Welcome to the Ballroom

Ballroom e Youkoso’s hype sank faster than 2-ton anchor. And it’s easy to see why. The show is plagued by lackluster animation and unlikeable characters. Ballroom’s biggest disappointment is the extreme lack of any actual dancing (or ballroom-styled music). Shows can survive dull characters and repetitive melodrama if they deliver something else worth sticking around for, but Ballroom failed on its biggest promise - to see some dancing. Instead of dancing, we get drawn stills and repetitive commentary from the audience about how great someone is or how much they improved or the differences between one dancing style and another, but never see any ofit. And any dancing we do see looks more like chickens flapping around than anything graceful. The lack of any actual dancing also removes a good deal of tension from the show, a staple of sports anime. Instead of seeing action, we hear commentary on the action, breaking any chance of creating tension whatsoever. Bad animation isn’t the only reason behind the show’s lack of tension. While we’re watching our dancing stills and hearing people talk about them, we have very little clue about the sport itself. The points system, what judges are looking for, and any rules are only touched upon. The characters are as disappointing as the animation. When Tatara’s not complaining, he acts a sponge that exists to soak up other characters’ drama. In the first half of the season, he’s at least a boring-but-nice guy, but in the second cour, he spends most of this time failing to take action and complaining a lot. Oddly, Tatara is also the local psychologist - I guess. Not only is it weird that these characters (specifically, Shizuku and Mako) start blabbing their issues to someone they barely know, but they never actually talk to the person they’re having an issue with. The drama between these two girls and their dancing partners magically disappear without direct confrontation, which is not only confusing, but also misses on potential drama and character growth. The trend continues in the second half. Akira and Chinatsu get two episodes dedicated to their past history - but hardly interact with each other in the present. Instead, we get a clunky two-episode flashback from Akira’s point of view and jump back into the present without furthering Chinatsu’s and Akira’s relationship in any way whatsoever. Chinatsu is flat-out mean at times, and Tatara is flat-out pathetic. Their nonsense gets old after the first 10 episodes of the same thing over and over. On top of that, our supposed antagonist-rivals, Kugimiya and Akira, were made so sympathetic, that I don’t think I’ve ever wanted the leads to lose so badly before. I’d say the odd, creepy fanservice moments earlier on where we’re supposed to be entertained by a highschool girl getting peeped on and embarrassed by an older man is unnecessary. But this anime never had much going for it. Ballroom had so much promise. An anime about a visual sport? I was hoping for Yuri on Ice 2.0. By the end, I was hoping for anything remotely interesting to happen - including seeing a full dancing routine (crazy, right?). Instead, Ballroom provides little dancing, little tension, and lots of repetition and unlikeable characters.

I admit I haven’t actually sat down and read the manga, but I’ve seen more than enough to undoubtedly know the original creator put clear passion and effort into her manga. While you could perhaps say the same about the work ethic of the anime’s adaptation team, I’m afraid you could not similarly stand up for the anime’s painfully transparent budgeting and scheduling. Yes, that’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Production IG—the titans of Japanese animation—those who have, over recent years, released many of the highest quality sports anime ever made, finally made what I think we can all agree is a bad adaptation. Welcome to theBallroom has the sleek character designs, the clean art style, and the sharp drawings of Production IG’s previous standard-setting sports anime, Haikyuu, but it has not nearly the same quality of animation. What made IG’s recent manga adaptations so shockingly good despite having their roots in the most archetypal sorts of shounen/shoujo tropes was the fact the studio bestowed upon them the first-class animation quality no other studio could ever even dream of coordinating, that which they’ve given to their most ambitious of originals, or at least something close. Whether it be a dime-a-dozen shounen sports anime like Haikyuu or Kuroko no Basuke, or a dime-a-dozen shoujo romcom anime like Kimi ni Todoke or Ao Haru Ride, no matter what their producers saddled them with, Production IG didn’t let their reputation falter. As much as I poke fun at the cartoonish writing and crazy leaps in logic of the aforementioned Kuroko no Basuke, I’m still able to acknowledge how the over-the-top presentation really made the athletic prowess, the personal style, and the distinct attitude of the characters shine, or in other words, what made the show as a whole good or at all worthwhile. Since I’m a terminally inactive, frail, anorexic loser, evolutionary failure of a human being who never leaves their home for leisure, I’ve never really liked sports nor those who played them, but the detailed artwork and lavish animation of Haikyuu handily convinced me of and pushed me to respect just how taxing the sport was on the bodies of the athletes and how hard they had to fight to get as good as they’d gotten. You could always tell precisely how exhausted the characters were becoming over the