Cheerleading has always been a bit beyond me. Not that I couldn't understand what the girls were doing. I only wondered, 'Why?' All four of my girls were cheerleaders at the grade school level, but my duties placed me at the controls of the scoreboard. Referees do a bunch of statistics review during halftime, so my attention was never on the cheerleaders. And, what did they contribute to the final score? Rallying the team when they are twenty points behind seemed to be an exercise in futility. I even had a friend in college (as eccentric as I, if even more) who even asserted that cheerleaders, drill teams, dance squads, and the like were so much 'useless human protoplasm.' Harsh, yes. But to him, the game was everything and the peripherals were only distractions.
Anima Yell (2018, Doga Kobo) does its thing to explain the significance of the cheerleader. It's one of those 'cute girls doing stuff' genre types where you find informative background to a given topic, in this case the impact of cheerleaders on a game. It is seen through the eyes of an enthusiastic Kohane, who wishes to be a cheerleader upon entering high school, ... and finds her academy lacks such a club.
The twelve episodes relate a story of five girls of different persona who slowly meld into a squad of pom- pom waving fanatics. Kohane is a dynamo in the field of helping and supporting people. She would make an ideal cheerleader, but she has this fear of heights and a tendency to be clumsy. Her chief motivation is Hizume, who has been cheering since middle school. But she has been ostracized from her former club for reasons to be discovered. She is a master cheerleader, but Hizume wishes to quit the rah-rah scene. But this would mean a life of loneliness, so she agrees to mentor Kohane. Uki is Kohane's BFF, but she has no desire to be a cheerleader, but her person would make a three girl squad a semi-official cheer association at the high school. Cheerleading just grows on her. Kotetsu is talented in piano and music, but she is the type of personality which figures she must strive to keep the score close ... she will lose anyway. Cheerleading gives Kotetsu confidence to believe her efforts will net something of value ... just try. Kana had been a cheerleader with Hizume on that middle school cheer squad and quit when Hizume was excluded from the club. She secretly adores Hizume and stalks her. This is a bizarre way of becoming the fifth member, but this gives the girls club status, giving them funds and an advisor (Inukai-sensei ... and why are advisors usually out of it in the field they are supposedly expert in?).
The girls do freelance assignments such as cheering for the basketball team, supporting the soccer team that Uki's little brother plays for (little Akane is the typical bratty brother, unwilling to give big sister Uki any credit ... and then only grudgingly), and practice, practice, practice. The big thing in cheering are the stunts as pyramids, shoulder straddles, and tumbling. All this for the first cheer tournament. Hizume meets the squad that she felt compelled to leave and learns the true story of a team confused about their abilities.
The animation is passable, as the animators worked on the essentials of kawaii without pushing the Moe (one of the last episodes featured the girls in swimwear ... nothing impressive). The animation used static scenes for the cheer routines but did take time to demonstrate the difficult stunts teams use in tournament play. Basic flat animation creating some superior effects. The music works, but it lacks the essence that would make it memorable. Don't even ask me to hum a few bars. Peppy and spirited, but shallow and unoriginal as well.
Anima Yell tells a neat story that is predictable on all fronts. How did Kohane's team do at tourney play? A team of five girls, only one with any level of experience. What would you think? But Anima Yell does give a good defense of the rationale of team spirit engendered by those who can't play the game, but do they know motivation!
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