| I'm enjoying this anime, but as someone who was really into cross country and track while I was in high school, I find Haiji's goal extremely unrealistic. I feel like people who don't run often or are knowledgeable of the speeds will not realize how fast 16:30 and 14:30 is. In my league in Colorado, I made it to state every year and usually podiumed (top 10 podiums). I'm not saying you can't do a lot in 10 months. I started track in spring 2010 and by October 2010 I podiumed at the Colorado Cross Country State Championships in my league. But I didn't break 17:00 in the 5k till I was a senior in high school. On my team, I had one of the fastest guys in the state across all leagues and the fastest he ran by his senior year was a little under 15:30, and he ran that at a special invite in California, where he did pretty damn well! I'm looking at the california milesplit and last year during the state championships in their highest division, the first place guy got 15:03 and 20th got 15:37. I guarantee most of these guys were juniors or seniors, so they were probably at it for years. Now, this is only high school, and in college it gets even more competitive, but even then there's not a lot of guys that are consistently breaking 15:00, only the elite are doing that. And reading up more about this race, truly the elite of the elite are the ones participating in this race. I mean, hell even look at the NCCA D1 championships from 2017 in the 5k, and this on a track: https://www.ncaa.com/sites/default/files/external/track-field/results/d1/outdoor17/final/007-1_compiled.htm Only 22 people broke 15:00, just think about that. The fastest 5k I ever ran was a 16:30 and the fastest 10k I've run is 36:33, and both were probably at the peak of my athletic ability. If I maintained training seriously in college, I'm sure I could have shaved off more, probably getting down to 15:45ish, but you understand what I'm saying right? It takes a lot of time, practice, talent, and hard work. Overall, I was a good runner, I wasn't the top, but I held my own out there. That was years of work though, and the people that are running the times in Hakone Ekiden are few and far between. Which makes it seem even more unrealistic when 10 random guys, 7 of them haven't had much running experience in their life, are all suddenly going to run 16:30? Let alone, 14:30 in a 5k to qualify!? Unless all of them are somehow related to Bernard Lagat, I just can't see it. Haiji and Kakeru are the only ones where it'd make sense, but the others running those times in under 10 months is insanity and that's one area where it's hard for my suspension of disbelief. This is an anime and it's not supposed to be super realistic, I know, but I thought I'd give my two cents as a former, competitive XC/track runner. |
LoomyTheBrewOct 27, 2018 3:18 PM
| Me too!! It is currently cross country season for me (high school) and I only recently PR’d for the 5k under 17 minutes. Our top runner (out of about 100 guys) averages low to mid 15s in the 5k if the course is very flat. And he is the best in the state and is also ranked nationally. It’s going to be near impossible for them to qualify since so many of the guys are new to running. It’ll be interesting to see how it all turns out!! |
Heumers said: I don't really see the author letting them win that easily as well.Maybe they'll fail tho. I mean, this anime has 23 eps. Which means that like any other sports anime, there'll be enough episodes to show the "failure" state (aka losing) in this anime. I agree that only 2 among those 10 can get this record but let's just see, we still have 18-19 eps left. |
| Dreams are dreams coz they seem unreachable and crazy. Damn this show ignites my self to run those morning roads again!! |
When someone asks me why I like anime, I'd say Just Because. |
| Yeah. It seemed insane to me, too, and I have no experience with running whatsoever. It is anime and all, but I hope that since this anime is based on a novel, it'll aim to be more realistic. Meaning this goal will end up not happening, or something to that effect. |
| Yeah I feel you dude, I train in short distance running and sprints. So when I seen their times I was pretty convinced that the original novel's writer and anime adaptation creators weren't playing it very realistically... Just like in the anime "Prince of Stride" which is one of my faves, the characters all run at national athlete speeds for 400-500 meter races. Kind of annoys me a bit because when I compare my own times to the characters times, I generally look like trash lol. And they even have obstacles in their races! I really wish they made everything a bit more realistic/relate able concerning run times tho as this series doesn't involve fantasy crap, it's just a sports anime. But it's really gonna do damage to my self esteem when Prince inevitably runs faster than me. Gosh I need to get back into running more... |
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| Wow, my best mark in 10k is 44:50 and your mark is clearly a top100 mark in most of races that I've runned. Besides I've agreed with you about the objective time mark of the anime, it would be perfectly one mark of the best professional runners. |
