Giant Killing

When I was younger, I used to watch an anime series called Kickers which revolved around football (or soccer for some). It was one of my very first encounters with anime and it definitely left an impression on me as a child, especially with its inspiring message and characters. Of course, as I grew up I started realizing that the world isn’t as perfect as Kickers depicted it—you wouldn’t always end up coming out on the winning side from conflicts and battles. I also learned that there’s no “I” in team and that a single person can’t stand victorious without some kind of help. Kickerswas an anime series that took football and depicted it in an idealized form, but it’s not Kickers that I’m going to talk about, but rather a much more recent anime that also deals with football, but in a very different way. Giant Killing is an anime series based on the ongoing football manga of the same name. Despite what its title may suggest, Giant Killing delivers a realistic depiction of a sports team and its struggle to compete in Japan’s top football league. In other words, no, it does not feature football players battling each other with samurai swords and magical abilities. As a matter of fact, I don’t recall any people dying throughout the entire running time of this anime either. All jokes aside, the title ‘Giant Killing’ refers to the act of an underdog team coming out victoriously from the hardest of matches and winning against all odds. The story focuses on Japanese football team East Tokyo United (or ETU short) which is having difficulty competing in the country’s top football league and barely avoided relegation last season. There is little hope for the team and even its fans are slowly starting to abandon it, but all is not lost yet, for ETU has selected a new manager for the upcoming season and he is not to be taken lightly. Former East Tokyo United player, Takeshi Tatsumi is hired to coach ETU after previously leading the English amateur team FC Eastham to victory. Takeshi Tatsumi is a highly puzzling and intriguing character and often works in unconventional ways when training his team and preparing them for upcoming matches. His eccentric ways and his mysteriously confident personality easily make him the most interesting and important character in the series, but he is not the anime’s main focus. As a matter of fact, there is no such thing as a protagonist in Giant Killing. Instead, the series concentrates on the ETU team as a whole and even though it does feature some minor character arcs from time to time, it always remains devoted to portraying the characters as a group rather than individuals with a predetermined level importance. Unfortunately, Giant Killing also comes with a limited budget and therefore may prove to be unsatisfying for some when it comes to its portrayal of the football matches. Action and tension are present, of course, but Giant Killing falls short when it comes to delivering fast-paced football games. Some will be okay with that while others will irreversibly turn their heads and prematurely walk away from the series. However, those who do decide to stay will come to experience a football anime series that is very unique at its core and which will deliver some really impressive things that will ultimately make up for its shortcomings in the animation department. Unlike the series’ animation, Giant Killing boasts a fairly good look in terms of art and style. Each of the characters present throughout the anime have their own specific appearance, which helps a lot when it comes to the viewer connecting with them and being able to identify them individually early on. Even though the anime tries to focus on each of the ETU players in equal amounts, some characters tend to stand out more than others. In addition to Takeshi Tatsumi, who always remains a central character and is vital to the progression of the story, there are other notable characters such as the team captain and veteran Shigeyuki Murakoshi, who fans call ‘Mr. ETU’ for keeping the team together through the hardest of times, inexperienced but talented newcomer Daisuke Tsubaki and Italian midfield superstar Luigi Yoshida (or simply Gino), nicknamed ‘Prince’ for his impressive abilities on the field and his narcissistic tendencies. Of course, these are only but a few of the extensive amount of characters that Giant Killing manages to bring to the story. Apart from the football players, the series also goes on to develop side characters such as fans of the team, journalists, photographers and even opposing team players and managers. Despite what some may believe, being able to enjoy Giant Killing does not depend on whether you’re a football enthusiast or not. Knowledge and understanding of the sport are not as crucial here when it comes to the anime’s watchability. The series does an excellent job at delivering an exciting look into the world of football, particularly that of team ETU, and the interesting characters help keep things exciting from start to finish. Sports anime may not appeal as much to some than they do to others, but it would be a shame to miss out on Giant Killing and what it has to offer simply because it’s often very different from the usual ride and viewers may find it a very rewarding experience.

