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(This review might contain some spoilers)

So, Peter Grill to Kenja no Jikan is an anime that exists. Why? I don’t know. Clearly, this is aimed towards Men of Culture, of which I am not part of. I can probably identify myself as a “normie”, as if you check my profile, I rate a lot of different anime highly, even if a lot of other people don’t like it, making my average score around 8. But if you check the score I gave this anime, you’d know that this show has some problems for me. After all, this is the first time I gave literally anything ... a 2, anime or not. So this review is for all the normies out there who are trying to think if they should give this anime a chance. Here’s some advice: don’t.

But before we begin with this hellhole, I want to assure you that not everything in this anime is bad. After all, the only thing in this anime that is remotely good is the character design. I think we can all agree that pretty much every character here is hot, or at the very least, we can agree that their bodies are pretty Sexy™. I cannot deny that all the girls (except the elf girl) are pretty gifted and cute, and even though I loathe Peter (the main dude), I can confirm that he has them muscles. I do have one problem with the designs, but I'll mention that later.

So, let us begin with why I hate this show. First, let’s begin with the story… oh wait! There isn’t one. It’s literally about the strongest guy (human) in the world trying to resist the charms of women (other races) who want his spunk junk to conceive babies to make their race stronger. Typical hentai plot, right? Oh wait! There’s more! The dude literally has a fiance, who he l o v e s so much that he wants to marry her. Amazing! Among the NTR he’s committing, this guy’s being abused, molested, and in technical circumstances, raped. The story and humour revolve around this guy trying to avoid bonking the women trying to gain his vanilla ice cream, but he always ends up failing. So unless you’re into this kind of stuff, I’d advise you to stay away.

Next, let’s talk about the characters. Almost EVERY character here is actual shit, and I think the main guy, Peter Grill might as well be the worst. This guy (read: hypocrite) keeps on saying that he loves Luvelia, his fiance, but ends up always chugging the train with the other women almost every day. I think if his love is actually real, he’d at least try to come clean in the first place. But nope, he cares more about his pride and appearance, and tries whatever it takes to hide his secrets that he “absolutely despise”. I actually don’t understand. What’s he afraid of? He’s literally the strongest man on the planet, so I don’t understand why couldn’t he just fight them off. But for plot’s sake he can’t, I guess. He can just break up with his fiance, but since the entire plot revolves around NTR, the anime won’t work without it, which says a lot about it. And in the final episode this dude (read: hypocrite) says to another character, and I quote: “You’re depriving yourself of other possibilities because you’re way too focused on chasing after this one woman,” which was basically the last straw for me because he said that so that he can get another person to remove a woman from his “””harem””” when that’s basically what Peter is doing as well. So yeah, I’ve never hated a fictional character in my entire life.

I really dislike the four women, Lisa, Mimi, Vegan, and Piglette, who are trying to get a bit of Peter’s milkshake. But the problem is, the reason why they’re doing so isn’t that bad. They’re doing it for the sake of their people, to make the future generations of their races stronger (maybe except for Piglette’s case, but it’s kinda similar). While this might be a good thing, what they do is not. I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like blackmailing someone who has a fiance he l o v e s after seducing and forcing him into filling holes isn’t a good thing. I think it’s pretty bad. I’ve read the manga, and I know it gets worse.

The side characters don’t help with how this show is, but make it worse. One side character found out of Peter’s secret and he decides to keep it a secret because “he’s a bro”??? Another side character, Luvelia’s father, is actually pretty much a manipulative brainwasher who is the reason why Luvelia is the way she was in the anime, and might as well be the reason why all of this happened in the first place. So yeah, almost every character is shit.

But if you’d noticed, I said that almost every character in this anime is shit. *Almost*. There are actually three (3) characters here that I can consider to be actually good, and two (2) of them are side characters that only appeared in the last three episodes of the anime. One of them is Luvelia, Peter’s fiance, and I kinda feel bad for her. The man she loves keeps doing the Monster Mash behind her back, and in a lot of cases, he does it in front of her (without her noticing). What’s worse is that she doesn’t even know what the act of Connection is, and if she sees them doing it, I don't even think she’ll realize what is wrong. At this point, I just want Peter to break up with her just so that he doesn’t make it even worse for Luvelia.

