Here I never thought that I would actually sit down and blog about a moe cheerleading show until the very end but here I am. Moe blob shows usually aren’t my thing. Cute girls doing cute things shows aren’t aimed towards me and I never express much interest in them, but I felt myself drawn to this show and I can’t really explain why. Well, for one thing, it’s a sports show and I enjoy sports shows so that was one thing. And I just thought it was cute? Then again, I can say that for many shows.
We reach the finale and the girls are super excited but nervous for the tournament. They get to the venue and see all the different cheer groups and Kohane gets crazy excited. Then they run into Hizume and Kana’s old group and they speak with each other. Thankfully it was all civil and normal, with apologies and such said to each other. Things are looking good until the girls get to their warm up and Kohane screws up. The Nekoya twins tell them that they don’t understand the “cheering for everyone” thing Kohane told them last time and that kind of set Kohane off. All of a sudden she turned tense and couldn’t really smile. She had to force some smiles for their pictures but it was awkward. They all know there’s something very wrong with her because she’s usually smiling like an idiot and cheering them up, but she’s quiet. Uki figures it’s because Kohane is so worried about Hizume and showing her old squad how much she’s changed and how much fun she has and she doesn’t want to ruin it. And that seems to be the case, which makes Kohane stumble and not be in sync with the rest in their performance. And as she’s about to fall in the first stunt, she’s surprised to see the other girls supporting her. She wasn’t worried about ruining things for just Hizume, but it would also effect Uki, Kotetsu, and Kana. But hey, this is a team and they have the power of friendship (and cheer) and Kohane realizes this and gets back into the rhythm.
Too bad they didn’t even make it to preliminaries.
Uki’s selfawareness was hilarious. But they’re a new group, and a small one at that, and their performance wasn’t perfect and they had low level stunts, as the neko twins said. But at least they had fun and they left happy, especially Kohane.
The episode ends with everyone from school and their family congratulating them. Too bad we didn’t get to see Hizume’s famous brother but at least we knew he was there. Sensei takes them out to eat to celebrate and make up for missing their warm up and they have their sights set on more things, such as more events to cheer in, and also partaking in the next tournament. So these girls are going to be busy but they seem excited. And it’s all thanks to Kohane for bringing them all together. And now they have these cute new blue uniforms. 🙂
My final impression for this show is simple, just like this show. This isn’t the type of show that’ll blow your mind or try to do anything different. It’s not the type that’s deep, it’s not here to be analyzed. It’s here so we can watch a cute group of girls do cheerleading while also catching some of their hijinks. And honestly I’m amazed I made it until the end. Not because I didn’t like the show, but because I thought I wouldn’t have enough to write about each week and believe me there were times I struggled a bit.
But Anima Yell! was a simple, but cute and fun little show. It brought a smile to my face each week and always let out a little chuckle from me, especially towards Kohane’s antics. It was pretty cool learning some stuff about cheerleading such as the arm movements and stunts. The budget for this show wasn’t very high so we didn’t get super cool-looking performances but we did get to see some cool parts. Just in this finale in particular when we saw Kohane not in sync with Uki was a nice detail. I can’t imagine it’s easy to draw that. But while the budget wasn’t very high, the colors are bright and I like the soft art style.
Each girl has their own distinct personality so they’re each memorable in their own right. I really loved Kohane. She has such a good heart as she easily gets into things and she loves helping people around her. She accepts others and doesn’t look down on anyone, she’s just kind of a happy-go-lucky idiot. She makes me laugh all the time with her strange imagination and her short attention span (“Oh look, a bridge!”). I think I also have to give a shoutout to her seiyuu. Checking up on her she’s really new and has only had a couple roles, but I love the cuteness and energy she brought to Kohane. The cute little sounds she makes are just great and it adds to Kohane’s character. The other girls are great too. I love Kotetsu’s bluntness, Kana being tsundere but not too tsundere, Uki’s maturity, and Hizume being more dense than she looks. They’re a good group that complement each other.
I liked the show a lot and it did what these types of shows do best: be relaxing and cute. It’s a simple type of show where you just have fun watching it and I did have fun. Some episodes were a little boring but not terribly so, and some things were handled too easily (Kohane’s fear of heights). But this show was fine. It was harmless, wholesome cuteness. Will this make me more open to checking out more moe shows? I don’t think I’ll go digging for some but I can at least keep my mind a little more open and at least give some a try.
7/10
High V! \ o /
