Hanebado!

Ep. 4:
You touch my hair, you die. ESPECIALLY if you have straight hair and have absolutely no idea what it's like NOT to have straight hair.
Cheap drama is cheap. And why are all the antagonists basically the same person? Are they trying to make the most unlikable cast imaginable? Because they're succeeding so far.
 
Tabbes said:
5

Dramabado intensifies.

Aren't there rules in badminton that you have to have two players per side for doubles?

This episode lacks tonal consistency...

Oh yeah, that tall girl's still in it.

That face at the end ... is this going to take a darker turn next episode?
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Refusing to play doubles, in a doubles match, can get your disqualified.

Genuinely hope if the mother returns that Ayano just tells her to get bent and ask her how many other children she's abandoned like a selfish irresponsible cunt.
 
LadyJam said:
Genuinely hope if the mother returns that Ayano just tells her to get bent and ask her how many other children she's abandoned like a selfish irresponsible cunt.
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Couldn't have said it better. I'm not really buying Ayano's relationship with her mother. She's just coming over as a horrible psychotic character who ditches her daughter for badminton. Huh?
 
Back on track with this episode. Much better.

Why are all of Ayano's rivals so rude?
... waiting for her to get in the "zone"...
 
06:

Finally, an episode that did not annoy me, with it's drama and actually got into some badminton tactics and matches. This is what I want to see, and thought it was better, than the last 3 bleh episodes, having best girl Nagisa get a bit more screen time also helps a bit and shoving Ayano into the background, who no one cares about.

That said, completely playing defensively like that and safe shots, honestly can get you only so far in badminton, as much as glasses was playing to her strengths here with all those high lifts to the back court. It's all about taking the initiative first, and aggressive pacing to me, that usually wins you games or playing a balance, dictating the pace is pretty important. You can't really rely on your opponent to make unforced errors to get points at a high level of competition. There's also taking the right opportunities to attack. Although, this is women's singles, so it isn't as aggressive, as the jump smash filled Men's game. It was mostly decent stuff, but then the very last minute with pink hair has to happen, being a dick, *sigh* are you fucking serious? Why can't they leave this on a good note for once? I'm expecting a sucky next episode.
 
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episode 6:

we sports anime now (and surprisingly pretty decently too, plus it has the looks as well)

this week's episode was oddly tonally consistent and probably the best one yet, though it did promise to bring in the stupid at the very end again, so...
 
6

Finally, they actually played some badminton! What a nice break from all the drama and angst.

I enjoyed Riko's match, although I'm not sure how either of them could play with that much loose hair.

Was that Mama at the end? I hope not, let's not go back to the silly rivalry stuff next week, please.
 
Ep. 5:
The mom trauma and flashbacks are starting to reach the Your Lie in April level.
But at least they're actually playing, which is more than I can say for the likes of Kuroko. I only wish they kept it realistic, seeing as the blondie should have been disqualified. But then, where would all the drama come from?
Also, the fuck was the fanservice doing there?
So ... uh ... is "mama" a female equvalent of "daddy"? Yeah, in that way. Because the yuri-bait is ridiculous.
 
Episode 6
Finally, a tournament arc. But the mom appeared, so we aren't free from its oppressive yoke. They all need sports bras, and the new outfits are stupid, but whatever. It's all just so... bare-bones. Nobody has a real personality, we have no character exploration that I currently enjoy (glasses gal came closest, but, you know, that was rather bare mimimun for a sports show), and the fanservice is really half-hearted as well, so why bother with it? I'd really prefer if they just skipped it.
 
HasseRovdjur said:
Episode 6
Finally, a tournament arc. But the mom appeared, so we aren't free from its oppressive yoke. They all need sports bras, and the new outfits are stupid, but whatever. It's all just so... bare-bones. Nobody has a real personality, we have no character exploration that I currently enjoy (glasses gal came closest, but, you know, that was rather bare mimimun for a sports show), and the fanservice is really half-hearted as well, so why bother with it? I'd really prefer if they just skipped it.
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Yeah the fanservicey material is pretty jarring and awkward. It doesn’t really fit all that well with the overtly serious tone the show is going for. It wants us to treat them seriously but then we get the dumb outfits.
 