Going back to the character design, there’s one thing that bothers me. It’s not entirely bad, but it’s kinda like a pet peeve for me when I watch this and it comes up. Why do guys not have nipples? Okay, I know it’s weird, but I honestly couldn’t stop thinking about it. I only watched the censored version, and I kept on wondering why the female nipples were censored, while the male nipples were basically nonexistent. Is this a new type of censoring? Pecs ain’t pecs without the nips.

Other than that, I can say that the art and sound are alright. They don’t stand out in any way, and they fit just right for this anime. The ED actually sounds pretty good, and it might as well be my favorite thing in this anime. On the other hand, while the OP is also good, it perfectly encapsulates the hellhole this anime is. You might as well just watch the OP and you’ve pretty much watched the whole anime. Another thing to note is that each episode is 12 minutes long, half of a normal episode, which makes this anime SO much more tolerable. I wouldn’t be able to stand trying to watch 24 minutes of this every week.

So in the end, why did I decide to watch this show? I have no idea. I guess I wanted to warn people like me who don’t like this kind of shit. I can understand why men of culture would like this, but it’s just not for me, and if you’re reading this and are not a man of culture, then please don’t waste your time watching this. It’s not worth it.

(Also, if you may have noticed, I never once explicitly stated two certain things in this review. This is because the anime did the same thing, *at least from what I remember* which was so stupid that I actually found pretty funny, so I thought I might as well put it here so my review so you can understand how stupid it felt whenever it come up in the anime.)

Humans are social creatures. Ever since the beginning, we’ve communicated with each other to help ourselves and our surroundings evolve. From stories, to speeches, to mere conversations, we talk about anything and anyone. But sometimes, you experience something that shakes you to your core, and you become unable to talk about certain experiences or events. These problems make it hard for some to communicate, and keeping them inside might only make them worse. Blue Hearts is a story all about that.

It is a rather dark story that involves certain topics like sexual assault, bullying, suicide, etc. Written by Yayoi Sou, the author of ReLife, ... it shows the experiences one can go through in their lives, as well how they and the people around them react to these experiences. Like ReLife, this manga gives us several clear messages: appearances don’t show who you are and what you’ve been through, you don’t have to shoulder the burden of your problems all by yourself, and you can rely on those who care for you for help.

This manga revolves around 5 main characters who study in a somewhat prestigious high school. The problem is, 4 of these characters have the lowest grades in school, and the other character has to help them improve their grades, or else they repeat a year in school. All of these characters went through different experiences in their lives, most of which have affected them for the worse. As they find out what each of them has experienced one by one, they help each other out and they realize that they aren’t alone, that they have each other to count on. So far we only go through 2 of these characters’ experiences, so we still have to wait for the next chapters to see the other 3.

As I mentioned before, this manga shows events that may trigger people. Rape, bullying, suicide, they show topics in a manner that is quite exaggerated, but at the same time very realistic. These events really DO happen in real life, and as the characters in the story go through some of these events, all of them react and act in a very realistic manner. I cannot express the anger I felt when I was reading these scenes, because I know so many people around the world go through this everyday, and we don’t even know it. The characters in this story don’t know what happened to each other either, until they see what happened, or someone tells them what happened. This the other message that the manga gives: appearances don’t show who you are and what you’ve been through.

Even if there are only around 30 (English translated) chapters by the time I’ve written this, Blue Hearts has become one of my favorite manga of all time, because of the characters, their relationships, and the realistic portrayals of what they’ve been through. I hope they’ll continue to become closer to each other, and that they help each other with the problems they’ve faced and the problems that they will face. They’re truly friends who can count on one another. So, if you’re reading this, I hope you care for your friends and family as well, and if you or someone else have things that are hard to say, know that if you truly care for each other, all of you will listen to what they have to say, and that problems shouldn’t be carried by one person alone.

You are not alone.

As I was looking through manga that I could read, I saw this peculiar manga. I thought that art was pretty mediocre, but I didn’t really mind that. What really caught my attention was that the manga had the word “Genders”. That word isn’t normally used in any Japanese titles from what I know, and that was pretty much the first time I saw it in a manga title. So I checked, and lo and behold, it was a manga about the LGBT+. Reading through it, I realized that this is one of the only manga that I’ve read that focuses on the sexuality and ... gender aspect in regards to the LGBT+ community. And it did a lot of things right.

This manga explored four of the types in LGBT+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. While I would have liked it if they explored more sexualities and genders (pansexual, asexual, intersex, gender fluid, etc.), I know that would be too much to ask, as it is hard for people to accept all of them in one go, so I know it would take time for them to accept us. We just need to go one step at a time.

