Prince of Stride: Alternative

"Stride"—an extreme sport that combines parkour, free running, relay, and sprinting—is what made first year high school student Nana Sakurai enroll in Honan Academy, after being captivated by the school's stride team. Sharing the mutual intention of joining the team is fellow first year and stride maniac, Takeru Fujiwara, and together they request to join. Much to their dismay, however, the stride club is no longer active due to lack of members, and they are now operating under the shogi club.

In order to revive the stride club, Nana and Takeru recruit first year Riku Yagami—a fast runner who is interested in almost every sport. With this new team, the club now aims high at a new goal: to win the prestigious End of Summer competition, and bring the Honan stride team back to their prime.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yagami, Riku Main

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Fujiwara, Takeru Main

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Kohinata, Hozumi Main

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Kuga, Kyousuke Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Hasekura, Heath Main

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Kadowaki, Ayumu Main

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Sakurai, Nana Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Suwa, Reiji Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Hasekura, Diane Supporting

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Himemiya, Yuuri Supporting

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Ishizuka, Atsuko Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Aketagawa, Jin Sound Director

Shiraishi, Michita Episode Director

Reviews

Sep 16, 2023

RESOLVING_POWER

Recommended

I watched Prince of Stride: Alternative, which is an otome-game adaptation by Madhouse. Here are my thoughts:

For context, this show revolves around an imaginary sport that is kind of like a relay-race version of parkour but with a leader who coordinates everyone. It is very entertaining to watch, actually.

The animation quality is good, but much more importantly the visual direction is absolutely terrific. I really like the way colour and brightness effects are used in this. It's difficult to explain but this anime was so bright during some scenes I felt like I needed to wear sunglasses just watching it. It was sort of like ... they played with the exposure settings on a camera or something like that. It looked great. Art style too I really liked. I liked the character designs. The visuals for this anime are a major strong point. I enjoyed them enormously. Especially for a sports anime, having awesome visuals like this really was a pleasure. Cinematography was also well done and made the sporty scenes enjoyable to watch. There are also lots of really cool sound effects that enhance the running scenes a lot. The running scenes look, feel, and sound AWESOME. Overall the production quality is excellent. The OST is good as well and enhances the mood of a variety of scenes.

In terms of characters, there is a self-inserty team-leader girl character and there are her male team members. You might anticipate that this would result in a typical reverse-harem situation, but actually shounen-ai between male team members is the only romantic subtext, and even that is mild. Apparently in the VN there is a lot more hetero romance involving the MC. The male characters are fairly likable, and each have unique personalities which mesh together for some good chemistry within the team. Takeru was my favourite character. Beyond the characters themselves, the drama is handled fairly well, which leads me to my next point.

This anime has great direction. They had to introduce an entirely new sport and do some world building, but I never felt like I was being forcefed information. Exposition was handled well. There's also a good balance between sporty scenes and slower, more dialogue-heavy scenes. There is some comedy, but it's sprinkled lightly and not used inappropriately. The anime actually has a consistently serious tone (and feels that way to the viewer). Maybe that was an artistic risk because someone might find the sport they're doing to be absurd, and it might be easier to just load up the comedy. I'm glad they didn't take that approach. The series feels competitive, dramatic and exciting. You could really feel the emotional highs and lows. I felt excited every time I queued up an episode to watch.

If I had to identify a weak point in Prince of Stride, I would say it's the plot. Although well executed, the story at its core is kind of mediocre. Sometimes it can be kind of 'melodramatic' as well, however this is hardly surprising for an otome-game adaptation.


Overall rating: 9/10
Shockingly underrated anime. Really well directed and exceptionally entertaining. I will definitely be rewatching this.

I really hope that someone makes a high-quality Blu-ray rip of this (I couldn't find one). It seems like this franchise got disproportionately less recognition in the West relative to its popularity in Japan. There is little evidence of any kind of western fanbase. I think the combination of sports and the otome aspect is a major reason for the anime's lukewarm reception. The average person watching it for the sport appeal was likely put off by the otome elements, and conversely the otome audience often didn't enjoy the sports focus. I think that the anime as a whole appealed to very few people — most people were probably only drawn in by specific aspects of the show, not the sum of its parts. This might explain the mixed feelings that so many people seem to have. I'm probably unusual in that I found most dimensions of the anime appealing. Hopefully the rumours about a second season are true.

