Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 2

Arriving in Japan, underground golfer Eve wants nothing more than to play a match against Aoi Amawashi, the "Innocent Tyrant" prodigy that caught her eye. However, the girls, wishing to finally settle the score on who is the better golfer, will have to wait until the conclusion of the All-Japan Girls' High School Gold Doubles Championship. Now competing together for the Raiou Girls' Academy's golf team, Eve and Aoi decide to work together to claim a win for their institution.

For a chance at defeating their more challenging opponents, both girls must find a way to further develop their golfing styles. However, dangerous figureheads pull strings in the background, making this high school golf tournament much more serious than it appears. In addition, Eve's illusive past resurfaces, making matters between her and Aoi even more complicated than they already were.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Evangeline Main

Kitou, Akari Japanese

Amawashi, Aoi Main

Seto, Asami Japanese

Aleon, Rose Supporting

Yukinari, Toa Japanese

Saotome, Ichina Supporting

Fujita, Saki Japanese

Vipère Supporting

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Clara, Klein Supporting

Kinoshita, Sayaka Japanese

Millafoden, Leo Supporting

Ikeda, Shuuichi Japanese

Lipman, Lily Supporting

Sekine, Akira Japanese

Iijima, Kaoruko Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Harvey, Alan Supporting

Ushiyama, Shigeru Japanese

Fukuda, Kouhei Producer

Sekiyama, Akihiro Producer

Inagaki, Takayuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Takakuwa, Hajime Sound Director

Reviews

Jun 23, 2023

Marinate1016

Recommended

The. Best. Sports. Anime. Ever. Yes, I know that’s a bold statement, but it’s one I will gladly stand by. Birdie Wing took a sport that I had zero knowledge of or interest in prior and turned me into an avid golf fan. That’s what we call impact, and that’s something only the best of the best anime can do.

Birdie Wing season 1 was one of my favourite shows of 2022 and I praised it nonstop. I was cautiously optimistic about whether or not they’d be able to keep the momentum going, and Sunrise made me feel like a fool for ever worrying. This 2nd ... season was absolutely insane from start to finish. The same over the top golf battles, but with a much better plot, bigger stakes and a ton of drama. Everything that season 1 had, but bigger and better. Even the yuri bait is turned up another notch this season which is a major plus. Characters like Ichina and Amane took on much bigger roles, and teases, this season.

I loved seeing Eve and Aoi’s backstories revealed and they gave it to us at the perfect pace. It was slow enough to keep you on the edge of your seat and craving more episode after episode, but fast enough to not make the story drag on. Some people were not fans of how dark the story got in this season with the increased stakes surrounding Aoi’s condition, but I liked it. It added a sense of urgency to the story and kept me in suspense week after week. I also really liked seeing the two of them develop independently for most of this season. In season 1, they were largely a tag team duo and I think that kind of held the two of them back from growing as people and as golfers. That leads me into my biggest criticism of this season though.

I felt like the pacing got rushed towards the end of the show. I thought we would get an entire season of Aoi and Eve competing in the Japanese and European circuits respectively, honing their skills and then meeting up in a potential third season for a big showdown. Instead, we got what seemed to me like a very condensed story. Now, to my knowledge, besides the recently announced LL stuff, Sunrise have not done many season 3s. So perhaps this was planned from the start to end things in this season, but I really think we could have had a whole other season of build up. That’s not to say that the ending was bad, I just love this show and these girls so much that I want more.

Now story aside, you can’t talk about a golf anime without talking about the actual golf. The actual golf matches this season were way better than season 1, which is saying something because those were great. Eve and Aoi both push themselves beyond their limits and create their own unique brands of golf. Both reflective of who they are as individuals and competitors. Their ultimate techniques were a joy to watch, and even though you knew they’d win their individual matches cause MC armour, they were still pushed quite a bit and grew from those experiences.

Birdie Wing s2 feels much more like a second cour than a proper second season. We even keep the same OP as season 1. No complaints at all from me though. The show took a solid foundation from the first cour and improved upon it in every way. My only negative about this show is that it ends. I am very excited for the upcoming Switch game and hopefully more content from this franchise.

Birdie Wing S2 gets 10 rainbows out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jun 24, 2023

whiteflame55

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

The first season of this show was just a good time, albeit one that I expected would probably be rather limiting in its appeal. The concept of having beautiful female characters playing golf at a nearly superhuman level, with one of them playing against a mafia boss rich and obsessed enough to make her own underground, interchangeable golf course, and the resulting yuri baiting that was actually mostly pretty cute instead of just plain fan service was all good, but where do you even go from there?

Apparently, to flashier shots, greater drama, bigger venues, and just… plain golf for the most part. Some aspects of ... S2 work better, especially as our two leads diverge more and there’s some real tension over where they came from. True to form, they respond differently, and in particular I liked how Eve addressed it while Aoi was… a bit more frustrating to watch. Still, it was a step up from S1 in the personal drama department.

In others, though, it just doesn’t work as well. They try to keep up the level of hype from each of these matches, but no one’s putting their lives on the line, so loss just doesn’t have the same meaning in this season - I was always questioning why they just didn’t wait to recover or seek treatment. For opponents, we almost immediately move past anyone from their school (including, bafflingly, the top of their class who was hyped up last season) to opponents who are little more than stepping stones for passing their own personal problems. There are really only two opponents worthy of note, both of whom matter for the length of a single tournament and then disappear.

So the show still relies almost entirely on the rivalry between Eve and Aoi, which is fine because it works well, but everything going on around them seems unimportant as a result. Even personal dramas, particularly one with Aoi’s mother, get hyped as extremely important only to get an OK payoff and no real consequences.