I'd previously ignored "Giant Killing" as the combination of the title and its lack of popularity made me think it's some kind of mediocre fantasy anime. Then I heard it's actually about football, and no, not the American variety, I'm talking about soccerl - you know, the kind of football where you actually use your foot more than your hands. Since I'm pretty into football, my interest in this anime suddenly shot up. "Giant Killing" follows the fortunes of ETU (East Tokyo United), one of the weakest teams in the top division of Japanese football. A once proud club capable of challenging the very best teamsin the Japanese league, they start off in the series as a team barely able to escape relegation. But all this is about to change with the appointment the new manager, a former player named Takeshi Tatsumi, who as a player, had a hand in both bringing the club to the height of its glory, and to its knees after what many saw as his betrayal. First of all, I should make it clear that "Giant Killing" is pretty serious about football. And by that I mean it tries to be realistic about the game, and it doesn't receive the whole over the top "anime treatment" given to the likes of, say "Captain Tsubasa". While I haven't watched "Captain Tsubasa", I've heard plenty of stories about it. Stories such as how an out of position goal keeper saved a shot by kicking the one of the goalposts so hard that it bent the goal frame, causing the shot, which was heading for the top corner, to bounce off the goal frame instead. This pretty much says everything you need to know about "Captain Tsubasa! Anyway, you won't find such epic feats of skill in "Giant Killing". Instead you'll see more realistic situations such as the hazards of defending too deeply and the importance of man marking on key players. If you think this might lead to boredom for the people who simply do not care about football, well, you may be right. But from the amount of effort that went into making this anime feel like a real football story, it can be argued that its primary concern is not about winning over people who aren't into football. Having said that, I found the tactical aspect of "Giant Killing" to be somewhat limited (this is perhaps due to influences from games such as "Football Manager" giving people like me over-inflated opinions on the tactical part of the game). It seems to me that they opted for a more sensationalist than analytical, more tabloid than broadsheet approach to illustrating the game. Beyond the emphasis on the defence line, there really is very little "team" level tactics involved in "Giant Killing". It says a lot that for most of the series, I was in the dark about what formation ETU is using, or even what positions most of the players play in. Instead, the series is more concerned with micro scale management such as personal duels between players, which of course makes for a more straight forwardly entertaining but also more amateurish depiction of the game. Unlike "Nodame Cantabile" and "Hikaru no Go", "Giant Killing" feels more like an anime made by fans rather than experts of the subject. The animation also contributes to this feel. Shoddy quality of the artwork aside, a bigger problem is that whenever they're showing a view of the whole pitch, you would often get scenes like where all the players are moving in the same direction at the same speeds etc, and everything just looks stupidly wrong, not like a snap shot of a real football match at all. What "Giant Killing" does portray extremely well though, is the human factors and the cultural aspect of football. The atmosphere during the matches is fantastic, with the noise of the crowd making it sound like a real match is being played. The foreign players often conform to the impressions given out by their real counterparts. Gino, the laid back, elegant Italian playmaker, is such a diva (in the spoilt sense, not the female singer sense), and fits right in with the image of overly pampered Italian footballers. The Brazillians, too, are portrayed as very pure players who just love playing football, be it an opportunistic kick-a-about while out on a stroll or in a proper match. With so many foreign characters, "Giant Killing" makes a big effort towards making the series seem more real by having a LOT of dialogue spoken in a foreign language (Dutch, French, English to name a few) accompanied either by subtitles or a louder Japanese dub put on top. Although the effort is very commendable, the quality isn't really up to scratch. If the English voices are anything to go by, they most likely got some Janpanese people to do them rather than native speakers. The English spoken in the very first episode sounds quite odd even though it doesn't sound like run of the mill Engrish. It's spoken sluggishly, as though the voice person was trying very hard to avoid sounding English. But despite this, I still found it difficult to understand what was being said. In addition, the foreign voices seem very quiet compared to the Japanese voices (and I don't just mean when the Japanese dub were being spoken over the top), which makes them stand out even more. Apart from the different footballing cultures, the relationship between fans and the club and its personnels are also well fleshed out. You can see the disillusionment of fans while the club is doing badly, and also their hope as a former hero returns to try and change the club's fortunes. It's not smooth sailing for Takeshi though - his reception at ETU as he returns to coach the club is very much a mixed one. Some aren't ready to forgive him just yet for turning his back on the club, while he is still adored by others for setting the the club alight during his time there as a player. Several bad results in a row, and it's not too surprising that the mixed reception starts to turn hostile rapidly, with hecklings and protests popping up all over the place. It's a familiar situation that can often be seen at real football clubs. In these respects, "Giant Killing" seems to give a very accurate up close and personal perspective of all the drama revolving around a football club that you see and hear regularly on the TV and other media. "Giant Killing" focuses on the development of several players within the squad, and this is probably the most interesting