| Same here, if you take 10 guys randomly like that, even some people doing sports, statistically you won't get more than one (if you even get one) doing a 5 kms in less than15 minutes even after 10 months of intensive training. I've been running a lot, but was never as fast as real track and fields specialists, nevertheless I ran with a lot of different people, playing soccer and so on, the huge majority (normal people again) (95% ?) couldn't follow me physically and as said, I never made something like 5 kms / 15 min. that 3 min / km pace is what best marathon runners do during 42 kms, common people will never make this on one single kilometer in their life even at the peak of their form. You must try to realize how fast that is. |
Getwithitbro said: I was able to do a 15:31 5k in my first year of running. Mind you though my first year was also my last year since I only joined senior year. Also my best 10k is a 34:42. So I believe their goals are achievable. Mind you though before I did XC/Track I was playing other sports like football and basketball. So perhaps the twins are able to make it in the story as well, since they did other sports. |
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| I love reading all the running expertise here! (I was never an athletic person and only run recreationally for fitness and fun, e.g. half marathons and full marathons.) I also felt skeptical about Haiji's goals for such a group. I anticipate this team will ultimately fail to qualify, and I actually hope that that's the case. JokerVentura said: You're assuming they manage their goal. The anime is based on a novel, so I don't think it's gonna have anime loopholes and honestly I think it's gonna be more about the attempt and the characters than anything else. I agree. That's been the most compelling aspect of this series to me so far, the entire theme of chasing dreams vs. facing reality. I doubt this team will conquer or even qualify for the Hakone Ekiden, but it's making one hell of a story so far seeing them face and conquer their own "mountains", e.g. Haiji's injury or Kakeru's past. Heumers said: Maybe they'll fail tho. I mean, this anime has 23 eps. Which means that like any other sports anime, there'll be enough episodes to show the "failure" state (aka losing) in this anime. I agree that only 2 among those 10 can get this record but let's just see, we still have 18-19 eps left. I'm hoping for that! Somehow, I don't think the Hakone Ekiden will be the "end" of this series, even though there's poetry to reaching the peak of the mountain as the ending for the story. I imagine if they were to fail, the failure would come around episode 19-22, followed by more on how the characters' transformed their lives after undergoing their transformative journey through running. EGOIST said: I don't really see the author letting them win that easily as well. I agree, and I hope they don't win. I feel like this story and characters are actually a great set-up for a compelling and meaningful "unhappy" ending where the main characters don't accomplish the goal they set out to achieve in the first place. |
| Ya definitely u are right but its a work of fiction,so being realistic all the times doesn't work well... it will not be interesting to watch then.. |
“𝔖𝔬𝔪𝔢𝔱𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 𝔦𝔱’𝔰 𝔫𝔢𝔠𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔞𝔯𝔶 𝔱𝔬 𝔡𝔬 𝔲𝔫𝔫𝔢𝔠𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔞𝔯𝔶 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰.”  |
| The power of friendship will help them. |
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TheyCallMeTMoney said: I agree. That's been the most compelling aspect of this series to me so far, the entire theme of chasing dreams vs. facing reality. I doubt this team will conquer or even qualify for the Hakone Ekiden, but it's making one hell of a story so far seeing them face and conquer their own "mountains", e.g. Haiji's injury or Kakeru's past. I definitely agree with that. Since I've made this post, I've been pleasantly surprised with how it's turning out. It's a pretty realistic depiction so far and I think they're going to end up not qualifying and that's awesome. It's seems like it's the journey that will make it all worth it. I think that's what Haiji is trying to communicate to Kakeru, who is completely focused on results. |
| Seeing how unrealistic it is I can only hope they don't succeed through the power of anime/friendship/whatever. |
