To be honest, Sports Slop Sunday is just an excuse for me to blog about Ao Ashi, because I found myself actually enjoying the first season more than I thought I would. I didn’t love it, mind you. But as I was binging the show while doing my MMO dailies, I found myself actually somewhat drawn into the story. After all, there weren’t ridiculous shounen super powers. The main character also sucks and doesn’t suck. He’s got a crazy natural talent, of course — the ability to memorize everyone’s position on the field — but he legitimately sucks at basic skills, isn’t physically gifted enough to play his favored position (forward), and starts out kinda selfish. He isn’t just some brash kid, though. As cliche as it sounds, Ashito wants to make it big so he can provide for his single, working-class mother. There’s a legitimate character arc to follow. Also, the series even features a romantic subplot. Does sports need romance? Not necessarily, but it helps. It humanizes the characters, giving them something beyond just the sport to obsess over. It doesn’t have to be romance, really. Anything would work — anything to give the protagonist an extra dimension beyond “I want to be the best!”
Having said all of the above, I’m not confident that Ao Ashi can carry a post on its own, so I figured I might as well throw the other two sports anime into the mix. Sure, why not? At 2x speed, they should only take about 12 minutes to finish. Plus, I’ve enjoyed a baseball series in the past. Not an anime series, mind you. I watched the jdrama version of H2 and sorta enjoyed the hammy acting typical of the format. That had a messy romantic subplot, though. I hope Ao Ashi doesn’t end up the same way even though it looks like that Anri girl might also like the protagonist, but I digress. We’ll worry about that when we get there.
Ace of the Diamond won’t air for another week. I do have the previous seasons queued up, but they’re not dubbed so it’s gonna be quite difficult to binge them. I would actually have to sit my ass down and pay attention. Ugh. So we’ll just kick things off with the first episodes of Prince of Tennis and Ao Ashi respectively.
Ao Ashi S2 Ep. 1
Aoi and a few of his teammates get to move up to the A-Team, but just the practice drills alone have them heaving. They’re doing a drill where they have to find someone to pass to, call them out by name, then execute the pass. Not only is the pacing relentless, they throw in a second ball to ratchet up the tempo. I would suck at this simply because I can’t learn people’s names on the fly like this. Still, Aoi is the savant who can surveil the entire field, right? As a result, he impresses Fukuda enough to briefly join in with the starters. Not only can he not keep up — which is fine considering it’s his first day — Motoki knocks him to the ground, which is not fine. This is one of the few things that bugs me about the show. In life, you’ll of course bump into plenty of detractors. Some people will just flat out not like you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. But sheesh, you’d think a youth team full of minors would have adults and mature teammates to rein that shit in. Sure, the seniors might haze you when you first join, but I thought teams took care of the newbies. But the adults seem to adopt a certain laissez-faire attitude towards team bonding, so they just leave the kids to their own devices.
Visually, I gotta harp on a couple things. First, can you really believe these are just kids? Granted, they’re older teenagers, but sheesh. The thing is, guys like Motoki are only supposed to be one or two years ahead of Aoi, but the disparity is just so extreme. Second, I wish there was more animation. Yes, the practice drill is so fast that the rookies can’t keep up. I wish I could see that. I wish when they give us these wider shots of the players on the field, they weren’t just still images. Let me see them pass the ball back and forth. Let me see truly how fast it is! I can’t get a good sense of the action when the players are standing still. No, action lines don’t cut it. But alas, I suppose that’s too hard on the animators for a simple TV series.
The other major subplot is Kuribayashi rejoining the youth team. He’s talented enough to go pro already, but Fukuda sends him back down anyway. I think it’s weird how he has to press Fukuda for an explanation. Why would you not tell him when he asks for your reasoning? Isn’t he owed that much? Why would this conversation also not take place before he left the pro team? By the time he’s on the plane, Kuribayashi should already know why he’s being demoted. Instead, he has to ask Fukuda in front of his teammates. Yes, Kuribayashi doesn’t mind them hearing this, but that’s not the point.
Hana only shows up briefly in the after credits scene, and she’s still thinking of her little moment with Aoi at the end of season one’s finale. Ehhhhh. Look, I like the fact that this series has a romantic subplot, but isn’t it her dream to become a nutritionist or whatever? I hope she doesn’t get reduced to just a girl in love.
The Prince of Tennis II – U-17 World Cup Final Member Selection Match Ep. 1
To be quite honest, I didn’t even bother checking to see if I could get caught up on The New Prince of Tennis series, because I didn’t think it would matter. I’ve dabbled in the original series a long, long time ago, and my impression wasn’t positive. And watching this first episode, I think it’s just a vehicle for hot guys to do stuff in the same space. The fact that it’s tennis is immaterial. Look at these character designs. They look like shiny, plastic bishie models. I’m now imagining Zoolander playing tennis with his buddies. Story-wise, I don’t even know what to say. There are a gajillion characters, but they have nothing but tennis to talk about. “Well, duh, it’s a tennis anime.” No, not duh. Like I said, you need more than the sport of choice to obsess over. Otherwise, it doesn’t feel human. But I think The Prince of Tennis stopped caring about that a long time ago. Case in point, the only time female characters are even heard is when they gasp at one of these hotties walking by. The closest thing to a woman is a guy who cross-dresses. And the primary conflict seems to be “What match are you gonna play in? It’s gotta be number one singles, right? Number two?! You won’t fight strong guys like that!” Oh man, it’s gonna be a chore to get through a season of this.