There are 5 main characters in this manga, Gin Fujigaya, Asa Nakamichi, Yuki Ogara, Akira Sumon, and Seiji Toyohara, all of which have different sexualities and genders. The main protagonist, Gin, has a hobby of crossdressing and posting selfies online, which is how the story started. As he continues to pursue this, his hobby, he starts to meet other people, like Asa, Yuki, Akira, etc. With each having different sexualities and identities, they continue to explore who they really are, and shape what they would do in life.

One of the things I liked about this manga is how the characters were able to properly explain who they are, what they identified as, and who they liked. They were able to properly find themselves, even though their journeys might have been rough. Gin was my favorite one. He is heterosexual, but he loves to crossdress because he think he is prettier doing drag than his regular self. Because of this, he and some of the other main protagonists question his gender, and some suggested that he may be transgender. After reflecting on his actions and thoughts, Gin came to a conclusion: he’s straight, and he is definitely a cis guy. I loved how he didn’t make a big deal out of it, and that he was able to accept that there was a possibility that he could have been transgender. Also, if there’s one thing to remember, it’s this: CROSSDRESSING DOESN’T MAKE YOU TRANSGENDER. You can just love crossdressing, but still be straight. Crossdressing isn’t mutually exclusive to one’s sexuality. Anyone can crossdress if they desire to, and there should be no problem with that at all.

Another thing I liked was that some of the characters already knew who they liked and what they were at a young age, and they were able to accept it. Even if other people disagreed and shunned them, they were able to wholeheartedly accept their identities and beings, which is something I want the LGBT+ community to be able to do. We need to be able to be true of ourselves without being rejected by others saying that “it isn’t normal” or that “it’s sin”. It should be normal to know your identity, and what you like, since it shapes who you are and what you want to do for the rest of your life.

This manga isn’t perfect, and there are a bunch of mistakes and things I found that I didn’t like. The main problem for me is the title of the manga itself. Yes, gender is also explored in this manga, but the main thing that was explored was their sexualities. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, those are sexualties and not genders. Transgender itself isn’t a gender either, but a gender identity. For clarity, sexuality refers to which of the genders you are sexually attracted to, while gender identity is the gender you identify as. I understand that the author might not have gotten the English word properly as a Japanese, so I can forgive it. But I hope future authors won’t make this same mistake again.

Another thing I disliked is the character of Seiji Toyohara. He was portrayed as obsessive and a bit psychopathic, which made him a toxic character. Since the LGBT+ community is still ostracized by a lot of people, if one bad apple is revealed to the public, the whole community will be painted in that light, making it harder to properly show who we really are. I feel like some people who will read this will incorrectly connect that Seiji’s personality is how most of the people with the same sexuality act, so they will be seen in a bad light. I’m glad that Seiji became a better person by the end, but hopefully people would know that obviously not everyone is like him, and that we all have our own personalities and ideals.

The art is pretty mediocre, it’s not a masterpiece, but it isn’t garbage either. It’s just smack in the middle, which I can forgive, as the focus of the manga is to help educate those who are still uninformed of the LGBT+ and how we think.

So with these things in mind (and other things that I couldn’t find the words to write), I gave this manga an 8. But honestly, with everything in the manga alone, I would have given it a 7, or even a 6. So why did I give it an 8? The reason is that the author is a hetersexual male. Heterosexual. I was shocked that he was able to write this kind of manga. He said in his afterword that while he was writing the manga, he had to read LGBT books to be able to properly understand how his characters were thinking, and that he had to consult and meet LGBT people to delve deeper into who they are. This made me really happy. I really liked how the author of the manga worked hard in order to write a story that doesn’t focus on people like him, and how much he studied and consulted on the subject in order to give life to the characters in the story. The author's intentions and actions are the reason why I gave this manga an 7. I hope other authors will follow in his footsteps if they decide to write manga focused on the LGBT+ community. And while this manga focuses on the LGBT+ aspect itself, I also want to see manga/anime that just has an LGBT character that isn’t there for drama, but someone who’s just there. A character that just continues to live their normal life, just like the way straight characters are able to do in manga/anime. I hope I can see something like that soon.

