Yes, it’s weird to have a regular (not a superpower like Kimetsu or Shingeki) TV anime premiere a month into the season.  I’m pretty sure Ryman’s Club was delayed a week due to a tsunami warning, but even so it would have been the latest premiere of the season.  But this is a case of “what’s last is first”, at least as far as sports anime are concerned.  In what’s turned out to be a highly mediocre crop, this one was easily the best (as I sort of suspected it would be) – though you can’t assume jack after one episode.

The staff at Lidenfilms for Ryman’s Club is actually fairly solid, though writer-director Yamauchi Aimi has nothing in the resume to hint at whether they’re up to the challenge of that role on an original series.  The cast, though – that’s unassailable.  You could do a show of Miki Shinichirou reading the side of cereal boxes and I’d pretty much be on-board, and you also have the superb and currently underutilized Ohsaka Ryouta.  LiA Oscar runner-up Enoki Junya, Ishikawa Kaitou, Kakihara Tetsuya and Kuroda Takaya are no slouches either (and there are a shit-ton more big names to follow).

Now, as to this whole matter of corporate badminton teams…  If this is a thing in Japan, I was wholly unaware of it.  The title is a play on “salaryman’s club”, and if the behavior of protagonist Shiratori Mikoto is to be believed, companies apparently “employ” athletes just to be part of their league squads (I assume this is not limited to badminton).  So when Shiraotori is fired from his job at Mitsuhoshi Bank for not winning enough badminton matches, he’s surprised when his next gig at Sunshine Beverages apparently involves actual suit and tie work.  What a strange thing this is, but it seems to be perfectly natural in Japan based on the behavior of the characters here.

After a brief pre-open in Kyoto (it’s strange that iconic Kyoto Station so rarely shows up in anime) Mikoto returns to his hometown (where his mom has given his room to an Iguana) to work at Sunshine.  On the way he meet’s Miki’s Miyazumi Tatsuru passed out in the park after a night drinking.  Tatsuru ties Mikoto’s tie most creatively, and the naive 19 year-old heads to the office without realizing he’s quite the spectacle.  Turns out the older Tatsuru (he’s 32) works at Sunshine too, and he’s to be Mikoto’s mentor at sales and partner at doubles.  Mikoto’s old high school teammate Saeki Touya (that’s Ohsaka) works (and plays) for Sunshine too.  The rest of the team is his older brother, the singles ace, and the goofball Takeda-san (Touya’s doubles partner).

This is a big step-down from powerhouse Mitsuhoshi – not only does Mikoto have to actually work but the badminton team practices at an elementary school.  There’s some obvious sports PTSD for former “child prodigy” Mikoto – a disastrous high school defeat and maybe an injury, trauma related to his doubles partner that’s put him off doubles.  He’s to be Tatsuru’s partner though, and after he loses a challenge match with Tatsuru with the opportunity to play singles on the line, this odd couple relationship is set to take center stage.

All in all I liked this quite a lot.  Miki’s Tatsuru is the clear standout of the premiere but all the cast are fine so far, even if some are rather archetypal.  Badminton is a somewhat unusual sport for anime (Ryman’s will keep the seat warm for Ao no Hako’s eventual arrival), and a corporate club team a somewhat unusual group of protagonists.  Mikoto’s “foresight” hook is interesting enough, and the times the show tries to be funny it usually is – which is altogether a good sign.  Better late than never, I say – it’s not like this season is jam-packed to begin with, so hopefully Ryman’s Club can build on the promise of the first episode and claim a place at the table.