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Episode 6
What the actual fuck, we were so close to having a decent episode and then ridiculous pink hair throws a wrench in it at the last episode. I dont particularly like Ayano, but she should have laughed and thrown the handkerchief back and been like.." Bitch, please". If she grew a spine in these episodes, I mean she snapped right? Psychotically so on the bus in the previous episode, did that just go away all of a sudden? If we're gonna go drama-fest PSTD badminton, go on then, dont be wishy washy on us. Also Glasses gave us the closest thing to a character this show has so far produced and yet manages to still be hollow.
 
Episodes 1-3:
This show is actually not that bad...? It hasn't pissed me off yet, so I think I'll stick around for a while and see how it turns out. Based on the reactions on the thread though, I'm fully prepared to see this optimism go down in flames as the show goes on.

The Good Stuff:
- The hard work vs. natural talent debate is fine. I like that the two protagonists represent both sides of the argument, since the workhorse character's usually just a part of the supporting cast in other shows. This way, we'll at least get to see both points of view in equal chunks, and see how they play off against each other.
- The animation is so fancy, I love it. The show might get bad for me later on, but I know I'll keep watching for its game shots alone. The attention to detail is so good, I can't look away from it, no matter how hard I try.
- Team Captain is alright and I like her. Elena is also a good character and I like her. But the way she's forcing her childhood friend back into badminton feels a lot like forcing a shipwreck survivor back into the swimming pool, because "you love the water, don't you?!"
- It feels like a story worth following so far. Broken, recovering team trying to make its way back into the game? Oh yeah, sign me up. There's an angst problem here, but it feels a little more different than the other sports series I've seen so I'm not too mad yet.


The Bad Stuff:
- The tonal shifts are so inconsistent and jarring. It's high drama one minute, and forced comedy the next. The abrupt shifts to a gag/in-show side comment are obviously there to force some kind of relief for the audience before the next angsty part comes along. Part of me wishes the show sticks to just one, but I don't think I'd like it either if I had to devote my time to a sports show that was all-the-way angsty.
- Pink-haired girl can go die of pneumonia for all I care. She doesn't add anything to the show and is only there to be the MC's standard other-school rival. MC could have lost to a no-namer in the same tournament, the mother could have left anyway, and the impact would be just as shitty. Besides, who plays sports seriously with a hairdo like that? You'd think all that extra hair'd get in her eyes all the time or something.
- I'm still not into the MC as much as I should be. I know her backstory now and everything, but I'm still not rooting for her at all. Hopefully, she gains more of a personality later on.
- Oh boy, MC's mom is so bad, what the fuck. I'm trying to hold out on judging her outright since we haven't seen things from her point of view yet, but ditching your own kid after her loss to raise another badminton champ overseas -- overseas?! -- is so shitty.


The Weird Stuff:
- The Bad Club's gym always has the lights turned off. Is this a thing that happens often? I get they might be trying to save electricity and all, but doesn't it look a bit too dark for an open gym in the afternoon?
- The Bad Club's also a mixed team. It's kinda throwing me off a bit too, since I'm so used to seeing all-guy/all-girl sports teams practicing in different places.
- Coach is funny, except when he gets all gropey with MC.
- This is going to be weird, considering the show might get even more dragged-out than it should, but I feel the development between MC and Team Captain was rushed. Team Captain practically got war flashbacks in Ep01, then by Ep03, she's all about that mentoring gig? Nah, not so convincing yet. The show could have used a couple more episodes to let them deal with their relationship and rivalry, but I realize that would drag things out even further, so I don't think that's a good idea either. In any case, at least Team Captain decided to get better on her own with some help from the coach, instead of doing it the cliche'd way, through a match with the MC.

