All da sports anime
Jul. 15th, 2014 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flonnebonneBeen watching a lot of sports anime lately--though perhaps I shouldn't say "watching" when I've only been half paying attention to the animated high school boys running around and screaming on my TV screen.
Free!
Huh, really fanservicey, but the first season is interesting in that it's not about going to Nationals. I found myself quite moved at times. Astroisroyaumes put it, there's "a surprisingly hard nut in the center of all the chocolate." And then I summed up the theme of Free! as "freedom within bondage. But not that kind of bondage." Pretty apt for this show, methinks.
Fave character: Makoto. I like nice, slightly pathetic guys.
Eyeshield 21
I thought I'd like this one a lot more than I do. I stopped reading when they started playing against the Egyptian team. Somehow I am just not emotionally invested. I do like Hiruma and his guns and Kurita and his chestnut-shaped body though.
Fave character: probably Hiruma, in a scared way.
Haikyuu
The only series out of this list where most of the characters (so far) look like they could actually be in high school. Very cute series, with great music too. I like it when Kageyama does something extremely mean to Hinata.
The scriptwriters definitely need to cut down on the character chit-chat when the ball is in the air though. The ball just can't defy gravity that long without the audience getting suspicious! It was especially bad during the Asahi intro episodes. As a result I kind of (unfairly) hate Asahi.
Fave character: Sugawara. I like nice, slightly pathetic guys.
Diamond no Ace/Ace of Diamond
I watched about half an episode and hated it. Hate the animation, hate the main character, and it doesn't help that I kind of hate baseball to begin with.
Yowamushi Pedal
My friend who hates Kuroko no Basket because it's "an insult to basketball fans" told me to watch Yowamushi Pedal instead, so I assumed YowaPeda would be pretty realistic. HA.
Fun series, would like it more if I liked bicycling.
Fave characters: Makishima's hair. Midousuji's...body movements.
Ping Pong
Just watched a few episodes. Man, that is some...interesting animation. It grows on you, but when I'm watching I can never stop thinking about how much easier it would be to animate this series than others. It's a more realistic series, which fits the animation style, but it sure doesn't pick you up the way most sports anime does.
Interestingly, main character Tsukimoto is voiced by the same guy who does Tsukishima in Haikyuu. They sound exactly the same and have pretty much exactly the same personalities and their names are even similar.
Fave character: Not sure yet. Maybe Peco/Hoshino.
Kuroko no Basket/Kuroko's Basketball
This series is Slam Dunk on drugs. And pretty boys. And shounen wish-fulfillment (actually every single series I've mentioned here is full of shounen wish-fulfillment).
To illustrate that last point: there's this moment in the anime when Kagami pushes his bangs back and looks exactly like Sakuragi from Slam Dunk. When I saw it, I pointed at Kuroko and said to my brother, "This is every Japanese schoolboy's dream: to play basketball beside Sakuragi. They wanna be his shadow. To pass to him before he dunks." Right? Right?
So I watched all the anime so far on Crunchyroll (two seasons) and all the manga available right now (up to chapter x), in part because I keep getting spoiled on Tumblr and I want to make myself unspoilable. I think I prefer the anime because it's way easier to tell characters apart--the mangaka really likes to draw the same hairstyle on everyone and the faces are all very similar.
Now, I know the fandom is HUGE for this series and several people on my flist are writing for it, so there is a certain kind of appeal to KnB that the other series lack. I am slightly afraid of being sucked into the fandom whirlpool though! It is a ginormous whirlpool! Prince of Tennis-like in scope! Just to test out the fandom waters I read a few KnB fics byreaderofasaph and I was kind of like, "ugh, these are so amazing, I bet there are all kinds of amazing fics in this humongous fandom, do I really want to get into this, well I'll just leave some kudos," and the next thing I knew troisroyaumes was messaging me all casual-like and saying wouldn't it be great if I wrote KnB fic, preferably crossed over with Slam Dunk, wahaha. Conspiracy to get me to procrastinate on RL work and original writing? I THINK SO. We'll see how it goes.
Fave character: Kise. I like nice, slightly pathetic guys. And exceedingly pretty ones. I bet there are all sorts of hilarious fics where Kise copies porn moves and is just slightly worse at it than the originals.
After bingeing on so much sports anime, I think what I really want is a series that deconstructs sports anime. A show that would expose the id of the shounen sports protagonist! That would reveal the consequences of maiming yourself for life (physically, mentally, academically) so you could get a measly high school trophy! The Evangelion of sports anime! Ha ha, come to think of it I would probably hate it.
I also really want to watch a female sports series one of these days. (At least Haikyuu acknowledges that a girls' team exists at the school.) I need to look up that girl tennis show I saw a bit of once...
Free!
Huh, really fanservicey, but the first season is interesting in that it's not about going to Nationals. I found myself quite moved at times. As
troisroyaumes put it, there's "a surprisingly hard nut in the center of all the chocolate." And then I summed up the theme of Free! as "freedom within bondage. But not that kind of bondage." Pretty apt for this show, methinks. Fave character: Makoto. I like nice, slightly pathetic guys.
Eyeshield 21
I thought I'd like this one a lot more than I do. I stopped reading when they started playing against the Egyptian team. Somehow I am just not emotionally invested. I do like Hiruma and his guns and Kurita and his chestnut-shaped body though.
Fave character: probably Hiruma, in a scared way.
Haikyuu
The only series out of this list where most of the characters (so far) look like they could actually be in high school. Very cute series, with great music too. I like it when Kageyama does something extremely mean to Hinata.