UP UP SPEED UP

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Apr 25, 2024

Raehyu

Mixed Feelings

This anime was overall good and fun.
The pacing could've been slower, the character developed could've been more action based/experience accumulation rather than dialogue/flashback heavy. Their skill development could've been more defined too, technical wise it wasn't clear how they improved other than improving their speed. No tricks/techniques were really established, as there weren't many training sessions to begin with. In terms of hurdles - I felt like they were not really well drawn out? Difficulties concern being slower than the other team and not winning, but other than that there's pretty much nothing else. There were personal struggles, but rarely does it span for more ... than 1-2 episodes.
The character are also quite flat. The MC's backstory was fine - typical overshadowed by sibling trope - understandable, but for the other characters there's not much explaining for their personal motivations or wants or backgrounds. Most flashbacks propels relationship development - perhaps on theme with the whole "connection" motif. I only know they like doing stride with friends, want to win, full stop.
Relationships are pretty well developed though, albeit quite cheesy at times the dynamics and interaction were cute and wholesome enough that they work (at least for me).
The art style on the other hand - amazing. Reminds me of the film "Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop". Can't believe that the anime is published over 8 years ago (as of the writing of this review). The races and environment looked very vibrant and packed - the racing scenes are well-drawn overall but at times i just feel like there's just guys running without any anime aspects going on (like real life...).

Final note - this anime is not top tier and have many flaws, but it was a fun ride. I did watch the whole thing in one sitting, but maybe I was just bored.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 30, 2018

Yuki-Nezu-Grimms

Not Recommended

Okay. Here we go.

Story - 3

So to start with the story. If you're a sports anime fan, you're probably used to all the cliches and have seen them a million times in all sorts of different sports anime, well let me tell you, Prince of Stride: Alternative was no different. It uses almost every cliche in the book. Not in an oh-this-is-kinda-refreshing way but in a haven't-I-see-this-a-million-times-? sort of way. Honestly. However, the title doesn't lie when it says 'alternative'. Prince of Stride is an anime centered around a COMPLETELY FICTIONAL and MADE UP sport, throwing any chance of being compared with an anime about ... the same sport out of the window. Now that's novelty. I personally had high hopes in - only - this aspect of the anime; after all, how often do you get an anime that invents a sport completely for itself? The execution of the races themselves were actually acceptable (I'll go into detail in the enjoyment section) but I think the producers missed a teeny-tiny detail: If you're going to invent a sport, how the hell do you expect the viewers to know what it is?! I just binged all 12 episodes of the anime and I quite frankly still don't know the rules or point system of the sport. Heck, I didn't even know if there was a point system (A character mentioned 'extra points' but I didn't even know there was a point system in the first place! and it was never even mentioned again. Unless they meant it metaphorically but reeeaaallly now). Okay, like I said before, the idea of a completely new sport was what made me watch Stride and I believe that with more time to elaborate (I would suggest between doubling the number of episodes or even doing that and making another season on top of it by splitting the content in the first season up), it could have been a masterpiece and could maybe even have made it all the way up to Kuroko no Basuke and Haikyuu. But unfortunately, that's what they lacked: elaboration. One more new-ish feature in the anime is that it dives straight in to the thick of the plot and you can tell they didn't mean to do it when the timeline was planned out. It starts with the typical fallen club looking for members - the show decided to give less than an episode's worth of screen time to this but that was okay. What I mean is that there's practically no training. Well at least at the start, it plunges straight into the plot because what the hell's practice anyway and instead, puts it's practice into the second half of the plot, instantly killing the albeit forced momentum gathered by the dive at the start. I felt like the halfway point actually killed my excitement for the show. But that's enough of my ranting about the story.

Art - 4

So the art. Nothing special. Looked like a cheap reverse harem anime (sorry!), to be perfectly honest. The style was bland and the characters lacked the realism that sometimes carries appeal (refer to any sports anime where everyone doesn't have idol-group hair). The background art was as plain as can be, especially when they should've had a lot of freedom in developing the settings because of the nature of the sport used in the show. In quite a few ways, the style for the characters reminded me painfully of an extremely washed out version of Free (refer to characters section). To be perfectly honest, I can only say that it didn't stand out as anything special like Doukyuusei, it didn't have amazingly drawn and choreographed action scenes like Haikyuu and it wasn't plain but enjoyable like Kuroko no Basuke. In short: It's bland. Probably like what it feels like to eat a tissue (don't question it). The best part of Stride's art is its action scenes, and even those sometimes don't really hit the spot.

Sound - 4

The voice actors were actually decent although they didn't really strike me as anything special. The soundtrack, like the background art, is just kinda bland. The opening was actually catchy and I quite liked it and the song, along with some of the other soundtracks, fulfilled their purpose of getting the viewer pumped up (I guess). The sound was not at all memorable (I can't remember any of the songs, including the opening) and they don't leave an impression, and there are even parts where I felt that a good OST would have boosted the scene by miles but it just wasn't really like... I don't know... Just kinda mediocre I guess? As a sports anime fan, I love soundtracks that really get your blood pumping as you watch your team score that point; or kick that goal; or shoot that hoop. But this just... I don't know... I was pumped sometimes but I don't give credit to the soundtrack or voices for that.

