Suzuka

mahius Dec 28, 2014

3.5

Suzuka is an anime plotline that would feel right at home in a soap opera. The main theme is romance, despite how sport oriented it appears. And this anime is a painful reminder of what makes the majority of anime bad. A predictably terrible plot ripped to shreds by absymal characters. The main character is another who'd define the very term of 'Tsundere.' I am so glad that its over. And now I'll tell you why. Animation For a 2005 anime, the animation quality isn't too great at all, but it isn't absolutely terrible either. Despite the large amount of sports, there isn't much fluid movement that one would expect to see. The design of the character's are so cliche that I've honestly gotten sick and tired of seeing the same types of characters pop up in anime. But, this was all due to the bad mood the anime itself put me in. It actually isn't too bad. There is no fan service or ecchi, which is a godsend and things are kept sensible. Overall it ain't too shabby but my mood makes me say worse of it. Sound Okay I've got to give them a pat on the back for trying. They really did try since they made a bunch of songs in English for the dub version. That's very rare and is usually kept to the most mainstream of anime. But that didn't help the fact that it wasn't good. The intro made me cringe and I found myself skipping intros and outros. This anime is available in both English and Japanese. The voice acting was typical and somewhat emotionless, I actually dreaded when some characters would come on. I've never felt that way watching a dubbed anime before. The VA for Suzuka has done quite a bit including Minami in Baka & Test, Yamato's VA also did the voice for a minor character in the same anime and larger roles in others including Tsukune in Rosario + Vampire. Other mentions of VA include the ever present Greg Ayres as some perfect athlete douche, no need for me to explain which characters he voiced in other anime and I'm pretty sure I saw Vic Mignogna in the credits for a minor role. Major voice actors aside, the sound was mediocre at best. Characters Right now, I can't be bothered to do a proper character section, especially since it's been a month since my last review. Suzuka is the tsundere bitch and Yamato is the tasteless buffoon who is infatuated with her. Story Simply put, mostly predictable and the only real progression is the membership of the track team. It looked to me like nothing had really changed by the end of the series. Yamato moves to Tokyo to go to high school. He lives at an apartment where his aunt is the landlord and she lives with her daughter who I honestly though was going to have a crush on him or something. Thank goodness it didn't, though it did joke that Yamato promised to marry her when he was a kid and nobody gives a shit anymore. He falls for Suzuka, a high jump athlete who ends up hating him because he reminds her of her dead track buddy who she treated like shit, cos she's tsundere and only realised she loved him after he died in a car crash. Not much happens besides things changing up in the track team and Yamato does have a girlfriend for a while, guess who? It's not Suzuka cos she's too much of a tsundere. Just disappointing really. There was a lot of potential and Yamato's short-lived fling gives temporary hope, soon dashed by the conclusion to it. Overall I really don't see why this anime needed 24 episodes. I could have easily been done in 12. If one really wants to watch this, I recommend watching until Yamato joins the track team then skipping to episode 23 or 24. Very disappointing for an anime that seemed to me like it was actually trying to get somewhere. It's just like the overall plotline and characters, haha! But seriously, even if you like romance, this is still not recommended. Family-friendliness Rating: 2/5 No fan-service, one of few positives about this anime (lower is better) Overall Rating: 3.5 (higher is better)