course of their strenuous matches by looking at the intricately presented strain and pulse of their shoulders and knees, and not long after I came to appreciate all the love and care the staff were putting into the animation, I soon gained genuine admiration for the characters and teams working themselves to the bone for victory on the court, the court which I now saw as something of a battlefield. On the other hand, at least from the standpoint of visual consistency, Welcome to the Ballroom has exactly none of this attention to detail, exactly none of IG’s jaw-dropping TV anime frame-count, and exactly none of the technical prowess behind the drawings, all because the animation simply isn’t there. It’s not ugly, it’s just static. Most of the dance sequences resort to panning over still frames, and the background dancers are almost invariably CG, with movement cycles so unbelievably clunky and downright ugly, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I’m not so utterly moronic as to think any of this was done in-house, but the fact remains IG outsourced it, and that fact is deeply disheartening. The driving motivation of our main character, Tatara, was the fact he had lived his life as a nobody, and seeing professional dancers do their thing made him realize just how much he wanted to be “seen” in the same glamour himself. While this is a well-written and widely sympathetic motivation which most people can surely invest in and empathize with, especially given how believably scripted this show is, the fact that we, the audience, are being sold on this desire of his by such a lackluster display of animation and out-of-place CG leaves us thinking the unavoidable thought, “You were really inspired by THAT?” And it’s even sadder, too, because when you watch either opening animation as well as the limited sakuga done in-house by IG staff like Takashi Mukouda and Shinji Hashimoto, you can really see what could’ve been. I don’t think the staff was insufficient; I just think they needed more time. However, finally putting the animation aside, what we did get was actually a pretty good show, filled to the brim with directorial inspiration and a lovable, vibrant cast of amazing characters. People are equally likable and hatable when they need to be, and the story progresses at a grounded pace which gives you the time to appreciate the maturation of the characters’ respective dancing styles and moral outlooks on the sport, as well as their interpersonal relationships with one another. And speaking of, the character chemistry in this show is usually quite upbeat, but whenever things do turn sour, you actually feel like you have an understanding of where people are coming from. Unlike most highschool anime which are often ruined by needless drama that turns every character you thought you liked into an unrecognizable, obnoxious asshole, no drama in this show ever feels awkward or manufactured. In fact, my favorite character in the show, Chinatsu, is actually the one who starts most the of the drama. That should say a lot about how competently written this show is, especially when I usually drop anime for having character like this. I know turning around and saying I was invested in the show I just spent ten years whining about the visuals of may seem contradictory, but personally, I don’t think so. Sure, I can bitch and moan all day about IG taking themselves down a few pegs, but does this show looking average as opposed to stunning mean it looks downright hideous like most anime coming out these days? Of course not, and I haven’t yet mentioned how every single aspect of the show’s production aside from that subpar animation was just as stellar as any other IG show you can think of. The voice performances were all excellent, and some of the characters, especially the cute girls like Mako, had me down for their characters on their voices alone. There wasn’t a single vocalist whose performance disappointed in the slightest, and their absolutely GORGEOUS character designs only pronounced their personalities even more, because despite being an under-animated show, it’s not like Production IG would ever dare to air something with off-model artwork. Rousing music, intricate sounds, striking colors, and beautiful backgrounds all make it so that the more facets of the production I sit back and appreciate after having gotten over the lackluster animation just leaves me with more and more small things to easily praise, even if I’d call show as a whole a disappointment in the long run. There’s countless scenes throughout the show which wholeheartedly immerse you in the impassioned emotions of the characters and the modest themes of the story, and you’re left feeling like you really understand the art and craft of the dance. While most of these scenes can only come to life by way of the outstanding writing as opposed to the raw visual flair with which other IG shows would arrest you with, the fact you’re feeling the inspiration in the first place stands firm. I suppose what I’m trying to say here is that I shouldn’t have been comparing Welcome to the Ballroom to likes of Haikyuu or Kuroko no Basuke to begin with, because while their production staff and animation team are largely the same, their content is not. Those anime and their banal stories needed to be animated by the badasses at Production IG to be worthwhile, but this one didn’t. No matter how lavishly animated they were, generic shounen manga adaptations like that could never have been masterpieces. Something more artful like this definitely could’ve. Thank you for reading.

