classmate, Iwashimizu, who has a complicated past and sub-captain Hachiouji, who always takes good care of his Club members. Lastly, there is Captain Sekizan, who has overwhelming powers but keeps his cards close to his chest. With such differences in both personality and physical performance, the team must learn to work and grow together so they can become the best.

My review : Rather than a review, I’ll write below my raw impressions, as felt at the time of viewing. Some will say it’s the same thing ; I think, however, a review means something constructed and reasoned. Not random… Anyway, let’s go.

✻ Two exclamation marks in the title… With that, if it’s not awesome, I’ll go berserk.

✻ The characters’ faces are a bit girly, which contrasts with close-ups on muscles (pectoral, buttocks). As to say “we’re duuuuuuudes! but we’re sweet inside :)”. Still, I’m starting to have a few doubts on the target of this anime…

✻ Corny humor…

✻ The protagonists are rather irritating because too caricatural : the little nervous guy, like Joe Dalton (or Nicolas Sarkozy), with his suica card* shaped eyebrows, who screams, jumps and grabs onto anything like Spider Man on cocaine. And the big effeminate guy, scaredy-cat and simple-minded.

*I could have said “his big eyebrows” but hey, they’re really fat and rectangular… like a suica.

✻ Little pause at 13’40”, when a strange haired character makes his appearance

What the hell is that cut? What’s the message? What’s the revendication? I can tolerate some extravagance but here I’m puzzled.

✻ Second pause, a few minutes later, always the same individual : when you think about it, he has a lumberjack voice, a bear stature BUT a crappy feminine hair cut, half-Blanka half-Christina Aguilera.

In conclusion: I don’t have a very glorious opinion of rugby to begin with, and I feel that as it stands, this series won’t shake my a preconception, quite the opposite. I still leave All Out the benefit of the doubt although right now, it barely appeals to me (this is what I said of Kuroko No Basuke, which remains to this day one of my favorites anime all genres together).

HAIKYUU!! Season 3 (2016)

ハイキュー!! (Haikyuu!!)

Synopsis (wikipedia) : Inspired after watching a volleyball ace nicknamed “Little Giant” in action, small-statured Shouyou Hinata revives the volleyball club at his middle school. The newly-formed team even makes it to a tournament; however, their first match turns out to be their last when they are brutally squashed by the “King of the Court,” Tobio Kageyama. Hinata vows to surpass Kageyama, and so after graduating from middle school, he joins Karasuno High School’s volleyball team—only to find that his sworn rival, Kageyama, is now his teammate.

Thanks to his short height, Hinata struggles to find his role on the team, even with his superior jumping power. Surprisingly, Kageyama has his own problems that only Hinata can help with, and learning to work together appears to be the only way for the team to be successful. Based on Haruichi Furudate’s popular shounen manga of the same name, Haikyuu!! is an exhilarating and emotional sports comedy following two determined athletes as they attempt to patch a heated rivalry in order to make their high school volleyball team the best in Japan.

My review : To give you a brief idea : I found season 1 to be quite insipid, season 2 way more interesting, even exciting around the end. So I was eagerly looking forward to this 3rd season.

For the start, I would say there’s a recycling of previous seasons, with characters depicted as their own caricature… A bit as if the production was trying to tell us :

Hey, do you remember? He’s the guy who vomits all the time… And that one is the guy who speaks loud and bothers everybody. This one is the eternal stressed. As for him, he’s never happy… You remember, right? Ooh, come on…

Season 2 ended 6 months ago so you can hardly be lost (unlike some anime where you have a 4, 5 years gap between two seasons) but hey, it’s still ok, it’s not too bad.

However, no surprise for now. The opponent team, Shiratorizawa – the masters of the region -, is introduced quite timidly : which isn’t very surprising when you know the relatively slow progression of the anime. The match starts rather quickly, no time is waisted so therefore, you can hope for a more dynamic second episode.

In conclusion : I confirm this is not the series I’ll await every week with hunger. The end of season 2 had me so much hyped up, and with all the merchandising/advertising that has been going on in Japan a few weeks from the 3rd season’s debut, I was ready! I was even standing at 26:25, broadcasting time (2:25am the next day… Japanese convention, I guess).

But the excitement quickly died down. I’m not saying it’s mediocre, just that I’ll probably be patient and tell my future self to watch all in one go once the season is over.

