Hanebado!

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Hanebado is a story about regaining lost passions and allowing the very things that may have sullied something you love turn into a reason for loving that exact thing - in this case badminton. It's a story about a group of passionate young women who all have various reasons to be dissonant about playing badminton, yet continue playing it regardless due to the simple thrill they obtain from playing the game. Despite tackling these themes, the series manages to do this with such flair and tonal consistency that it's hard to not be impressed - and manages to do so while telling an uplifting story ... about these young girls using badminton as a vehicle to not only grow as athletes, but also as people. Despite this, the series' tone remains largely light-hearted, and while questionable elements remain - a certain subplot tying to Ayano's character arc and the head of the badminton federation who - let's face it - has some shady as hell moments, the series manages to convey this story well in just 16 volumes.

Ayano is the central lead of Hanebado - being introduced as an airheaded and unfocused goofball who's shy yet aloof of people around her. She largely keeps to herself and her best friend Elena, yet is shown to clearly be proficient at badminton. There's one problem though - Ayano has lost passion for badminton and would rather not play the sport ever again. While she eventually loses a game and is dragged into the fold of the badminton club, questions persist about why exactly she plays...which only gets answered when the team visit and see photos of her mom crossed out. Ayano played badminton because it's a sport she loves, yet this love was tainted partially by her own superiority to most players initially before she inevitably lost to Kaoruko, leading to what appeared to be her mom abandoning her. As a result, Ayano started resenting the sport and avoided it, associating it with her mother abandoning her - however, she never could let go of the sport, and her entering the badminton team eventually leads her to understanding that the sport doesn't need to be played simply for the sake of finding her mom, but also as something she can enjoy playing with others. By no stretch of the imagination does this mean that her finding her mom isn't still a subplot in the series; if anything, Ayano's core character arc slowly becomes about her growing friendship and dynamic with various characters - Nagisa and Connie as well as Elena - slowly conflicting with her motivation to find her mom and receive her acknowledgment at long last. While Ayano finds an answer that's a mix between the two - learning that focusing too much on her mom means being unable to enjoy the sport, while also pressing on in finding answers over her mom. Her character arc is that both of what she wants are perfectly attainable and require assistance from her friends - her match with Nagisa roughly halfway through the manga being an example of that, with that match drilling into Ayano that she can't play badminton for that goal alone, and needs help and shoulders to lean on from others, with Nagisa constantly accepting assistance from Tachibana and encouragement from her friends, while Ayano played alone. This contrast and the result of the game help set the stage for where Ayano's character arc proceeds from that point onwards, having a more relaxed and free playstyle and being more open about what she wants to achieve.

Nagisa is the second central character of Hanebado and my personal favorite of its three main characters - starting off as a rough tomboy with a heart of gold that has become more withdrawn and isolated from the sport due to her loss in a past tournament. This makes her stop enjoying playing the sport and straight up resent it, yet she pushes on, desiring to improve despite that; this, however, only leads to her self-destructing further and finding the sport almost insufferable to play, which she only snaps out of by playing with Kentarou. While her dynamic with her coach isn't the only one relevant to Nagisa's character arc - her dynamic with her friends as well as both Ayano and Connie is also important - it is by far the most important one, as her contrasts greatly with Nagisa by being a former badminton player whose career got cut short due to injury. This in itself highlights a character flaw of Nagisa's; her pride in willing to continue playing to the end, ignoring any potential long-term damage that may happen to her for the sake of her self-centered pride. The Nagisa of the beginning of the narrative is one who's licking her wounds yet determined to push on and wields that pride - even if it also gets hurt fairly badly in the process at times due to her initial refusal to acknowledge that despite everything, players much better than her exist. Kentarou acts as a worthy foil to Nagisa and his dynamics with her is my favorite dynamic in the manga, being an upstanding and caring coach who constantly looked out for her health as well as empathizing with her due to understanding where her pride comes from and yet being unwilling to allow her to make the same mistake he once did. Her arc is about realizing that her badminton career isn't the only thing that matters to her, but rather that by hurting that not only would she hurt herself but also the people around her. This makes her last match in the series one where despite the outcome, feeling beyond satisfying and being in my eyes the best damn match in the series and one of my favorite out of sports manga in general. Beyond liking many of the basic tropes she's associated with, her character arc was a powerful one about simply letting go of pride for the sake of not hurting oneself and others, a breath of fresh air in a genre frequently known for characters that push themselves beyond their breaking point and are glorified for doing so.