JJR1971 Jun 19, 2011

9.5

*warning, veiled spoilers* Suzuka is a deeply romantic story and slice-of-life Japanese High School drama cleverly disguised as a Sports Anime.  The titular character is a High School freshman track star and rising child prodigy attending school in Tokyo in full scholarship.  Yamato Akitsuki (秋月 大和 Akitsuki Yamato?) is also a freshman who has also just moved to Tokyo and is living with his aunt; He sees Suzuka practicing her high jump on the school track field and instantly falls in love with her.  Sadly, the feeling is not mutual.  Suzuka doesn't dislike Yamato, but she doesn't particularly like him either.  We come to learn she's someone who is deeply haunted by the recent past. Suzuka is a good examination of how Love is more something that simply happens to you, like heat stroke, more than anything you consciously decide for yourself. Yes, childhood friend Honoka is without a doubt the sweeter, nicer girl...Suzuka is more unstable, cruel, runs hot and cold, is hard to read, etc.  None of that matters.  Yamato fell in love with Suzuka and can't help how he feels.  He tries to choose Honoka over Suzuka but his heart won't let him and he ends up only breaking Honoka's heart as well. There is a saying in Buddhism that "Desire leads to suffering", and boy, do these character SUFFER.  A LOT.  Not just Yamato, but Suzuka and Honoka as well. The official tag-line for this series is "Love is not a spectator sport", but it could just as easily have been "Love is a full-contact sport.", which is a nice double-entendre. Love is good, love is great, but unrequited love can hurt like a motherf*cker. Miki Hashiba (羽柴 美紀 Hashiba Miki?), voiced by Jamie Marchi in the English dub, is a good friend to both Yamato and Suzuka.  She encourages Yamato not to give up.  Along with Honoka, she encourages Suzuka to be more honest with herself about her feelings for Yamato.  She's a truly great friend to both protagonists.  Becoming Yamato's friend, Miki is definitely putting her own heart at risk. These are characters you will want to stand up and cheer for. Yasunobu Hattori (服部 安信 Hattori Yasunobu?) is Yamato's best friend and though he's a bit of a "player" himself, often gives Yamato some pretty good advice; not always, but usually.  Voiced by Robert McCollum in the English dub, who also voices Kazuma in Kaze No Stigma.  Robert is featured in the DVD extras actor commentaries, along with Brina Palencia.  While Brina thinks Yamato should have forgotten about Suzuka and just stuck with Honoka, Robert is of the opinion that Yamato was right to risk it all to continue pursuing Suzuka.  Go for the gold, don't settle for silver. The ending of this series is very emotionally satisfying, but like a runner in a marathon, crossing the winner's tape at the end will leave you feeling emotionally exhausted.  Happy, but exhausted.

galacticdude7 Apr 12, 2010

2

-Story-The story of Suzuka was driven mostly on the idiocy of the characters. There were some unique moments that I found enjoyable, but they were far outnumbered by the stupid parts based mostly on the stupidity of the characters. The most the love stories get is an awkawd love triangle between seemingly mismatched characters, and it has a missing length to it belonging to Suzuka's dead Sempai. The story would have probably been half way decent if it wasn't driven by the sheer idiocy of all the characters. There were few touching moments, or funny moments, or any moments that gave me a major emotional response. The story was not enjoyable all around.-Animation-The animation of the characters made them seem like they where puppets and not characters living in an environment. Their eyes looked dead and it felt like the characters could not express emotions well. The environments that the characters were in were pretty generic, and there was nothing that popped out and make anyone saw "wow". The environments felt more like backgrounds, which is not good for any media, let alone an anime.-Characters-Suzuka has achieved a special place for me as it is the only anime in which I want to kill every major character. They are all idiots, and this idiocy drives the story into a tree. Suzuka is bipolar and is yelling at Yamato one minute and then is being nice to him in the next. She is a bitch and deserves to spend the rest of her life alone with 47 cats and become a crazy cat lady. Yamato is an idiot in general, and he keeps chasing after Suzuka even though Honoka is a much better person and a lot more lovable that Suzuka. Plus he always has a tendency to run his big mouth, which causes most of the stupid moments in the story. Honoka needs to realize that Yamato is a complete idiot and not worth her time, and she needs to find some other guy. The rest of the cast does not fair too much better, even the cat makes me angry. I have never hated a cast as much as I hate the cast of Suzuka.-Overall-So you think you want to watch Suzuka? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? This is just a horrible excuse for an anime. It wouldn't have been so bad if the character weren't all idiots of the highest caliber. Don't even waste your time with this one, there are better things to do with it, like stabbing your brain with a q-tip. It would be much more enjoyable.