Hungry Heart: Wild Striker

Hungry Heart Wild Striker An old and relatively unknown anime. Does it deserve popularity? Scroll down… [ 1 MINUTE REVIEW ] Although there are not a lot of good sports anime out there, Hungry Heart Wild Striker is definitely a great sports anime and is definitely undervalued and underappreciated. Although it does contain some stereotypical shonen elements and characters, the anime is actually much deeper than it appears on the surface. It deals with some real issues that soccer players face such as injuries, uncooperative teammates, going pro and many more. Also, this anime’s story line is really strong and keeps you going through all the episodes. Thehero, Kanou Kyosuke, is an extremely likable character and adds to the show’s strong story line and slapstick humor. However, the animation and music really suck. If you love soccer, then you should definitely check this anime out. If you’re not, you can still watch this anime to kill time. Either way, check it out. [ 5 MINUTE REVIEW ] Hungry Heart has one of the best stories possible for a soccer anime. Our hero, Kanou Kyosuke, is a great striker but is too rough for the soccer field. Also, his brother is Japan’s top soccer superstar and plays for the Italian club, AC Milan. Tired of living in his brother’s shadow and being compared to him all the time, Kanou quits soccer for good. But one day, Miki, his classmate, blackmails him into coaching the girls soccer club for a week. As he coaches the girls, Kanou realizes he doesn’t need to give up soccer and joins the high school soccer team, hoping to play alongside his brother in the World Cup one day. And thus, begins Kanou’s journey. The story really is amazing as it is truly inspirational. Kanou, a punk, tries to become Japan’s top striker. You might be thinking “Oh, it’s an anime… Of course he’s going to win all the matches at the last minute and fulfill his dream. This is too predictable…” Well that’s where you, and most people, go wrong with this anime. The plot has several twists and keeps you engaged through all 52 episodes. And unlike Captain Tsubasa, Kanou’s team does not win every match. In fact, they lose quite a lot. The story also brings in a bit of realism, by showing us how difficult it really is to pursue a career in soccer. . Also, you realize how a player’s personal life affects his performance on the field. The importance of team work is also emphasized on constantly. As I said before, the inner meaning of the anime has more than meets the eye. The characters in the anime are what make the anime enjoyable. Although they superficially appear to be your typical shonen anime side characters, they are not. In the first quarter of the anime, all the characters except Kanou fail to hold your attention for long. However, as the story progresses, you begin to see the complexity in their personalities. The usual side-kicks turn into main characters and their transformation is felt greatly, especially in the cases of Rodrigo, Sakai, Esaka and Kamata. The characters are just so well portrayed that, when they win, you feel like cheering with them and when they lose, you get frustrated. You can feel what is at stake during the big matches. Kanou’s character shows great depth and his character develops through every episode, which is very entertaining and inspiring, to watch. You watch him transform from a street punk to a mature soccer player. The animation in this anime is well, terrible. Although it wasn’t a very high budget anime or very new, it was still sad to see an insane amount of frame recycling. For example, the 5 second animation of Kanou taking a shot or Rodrigo passing the ball is used in almost every 5th episode. I’m not kidding. In fact, you even see the same animation clip repeated FOUR times in a single episode. It is a very annoying feeling to see the same player play the same pass to the same person over and over again. The character design is another disaster. Almost every midfielder in the anime looks the same. Just change his hair color and his jersey color and there you go – a new midfielder. Seriously, they don’t even change the poor fellows’ hairstyles. Thankfully, the story and the characters themselves are strong enough to keep you motivated to watch the rest of the series. The music was the second and final problem I had with this anime. The 1st opening theme was pretty good and suited the mood. Sadly, that was the one noteworthy track. The others are just out of place. For example, they play some sort of carnival music during an intense second half. It really feels out of place. Speaking of songs and their placing, the song placing in this anime was absolutely stupid. Whenever you hear inspirational music play, you know that Kanou’s team is going to score in 2 minutes and whenever you hear a daunting drum beat track, you know the opponents are going to score. It really gives the suspense away. They should’ve really put some more thought into that. Howver, it isn’t intolerable. The ending is great and provides just about enough room for fan fiction. As far as the voice over goes, it is done really well and you can see that the voice actors really enjoyed what they were doing, especially Miki’s and Esaka’s. The subbing by Saizuken could’ve been a bit better though. The-Bottomline: Overall, Hungry Heart Wild Striker is a superb anime with a strong story and interesting characters. The animation quality and the soundtrack are disappointing, but are not all that frustrating. If you love soccer, shonen with a dash of Slice of Life or both, then you definitely can’t go wrong with this anime. It’s just one of those anime which has that “it” factor. ( P.S- The way soccer is pronounced as “sucker” can be annoying, but it sort of grows on you :D)

