I have never written an anime review, but I wanted to leave my opinion here of this anime Days. There will be some spoilers, obviously, but this review is for those who have already seen the whole season. I always watch an anime completely, or at least the whole first season before I make a final opinion. I definitely do not care for Days. It's probably not fair though since I'm comparing Days to huge sports anime hits like Free!, Kuroko's Basketball, and Haikyuu!! But at the same time, it is fair, because Days was probably created as a means to compete with the other sports anime greats. Sports anime have just kind of sprung up like crazy the last five years.
Days follows the story of Tsukamoto, who is this really wimpy, clumsy, and unlikeable character. He gets invited by his classmate, Kazama, to play in a futsal match cause his team was one player short for the night. Tsukamoto is undeniably bad at soccer. His only saving grace is that he has stamina, basically allowing him to run no matter what. This inspires the team. At the end of the match, Tsukamoto scores a goal with his face. He then joins the soccer club, and it goes on from there with the typical practices, training camp, prelims, and finally the semi final which qualifies them for the final that they have to win in order to go to nationals. The final match is season two territory which I'm not going to watch, cause I don't like this show. Although the story progression is typical, just like some other sports anime I've seen, I didn't care for the characters at all. They were all boring and slowly developed. There weren't really any tense rivalries or crazy over the top abilities, so it made the show bland for me to watch. Aside from that, there were too many characters that were all introduced all at the same time. Tsukamoto's dialogue half the time is, "I'm sorry!" because of how much he sucks. The best sports anime I've seen will either have a bunch of characters that are all introduced a little at a time or the club will be small, forcing the viewer to eventually know all of them. Here are some comparisons to some other sports anime, most sports anime have the same story progression, but the characters are what make the show. We have Free!, right? The Iwatobi Swim Club. We get to see Haru, Makoto, Nagisa, and Rin as kids (great exposition) and then we see them in high school. Rin, who is supposedly in Australia, turns up and challenges Haru to a race (rivalry, nice!). Rin wins. Then they (minus Rin) form a swim club, with the addition of a new member, Rei, who sucks, but eventually becomes their butterfly swimmer. Some other stuff happens with that rivalry between Rin and Haru, and they eventually challenge Rin and his team in a swimming competition. It's pretty interesting. There was no cool exposition or rivalry in Days. The relationship between Tsukamoto and Kazama was lackluster and odd. Like, oh Tsukamoto, you suck, but you can run, and that inspires me. For real. That is stupid. We have Kuroko's Basketball, right? Team Seirin. This show is epic! It has the same story progression as Days (join club, practices, training camp, prelims, finals, etc.) but what sets it apart is, once again, the characters. We get to see this crazy "Generation of Miracles" that each possess some godlike ability. The matches are so intense and overwhelming, cause Seirin is already good enough as it is with Kuroko and his ability to pass the ball. That sounds lame, but they make it look amazing, how he can seemingly disappear and get the ball to his teammates without being noticed. They also have Kagami who is just plain gifted. Days didn't have any of that, it was pretty standard. None of the characters stood out as super amazing or over the top talented. And it took Tsukamoto a whopping 18 episodes before he scored his first legit goal. That is way too long! Final comparison, we have Haikyuu!!, right? Team Karasuno. Same story progression as Days (join club, practices, training camp, prelims, finals, etc.) but once again, the characters are what set it apart. Now, none of the characters in Haikyuu!! possess godlike powers, but that's what makes it great. The characters are relatable. They are also introduced little by little. That way, the viewer ends up loving all of them. In Haikyuu!! we meet Hinata and Kageyama in episode one, then we later meet the team captain Sawamura, along with the vice captain Sugawara, and the wild Tanaka in episode two. At this point you learn that Karasuno is a fallen powerhouse school, and that they are really weak at the moment. After this you meet the other two first years Tsukishima and Yamaguchi in episode three. Then you meet the libero Nishinoya in episode seven, and the final member, the ace, Azumane you meet in episode eight. They then get Coach Ukai to officially join in episode nine. By episode ten, Karasuno is a completely cohesive team with crazy potential, and they only get stronger from that point. Their progression is insane! There was no build up like that in Days. All the characters were introduced at the same time, leaving no room to learn of and appreciate them like in Haikyuu!! Ten episodes might sound like a lot before any momentum is picked up, but I feel like that's what makes Haikyuu!! so memorable for me. That also makes it that much more rewarding when we see Karasuno win matches later on, because of how weak they were at the beginning. Side note, episode one of Haikyuu!! is so damn good, we get to see Hinata do this crazy spike, and we get to see some really heart warming exposition that makes Hinata that much more loveable. There was nothing like that in Days. Episode one of Days is Tsukamoto getting bullied, then hardcore sucking at soccer, and crashing his face into a pole.
I know I spent a huge chunk of this review comparing and talking about character development, but there really isn't much else to say about Days. Aside from what I've already said, I didn't care much for the soundtrack or theme songs. I love all the music for the other sports anime I talked about in this list. The animation for Days was really inconsistent too. It would always switch between flat 2D and CGI 3D when they were playing their matches. It was nothing like the consistent high quality animation of Haikyuu!! or the accurate portrayal of swimming animated in Free! Or the epic dunks and speed of Kuroko's Basketball. Once again comparing, but like I said in the beginning, Days was most likely created to try and compete with some of these other sports anime series. It could just be a soccer thing too, cause in real life, soccer matches can run forever with only 1 point being scored, compared to swimming races which are literally only minutes long, volleyball which requires 25 points for a set, minimum 50 points scored in a match and basketball which can be anywhere from 20 to 100+ points scored from either side. In other words, Free!, Kuroko's Basketball and Haikyuu!! had way more opportunities to showcase action from their characters in terms of swimming, strokes, scoring, hitting spikes, receives, dunks, passes, blocks, scoring 3 pointers, etc. Days is like, oh no, the ball was stolen, let's run to the other side of the field again, oh no, it was stolen again, let's just run back and forth forever, and finally, oh, it was blocked by the goalie! That is boring.
If you've stuck around this long, wow, thanks for reading this, I feel flattered. Final question, Would I recommend Days? No. I feel like Days could be watchable for somebody new to this genre. Like, if somebody has nothing else to compare Days to, then go ahead and watch it. Maybe it'll be enjoyable. But I mean, if someone new to anime were to ask me for a sports anime recommendation, I would send them straight over to Haikyuu!! or any sports anime that isn't Days. Maybe season two will be good, but season two? That means there's a season one, and it was bad. I've seen other sports anime from this year too, like All Out!!, Prince of Stride, and Cheer Boys, they weren't my favorites, but still better than Days. Hell, I even watched Battery, the short baseball anime from the summer which also sucked, but it had a level of drama in it to keep it the least bit watchable through its run. Days is just forgettable. I'm glad I found a sports anime I despise, but it's sad, I could have spent that time rewatching the first season of Haikyuu!! or something different like Yowamushi Pedal. But please, if you're considering watching Days, just don't. Either read the manga cause it's faster, or watch something better. Anything really.
