Hanebado!

Ever wonder what the female version of Haikyuu!! would look like? No, you say??? Alright, then…..carry on. Its just, this anime bears some resem—….oh, you still don’t care. Okay. I’ll just leave you alone…. F—k you! I’m writing this review whether you like it or not.As regular as the seasons change, another sports-genre anime has graced our computer screens for what seems like the umpteenth time, the flavor of the month being: badminton. Not the most exhilarating sport in the world, but it definitely has intermittent moments of shock and awe (much like Hanebado!). Following in the footsteps of its male counterpart, Hanebado! is a semi-serious sports anime that deals with the psychological consequences of youth athletics. As the story progresses, we begin to learn that each girl is plagued by a personal shortcoming that impedes their progress as an individual player. These visceral, psychological battles become the focal point of the entire series, making the girl’s opponents, more or less, inconsequential, as they are primarily focused on their own internal “demons” (i.e. battling themselves). An excellent example of showcasing this internal struggle happens in episode two, where chalkboard animation is used to emphasize the duality of Aragaki’s height “advantage,” provoking her to overcompensate in other facets of her game. Not only is her height an emotional weakness (as other children call her a “beanpole,” and make fun of her masculine appearance) but it turns out to be a physical one, as well. The astute coach for Nozomi employs a strategy to force Aragaki to move from side to side, putting an enormous amount of stress on her knees, resulting in overexertion and possible injury. But due to her commitment of staying true to herself (i.e. overpowering her opponent through strength), she is able to circumvent this clever scheme. Of course, this is all well and good for our protagonist, but a more pressing dilemma emerges during the match, because while Aragaki simply needs to impose her will — her identity, if you will — on the game, Nozomi comes to the realization that she has no identity. Her entire career has been dictated by “guidance” of her coach; thus, deteriorating her passion and creativity for the game. The themes that Nozomi and Aragaki experience are quite typical for teenagers in high stress, athletic competition, yet the resolution of said themes felt a bit artificial, too romantic. Is it truly believable that Nozomi’s coach would transition from yelling at her profusely (like she’s a red-headed step—…you know what, I’m just going to stop right there), to accepting her new perspective on badminton in the middle of a match — literally, on the drop of a dime? Quixotic happenings aside, Hanebado! suffers from the same deficiencies that infect its male counterpart, those being: -Random comedy from which there’s no reasonable explanation. -A character (i.e. Ayano) with “superhuman” ability that cannot be matched by anyone else. -The EYES of Ayano and Hinata both resembling a predator stalking its prey (both are small in stature, as well). -Displaying unrealistic feat’s that are not attainable in real life for the sake of entertainment -[Insert 5th point here — too lazy at the moment, its 3:30 in the morning] Hanebado!, in all seriousness, had an extremely promising start with interesting conceptual ideas about the psychological consequences of competitive athletics; yet, with each passing episode, it quickly decayed into a bizarre, nonsensical comedy with a weird daughter/mother/step-daughter dynamic that was particularly unappealing for the viewer. Furthermore, the amount of melodrama was off the charts, with an innumerable amount of peaks and valleys, making even the most mundane task feel like it was a life or death situation. Ayano’s metamorphosis from a timid, reserved girl, to a heartless, animalistic human hybrid was remarkably far-fetched, not to mention tropey. It seems the desire to emulate its male counterpart was too strong, reducing Hanebado!’s effectiveness as a compelling story that can stand on its own weight.