Characters - 2
Okay. I feel mean but at the same time I just couldn't being myself to rate this section any higher. I, however, don't blame it on the character designs (although I didn't like those too much) but on the lack of time instead. There just simply isn't enough time in the space of 12 measly episodes to make viewers become attached to characters. Of course, this anime just used the usual cliches: the forced crossdresser, the reluctant one, the emotionless genius and the emotionally unstable in the character you'd "least expect" but I was sooo annoyed at some of the characters plainly because I felt like they could've been better. I didn't understand the logic more than half the time and sometimes I even caught myself thinking: "What could possibly possess a person to (insert whatever this rant is about)?!" A bunch of family members do pretty confusing things and the character's reactions sometimes JUST DON'T MAKE SENSE. There's a lot of forced bonding and friendships that only feel that way because they didn't get sufficient time to develop. None of the characters got a satisfactory backstory so in the end, instead of having one or two likable and developed characters, we end up with about 25 odd bland, shallow, uninteresting and unrelatable characters. Now onto character designs in terms of art: they all had weird hair was my first thought. Second thought: Wait... Didn't I just see this character?? But anyways, to be honest, I felt like they ran out of character design ideas because of all the replicas I seemed to see where ever I looked. Actually... Wait a sec... Maybe everyone was a twin... Dun, dun, dun! Oh wait a sec... There was a pair of ACTUAL TWINS. But anyways, like I said, the art was bland and this didn't exactly affect the characters in a good way. In many ways, the characters were quite obviously made in a feeble attempt to appeal to the female audience, with the cute neko boy, the long haired stoic one, the emo kid, the glasses dude. Just generic. for those that enjoy shipping, there really isn't much inspiration and there are technically ships but they feel forced. But yes: lacking develop and design creativity. Any humour also falls so flat I don't even know. I hardly even smiled throughout the whole duration of the series, the jokes weren't bad they were just kinda like: Oh, that was a joke? Okay..?

Enjoyment - 7

Okay, to tell the truth, despite all the technical and story faults in this anime, I did legitimately enjoy it at some point; maybe I wasn't exactly in paradise most of the time, but there were still times when I had liked the show when watching it. This is where I say: I reckon this section of my review would be biased. So basically, I'm in high school and I run in competitive track events - 100 m, 200 m, relay and 3000 m. Do we get it? The thing is, there's a high possibility that my enjoyment of the show stems from having some sports background to connect with the characters. To tell the truth, the reason I enjoyed the show as much as I did were the races. It certainly wasn't a mistake to invent this sport because I was sweating when they were running and I was trembling as well as I heard the 'go' being said. For me, this really reminded me of all the 'ready, set, BAM's I've heard during my own races and I was SO PUMPED UP after watching the races. The show is a majority of tournaments so if that's what you feel like - a show where you don't really pay attention to the characters but it would get your blood pumping like in a real race, then this wouldn't be a bad choice as most sports anime focus on the characters more so that you grow attached to them and because of the characters, it gets you pumping. Other thing with Stride: I didn't have any worries about who would win. I usually always have a team/s but this time, I didn't feel frustrated no matter which team won because I just loved the races themselves (and because I could hardly remember the names of everyone because of the lack of character development). But a warning, the first races will probably be adrenaline full but the novelty of watching a fictional sport soon wears out when they put the training and stuff in the second half. This actually really ruined my enjoyment of the show because the second half was all about fitting in training that they didn't seem to need at the start of the show and character development that couldn't have been more forced, pointless, or fallen more flat. But my enjoyment of the races was still there and I wouldn't say no to re-watching the anime if a friend wants to watch it with me, just so I could feel that rush as I watch the races.

Overall - 4

This anime was... Okay? I guess the characters sucked, the art was mediocre, the soundtrack was anything but outstanding and the story was poor. In the end, I gave this show a 'decent' overall score because of the novelty of the sport and because of my enjoyment of the races.

Recommendation rate - 3

It really depends on who it is. I would love to recommend it to people who have a track background and like sports anime, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a prior connection to elements in Stride. I wouldn't recommend it to modern sports anime fans where the characters really take the main focus of the viewer's attention. So... If you're wanting to watch something 'alternative' and sporty, I guess it wouldn't kill anyone to watch this if you are desperate for a sports anime, but, take it from me, this is no masterpiece. But I definitely recommend watching some clips of the races beforehand (don't watch spoilers!) so you can get an idea of how much you like them (I had previously dropped this anime after not even finishing episode one, which means I didn't get to see a race, but then I watched an AMV and I thought, this looks really good, so I gave it a second try), if you thought, this is really cool! Then watch the anime. If you watched some of the races and thought: meh, this is fine. Then don't watch it. Because again, the races are really the redeeming feature of this show, the characters and the story aren't gonna boost it but actually drag it down so... Yeah.

If you're gonna watch it, have fun! If you decided it's not your thing, well good luck in your pursuit of another good sports anime! Thanks for reading my review ;)

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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