Now with all that’s said and done, I know that there will be people that still wouldn’t be able to understand us. Their mindsets and lifestyles might be different, and that’s okay. Everyone lives differently, sees life differently, thinks differently. One manga wouldn’t be able to instantly change the mindset that you have, and it won’t make you automatically give you all the knowledge about us. That’s why we ask you to study and consult about this topic. To make you understand us better. But I know even after all that, there will still be people who can’t, or won’t understand. If that’s the case, then there’s a quote I’d for you all to read, and it’s something that reverberates through the whole LGBT+ community.

“You don’t have to understand us, but we want you to acknowledge us.”

We exist. We’re alive. We’re human. We’re here, and we’re queer.

Sports anime has been a major genre in the anime community, with titles like Kuroko no Basket, Haikyuu, and Free being some of the most popular sports titles in anime, even well-known with non-anime watchers. They give us an equal amount of excitement as watching sports in real life, as they show off the techniques and skills needed for the purpose of playing the game. In sports anime, they are usually mixed with other genres to make the show more interesting, but they are mostly combined with one of two genres: Comedy or Drama. The comedy aspect makes the whole show funny, but at the ... same time interesting, while the drama gives us a deeper insight on the people playing the sport in the anime.

While I do watch some sports anime from time to time, there’s an important aspect of sports that hasn’t really been explored: para-athletic sports. Para-athletic sports, or also called paralympic sports, are sports that are mainly for people who have physical disabilities. These types of sports are really important as they give disabled people a chance to show their physical abilities to the world, since they don’t have the means to do so in regular sports. Unfortunately, all of the sports anime that have been shown until now involve healthy, enabled people… until now.

Breakers is the first anime (that I have the knowledge of) to actually be about para-athletic sports with actual disbled people. Not only that, it’s probably the first one I've watched to mainly focus about the sports themselves. There’s a bit of comedy and drama involved, but the sports ultimately outweigh all the rest. There are 16 episodes all in all, but each only lasts around 9 minutes, minus 30 seconds if you skip the ending song. In the anime, there are 4 para-athletic sports involved, with each arc lasting for 4 episodes. It may seem weird that there are only 4 episodes for each sport with each lasting only 9 minutes, but trust me, it works.

The story of the show mainly focuses on a scientist named Narita and his ball invention named Tama. Narita is more like a sports scientist, and his specialization is in para-athletic sports. He looks for people who have the potential and capability to compete in these sports, and he trains them and teaches them to bring out their full potential in order for them to compete in the national level of these kinds of sports. With each person, he gives them the techniques they need to learn in order to play, or sometimes advice on certain things in order to help them to grow by themselves. The characters involved with each of them are disabled in some way, and what I liked about this anime is that they properly show these disabilities while at the same time, showing how they can actually play the sports properly.

As said in the description, there are 4 sports involved: wheelchair basketball, track and high jump, goallball, and paralympic swimming. Each one gives us insight on how para-athletics play different sports. Almost all of them are rather self-explanatory, as they are similar to their regular sport counterparts, except for one: Goalball, which is my favorite arc. This sport is my favorite because I actually never heard of it before, and it’s a fun sport. Even able-bodied people can play it, as it is for blind people, those who play it blind themselves with a mask in order to play. Because of this, everyone can play the same game no matter if you can see or can’t. It’s pretty interesting to see, so I won’t explain that much so you can watch it in the anime.

In terms of animation and sound, it’s pretty average, nothing out of the ordinary. But they really do animate the movements properly when it comes to them playing and practicing the sports. Honestly, I didn’t focus on these two aspects that much, as I was more invested in the para-athletic sports and the characters who play them. But I think the art gets better as the arcs go on, as I noticed that Narita somehow gets sexier in the final arc.

Another thing I liked about this anime is that on the last episode on every arc, they show the real person who inspired the diabled character in the story as interviews. I was legitimately surprised to see that these characters were inspired by real people, but it makes sense. This anime wouldn’t have been made without the consultation of actual para-athletes. It’s really inspiring to see disabled people talk about the paralympic sport they play, and the challenges they went through while playing them. (EDITED; Thank you arvon2 for correcting me about the interviews, and also for being involved with making the English subs!)

I’d like to emphasize this point: this is NOT your typical sports anime. If you want an anime like Free, Kuroko no Basket, etc., look elsewhere. This anime purely represents and shows several types of para-athletic sports and people involved in playing them. This anime showcases a different aspect of sports, one that is important in the world, but is rather unknown. It gives us awareness of how different para-athletes are, and at the same time, how special they can be. If you want to learn more about these topics, then this anime is a great suggestion for you.