The scriptwriters definitely need to cut down on the character chit-chat when the ball is in the air though. The ball just can't defy gravity that long without the audience getting suspicious! It was especially bad during the Asahi intro episodes. As a result I kind of (unfairly) hate Asahi.
Fave character: Sugawara. I like nice, slightly pathetic guys.
Diamond no Ace/Ace of Diamond
I watched about half an episode and hated it. Hate the animation, hate the main character, and it doesn't help that I kind of hate baseball to begin with.
Yowamushi Pedal
My friend who hates Kuroko no Basket because it's "an insult to basketball fans" told me to watch Yowamushi Pedal instead, so I assumed YowaPeda would be pretty realistic. HA.
Fun series, would like it more if I liked bicycling.
Fave characters: Makishima's hair. Midousuji's...body movements.
Ping Pong
Just watched a few episodes. Man, that is some...interesting animation. It grows on you, but when I'm watching I can never stop thinking about how much easier it would be to animate this series than others. It's a more realistic series, which fits the animation style, but it sure doesn't pick you up the way most sports anime does.
Interestingly, main character Tsukimoto is voiced by the same guy who does Tsukishima in Haikyuu. They sound exactly the same and have pretty much exactly the same personalities and their names are even similar.
Fave character: Not sure yet. Maybe Peco/Hoshino.
Kuroko no Basket/Kuroko's Basketball
This series is Slam Dunk on drugs. And pretty boys. And shounen wish-fulfillment (actually every single series I've mentioned here is full of shounen wish-fulfillment).
To illustrate that last point: there's this moment in the anime when Kagami pushes his bangs back and looks exactly like Sakuragi from Slam Dunk. When I saw it, I pointed at Kuroko and said to my brother, "This is every Japanese schoolboy's dream: to play basketball beside Sakuragi. They wanna be his shadow. To pass to him before he dunks." Right? Right?
So I watched all the anime so far on Crunchyroll (two seasons) and all the manga available right now (up to chapter x), in part because I keep getting spoiled on Tumblr and I want to make myself unspoilable. I think I prefer the anime because it's way easier to tell characters apart--the mangaka really likes to draw the same hairstyle on everyone and the faces are all very similar.
Now, I know the fandom is HUGE for this series and several people on my flist are writing for it, so there is a certain kind of appeal to KnB that the other series lack. I am slightly afraid of being sucked into the fandom whirlpool though! It is a ginormous whirlpool! Prince of Tennis-like in scope! Just to test out the fandom waters I read a few KnB fics by
readerofasaph and I was kind of like, "ugh, these are so amazing, I bet there are all kinds of amazing fics in this humongous fandom, do I really want to get into this, well I'll just leave some kudos," and the next thing I knew troisroyaumes was messaging me all casual-like and saying wouldn't it be great if I wrote KnB fic, preferably crossed over with Slam Dunk, wahaha. Conspiracy to get me to procrastinate on RL work and original writing? I THINK SO. We'll see how it goes. Fave character: Kise. I like nice, slightly pathetic guys. And exceedingly pretty ones. I bet there are all sorts of hilarious fics where Kise copies porn moves and is just slightly worse at it than the originals.
After bingeing on so much sports anime, I think what I really want is a series that deconstructs sports anime. A show that would expose the id of the shounen sports protagonist! That would reveal the consequences of maiming yourself for life (physically, mentally, academically) so you could get a measly high school trophy! The Evangelion of sports anime! Ha ha, come to think of it I would probably hate it.
I also really want to watch a female sports series one of these days. (At least Haikyuu acknowledges that a girls' team exists at the school.) I need to look up that girl tennis show I saw a bit of once...
no subject
Date: 2014-07-16 08:41 am (UTC)Chris-sempai happened. Chris-sempai is amazing!!!!!!! ♥ ♥ and uh, I think he might be the kind of character you might like too. (I stopped watching when there was a lack of Chris-sempai on my screen and too many other things to pick up - like bunny and tiger which is my fallen very hard anime series of the moment.
KnB is honestly the worst fandom I've ever been in for spoilers. /o\ I have yet to read Kise copying porn star moves, but now I kind of desperately want to.
For girl series, princess nine is one of my favourites! Although that's baseball. Aim for ace is probably the best known female tennis team anime/manga. I heard that Teekyu was funny, but haven't watched it myself.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-17 06:27 pm (UTC)I think because Tumblr is such an image-heavy platform it's really hard to avoid spoilers...pictures say a thousand words and all. Doesn't help that I have no impulse control. I couldn't help but read the fancomics about the ridiculous things Akashi has been doing lately in the manga.
Kise could also copy porn moves from, erm, live experience? And then he could use the moves on other people! And they'd be weirded out and be like, isn't this so-and-so's move? And then Kise would be like YOU WERE CHEATING ON ME! Ah ha ha.
I will check out all those girl sports anime you mentioned! Thanks yo!
no subject
Date: 2014-07-26 09:58 am (UTC)I haven't decided on a favourite character yet, I'm kind of loving them all atm. Except maybe for Sugawara. I never really like the nice, slightly pathetic guys lol. Definitely agree about the great music, and I think the animation and voice acting is great too.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-27 01:23 am (UTC)I think the animators do a great job with the faces in Haikyuu! They have a lot of character. I do think the animation of the matches could be somewhat more exciting though. (I can't help but compare it to Kuroko no Basket, which has very generic faces but very fast, cool action sequences.) I bet the action sequences will improve as the series goes on though, if Oikawa's serve sequence is any indication.