Story: This is just a typical story of a guy who gave up soccer cause he was being compared with his brother too much. Soon he starts kicking his own game with his new teammates to play in the same professional team as his brother one day. That's about how it starts out and throughout the plot it expresses it. Art: The artwork won't be counted as too bad for a pretty old anime in my eyes. It's not like all the new ones with action and very thing in high quality but is VERY worth watching still. Sound: The sounds are pretty good with theircharacters. Since this anime was dubbed in cantonese and japanese it's hard to say. Though if you speak cantonese WATCH the cantonese one cause it's super funny. Didn't really ever try the japanese one but I doubt it can be that bad. Character: This is one part of the anime that is my favorite part. Most characters have their own road to soccer stardom but they each have diffiiculties and their own power. Most shocking things happen with the main characters Kyosuke. Though the one known as his girlfriend (as a joke) Miki is not expressed very good with personal life though she's a supporter for Kyosuke. Enjoyment: As one of the first animes I watched it's definitely NOT a shabby anime. There are NO ecchi in this anime whatsoever and one of the funniest one you will find around on this time of day and year.Throughout the plot the main character Kyosuke goes around making trouble and trying to score. No matter what ways he makes this anime worth watching. Overall: Since I absolutely LOVE this anime. 10 is one of the worse scores I can give it actually. If I had a choice i will give it a 100.

Story 9 Heart: Wild Striker(HHWS) is a story about main character (MC) who wants to be a Professional football player and be like his brother who is already a Pro. The MC is constantly compared to his successful brother, which causes a lot of friction in MC's life. The story line is one of the strong points of this anime. The story is inspirational and uplifting. What makes this anime standout from rest of the sports anime is its slice of life approach in telling the story. Also unlike other shounenish sports anime, where story is driven by the MC, this anime provides ample amountof space for supporting characters. There are lot of obstacles that the MC and his team face on and of the field which engages the audience on emotional level and the victories are so much more memorable. Art 6 Art is the weakest aspect of this anime. Sometimes art can be used to enhance story line and a lot things can be communicated to the audience without saying it. This anime does not rely on art to enhance the story line. Even though this anime is about football, art could have been used to improve the viewing experience. Many a times the anime relied on same scenes to show the passing and dribbling of the football over and over again. Considering the anime is made in 2000's I expected artwork to be much better. Sound 7 I liked the background music that is used in this anime. Whenever the background music starts playing it was able to change the vibe that the anime gave. There have been times when the background music starts playing, my heartbeat would go up and body temperature rose just from the anticipation of what was going to happen in the next few scenes. I also liked the OP#1 "2nd Stage" by Kids Alive, i do listen to it from time to time just like the story it is pretty uplifting. Character 8 The anime has done pretty good job of fleshing out the MC and how he evolves over time. Even the supporting character got ample screen time and even they evolved as the anime went on. One gripe i had with this anime was unlike the MC and his team the antagonist didn't get much character development. If the antagonist were given some character development the victories that MC and his team achieved would have been much more meaning full. Enjoyment 9 The enjoyment that I derived was from the goals that the MC' team scored and ultimately from winning the matches. The matches between the teams were well done. The MC's team faced opposition teams that were evenly matched or teams who had good players who could win the matches or teams who were much better than MC's team. The goals that were scored or attempted were pretty enjoyable to watch. Some of the goals were scored from an awkward position or when the MC's team was in dire straits this also added to the enjoyment factor. Overall 9 There are many things or combination of thing that can make a anime great. What makes HHWS great is its ability to use slice of life approach to tell a sports story and they are wildly successful in it. The story line is inspirational, memorable and highly re-watchable. I have already watched this anime 2 times and i am confident that i will be watching it again and again in the coming years. I would recommend this everybody but especially to people who are facing personal or professional difficulty this anime will be a much needed respite and you will watch it again and again from time to time.

Hungry Heart : Wild Striker is the best sports anime I have seen so far. Maybe the best anime I have seen too. SPOILERS AHEAD It's not the typical sports anime, however. It's the first time I have seen the main character's team lose so many times, and lose the last match of the series. Hungry Heart has a very great cast of characters, including the main team, rivals, and supporting characters. Side stories are developed fine, so is the main character's background. I'm talking about Kyosuke Kanou. Kanou is a very tempered striker, always in the shadow of his brother, a former player in the european league. Thestory focuses on his develop as a player and as a person, with some romance, and the discover of his past. There's a little of romance, a lot of comedy, and a very motivational feeling. The ost is great, so are the openings and endings. The animation is great so far, thus in some early chapters it's different from the later ones, as if it were done by other studio. This is the only reason the Art is valued in 9. After that, the matchs are animated greatly. The last chapter's match is amazing. Hungry Heart really deserves 10 points overall. It's really fun and motivational.