I hope that one day, more people will learn about para-athletics so that we can give more awareness to this world. Maybe one day, an actual full-season anime about para-athletics will be made, and if that time comes, I’ll definitely watch it.

Usually, in the mystery genre, they use all the evidence and logic they have to search for the truth. Instead, Kyokou Suiri uses all the evidence and logic it has to create a lie.

The story is about two characters, Kotoko Iwanaga and Kurou Sakuragawa. One of which is a “goddess of wisdom” for the youkai who live in the world, and the other is a seemingly plain human who is not what he seems. The two of them band together (or you can say Kotoko clings on to Kurou) and they try to solve the worries and concerns of the youkai around them.

Episode 1 introduces ... us to these two characters, and shows us a bit of their backstories together. At first, you’d have no idea that the anime is Supernatural if you haven’t heard about it before, but as the episode goes on you’d realize that they are indeed youkai in the world, and the two characters have more to themselves that meets the eye. In addition, they have a funny relationship with each other right off the bat when they meet each other.

Episodes 2 and 3 then shows us how the Mystery in this anime works. One would normally think that they would search for the evidence first then find the truth, but here they already have all the evidence they need, so now all they need is to figure out what happened. Simple, right? It’s not. In a world where spirits and youkai inhabit the earth, almost anything can happen, so logically finding out the truth will be tough. So instead of going for the truth at the get-go, Kotoko builds up blocks of possibilities of what could have happened to land to the truth that seems the most logical. Any solution may seem real to an extent, but as long as there are holes to it, it will all crumble apart. So she takes what seems right from the previous solution, or the basic elements, then adds it to a more logical one, until she arrives at the “right answer”. You can say that every “wrong” solution brings us closer to the “right” solution.

Once we learn about the “truth” of the matter from the previous case, we go on into the next arc, which comprises all of the next episodes, from 4 to 12. Here we have a long time skip, and we are introduced to a new character, Saki Yumihara, who is actually Kurou’s ex-girlfriend. As a police officer, her job is to help maintain peace in the city, and now there’s someone, or rather, something that catches her eye. Steel Beam Nanase. From what the witnesses claim, she’s a ghost with no face who carries a huge steel beam around and causes a bit of chaos in the city. Once an idol, tragedy struck her, and she died from steel beams falling onto her. One would be logical about this and say that ghosts aren’t real, it’s just in their heads. But she doesn’t. After a certain incident with her boyfriend, she starts to doubt what’s real or not, and what possibly can exist in the world. Then she sees Steel Beam Nanase. As a police officer she tries to stop her, only to be struck with the hard fact that she is indeed a ghost, and that she can’t even touch her. Then she meets Kotoko, who was able to temporarily stop her, and then Saki realizes she isn’t just what she looks like.

Saki and Kotoko then band up in order to stop Nanase, but how can you fight against a being that has no physical form, and that doesn’t really exist? Logic and fiction. In order to save people from getting hurt, they would need to create a “lie” that triumphs over the “truth”. No one needs to know that spirits exist in the world, else the entire balance between the human realm and the spirit realm will fall apart. So in order to erase the ghost from existence, they would need all the evidence in order to create a story that is both logical and entertaining. But can’t you just tell them the truth about her and everyone would believe it? Of course not. Fake news is considered “the better and more believable news” just because it’s more entertaining than the truth. No one wants a boring story. Thus, they need to create logical fiction for the sake of saving lives.

This show heavily relies on dialogue, so it is not recommended for people who just want the action or the youkai interaction. Almost every detail is important, evidence and logic are the most useful weapons this show has to offer, and if you don’t listen or think carefully, you will be confused as to what happens. They may repeat what they have said before, but what mystery show doesn’t? Repetition is one of the most important factors in informative speaking, because the audience would be able to understand that the points the speaker repeats are important. That applies to this show as well. Repetition of details implies that the evidence in hand is important. Logically, they would need to repeat the important details in order for us not to forget what is there. The solutions that are created from these details are also interesting, even though you can poke some holes on them here and there. But one thing to take note of is that Kotoko knew that there are holes in these solutions, and those are needed in order for her to grasp the “right solution”. What’s important is that she needs a majority of her audience to believe in her fictional truths, even if there are holes in them. In addition, she had to come up with multiple solutions that are all lies, that are both entertaining and logical with the given evidence, and in under a few hours, under the pressure of saving possibly hundreds of lives. If you don’t call Kotoko a genius, then I don’t know what is.