Connie is the third and final main character of this series, being Ayano's sister in a sense due to both receiving training from Ayano's mother, Uchika. Her upbringing is similarly influenced by Uchika much like Ayano, and much like Ayano also suffers from a complex and neglect from Uchika's presence in her life - yet retaining a more positive outlook in general despite this due to her having more friendly teammates for a longer period of time, who she desperately tries to keep at arm's length but fails at spectacularly. Her dynamic with Yuika in particular is worthy of praise, being tightly written with both characters inspiring and bouncing off the other for self-improvement while also being a crutch for the other's flaws - Connie being her lack of social awareness in how to deal with others, often resorting to self-centeredness by instinct before realizing her carelessness, while Yuika tends to be overempathetic and often get lost in caring for others but not herself. This dynamic helps progress both characters considerably, with Connie in particular receiving much character development and acting as an excellent foil both to Nagisa and Ayano - Nagisa due to personality similarities in being self-centered power oriented players, with Nagisa being someone that is more extrospective personality-wise and Connie being more introspective, as well as Ayano, who shares a bond with Uchika that in many ways is more strained than Connie's bond with her, both striving to prove that they're worthy of her attention. Connie's character arc even symbolically in many ways acts as a foil to Ayano - similarly becoming more outwardly expressive, but become more emotional in her plays and approach to people as opposed to Ayano, who still maintains a calmer - even if passionate and heated occasionally - demeanor.

The artwork for the series is phenomenal and extremely capable of swapping tones, often relying on broadly spaced panels and dynamic illustrations that make the series easy to read despite its very dialogue-heavy nature outside of matches. Facial expressions are often beautifully drawn, with subtle changes in character expressions all over the manga adding much to characterization - Nagisa in particular has had a lot of care go into her changing features, which adds a lot to the overall weight and tension of the badminton games. Speaking of the badminton games, they're in some ways the best and worst thing the series has to offer - on one hand, being beautifully drawn and extremely tense, with one particular game being straight up one of my favorite matches in a sports manga period and a classic example of how a sports match can add so much characterization to characters. Other times, it often feels like they progress too quickly, and while this does not hurt the manga too much it does mean that certain matches happen too quickly for my liking. This is a minor complaint, however, and otherwise on a technical level the manga is absolutely beautiful and easy to read and reread if you want something easy on the eyes and yet extremely engaging.

Another major flaw is a certain subplot that ties into Uchika's character which while thematically fits the series - about how badminton if seen as a reflection of life itself is quick, fleeting, dynamic and forever moving forward - still left me wanting due to both the suddenness of a revelation that happens near the end of the series as well as wishing to see a few more character interactions before her role in the series ends. To go beyond this is to enter heavy spoiler territory, but anyone that read this series understands what I'm talking about.

Despite my gripes, Hanebado is a fantastic sports manga that is well worth your time if you're a fan of the genre.

Thank you for reading.

This is my first manga review, I won't share too long a review, I don't know if you all read if I write long, if you ask me, I'm lazy to read long reviews *_ *

I started reading this manga after I watched the anime, although the anime is not the same as the manga, the way of achievement in the anime is more dramatic.

[story] 8/10
I can say that it's best because I enjoy reading it over and over again even if it's a bit busy

[art] 9/10
The art painted by Hamada, Kousuke and also the story is very good. The art is important enough for ... me to continue reading this manga, starting from the facial expressions of the characters, the delivery of good shuttle ball art is not confusing and more importantly the character design is very good and beautiful..especially the female character design. 😏

[Overall] 9/10
as i said earlier this is my first manga review and the first sports genre manga i read is still inexperienced
but this is what I feel about this manga

anyone who has ever watched anime can try reading hanebado manga and i suggest starting from chpater 1

[additional]
My favorite characters in this manga:
*Hanesaki, Ayano
*Asahi, Kairi
*Mashiko, Rui

if the manga continues until ayano plays for international maybe i will give it 10/10

thanks for taking your precious time for my bored review ^_ ^

I don't know how to review it. The top reviews did very well summarizing it all. Excuse my horrible taste, but this is my favorite manga. Laugh as much as you like. I'm not that good of a badminton player, I don't know how to rate all the technical aspects, especially strategy stuff. I just love it. In fact, this manga got me into badminton. I like the story. I like the characters. I like the art. I like the action. I like shipping Yuika and Connie whenever possible. Damn enjoyable for me. The manga addresses a perennial argument: "Is genius born or made?". I ... adopted the growth mindset due to reading this manga in a dreadful and pessimistic time as a teenager, so I just friggin grateful for the author for that alone. 本当にありがとう、濱田さん.

Therefore, even if I know that nothing is perfect, that this manga indeed has holes and flaws everywhere, it've held such a special place in my heart for years. This maybe the first time I've given something a 10/10.

To end this, I hate the anime adaptation. Keep liking the anime as you want, but as for me, I despise it. I found it butchered the manga hard (at least, according to me). It takes everything I like from the manga and destroy them. And throwing a bunch of unnecessary drama. Characters become "quite" hatable and overly-dramatic and psychopatic and "not so bright" and everything. These either makes some fan love the anime (ah ok, the animation is not THAT bad, the shuttlecock sounds ok, I guess) or deters the watcher away with some distasteful comments ("the mom is worst parent"; or "Ayano psycho", or "musclebrain Nagisa"). I'm terribly sorry anime studio, you broke your back working on the anime, it is your brainchild, it took you sweat and blood and patience, and I admire your effort, but now I kind of hate your child, and I'm so sorry. You manage to make an anime the one I hate the most from the series I like the most, so good job to that.

I rarely make strong opinions on the internet, but the Hanebado anime manages to make me snap. Amazingly done.