| With every passing episode, I honestly just feel worse instead of better. Starting with an extremely unrealistic dream made me biased in the sense of waiting when will reality set in, but it honestly never does. All I see is a bunch of people, whose majority never cared about running but got into it REALLY fast as if it was everyone's calling, while every episode has almost the feel of "monster of the week", just instead of a monster we have a character who has a problem just as the previous character solved their own. And of course, there are various philosophical speeches about running, which feel shallow to me half the time, because in the end they ARE trying for a marathon and ARE chasing down better times, so yes, you can definitely learn to love running, but let's not pretend this isn't all Haiji's plan to go to Hakone. Half of Haiji's words are basically "well, it will work out eventually, cause everyone is unique and yada yada". So in the end, while the characters are cool and I like them, I feel like they are cardboard dolls that exist isolated from one another, until it's time for some feels. For 23 episodes I expected a more linear storytelling, but it really feels like each character is just taking specific turns to get the spotlight and almost no one bothers to REALLY help, but just observe, until someone inadvertedly does help. Not mentioning that some APPARENTLY turn out to be better than people who run for much longer than them. Of course, the series hasn't ended but if the the first half is like this, can't see how it can possibly change to something realistic. Either way, I decided to post here instead of a specific discussion thread because it was a general sentiment to the overall realism of the series and my disappointment with it. |
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| I've only trained in long distance for a few years and wasn't really particularly a good runner but I have a sense of what's fast or slow, or ridiculously fast in this case. I'm at episode 5 where they showed a list of their timing and it really turns me off seeing their timing are actually scaringly fast for people who doesn't have any running experience. Man, even Kakeru is already faster than my country's national runner for 5km whew... Maybe this anime isn't made for people with any running experience xD but I'll continue watching though, hoping I'll like this series since I'm kinda enjoying the flow so far (ignoring the fact that their "slow" speed is already insanely fast). PS: I did briefly browse through this thread before I started watching this anime but I had the impression that they'll just have unrealistic dreams. Wasn't really expecting this tho haha |
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| @ Fisico I agree with most of what you say and I think anybody who ran quite a bit with a lot of different people knows that the scenario wasn't realistic from the get go, Prince being the most extreme example. Concerning Kakeru though, that's completely realistic, since he was from the start already an elite athlete. I too regret a bit the absence of all the technical aspects. I wonder whether they skip that from the novel or if that wasn't in the source material to begin with. The anime is still great though and if the perfromances' progression is too impressive to be true, at least they tried to make it look more or less linear and there were sometimes several weeks (anime-time) between 2 episodes. |
| I can't really get a grasp of that as the only sport I've gotten serious in my life was volleyball lol. Though, since the beginning, for someone who knew nothing about long distance running, it sounded unrealistic (especially Oji lol). Though all sports anime of the genre are unrealistic; in general, anime are unrealistic. You can't take it too seriously. |
| The show tries to justify it in the first episodes by explaining some characters' background (Nico was on the track team, the twins play football), but I can see why some people think it's a bit insulting/silly that you can train for all your life and this team of losers can get in shape to run one of the hardest marathons in Japan in 10 months. |
Jin_uzukiJan 1, 2020 2:35 AM
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| There's one thing you all need to understand and that is the fact that cross country 5k times aren't the same as 5k times on a track a 14:30 5k on a track can be a 15:10 time for cross country also if you look closely in the anime you can see the workouts they do are just as insane as there goal I won't lie it really is super unrealistic for a bunch of unexperienced runners to make it that far but they had to do insane workouts to get there so in the end I still really love this anime. |
Some-AnimeLover said: There's one thing you all need to understand and that is the fact that cross country 5k times aren't the same as 5k times on a track a 14:30 5k on a track can be a 15:10 time for cross country also if you look closely in the anime you can see the workouts they do are just as insane as there goal I won't lie it really is super unrealistic for a bunch of unexperienced runners to make it that far but they had to do insane workouts to get there so in the end I still really love this anime. Same with me. The timeframe and the people getting to some of those times were unrealistic, but not everyone was running under 16:00, only a couple of them, which made it a bit more realistic. The workouts and the races though were really well done and I respect the attention to detail. I ended up falling in love with this anime, it's one of my favorites now. |
LoomyTheBrewMar 6, 2021 11:54 PM
| Yeah man I really loved it as well since there aren't any long distance sports anime out there usually it's just short distance and they put in quite a lot of details while making it. |
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