The main thing I like about this anime is the character interactions. You have the three characters, Kotoko, Kurou, and Saki. Kotoko is mean and funny, but is smart enough to solve the youkai’s problems. Kurou might seem plain, but he has something that can change the world. And Saki is beautiful and kind, but also sharp and brave. Since Saki was once Kurou’s ex, the interactions between them would be funny and awkward, especially since Kotoko is Kurou’s current girlfriend (although Kurou doesn’t seem to like it). The funny scenarios in the show mix well with all the seriousness of the supernatural for me, and I like that in this show.

All in all, I think this was a great Mystery/Supernatural anime. It gave a refreshing view on Mystery and what it can do. This was actually one of my most hyped anime this season, because I’ve already read the manga before and I’m currently up to Volume 11 of it. I can say that if you want a refreshing twist in Mystery, then this show might be for you. If you aren’t in anime, then the manga would be better for you, as it has more depth for the details and solutions.

For Valentine’s Day, I had the amazing idea to watch this movie at the last full show with some of my friends (Unluckily for us, we don’t have any dates, but it doesn’t matter as long as we have each other!!!), and honestly, this didn’t disappoint.

Like the synopsis said, this movie is about four people (essentially three), Aoi (the younger sister), Akane (the older sister), “Shinnosuke” of the present, and “Shinno” of the past. The story revolves on the dreams of all of them and how they become tied to one another, whether they become a reality or not. The “time travel” part isn’t ... exactly true, and it isn’t confirmed. They call the past Shinno a living spirit, which was said to be the personification of a person’s strong feelings.

From the same creator of "Anohana", the spirit part of the movie was interesting. The past Shinno was stuck in the place where he tried to move forward from, the place where he had to leave behind some of his dreams. It was quite interesting to see how different people saw him. I honestly thought at first only Aoi would see him, but the other characters were able to see him as well. I don’t want to spoil the movie, so I’ll just leave it at that.

The sound was good, and one of my favorite points in the anime. The movie doesn’t really focus on the music, but it makes the story between the characters better. One of my favorite scenes was when Aoi sang the song “Gandhara” while playing the bass. She had a good voice, and it’s definitely a feat to sing while playing the bass.

The art was also great. The background felt natural, and the random scenes of different objects and events felt nice. But the best parts of the animations were when they were playing the instruments, especially the guitar and the bass. I don’t play them, but I can tell that they were playing the notes for the instruments accurately.

One of my favorite themes is the relationship between siblings, and the love between them. I have a younger brother myself, and I can somewhat relate to Akane. She had to throw away what she wanted to do in order to raise her sister all by herself. She had to sacrifice her time and effort in order to make Aoi happy, but in return she had to reject the person who she loved. Aoi felt responsible for making Akane do that. She felt bad that she bound Akane to her when she could have gone to Tokyo and lived the life she wanted to. They both felt regrets that had to do with each other because of their love for one another. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I can see myself doing that for my brother just so he could be happy.

This movie was pretty good, and I wouldn’t mind watching it again with my other friends. This isn’t a masterpiece or anything, but it’s definitely something I’d recommend.

Tired of watching all those isekai or comedy anime? Wanna actually watch an anime that’s close to real life? Then Hoshiai no Sora is that anime for you! But please let me tell you this. Don’t view it as an anime. Don’t just look at it as a fictional story. This isn’t for people who only watch anime to “escape” from real life. Watch it as if it’s actually happening in front of you, as if it’s happening in reality, as if the characters are people you know, as if you’re a third party observing what they are going through. If you can do that, ... then watching this will be very worth it.

Before I begin, I’d like to point out that this review will focus on what happened in the anime rather than how it happened. What I mean is that I won’t focus on things like character development or story pacing or stuff like that, since I’m not good with those aspects of stories. I’ll be talking about what they said and what they went through. This also may contain some spoilers.

When I first saw a PV for this show, I thought that maybe this would be like other sports anime. Almost all the sports anime I’ve seen has had drama in its run, and Hoshiai no Sora is no exception. But when I watched it; boy, was I wrong. What makes this anime different from other sports anime is that the drama is a more realistic reflection of the problems that happen in real life, and the sport the characters play isn’t the main focus of the anime, rather, it is a catalyst for the characters to help one another with their problems as they go through life. The first episode already had something major happen, which made me instantly love the anime (Don’t get me wrong, though. I hated what happened.).