Competition is a beautiful thing. It makes us strive to accomplish, to win, and hope that we can simply be good at something in our lives. When it comes to expressing talent, we try to be the show-off and express it like a form of art. For a guy named Tatara Fujita, he just wants to prove to the world that he can be good at something. That is, one day…he discovers the world of ballroom dancing. Watching Ballroom e Youkoso (Welcome to the Ballroom) feels like taking a journey down memory lane. I’m talking about the type of memory lane where you were once akid and wanted to prove everyone you had talent in something. Academics, sports, art, acting, singing. Just anything in general that make your friend go “wow, I didn’t know you could do that!” As such, this anime is one that I found remarkably realistic and relatable. The first few episodes doesn’t take long to establish the principle cast along with its intention. I’ll be honest here. Tatara is a character that won’t be very easy to accept for most people at first glance. He has a meek personality and seems to overestimate himself on certain circumstances. This is shown in the beginning when Tatara expresses to professional dancer Sengoku that he wants to be a pro rather than just to dance. His initial attitude makes him look like a fool as dancing isn’t just something that can perfected like a click of a switch. My impression of Tatara made me realize that while he sets high expectations for himself, he does have potential but needs the right people and time to unlock it. Luckily, Tatara gets the opportunity at the Ogawara Dance Studio where other talented dancers gather to perfect their work. From the studio, Tatara also meets the very talented and beautiful Shizuku. She becomes a source of inspiration for Tatara as he strives to improve and become a pro. Throughout this show, Tatara embraces the art of ballroom dancing and becomes very determined to prove himself. From an amateur to an inspiring ballroom dancer, his character can really grow to people as we see his progress. The storytelling builds on many fronts although most of it still follows Tatara and his journey. He deals with personal issues, social problems, and also establishes rivalries with certain characters he meets. At the same time, an important part of this show involve him building important relationships with others. Two particular characters stands out the most: Mako Akagi and Chinatsu Hiyama. As dancing partners, Tatara’s relationship with both of these girls vary in attitude. Mako and Tatara has a friendly relationship that is based on trust, respect, and strong spirit. On the other hand, Tatara and Chinatsu’s relationship is more borderline towards competitiveness. Not to mention, Chinatsu already has a dancing background and doesn’t tolerate a weak partner. Throughout the anime, we see how Chinatsu begins to accept him more with their growing trust. In respect, Tatara also develops as a person as he crafts his own dancing style so that it’s not just his partner carrying their dances. Whether he realizes it or not, Tatara even has influence on others. This includes making Mako realize how skilled she really is, restoring Chinatsu’s love for dancing, and even influencing Shizuku to improve herself to be better. In retrospect, this anime steps over the line to make Tatara a more likeable character as time goes on. Unfortunately, I can’t really say all the main cast gets decent screen time and development. While Shizuku is Tatara’s initial inspiration, she doesn’t get much highlight later on in this show. Don’t expect this anime to focus much on Tatara’s love life either. While it’s obvious that Tatara crushes over Shizuku from the beginning, the show makes it clear that she prefers dancing rather than finding a boyfriend. This also applies to Tatara’s other dancing partners so if romance is something on your mind, then look elsewhere. Also, be aware that this anime focuses a lot on dancing. By a lot, I mean a LOT with all types of dances, music, and style. If you’re not a fan of dancing, it may take some time to enjoy this show. Ballroom dancing is portrayed as a fierce competition on the dance floor with some episodes dedicating their entire time to it. Luckily, this anime is quite a faithful adaptation for what it had to work with. With only some minor differences, it’s an anime that really made me glad it got adapted. However, there are times that I wish the anime picked up the pace with its extensive background storytelling, especially in later episodes. Adapted by Production I.G., this was really the number one choice. They are known for making other anime that involve competition come to life. (ex. Haikyu, All