Oh man! I thought Ahiru no Sora came at us with a very solid first episode! I’m already excited to see what the next episode has in store for us. I’ve already been hooked in through this episode and I have a feeling that the further in we get, the more the anime will take off. It definitely has a lot of potential for a very engaging sport anime and just one with a lot of character development.
I think this anime, at least for me, is a perfect example of “don’t judge a book by its cover”, and while that saying is incredibly clichéd, I still I’m glad that I decided to sit down and watch this first episode. I’ll admit, at first glance I was kind of off put by the art style, it feels a bit rougher than a lot of anime that I usually go for, but it has personality. And honestly, after watching the first episode, it definitely fits the tone of the anime. So far it seems like it will be a very grounded and pretty realistic type of story. Trust me, I’m all for anime where people suddenly get a little overpowered with the support of their friends and teammates, but I have a feeling we’ll focus a lot more on the individual struggles of the characters which could hit pretty hard for some viewers (but this is just speculation as I have not read the manga). But, with that, let’s go ahead and dive into some of the characters!
When the whole world is against you, but you have a positive can-do attitude you have a perfect recipe for a solid main character. Sora, our protagonist, seems like a really familiar character. Perhaps because he’s your generic underdog who will continue to love what he loves regardless of what’s going on around him. And honestly that’s totally fine. So far, he has proven to be unwavering in his desire to play basketball so I have a feeling that he will maintain that going forward. He has a lot of confidence for someone, who quite frankly shouldn’t have as much as has. But, I think I would prefer that over a main character who is constantly doubting and putting themselves down. But what really makes the main character are all the other characters that they are surrounded by and I’m so excited to see each and every one of them develop. Chiaki, seems like a very generic class clown type character, but so far he’s the one that has the most mystery around him. There’s going to be a whole lot to unpack. Where does his interests lie? But then Momoharu and the rest of the gang? Oh man oh man oh man oh man! There’s so much potential, I’m excited to learn about their history and how they ended up where they are now. It’s a 4 cour anime, so hopefully we’ll get quite a bit of character development!
Honestly, I really like the idea of the delinquent gang has over run the basketball team with no actual desire to play basketball, but then the one who has confidence and a deeply rooted passion for the sport brings them together. Plus, I’m a huge sucker for things where characters didn’t have something they really cared about before but then they are introduced to gives them a passion and found family. Did they want to care about basketball? No, but they sure do now, whether they like it or not!
I also like how they introduced Madoka though! It’s pretty obvious that Sora is going to get the feelings for her, but if done correctly it could be cute. I wonder how she, being the idol of the girl’s basketball team, will ultimately have an impact on Sora and the others in the main cast. I like how she – and honestly the rest of the girl’s team didn’t really critique Sora’s stature before he got caught up in the skirmish, it was more a oh snap Chiaki and Momoharu are here and that’s a problem for EVERYONE involved.
Overall, for a first episode there was a lot laid out. It honestly felt a lot longer than 24 minutes, but there was just so much packed into the episode. Yet, it was also well executed that it didn’t really feel like they were just shoving everything in there. Of course, we did end on a cliff hanger with that 5v1 match, but it was a great way to end the episode. But on that note – the ending theme is also really good, so 1) I do encourage you to give this anime a shot if you’re on the fence and 2) to listen to the ending as well! (the opening is also pretty solid too!)
Possibility of Watching: Pretty high so far!
Possibility of Blogging: Moderately Low – I don’t know if I’m interested in covering it each week, but I want to see how the next couple weeks go!
Source manga’s been ongoing since 2003; there’ll be a lot of ground to cover.
Word is Ahiru’s mangaka refused to accept earlier anime adaptation offers, they wanted to make sure there was enough source material to adapt first.
This made me want to check it out more! 😀