YURI!!! ON ICE (2016)

ユーリ!!! on ICE (Yuuri!!! on ICE)

Synopsis (wikipedia) : After suffering a crushing defeat during the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final and other failed showings at other skating competitions, Yuri Katsuki develops mixed feelings about ice skating and puts his career on hiatus, going to college in Detroit and later returning to his hometown of Hasetsu in Kyushu. He visits his childhood friend Yuko at an ice rink known as “Ice Castle Hasetsu” and perfectly mimics an advanced skating routine performed by famous Russian figure skater Victor Nikiforov, who is Yuri’s idol.

When secretly recorded footage of Yuri’s performance is uploaded to the internet, it catches the attention of Victor, who travels to Kyushu and offers to coach Yuri and restart his figure skating career. Together with Victor, Yuri aims to win the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series as he battles against his rival, Yuri Plisetsky, a 15-year-old rising star skater from Russia.

My review : A priori, figure skating is not a discipline that I particularly like. However, I do find myself being stuck to the TV screen during big competitions so I leave Yuri the benefit of the doubt. And then sports anime have this ability to make me enjoy sports I wouldn’t have paid attention to otherwise… That being said, I get the impression that the number of exclamation points doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality of the anime (with some exceptions), so let’s be careful… Like All Out !!, I’ll write my raw impressions, no structured text :

✻ It looks pretty good to me, given the drawings and the animation. The grace and the voluptuousness of figure skating are well captured here.

✻ I’m surprised to let the opening credits flow : the drawings are rough, a bit like sketches but beautiful. There’s a certain elegance in the visuals and the music is nice (it changes the pop-rock we usually hear… even if it’s still pop-rock).

✻ I love Yuri’s face (the title guy from the title), I like his features. In this article, I wrote I was attaching great importance to characters’ features : I already had several scenarios where it put me off but most of the time, it doesn’t bother me. As far Yuri On Ice is concerned, I’m subjugated.

✻ 3’37” of watching and I feel I’m falling in love with this series. Yet figure skating, well… Apart from Philippe Candeloro in his Aladin outfit, Conan the Barbarian outfit or other tales male figures outfits, I don’t know anything and I don’t want to.

✻ The skating sequence with Yuri and Victor sealed my interest: camera movements, music, sound effects (and notably the blades sound on the ice)… All the technical details of this scene suggest an anime of an incredible quality and finesse.

In conclusion, Yuri!!! On Ice, you got me! You defintely deserve your 3 exclamation points.

I like the narration as well as the way the story unfolds. This first episode says enough, without revealing everything : basically it answers the who? what? where? why? how? and puts the viewer on tracks. The protagonists introduction is clever, you can easily figure out the links (likewise, everything isn’t revealed) and makes you want to discover more. I also appreciate the fact that we’re outside the highschool/clubs context : I’ve nothing against it, but it’s nice to see sports anime coming out of this framework.

I also believe in a good balance between the sport aspect (training, competition, surpassing oneself) and the psychological aspect (doubts, ambitions, reflection, feelings…). Of course, all this remains to be confirmed as the story progresses.

Overall, I feel Yuri!!! On Ice can be a pleasant surprise, in line with Chihaya Furu, meaning sports treated with relevance, delicacy and originality. I sign!

KEIJO!!!!!!! (2016)

競女!!!!!!!! (Keijo!!!!!)

Synopsis (myanimelist) : Kaminashi Nozomi (17) is an exceptional gymnast. So much so that colleges with some of the best gymnastic programs are trying to recruit her. Unfortunately for them, she has other plans. Due to her family being extremely poor, money is everything to her. That’s why she wants to step into the world of “Keijo.” “Keijo” is a type of gambling sport where girls stand on a small floating platform and compete against one another. The aim is to push the other contestant off of the platform into the water, but they are only allowed to use their butt or breasts to push the others off. Will Nozomi be able to compete in the intense world of “Keijo” and bring wealth and fortune for her family?

My review : When you start Abema TV, one morning, in all innocence and you stumble upon Keijo… When your naivety lets you believe it’s a pool anime, the feminine answer to Free! sort of. When you notice “those women have quite curvy butts” and you put that on the recent influence of big booties like Kim Kardashian or Nicki Minaj… Then comes the moment when they fight using their boobs and butts, like it’s nothing.

Like… seriously?

I have nothing more to say so I jump to the conclusion : Keijo!!!!!! is the perfect example of an anime where the number of exclamation points is inversely proportional to the interest it presents. Well, there must be an audience…♂ ?

On the other hand, live comments made the viewing more fun and confirmed I was far from being the only one to think it was really WTF. I imagine, however, that a male audience will find it of great interest.