Coincidentally, this anime aired when the hype was on Asian Games 2018 and I was fired up to watch sports! Phantom Thieves may have their own show this season but the one who stole my heart in this season actually not them but this very particular badminton anime. While many people resent how this anime flows (being overly dramatic), I am personally love them just because I could analyze everything in this anime scene by scene or even second by second. Hanebado! proofed that sometimes it is not too bad to change course from how the original material works for the sake of character building. Letme start with how I could be dragged into this anime. Actually, there are two things that dragged me into this anime. And the first one is that first match between our two main characters, Ayano and Nagisa. This very first scene is beautifully animated with very good camerawork, integrated CGI and 2D animation, SWEATS! and the character tension. This very first match settled the whole series' vibe and set the very first bar to how they will animate the rest of the series. When I thought that they were setting the bar too high, I WAS WRONG. They really kept their animation quality as high as that from the first episode to the end. It is a huge kudos for the animators who have been very passionate from the very beginning to the very end. The second thing that made me into this anime is Nagisa Aragaki and her character. While I could say that the writer did a very good job as they did not shy away to make a bad mother character that is Uchika Shindou when the community is full with good mother characters courtesy of Boku no Hero Academia Season 3, I should gave the kudos because of their exceptional job on writing Nagisa as a character. I always love tomboys as they tend to have insecurity conflict. In Nagisa's case, she is overly tall so everyone around her overestimates her and overlooks her hard work. After she lost from Ayano (who still a middle school student at that time), her insecurity came out afloat. Nagisa wants to be acknowledged by her hard work. I love how they made Nagisa's resolution to beat Ayano at the final match is because she wanted to beat herself from the past. You don't know how much I am rooting for her to win. The other best part is... The writer is successfully made Nagisa as Ayano's mirror but with a very different characteristic. If I analyze a bit further, while being very different, Ayano wants to be acknowledged by her hard work just like Nagisa. But the reason is very different as her (very bad) mother left her because she was not good enough. And not just Ayano, because in the end, this anime heavily gravitates around acknowledgement while building their characters. Just like what the last sentence of this anime said "What you see on the other side of that net is always a reflection of yourself." And then we enter the sound and music department. I would say that the soundtrack is very fit to the theme of the show as it has this tension around the music and made matches more heated than anything else. The soundtrack is full of determination just like how sports anime should be. I love the opening and the ending songs, too. They are very catchy but sometimes the opening feels out of character as it is too cheerful for the episode and not fit for the high tension and heated episode. Oh my, did I just overdone this review? Just like I said before, the main reason I love this anime is because I could analyze everything scene by scene or even second by second. I just love an anime that invites me to talk about it or giving a huge room for any discussions because that is a very much proof that the writer did a good job to make us speculate while finishing the whole plot. Kudos for Hanebado! and all its production staffs.

Sometimes, I wish sports anime gets more attention whether it’s swimming, basketball, soccer, tennis, or anything competitive in nature. Sure, there was Free! from these past few years but it clearly had an audience from the very beginning. Badminton is a one of those sports where it doesn’t get too much attention, at least not on an international level. Yet Hanebado has its own fame when it comes to selling its sports drama. I would have originally watched this show just for the sheer competitiveness feeling. However, Hanebado persuaded me to invest into its character cast from the first few episodes. We meet a colorful groupthat includes Ayano, Nagisa, Riko, Elena, among others. From my initial impression, it reminded me of characters trying to make a name for themselves. But as more and more the story progressed, it felt like some really were pushing themselves to the limit. The most noticeable character is Ayano where she enter an insane beast-like mode when she is motivated. Some of her matches are noticeable of being extreme such as the case with Kaoruko. While Ayano is a main character, I find it difficult to root for her. The show chronicles her personality as being overly competitive to the point where it can toxic to watch her matches. On the other hand, I do think that Ayano is able to bring out the nature of badminton to a level that people were not anticipating for. It’s probably easy to overlook some other characters at first glance but the show does attempt to bring out the best from others. Nagisa is another noticeable name that I ended up rooting for late in the story. As a way to prove herself, she pushes Ayano to her best in one of the most intense matches in the series. We also got to learn a bit more about both girls along the way. But unfortunately, I can’t really say this series makes Ayano likable. It’s like there’s two completely different characters of her – one that evokes fear and another that behaves like a casual schoolgirl. It’s much easier to relate to the latter. Ayano’s competitive side often reaches to a point that is unbelievable in this show. I find it even baffling at how she deals with depression because her past shows a case of abandonment. Realism, in fact, does exist to some extent in the show. The characters skill sets are easily watchable as it’s not hard to tell who can beat who before a game is even over at times. But on the contrary, some matches feel like it didn’t live up