Back to Yuki-Nezu-Grimms's Profile Yuki-Nezu-Grimms's Profile

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 ;)