Basically, the anime is about a soft tennis club on the verge of disbanding, until a new member shows up and helps make the club better than it was before. But don’t let the cute and clean art style fool you, as there are deep themes involved in the characters’ lives, and the characters try to go through them with the help of one another while at the same time trying to win a competition to save their club. The different problems that each character has are what make the show realistic.

One of the major themes that is seen in the anime are family problems. Almost everyone in the team has a problem with their parents, and there’s a whole episode that focuses on families. First, we have Maki, and from the very first episode, we can see that he has a major problem with his father, who was very abusive since he was born. Then we have Nao, who has what we can call a “helicopter parent,” as we can see that she doesn’t support what he likes and makes decisions for him thinking that it is for his own good. Basically, almost all of them have family problems, and the tennis club is there to bring them together for each other’s support.

Another theme the show tackled, which was something I liked, was sexuality and gender identity. In the second episode, one of the characters, Yuuta (a guy), was discovered by Maki to have liked another guy. This scene made me like the show even more, as this gives us some LGBT+ representation in anime where the supporting character isn’t judged or made a big deal out of, or used as a major plot point. In another episode, due to some circumstances, Yuuta and Maki end up talking about gender identity, and it is revealed that someone Maki knows is actually transgender, which gives us good trans representation in anime. This scene is probably one of my favorites in the series, as Yuuta mentions that he doesn’t know what he identifies as, and Maki says he doesn’t have to rush. It’s okay to take time to figure yourself out. What matters the most is being able to discover who you are and what you want to be, and it doesn’t matter how long it takes to do so. This really hit close to home, as I am also part of the LGBT+.

Some of the characters of the show that I think are worth mentioning are Maki, Yuuta, and Mitsue. I have already talked Yuuta before, so I will be talking about Maki. He’s a 14 year-old middle school student who just moved back to his hometown and started studying in the school where the story takes place. We see that he is very active, he uses the stairs instead of the elevator, and he also does basically all of the chores. We then also notice that he has insane reflexes, and Toma (his classmate) also notices this and asks him to join the tennis club. After certain conditions, he accepts and that moves the story forward. What I like about Maki is that he’s one of the mature ones in the group. Because of what happened in his youth, he’s able to see the important things in life, and he’s able to talk about it with his friends. I think it’s even better given how young he is, because a lot of us when we were his age didn’t really care much about doing good things or not, we just did what we wanted to do. Maki does things his way, but with a goal in mind. Him being there helps improve the tennis club, and in a way, slowly helps relieving his friends’ emotions from all of their problems.

Next, I’ll be talking about Mitsue’s character. When we first see her, the first thing we might think is that she’s a cynical jerk. I thought that way as well. But as the time passed by, I realized why she became that way. Her parents are unsupportive of her dream, and people online diss her for it, so who wouldn’t be cynical? While some of her actions aren’t good, they are understandable. The reason she was a jerk to the tennis club was because they were enjoying what they liked when the people around them don’t support them, when she was also going through the same thing. While she was a jerk, she still supported them, as she still went to some of their activities even if she said that she didn’t want to. And by the end of the anime, we can see that she really is to start rooting for them; she is more supportive to them and actually starts drawing soft tennis drawings, and she starts to ignore all the hateful comments thrown at her from art, which I think is a good development for her.

Another thing I liked about the show was how they implemented some things that a lot of people worry about, but for others it doesn’t seem like a big deal. An example is when the club was in one of their activities and everyone was talking to each other and having fun except for Toma. Yuuta noticed this and asked Toma about it, and Toma replied that he isn’t good at slipping into groups and having fun. I also felt this, since I’m not that much of a social person as well.

At the end of the day, even if there were tons of drama, it’s still a sports anime, and the sports did not disappoint. Even if the sports weren’t the focus of the anime, the show was properly able to explain the techniques and rules soft tennis has. The animations of the sports scenes were fluid, and it was really exciting to watch. The closest I have with playing soft tennis is badminton (the players have to use rackets), but I think I can say that everything here related to the sport is pretty spot-on. The sports peaked at the final episodes, and they were amazing as well.