part of the series. The fleshing out of these players are very believeable, and their up and downs seem to be consistent with what we see of the players of the real world. It's funny because the anime's airing coincides with the time period where, in the real world of football, a young Welsh winger named Gareth Bale is just starting to shine and attract attention. The fictional character Tsubaki (still not sure where he plays, I suspect he's a winger or a fullback) is quite similar to Gareth Bale - both are blessed with blistering pace and great stamina, both are under-achievers in the early stage of their careers and both are just starting to blossom. Less than a year after "Giant Killing" started airing, Gareth Bale is now arguably the world's finest left winger, having completely destroyed Maicon (acknowledged to be the world's best right back, the opposing position to the left winger in the other team's formation) and almost single handedly demolished one of the top teams in Europe. Although Tsubaki isn't quite in the same league as Gareth Bale, it's kind of exciting to see a similarly aspiring player reflected in "Giant Killing". The exploration of the mentality of strikers is also particularly well done. It recognises that not scoring for several games in a row for an out and out striker is a big burden to bear, and you can see it playing more and more heavily on the mind of the player as the goal draught gets longer and longer. But just like in real life, the fans loves a player who gives it his all for the club, and it's a familiar sight seeing them getting behind and cheering for a striker who's running himself to the ground match after match without the reward of a goal. More profoundly than this though, is the anime's exploration of the mentality of a selfish goalscorer. I've heard it said more than once by ex-strikers that, you need to be selfish to score lots of goals, so I'm quite impressed that "Giant Killing" has picked up on this intricate insight of balance between team work and selfishness, especially since it's by no means an obvious one given football's emphasis on team play in general. As you can see "Giant Killing" does a lot of things right, and most of its flaws are fairly minor, but one aspect that really hurts it badly is the pacing. When it comes to key matches, it really suffers from the "shounen syndrome" where it would stretch them across an unreasonable number of episodes. A couple of the matches literally goes on for 5-6 episodes, and when you consider that a normal football match is played over 90 minutes, it really is beyond ridiculous to have the showing of a match go beyond the full length of a real match. And because the series contains these two matches which make up for nearly half the entire season, you don't actually get to see that many matches overall. Still, the good points do outweigh the bad, and so I think "Giant Killing" is a good anime that is likely to appeal to football fans a lot more than a casual viewer. It's a show that tries to portray a football in a more down to earth and realistic way, and even though it doesn't do that perfectly, it's probably the closest you're gonna get to an anime about REAL football.

Prior to the premiere of Giant Killing, I had never watched a sports anime in my life. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had seriously sat down and watched a sport. I used to watch basketball a lot. I remember rooting for the Bulls, who were my home team mind you, and then after them the Lakers. At some point, I simply lost interest in sports altogether. I have certainly never watched a game of soccer. So, not only does this series serve as a gateway to an entire genre of anime for me, but also anintroduction to soccer and a reintroduction to sports in general. I am far out of my element and easily the outsider in the viewer pool. I’ve always liked the story of David and Goliath, from which the term Giant Killing derives its name. Really, it’s a concept we want to believe in. We want to see the underdog, with every disadvantage, somehow come out on top against his opponent. This is what originally drew me toward the series. Tatsumi, arguably the main character of the series, used to be East Tokyo United’s star player. However, he quit and went overseas, having a successful stint coaching an amateur team to compete on a professional level. He comes back to ETU a shadow of its former self. It has struggled with relegation for years, essentially running on life support. His job? Save the club. You already know this can’t be easy, but the problem is far more delicate. Everyone has their own opinion of ETU and its current place in the Japanese leagues. The veteran players believe ETU needs to bide its time in the defensive position they’ve developed over the past few years. The fans view Tatsumi with outright scorn, seeing him as a traitor for leaving the team in the first place. Other teams look down on them as little more than a joke. Then there’s the new blood, who really don’t know what to do. Put on top of this Tatsumi’s penchant for flippancy in his manners and speech and you have a powder keg just waiting for a spark. Keeping that in mind, Giant Killing does have an overarching plot of taking a ragtag team and overcoming impossible odds. However, it serves as more of a goal for the series. The real plot is developing the team, both as players and characters. Naturally, all of them need to improve their skills on the field, especially the new additions. However, they all have personal issues. Tsubaki has a lack of self-confidence, Sera struggles with an inferiority complex, Kuro gets easily discouraged by failure, and so on. As the series progresses, they all get a spot in the limelight to overcome their shortcomings. It all threads together in a climactic match against a “giant” which spans the last third of the series. This gives us a character driven series, as opposed to story driven. The series could simply develop ETU and call it a day, but it strives to build up the supporting cast as well. In fact, some of the most memorable characters are only around for a single game of the series. The Brazillian Trio from Nagoya has great chemistry and is largely entertaining both before and during the game. The finale’s opposing team also