Mar 17, 2012
This was an "I'm bored anime" that I had decided to pick up because I had already seen a lot of the newer animes that had been out this season (winter 2012) that seemed enjoyable. I had briefly watched an episode and dismissed it as another Cinderella story from chump to champ in soccer like Eyeshield 21 was to football. Now that I had given a second chance I really enjoyed it.
The story actually kept me guessing, I had become really irritated when I could watch an anime and predict every outcome. Another aspect that I found to be pleasing was the
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genuine feel it had. There was no hand holding; they were all pros; you never had an overview of the field, but you always felt the sense of urgency that each of the players had; the coaches actually felt like they were important to the story and the decisions they made felt legit; and most importantly: no fucking special moves.
In the art department of the show it felt like Kaiji except that it was less over the top than Kaiji felt. Some people didn't like it because it felt too cartoony (especially the noses), but there is no better way to get emotions portrayed out of each player.
It may be just my headset or Crunchy Roll's streaming, but the sound quality felt iffy, when the coach Tatsumi would say anything it would hit a high end somewhere and it felt dirty. I don't have much to say on this otherwise
The characters, oh my, the characters. The characters were all lovable, even the opponents of ETU. Their interactions and not all of them speaking the same language really made it feel more genuine. Especially between the coaches, you could feel the tension between them especially when they each thought they had one upped one another.
I really thought this was an enjoyable anime, I was reluctant at first, but I as I mentioned earlier, it grew on me. I have a habit of predicting the outcome, this show allowed for ties and losses. No one "just wins" because of a fluke play, allowing although you know they are going to overcome their problems they aren't going to win because of it. A mechanic that allowed for it to work out is because they aren't going to spoon feed it to you, you approach it like the fans watching it, you don't get to sit in on any of the strategy sit-downs and get lengthy explanations as to why it will work, or sit in on tatsumi's recordings of his opponents (although you see the eureka moments). The anime's delivery of it is unique and made you think (to me.) They will show you that his decisions work twice (maybe once unreliably) and then give you the explanation and show it happen again now with your new found knowledge (to my observation).
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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