I also have one question from a scene in the first episode:

2KkjW.jpg


Whose racket is she cutting? Why is she doing this? I thought she might have been doing it to her club member's racket, but that seems like a lousy thing to do for a Team Captain.
 
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Franconator said:
I also have one question from a scene in the first episode:

2KkjW.jpg


Whose racket is she cutting? Why is she doing this? I thought she might have been doing it to her club member's racket, but that seems like a lousy thing to do for a Team Captain.
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Uuuuuuuum......cutting the racket strings is pretty common in badminton. Looks like she's just simply re-stringing her racket. The strings tend to lose the high tension they have over time, so players tend to re-string them, and they also have a tendency to snap, which people will cut them off right away when that happens, as to stop the frame from contorting.
 
GenSan said:
Uuuuuuuum......cutting the racket strings is pretty common in badminton. Looks like she's just simply re-stringing her racket. The strings tend to lose the high tension they have over time, so players tend to re-string them, and they also have a tendency to snap, which people will cut them off right away when that happens, as to stop the frame from contorting.
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I'm a badminton n00b, so that scene was really strange for me. It's not so different from re-stringing a guitar after all. I really thought they bought new rackets if the old ones went bad, haha. Thanks for clearing that up!
 
Episodes 4-6:
The optimism has died down a bit, now that the show has doubled down on the MC in desperate need of a real personality that lets her go beyond her mommy issues. Hanebado's strongest when it focuses on the sport completely and on the individual motivations of the players.

Unfortunately, it likes to think it's a drama, so it veers off in all sorts of weird directions that keep bringing us back to the shitty mother nobody asked for. It does this a lot, which I think is a shame, since it's these mommy issues that hold the show back from the sports show it wants to be. I seriously hope the rest of the rivals aren't from the same annoying, arrogant, long-haired breed as Pink Hair and Danish Cookie. Hope the rest of the MC's teammates get some mini-arcs of their own, too...

... But small, gradual ones like Riko-chan-senpai's (Riko-chan-senpai!!! :( ) Not like Sora-chan's "I hate you" spiel, which was so weird and out of the blue.
 
04

So is every new rival just going to be a jackass? The whole situation with Denmark Girl and her teammate was revolting. I don't know if that shit gets anyone hyped or what. To me it just makes me wish her arc would end swiftly so she can leave the scene asap. Plus her grudge against Ayano will definitely be some petty, contrived crap, much like the situation in which her mother left her.

Dull Ayano is still dull, even though she's at least motivated to play now and the little match at the park with Nagisa felt nostalgic and kind of cute. The narrative is already sweeping Nagisa aside to focus on Ms. Talent and it's just making me disengaged from the plot. I don't like mousey-type characters to begin with and I just don't think Ayano is interesting enough to carry a sports anime. It doesn't help that her sworn rivals are cardboard cutouts of every sports shonen trope ever.

No points for guessing what my reaction was to Ojou-sama in the last episode...
 
07:

Great, this episode was exclusively focused on Pink hair, so naturally it sucked the biggest sweaty ass to me, and I hated it. Nice job Hanebado, having an episode dedicated to one of the worst characters ever. Elena also spouts some shit, about respecting your opponent, but they've all seen what a fucking tool, and asshole pink hair is, SHE DESERVES NO FUCKING RESPECT OR SYMPATHY. Good god, I didn't give a single fuck. Also, Hanesaki going into emotionless silly, dead-eyed monster mode , is just boring to watch, and it's not much better, than her moping around.
 
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I'm gonna be honest, this episode was the worst. I can't feel any sympathy towards pink hair as a character, and the drama just isn't properly done, no matter how you slice it. I can only hope that it'll get better with Nagisa in the next episode, because she's one of the few characters I care about.
 
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