Two weeks into Ahiru no Sora finds us still at the stock sports anime stage, more or less. A few elements stand out as better than average (like the OP), a few as worse (like the casting for the protagonist) but on the whole, we’re pretty much right down the middle. Of course we’re talking about a manga that’s been running almost 17 years, so what the series eventually becomes may be pretty different from what it is now. With a year to prove itself, even the anime has the breathing room to take its time.
One thing that’s sort of unusual about this series (a slow-ish start certainly isn’t for a sports shounen) is the attention paid to the female characters in a story about a male sports team. That’s a bit of a double-edged sword here, though. You get an acknowledgement of women’s basketball as being legit, which is obviously nice. But there’s a rather juvenile and puerile note to proceedings too – all this business about Chiaki’s peeping obsession and trying to steal bras (which Sora is only too happy to play along with) is pretty low-class (at best), and I could do without all the needless hemline shots. Also – ducks can fly, Chiaki. You really ought to know that, smart kid like you.
As for the rest of it, it is as I said mostly stock footage at this point. Sora is your archtypical plucky and tireless undersized hero, practicing his shot for hours on end to try and make up for his vertical challenges. And Momoharu’s rehabilitation has a familiar look to it too – a kid who quit basketball and became a yankee because he simply wasn’t getting any better at it. If anything the only unusual thing is that it may have started a bit quicker than you’d expect. I’m more interested in Chiaki’s side of things – maybe he was only playing because Momoharu was, and that’s why he quit. But my sense is that there’s more going on with that angle than we’ve seen so far – still waters run deep, as they say.
In one sense it’s going to be easy to be patient with Ahiru no Sora, because I could watch a decent sports anime if my hair was on fire and this one certainly is decent. But the longer it goes without distinguishing itself in any particular way the higher the bar it has to clear when it finally does (assuming that happens eventually). A slow build can be par for the course with long-running shounen, not least sports ones, and that’s priced in for me – I just hope the build isn’t so slow I eventually lose interest altogether.
BlueBlue
October 11, 2019 at 3:41 amHere we go again! (first of all, stay safe, regarding the typhoon).
I was impatiently waiting for that episode as (as a manga reader), that one and the next one (and another one maybe in about 10) will define, in my opinion, who really wants to stay on board or not.
Regarding the main theme of the episode itself, that means Momoharu, I should say that I have been extremely happy to read there and there people saying that they recognize themselves in his story. There nothing more good than a “cliché” which is just something perfectly real and human, so at the end, a “good cliché” (of course, not everyone becomes a bully after that!).
About your Chiaki’s expectations, I would just say that more than his background, his personality is what I find more interesting as he’s also a character in which people can recognize themselves. And actually, this is in my opinion a strength of that series. By the way, you are right about the fact that Sora is not a saint. But personnally, I really like it and it was already shown in episode 1 that he’s not afraid aboout fighting (or I should say getting beat up). I mean, apart from Sport, he’s a regular high-schooler (at least the majority, from my experience). I know that you prefer Ei-chan (who does not? lol) but c’mon, he’s also a weirdo (even his beloved Natsu pointed it out!).
Talking about the pervy trait, I should say that you have been lucky that censorship came in the way because I can tell you that this is more than hemline (btw, thanks for enriching my vocab) shots we were supposed to see lol. But once again, as I said last week, me I am not bothered by these things as they are gags (but I can understand that this is not the cup of tea of everyone). But for instance, in the manga, when he planned to get the bra, actually there are girls (from another club) on the otherside of the wall (which makes his double entendre “call it quits” more funny as Sora is threaten by the girls thinking that he’s the culprit).
But actually, the main reason why I was waiting for that episode was our beloved censorship and as I was expecting, they have been in full-gear mode!
I mean, it may not look like it, but the beginning of the manga is quite violent. I am not saying that this is Berserk or Balde of immortal lol, but once again this is a manga of the early 2000’s and the setup is quite inspired by the “thug manga” which was a thing in the previous years (and which is now mainly the bread and butter of Akita Shoten). So for instance, during the fight with the Maru thugs, Momoharu is even “sucker”-slashed. It may seem like gratuitous violence, but this is actually a good opportunity to see how Chiaki care for his brother. But anyway, it doesn’t become a storyline so i can understand why they remove it (in addition of the censorship). There are also alcohol and cigarettes consumption. But, I imagine that this is the price to pay for getting “yu gi-oh” timeslot.
So, let’s the build-up proceed…
Paul
October 11, 2019 at 11:12 pmI’d say the show really starts to show well once you get a few more of the main characters, and when the first match starts. The games define this series. I had forgotten how generic the beginning is but it definitely begins to distinguish itself later.
BlueBlue
October 12, 2019 at 1:23 pmBy “define”, do you mean “distinguish” and do you mean “only the games”? Because if that is the case, I would say that this is a bit reductive (without any polemical intent). Yes the games are other “pluses”, but in my opinion, the character development outside of the games is also interesting.
But anyway, we have ongoing episodes (hopefully) for talking about it without spoilering. : )