has a lot of effort put into defining their players strengths and weaknesses throughout the arc. Even the Ramen Guy, who is on screen for all of two minutes, has a surprising amount of character built put into him. It does have some low points though, specifically the reporters. I also wish the older fans had received more thorough and satisfying development. The vocal work really backs up the characters in this series. Nobody feels like they’re out of their element. Seki Tomokazu plays an excellently flippant Tatsumi. Tyotaro Okiayu nails the gruff and experienced center of the team, Murakoshi. Perhaps my favorite actor, though, is Daisuke Ono voicing superstar Gino. Even when he compliments someone, he maintains that condescending tone which says “Why yes, I am better than you.” I could continue to praise it, but you get the idea. Really the weak point of the voice acting comes up whenever a character tries to speak in English. It’s a bit more authentic from the multicultural perspective of the game, but it comes off as forced in execution. Where the characters and vocal work excel, the art and animation is a mixed bag. The anime stays true to its source material, which is good for fans of the manga. On the other hand, the somewhat minimalistic art style might turn off some viewers. It struggles with perspective at times. For example, the scene where Tatsumi and Dulfer shook hands looked ridiculous. I also recall come complaints for using CG animation to handle the crowds and some of the game play on occasion. However, both the CG and drawn animation look fluid, so I have no complaints. On the positive side, the series has some very powerful still frame shots to punctuate moments of the series. They’re very stylized and for the most part, look beautiful. Here’s the bottom line. If you like soccer, then why have you not watched this yet? If you like sports or sports anime in general, you can’t really go wrong with this series. Even if you have little interest in sports, if you like strong characters, you should definitely give it a shot. Giant Killing does have a few weak points in every facet, like a somewhat formulaic approach to Tatsumi’s strategies, a few weak characters, wonky English, and some poorly executed graphics. However, as a whole, the series shines beyond its difficulties, and remains a very entertaining ride from start to finish. I definitely recommend it. Final Score: 8/10

NOTE: THIS IS AN ANIME WITH A SOCCER SETTING!!! AND NO, YOU DUN HAFTA KNOW SOCCER TO ENJOY THIS ANIME!!! I guess I should warn you guys about this first, no it's not some massacre or some dark times living under Nazis or during Stalin's times. I say this cos I hesitated watching this cos I thought it was something like that. Boy, was I wrong. Synopsis/Traits: An interesting concept, I saw a personality like GTO trying to reform a soccer club, like the guy in there with his class (That's all I know about GTO, hahaha...). Inspirational theme, belief and hope runs deep, it is able to capture theattention of the viewer. 1 interesting trait is that, unlike a few other 2x anime series I watched, this series takes it slowly at the front. Momentum is built up, some mysteries here and there, and potential is abound. This anime will probably do very well if the pace doesn't change too dramatically. Story:8 To be honest, it isn't too surprising. Compare it with Slam Dunk, and you should get what I mean. Something like "Giant Killing" and some similar features can be found in both series. The content and the setting isn't very surprising, but the process is. The flashbacks, the way events occur, they were organised very well and gave root to momentum. It isn't really the content that really made the series shine, but rather the way of presenting it. It's simply amazing. Art:10 Natural, 3D usage was very good, plus the 2D animation is one of the higher-level ones. At times, very fluid animation that is on or above the standard as the 3 famous-for-animation anime (Clannad, Air, Kanon(2006)). Facial expressions, body language could be felt clearly, it's as if they were alive. But, I did not like the art of some characters, but well, they were meant to be that way, I guess. I can't expect a cunning opponent to look like a protagonist can I? (Guess who I'm referring to) Sound:8 Both OP and ED songs and animation were very fitting to anime series, but I prefer OP cause the ED seems a little too rock (I think) for me. But lyrics were really good. Voice acting was very expressive, emotional when needed and overall, very good. Sound effects were there as well when needed, and were of a high standard. Character:8 This section greatly depends on the rest of the episodes. I understand that this series starts out slow (which is good for a 26-ep show), but plenty of potential is already showing. The characters already developed have a 3-D feel to them, they show both strengths and weaknesses, and in this aspect, probably better than Slam Dunk. Problem is, with only 2 characters developed to some extent, it s hard to tell who will really be the main or side characters, so it's hard to determine a definitive score for the character section. Enjoyment:10 I'll probably be looking forward to every ep of Giant Killing, not to see them finally accomplish "Giant Killing", but to see the processes that happen before they reach there. It has been very interesting, and I watched 5 eps at 1 go. Ep 1 captivated me the moment I watched it, yes, not only the OP is good, but the show itself is really good, one notable point being animation. Overall:9 I didn't even know the term "Giant Killing" b4 watching this series, so I really dun think you hafta enjoy watching or even have any previous experiences of watching soccer before you like this anime. Quite a bit of action, drama and inspirational content in it. Of course, soccer content too. [With updates from ep5-26] Well after watching the whole thing all I can say is that this anime is good, but there were a bit too much recaps. Also, the length of focusing on important matches vs unimportant matches is huge, which sometimes will cause boredom along the way. But other than that, this anime is excellent from ep 1. The ending was nice too, the producers wrapped up this show pretty good. (Note: score lowered from 9 to 8)