to expectations with curb-stomp like moments. I also have some problems with how much characters changes, not just in the case of Ayano. For instance, there’s Connie who develops a meaner attitude after facing off against her. Regarding Ayano herself, it seems no one really tries to help her change either. This extends to their coach, Kentarou Tachibana. I’m not going to lie, this guy is hard to accept. He helps out Nagisa with her own problems but doesn’t attempt to do the same for Ayano. The show did make him likable in the beginning but his development doesn’t get enough attention. As you may have guessed, Hanebado isn’t going to spoon feed you information much so you’ll have to learn along the way. Badminton isn’t an overly complex sport but it does require a lot of attention. To me, the pure competitive energy of the sport is enough sometimes. The series sells its drama this way during the matches. It’s a bit strange though. The more I watched badminton, the more I feel like this show mixes in psychology during the storytelling. Every match feels like there’s something at stake such as a player’s pride. As one of the positives in this series, every match carries an emotional weight that I think is worth watching for. If only the main character cast could be worth talking about just as much in a positive light. That isn’t to say the series is unwatchable even with its questionable character roster. Jumping into Hanebado is a visual feast to the eyes with the production quality. There’s a lot of fluidity in the motions of the characters. Every movement in the series felt real and important especially during key moments of the matches. This ranges from the clever camera angles on the muscles to little details like body language. Character designs also look clean that gives each character a distinctive look. Ayano is an exceptional case once you see both sides of her character. That also leads to character expressions that I see very much as impressive. Ayano’s personality is highlighted with how she reacts to her friends or rivals. Others show their emotions without holding much back. Even during lighthearted scenes, there are moments that defines characters for what the creators wanted them to be in this adaptation. The theme songs (particular opening) contains a variety of dynamic camerawork that is admirable. It’s stylish that enhances the energy of the show. The ED theme song contains carefully crafted framework and artistic coloring. Definitely very thought provoking like a work of art. There’s not too many sports series that hooks my attention and Hanebado did that in the beginning. While I still can’t forgive the character destruction of some of the cast, there’s definitely a few that are worth watching. You can be the judge on who to root for. For a show with sports competitiveness, there’s the feeling of emotional stakes. I did hope the series took better care of its characters in terms of their development and personalities. But Hanebado is a watchable. It’s not perfect by all means or even outstanding. Yet, it has an ability to tell a dramatic sports story.

I'm not a fan of the sports genre, I may be missing out on some treats, but I'm not interested in cliche games where the main character always wins. I came across Megalo Box and it proved me wrong, so I thought why not give this a try? It might impress me too... but it didn't. The story is about a tournament in which challengers play against each other. I guess that's it, that's the most of the story. There's also the unnecessary drama which is also criticized by its fans, but if you dislike the drama, then what do you exactly like about the show?The tournament? Is it really something praiseworthy? I'm not here to judge anyone's taste, you can like whatever you want to, but I really want a legit argument as to why this is likable. Anyway, each character has some sort of story with badminton and they're as forgettable as the characters themselves, with the exception of Hanesaki because the anime shoves down your throat that she plays badminton for her mother and you should not forget that. Then her mother comes back to live with her one day and we don't even get any kind of development or reunion scene. She comes back, and the director thought, let's skip to another scene, shall we? I'm guessing the animators thought they could win over the fans with some good animation for the games and forget that a story or even character designs exist. The characters were so forgettable that I had no choice but to distinguish them by appearance, but even that was impossible because the characters pretty much look the same, just alter the hairstyle a bit, or not, depends on the character. They even forgot how to draw Hanesaki in episode 12 and made her look like she grew 30 years in the time frame of one game. They tried to have style over substance but couldn't nail both. As for the soundtracks, easily best part of the show, they were chill, intense, or anything that was needed. They didn't stand out much but they made the show a bit more enjoyable. And now come the characters. I mentioned how forgettable they are so I pretty much forgot what I wanna say about them. Hanesaki hates the world for some reason, Nagisa is flat, not her breast though, and she was just... there, possibly to rival Hanesaki. The teacher had Nobuhiko voice him and that alone made him a bit remarkable, he was encouraging I'd say. Other characters had an episode dedicated to them but I can't really recall their names, personality, maybe even their looks, or their motives. They played games constantly and the game were just shortened to add in some irrelevant drama which does not affect the game. Characters keep on playing regardless of their past in their oddly paced matches. But it's notable to say the strategies used in the games were convincing so that's a merit to notice. Anyhow, I kind of lost track on what I was gonna say about them, but losing track is what their personality is best at. They're just bland and present to give you a well animated, oddly paced match featuring characters that look and act the same. Rant of the day is over. You can now go watch this (or not) and ignore my opinion because this is definitely AOTY.