Aoashi - Reviews

3S Review no. 55 (short, simple and salty/sweet/spicy)

Oh man, sports anime… how do I go about this, you see there are usually two sides to a sports show, how the actual sport is treated, and the rom-com side of things. Some focus focus on one more than the other, and some people watch it for one or the other, I would like to say that there is a perfect balance between the two, but I’ve yet to find one. Most of the sport shows find success usually cause of the rom-com aspect of the show and less for the actual sport itself. Proof for that is that the most successful sport shows are not about the most successful, popular and exciting sports. So, where does Aoashi stand, it focuses more on the sport and less on the other stuff, but that is definitely a double edged sword, cause while having a perfect balance is definitely harder than focusing on one of the two aspects, focusing on the sport is definitely harder than focusing on the rom-com aspect.

So did the Aoashi story succeeded at focusing on the sport, well, not really. Apart from the obvious and frustrating hiccups, like the MC’s progress, like at a certain point we realize that he can’t even control the fuckin ball, for fuck’s sake, the show lacks a general sense of direction, like for who is this show for, cause if you are a football fan it is definitely not for you, most likely it will frustrate you since there are a lot of times where football logic and common sense just leaves the building, then again if you are not a football fan, it is so unexciting, so uneventful that there is no way it is drawing you in. The pace is alright, but I doubt that it is near enough to make the show good.

Characters are… well… unimportant. There is no one you really care about besides the protagonist and Hannah, the little cute romance between them somehow ends up being the most interesting part of the show, and that speaks waves for a show that primarily focuses on the sport. There is some development but it is of the usual artificial type, kids being delinquent cunts becoming caring friends and comrades in arms at the end.

Now, I said before that the show is unexciting and unable to draw in newcomers in the sport of football, and a lot of this is due to the awful animation when it comes to the actual sport. Like you don’t even get to see a fuckin shot from start to finish, you see a close up of a leg hitting the ball and then you simply see a close up of the ball inside the net, nothing more. It’s a sport man, it is so reliant on the motion, the movements, the action, it needs good animation so badly to be good, but it doesn’t get it, just a couple of frames, some panning and some shitty cgi. There have been football anime more than 3 decades old that did a better job animating the action, and that is so fucking sad.

Sound is ok I guess, nothing memorable but nothing annoying, voice acting was decent as well.

So, is it worth a watch? Nah, I would like it to be, it could be, but it isn’t. I can’t recommend it as It offers close to nothing to existing football fans and the unexciting and subpar presentation of the actual sport is a major turnoff for any newcomer.

The anime is produced by the Production I.G studio, which has animated famous sports anime like haikyu and kuroko's basketball. Of course, they didn't disappoint with the production of this anime either. I feel like the animation isn't as good as haikyu or kuroko's (yet, i hope), but they have killed it with the facial expressions that the characters give off, just like the other two anime; it's honestly my favourite thing about the show for now. Also, one more thing i like about this show is that it starts off by focusing more on professional careers rather than just high school tournaments. It also portrays the difficulties nowadays of getting into a sport professionally, especially football, and for someone who is poor, the main character, it is almost impossible, but he doesn't give up. The characters are really likeable and the pacing is pretty good too. The plot seems very well written as well. I would definitely recommend watching this as it isn't as good as haikyu or kuroko's (yet?), but it is definitely one of my favourite sports anime and it exceeded my expectations by a lot. It definitely hasn't gotten the recognition it should, yet i hope more people watch this because it is really enjoyable.

Me, Before Watching: Man, I am soo bored...huh? What's this? A soccer anime? Well, let's watch it even though we know more about rat races than we do about soccer...

Me, While Watching: Hey...this is actually really good???!!

Me *Finished watching in a matter of days*: Wait...why is this the last episode??????

Me *Finished reading the released manga chapters*: Oh my God, what have I done? I should have been a soccer player all along! What am I doing here? *having an existential sports-related crisis*

Fair warning: I've read the manga, so I may be a little biased here. As an adaptation, I think this is really good, albeit slow paced. The animation is also pretty good, save for the bits of obvious CGI here and there. I can say with certainty that the story is really good. Right now, we're just in the beginning stages of Ashito's growth. It definitely lives up to its name as a soccer anime because it really is all about soccer. Can't get enough of it! 

I've watched a ton of sports anime in the past, but this one is probably my favorite. I find the storyline to be really interesting, but most of all, the skills of the characters are actually realistic! On top of this, the plays that they use in the show are actually real plays that can be used in real life as well. Before watching this anime, my favorite sports anime was  either Haikyuu or Inazuma Eleven, but this one actually topped both of them in my opinion!