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There's 4 sport anime in Winter 2021 featuring ikemen characters and this anime is one of it. I watched this because I'm curious about surfing despite this anime seems like 'Handsome Boys Doing Handsome Things'.
(spoilers below)


Story
Masaki Hinaoka is an ordinary middle school student and always get along with Nalu Tanaka, his childhood friend and a surfer. At first Masaki didn't interested with surfing. But when he saw a random guy surfing in the beach, he got attached with surfing. Turns out the random guy Masaki admires is become a transfer student named Sho Akitsuki in Masaki's school. After that, Sho teaches Masaki how to surfing ... and the three of them always hang out together. Even they joins surfing competition together.

In some time, Sho seems presumably dead when Masaki saw Sho's board on the ocean and Nalu moved to Hawaii. Then Masaki meets his new friends which he meets in surfing competition. They also gonna joins the surfing competition together.

The story is not bad, but I ever got bored in some episodes. I must say the first episodes are somewhat don't have anything interesting. The characters don't always joins the surfing competition, they even literally hang out together as well. Oh there's brief info about Duke Kahanamoku in episode 10!


Art
I don't have a problem with the art, character design, and animation, it looks decent. But when the characters going surfing (is it CGI?), the art looks weird.


Sound
Wave is a multimedia project. So, the theme songs (both opening and ending) are sung by the main characters seiyuu. I think the voice acting and theme songs are pretty good. I saw some people felt weird when Masaki's voice sounds too deep for a 14 years old, I felt that too but I get used in later episodes.


Character
What I can summarize about the main characters:
Masaki: an energetic protagonist. He interested about surfing because of Sho
Nalu: Masaki's childhood friend (who's half Hawaiian)
Sho: A transfer student which Masaki always look up. Seems presumably dead in later episodes.
Yuta: He learning about surfing when he was a child and always analyzed something when he doing (or saw someone) surfing
Kosuke: An ex-baseball player. He started surfing because he got persuaded by Yuta
Naoya: A magical girl otaku and always talking about his favorite characters
Soichiro: A rich guy who surprisingly friendly
Fuke: A surfing champion who always with Soichiro. He seems intimidating but he could get along with Masaki and his friends in later episodes.
Some characters have a flashback episodes about what they do in the past and I think it's pretty good.

There's some supporting characters as well. Who grabs my attention are Hayamichi Inada and Tadao-san. Hayamichi is Sho's older brother who appeared in later episodes, he has different surname with Sho probably because their family circumstances. Hayamichi teaches Sho how to surf and his personality somewhat harsh to Masaki and his friends.
Tadao-san is a guy who lives with Yuta and Kosuke (iirc). He always says random English sentences and always doing Shaka sign.

I saw most of people are disliking Masaki because he looks naive and annoying. Well actually he is. He also has a slow development for advancing surfing. He seems always losing when joins surfing competition, but in later episodes he improves his surfing.

For Sho, it's still ambiguous is he dead or what? He finally appeared in last episode, he wears white shirt with sunglasses and looking at Masaki's surfing in the competition. Then he just walk away.
(I didn't notice it was Sho, I'm sorry. I just realized when someone pointed it out)

Overall
The anime (more precisely, the story) is average and don't have anything special in it. I rarely watch sport genre, but I think this is somewhat Handsome Boy Doing Handsome Things. If you like sports involving ikemen casts, but didn't bother the protagonist's slow improvement, maybe you'll try this.

Remember when this anime key visual came out? People was freaking out to see Niji anime has different artstyle. I think it's fine because they was getting used to LLSIP and LLS artstyle. Anyway, here's a quick review by me:

Strengths:
- no more 'school closing down' premise
- having protagonist character (Yuu) which is kinda reminds you of idol manager
- some character designs looks unique
- having pure foreigner character and blond character who isn't foreigner or half
- one character focus episodes of each characters
- somehow the dancing scenes are improved
- genre variety of the characters solo songs
... - No washi-washi scenes so far
- SIF normal card cameo (just Shinonome and Touou) and some are voiced!

Weakness:
- Plot felt rushed
- The plot isn't really challenging compared to previous LL series because the characters aren't joining Love Live
- one character focus episode may get boring
- they rarely has group performance because they're solo idols
- I'm sorry if this sounds nonsense, but it's bugged me to see Ai didn't really close with the other 2nd years (idk probably I was getting used to saw 2nd years getting close each other in previous LL series)


As expected, the anime has a cliffhanger ending and no Shioriko appearance cameo. Niji also has strong shojo ai moments (Ayumu and Yuu). Even though I'm still enjoying the anime. If you want a challenging plot, you should play All Stars. Let's just hoping Shioriko (Lanzhu and Mia) and more SIF normal cards appearing if there's a season 2.

Spoiler warning below (just in case)

First of all, even though I love Hypmic project I have a love-hate relationship with this anime. I was eager when Hypmic has an anime adaptation, but when anime already airing I was like.. oh well.

Story
First episode started with all divisions introduced and rapping to random opponents. When they gonna rapping, they have magical girl transformation vibe (I'm saying this uinronically).
Their rapping has special effects (thus called Hypnosis Mic). It's usually goes 'boom' after the divisions defeated the random opponents. Admit it, that moments make you go "what?"

Then from episode 2 to 8, mostly are one division focused (there's ... also 2 divisions combined in 1 episode). The episode order are Buster Bros, Matenrou, MTC, and Fling Posse.
They doing random things which followed with an occurrence and the divisions defeats the opponents who did the occurrence with their rapping.

Up to episode 9, plot somewhat gets interesting. The divisions are defeating each other in one place. If you read the manga, it's predictable who's gonna be win the competition and vice versa.
There's also 3 anime-only characters, at first they seems like random background characters and interacting some of the division members. Who knows they gonna be impacted to the plot. The plot really confusing to me and the anime ends with cliffhanger ending.

Art
The character designs are pretty similar to Kazui's character design. I'm not getting biased but personally the character designs are memorable. The animation and effects is pretty good.

Sound
Most of the episodes has brand new songs, the anime didn't reused the older songs. Obviously all of the songs are in rap genre. Even the ending song has different divisions who sang it per 3 episodes. The songs is good and it makes me goosebumps when the divisions defeats each other. The voice acting is fine.

Character
If I remember correctly, there's some characters who has a slight flashbacks about what they're do in the past and usually the division leaders. Some of the characters seems having a questionable background and probably because limited episodes it's couldn't be described what they are (more likely Fling Posse members). Buster Bros members are clearly brothers who lives their own. The 3 anime-only trios are foreigners who gonna be defeating the main divisions for Ichijiku's intention.

There's so many HifuDo moments and Rei appeared as a cameo in last episode. More importantly, there's no the rest of Dotsutaire Honpo and BAT appearance cameos. Just Rei.

Overall
Is this anime enjoyable? Ugh.. kind of. I was curious what plot they're gonna bring in the anime. I'm a fan of Hypmic project so I decided to watch the anime until ends.
I get it why this anime having a low score, well this anime isn't for everyone actually. Even the premise sorta weird, but yeah that's Hypmic is.

If you liked a music (especially Japanese rap) anime with weird elements in it, maybe you can try watching this. If not, stay away.
If you curious about Hypmic project, try their manga, drama tracks, and songs. The anime may confusing for newcomers and assume the anime is the alternative story of Hypmic.