I still think the strength of its leading pair carries this season, and their struggles keep aspects of it interesting. That counts for a lot. It’s just a shame that so much of what made the first season interesting beyond them faded into the background and was replaced with characters and situations that just don’t have the same appeal. It’s still fun to watch, but largely toothless, with an ending that felt like good payoff while simultaneously making me wonder why everything felt like it had to move so fast through their development in the golfing world this season. It feels a lot like the final incarnation of Eve’s golf swing: a lot of flash with a ton of moving objects just to get a ball from point A to point B. It’s pretty, and there’s a lot to admire, but it’s more flash than substance.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 25, 2023

Grain_of_Salt

Not Recommended

How do you turn the world's most boring sport played mainly by middle aged men into an interesting anime? Season one seemed to have figured it out, struggled with some pacing and budget issues, and then completely threw out the winning pieces in season two.

As an initial fan of Birdie Wing season one when it aired and before it gained mass appeal, I absolutely despise season two. The show initially gained attention by bombastic, adrenaline fueled situation writing that seemed to involve taking psychedelics, shonen anime, and campy lesbianism and throwing it all in a blender and painting with the resulting slurry. And it worked! ... Season one may have been silly, but the high stakes and insane gambling golf games managed to be enjoyable and compelling, and the characters had enough appeal and eccentricities to be enjoyed. There was often a method to the madness and it was a blast, and any shortcomings could be forgiven because we operated on rule of cool. The latter half of season one struggles as it changes setting and arcs, but any stumbles were easily forgiven as it was still exciting to see what comes next.

Season two starts off very painfully aware that we ended in the middle of an unfinished arc, but rather than sidestep issues with the usual energy, it disregards everything. The insane golf powers reminiscent of gambling anime like Yugioh or Kakegurui or sports anime with crazy finishers like Prince of Tennis are gone. While each new character is hyped as a bigger threat, gone are campy perfume tricks or robot arms or godlike precognition. Even our main character loses her ability for a worse, new one. Her individual bullet shots were a little silly, but had specific functions. One had crazy backspin to make interesting moves, one was a strong enough shot to break trees, one got impossibly high vertical angles to go over any obstacle. The powers were campy, but followed understandable rules and ideas. The new Rainbow Bullet, Rainbow Bullet Burst, and Shining Rainbow Bullet are just different ways that she hits the ball really good and wins while we put different effect filters over the camera or show stock footage. And now the in universe audience states that the shots leave real visible rainbows. I never assumed her colored shots LITERALLY had visible light, that was just an effect. I can only watch Eve shoot the OP rainbow shot that everyone tells me is so good and she wins so many times before I'm bored in a way I never was in season one.

We also completely remove any fun setting. Gone is the underground golf mafia and their billionaire funded insanity. Instead are boring and bland tournaments where if I wasn't being told that something cool was supposedly happening, I wouldn't know. We fight a mafia battle exactly once and during it Eve looks directly into the camera and screams THIS IS NOT REAL GOLF. It's been a long time since a show told me to go shove it quite that hard. Birdie Wing season two can tell me all it wants that the tournaments are important, the new random competitors are strong, and the shots are cool but it feels like all talk and no show.

And most damning, we take away the fun lesbian bits from the show. Eve no longer hits on girls and has her swooning fandom. Her main lover Aoi is even nerfed once we bring in the absolutely terrible "your daddy is secretly my daddy and we might be sisters" bull. I watched Birdie Wing for the lady killer with attitude doing trick shots against golf assassins to impress her innocent lesbian girlfriend, not...whatever this is.

So what does Birdie Wing add in place of all it removes, besides more identical uninteresting tournaments? Mainly a really bad attempt at backstory, first shoved at us for an entire episode and then progressing at a breakneck speed to try to replace the former energy with character writing. But the show's strength was never in compelling and well written story, it was the camp we left behind. I resent every moment wasted in the lame drama and subsequent injury and sickness arcs. They were bad ideas and poorly implemented with jarring pacing. Any deep or dark moment fell short because I was too busy either lamenting what I lost or staring into space bored.

The only decent aspect that stayed was the music...quite literally. The great jazzy OST stayed and tried its best to carry weak writing. The opening song from season one also stayed. And don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic song that I never tire of hearing. But with the same song and a half reused OP sequence I began this season worried about budget and pacing and was really never proven wrong. Season two lacks any ability to wow or impress, and since we had those skills previously I couldn't help resent watching it.

It seems I both got on the Birdie Wing hype train before average, and then left it early too since I don't hear many complaints matching mine. But I was absolutely miserable, and no matter how much I wanted to get back on the train, Eve never was able to do a trick shot between the cars like in season one and repeat the same lightning in a bottle.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 2 Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Jun 23, 2023	84 replies	by HiljainenSipuli »» Nov 2, 3:46 PM
	Poll: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 2 Episode 11 Discussion Tokoya - Jun 16, 2023	32 replies	by HiljainenSipuli »» Nov 2, 3:18 PM
	Poll: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 2 Episode 10 Discussion KANLen09 - Jun 9, 2023	38 replies	by HiljainenSipuli »» Nov 2, 2:55 PM
	Poll: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 2 Episode 9 Discussion KANLen09 - Jun 2, 2023	35 replies	by HiljainenSipuli »» Nov 1, 6:51 PM
	Poll: Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story Season 2 Episode 8 Discussion AkeZZZ - May 26, 2023	29 replies	by HiljainenSipuli »» Nov 1, 6:23 PM