All in all, I think that was an amazing anime, especially with it being an original. They were able to talk and discuss about different problems that people go through in real life, and they were also able to execute the drama with the sports perfectly. I’ve noticed that people think it’s weird that they just placed some drama here and there without any build-up. But that’s how one would see it if they just viewed it as an anime. If one were to view it as a reflection of real life, however, not just a normal show, they’d be able to better understand why. You don’t just know someone in real life then they’ll slowly gives hints about their problems and then BOOM, that’s when you feel some emotion for them. In real life, you wouldn’t be able to know who has what kind of problems, and people you know that don’t seem to have any problems with their lives might end up being hurt because of them. You shouldn’t expect some build-up before that happens. But I guess that’s my opinion, since other people care a lot more about that aspect of the show

I guess since I viewed it like real life rather than just the regular anime (probably one of the rare times I’ve done this), I thought it was amazing and pretty realistic. I was even able to learn about new topics that I didn’t know of before, like postpartum depression, and also some soft tennis techniques (not that I’ll ever use them though, I'm not that sporty). Although it ended with a major cliffhanger, with everything that happened here, I can say that this anime has rightfully made it to my favorite Sports and Drama anime, and if there’s a 2nd season, I’d definitely watch it. But this anime probably isn’t for those who watch sports anime just for the sports or cares too much about how much drama there is in an anime.

“Everything that you left behind became my everything.”

These words from the opening song hold true for Mafuyu Sato (CV: Shougo Yano), one of the main protagonists of the series. He seems like an ordinary person, but at the very first episode, you can already see that he has been through a lot, and this has turned him who is today: an expressionless, gloomy guy who doesn’t really communicate. The only thing he seems to care about is a guitar he holds throughout the first episode, which he doesn’t even know how to play. Bring in Ritsuka Uenoyama (CV: Yuuma Uchida), a regular guy who’s interested ... in music and basketball. After going through his hobbies everyday in his life, he started to grow bored of them. But because of those feelings, he was able to meet Sato, and after fixing Sato’s broken guitar, Sato pesters him into teaching him how the play the guitar. After a few events, Uenoyoma hesitantly decides to teach Sato how to play, and introduces him to his band, containing Haruki Nakayama (CV: Masatomo Nakazawa) the bassist, and Akihiko Kaji (CV: Takuya Eguchi) the drummer. The story is how both of them figure out their feelings for each other and how music plays a part with it.

The story in itself isn’t that extraordinary. To be honest, it was kinda slow, the music itself doesn’t happen until near the end of the series, and if you compare it with other music anime, they’d probably be similar, but what struck me the most from this anime was how realistic it was. The characters and the emotions they experienced were portrayed accurately and realistically, and the drama wasn’t randomly selected and placed here and there just for funsies, but they were there to help the characters grow and realize how important the other one is to them, especially given that this is a BL anime. BL anime tend to have wacky and random scenarios that don’t make sense at all, and the romance is just wrong, but Given is one of those rare sights where everything is placed correctly and the romance is actually right.

If you’re looking for good music, then you’ve come to the right place. As a music anime, you would expect it to have several different music tracks throughout the series, but this isn’t the case. Aside from the background music, there were only 2 actual music tracks in the series (excluding the OP and ED’s), with one being an instrumental and one having lyrics. I thought that the instrumental was actually pretty good, especially with how good and fluid the animations of the band members were when they playing the bass, guitar, and the drums. The background music fit with the scenarios that were being portrayed in the show, so that was a plus. The opening and ending songs were also really good, and they really fit how the story would go.

What I really loved about the show was the actual performance song. Even I was shocked when I first heard it. The whole time Mafuyu sang, you could really hear the raw emotions he had for the person he once loved. The way Mafuyu sang implied that even if he wasn’t a trained singer, he could express that what he felt for his lover was real, and that the anger and sadness and regret and love that he felt is still there and will remain, but fade away but by bit. If this didn’t make you emotional enough, Mafuyu’s monologue about his past lover will surely make you tear up. Both his performance and monologue really made me feel emotional, and I’ve already rewatched this part dozens of times because I couldn’t get over it. This is Shougo Yano’s first actual main role in a Music anime, and I’m really surprised that he isn’t in more. I’m sure that we’ll be seeing more of him in the future because of this song. The only thing I didn’t like that much in the performance was the 3D CGI’s they put for some of the scenes when they were playing, but I brushed it off because the amazing song made me forgive it all.

Overall, I definitely loved it. This anime is one of the rare cases where I would rewatch it again if I have the time. This has already taken the spot of my favorite Music and Shounen Ai anime, and it definitely deserves its spot there. Even if I wasn’t into BL anime, I would still have loved it.