Out!, Kuroko no Basket) For this particular anime, they leave a memorable impression with the art style and character designs. The biggest selling point is the smooth camera angles and timings. When the competition gets fierce, it really draws out the talents of the dancers with their body movements. Each movement is precisely timed to show their potential with colorful aesthetics. It further amplifies them through clever facial expressions. The dancing outfits in this anime are also memorable for their coloring and hair style, in particular for the female characters. It’s not to be interpreted as fan service but rather a work of art. On the other hand, there are some body parts in this anime that can be distracting. The one most worth mentioning is the overly extensive necks that can make viewers point fingers at. At the core of its technical feature is the music. It’s what makes the ballroom dancing come to life along with its vivid choreography. The anime mixes in a variety that includes jazz, latin, classic, and among others. Director Yoshimi Itazu really made an impression through his work by allowing the music to do the storytelling on many occasions. Without words, many of the dancing segments feels like a dream and as if time itself stopped to showcase the characters’ talents. The music supplements that with its directing. Voice character mannerism is also well performed with characters like Chinatsu, Hyoudou, and the Akagi siblings. Both the OP and ED theme songs are also worth listening to for their rhythm. As a show with a fierce competitive energy, this one might seem to be intimidating to watch at first. However, it’s a show that I can recommend to anyone even if its selling points doesn’t hit all the marks. From its character cast to storytelling, Ballroom e Youkoso is a well-adapted manga that focuses on what it intended to without betraying expectations. Sure, some characters are not as well focused compared to the others. There are also times when you wish the story can just move its pace faster. However, it’s still a show that gives competition a powerful meaning.

Anime Has often surprised me with the fact that how unpredictable it can really get. We often think to ourselves, that having watched so many shows, nothing can really surprise us anymore, But yet again, we are proved wrong with every new season. Take Fune wo amu for example, I never thought i will watch an anime about dictionaries, And yet I found myself loving it more and more. And now we have Ballroom, An anime which explores the world of ballroom dancing, A sport which is perhaps is one of the most peculiar one out there , and perhaps the mostelegant one too, And surprisingly makes it more interesting than you might really expect it to be. Sports anime have existed pretty much since the beginning of the medium itself. From football to basketball, and even Shogi, We have seen almost all kind of games, And its not wrong to say that these anime, rather than the game, are now all about building the hype and adrenaline rush within the viewer, and keep them captivated. Welcome to ballroom explores the world of ballroom dancing, which as a sport is not really that well known to many, But Rather than just being all about the game itself, Ballroom is somehow able to bring out the true beauty of Dancing, Not as a sport, But more as a form of art. It also gives the competitive vibe of the game as we would expect from any other sport anime. Now,When it comes to the story, Sports anime are not really known for their story lines. Of course we have seen sport anime, with some pretty amazing storylines, But as mentioned before, Many of them are really all about sports, Which is not really a bad thing. Ballroom also offers little in this department, What we see is the generic run off the mill plot line that we we have really seen a hell lot of a times before. But, what really differentiates a good sport anime from other genre of anime, is that how it overcomes the lack of a proper story line , by offering the viewer something more than that, That is , The real excitement of the game itself. The anime can be simply broken down into two parts here, The first one is more focused towards Tatara, The MC, as a a learner, who is slowly trying to grasp the concept of dancing . He is just a newbie who is learning , and is not someone you will refer to as a good dancer. The second half on the other hand is about how overcomes his weaknesses and learns more about himself . How he also tries to prove himself as a worthy dancer and built his identity in this world of dancing. Characters, universally are known as the most important part of any anime , However, In such anime, their role is of much more importance than others. Ballroom shows The conflicts, self doubt,excitement, and of course, the anxiety, that the Characters hide behind their smiling faces on the stage. The main character Tatara, has been struggling to find his purpose in life, more than anyone, he wants to prove his talents to the world, but is confused about how to do so, And he finds His own way in this world of Dance. He still is new to the world of dancing, and really has no special talent for doing it either. But he still works hard to become the very best and most of all, he is portrayed a strong willed and determined person and not as a wimp. However, It doesn't hide the fact that he is really just a generic character that we might have seen before . However, as mentioned before, it is the second half from where things change. Introduction of Chinatsu is The most important part of the second half, As she is not just the new partner of Tatara, But a person who completely changes him and also the world around him. She is much like a tomboy, who uses harsh words , but cares about Tatara more Than anyone else. She is an experienced dancer herself, But her inability to become a partner makes her really no different from Tatara, With is inexperience in leading. And This mismatched combo is perhaps The best part of the entire show itself Now, talking about characters, we should also see that the other characters are not overshadowed in any way, In fact they actually shine out the most in the first half of the show, quite literally. Both the girls, Mako and shizuka, have played important roles in the development of Tatara as dancer. They have both played as his partners and have been major part of the story. Sengoku san served as his mentor and have taught him everything he knows. These other characters do have played major roles, but just in support of Tatara, That is for the most part, and we do not really get to see a lot about them, But as said there presence is not overshadowed. In fact, one of my most favorite parts of the show was the Mako Tatara solo, in which Mako was the main presence and she quite literally shone beautifully like a flower. Like other Sports anime, Ballroom also brings along with it , some in depth trivia and facts about the sport. It just shows us how watching people dance and actually being on the stage is completely different experiences. .It also goes a bit deeper by showing us the psychological battles that these people go through while on the stage, The anime shows how much does an actual person goes through when on a stage, The split second decisions and of course To maintain The focus on the partner. But more than that, It shows the true happiness These people feel while on the stage. Honestly, The show does and excellent job of portraying all these complex feelings of these people, without being too forceful with it. Now when we talk about dance, music is something which naturally comes to our minds along with it, So as one would think in such anime music of course would play in important role. Now Both the Op are very good in my opinion, They tend to be fast paced and built the excitement within the viewer. The music played within the scenes, That is during the dance routines, is somewhat overshadowed, Now the anime is focused on dance, but music is as important, The anime uses different styles of music and effects for different dance routines, however the music sometimes, just tends to get a bit overshadowed, which is not really good. Both the ED are also pretty fine, Tho second one is my favorite. The art, I guess, is just pretty average. The anime uses a bright color palette , Which fits quite well with the series, But there is really nothing special heer, That is , until the things get on the stage. The beautiful animations during the dance literally make the characters and music , come to life. The smooth movement, the Beautiful special effects just makes things even more beautiful. The character design is also pretty fine, but thins get real when they are on stage, The facial expressions they make are more than enough to convey their satisfaction and happiness. Overall, The art section is really well done . Now dance is something which we would expect to see in a sports anime, But don't let that fact deceive you, Because this show is nothing less than any other sport show out there. Its fast paced, beautifully animated and gets you excited and makes you wish for even more. It is something everyone should experience once. It shows something like dance, which we might not really think of often, in a way we would never expect. It does have its flaws, however, in total, Its an enjoyable ride, that everyone should try.