Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story – 01
I guess after decades without a gold anime, getting a good one on the first try would be too much to ask. Birdie Wing pretty much checked all the boxes for an insta-drop sports show. Realism out the window, silly premise, bad CGI. It starts off with people wearing masks to (successfully) impersonate tour pros and goes downhill from there. It also objectified the female cast for good measure, though that can hardly be a surprise given that most original sports anime these days do that regardless of gender.
The funny thing is Kuroda Yousuke is a pretty good writer – and certainly a very experienced one. He’s done a lot of outstanding adaptation work but writing originals is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. And another spring sports anime drops off the map. It’s hard to imagine Ao Ashi won’t be the class of the field given how low the bar is being set (and there’s still Dance Dance Danseur, too, if you want to include that one) , but it’s still sad to see so few decent sports shows even if my expectations were modest for most of them.
Tomodachi Game – 01
To be honest I pretty much always find iterations of this genre to be dumb. Including the ones widely considered to be the “good” ones. So Tomodachi Game probably never had much of a chance with me. It’s not incompetent or anything, it’s just, well- dumb. I don’t get the fascination with dumping a bunch of teenagers into random terror games and playing head games with them. Why do people find this entertaining?
I don’t see much original in Tomodachi Game. I mean maybe death isn’t a consequence of failure here, which I suppose would be modestly atypical. Or maybe it is and we just haven’t seen that yet. Frankly I don’t really care. I just found the whole thing boring and annoying, including the annoying mascot character all these clunkers seems to have. What’s the purpose of that – doesn’t it just make things worse? I’m the worst person to be asking that question, I’m sure. Maybe this is a good one of these, maybe it isn’t – I truly have no idea – but I know it’s not for me.
Riv
April 7, 2022 at 12:40 amToo bad another sports anime failed the first episode test. I’ve been rewatching Major 2 and pining for another season.
leongsh
April 7, 2022 at 10:36 amHmm.. I’ve started rewatching Ookiku Furikabutte (Big Windup) last week for its slice-of-life sports anime. It’s been a long while since the one-cour Season 2 ended. Hoping for another season or two but feels like it will never happen.
leongsh
April 7, 2022 at 10:38 amOn the subject matter of Birdie Wing, after the first episode, it looks to me like a trashy sports anime like Prince of Tennis, but this time with golf and fan-servicey main and supporting female characters. Not going to bother further with the show.
Guardian Enzo
April 7, 2022 at 2:34 pmSomeone else compared it to One Outs, and I can sort off see that too. I have no affection for either One Outs or PoT and they’re both much better than this was, so there you go.
I think this is part of the “sports anime for people who hate sports” sub-category.
Morg
May 26, 2022 at 10:11 amWhile I completely understand writing off Birdie Wing after its first couple of episodes, I also think those first episodes do a bad job of establishing what this show really is. If I were to compare it to another sports anime the first thought I have is Skate the infinity. It doesn’t lean into the over the top ridiculousness quite as hard maybe. Or at least not all of the time, but I feel like I’m watching some kind golfing fever dream spectacle whenever it stops being a show about friendship and embraces its mafia side. It’s a bit of a mess. I think there are really two different shows being squished together here. However, it has proven to be a more entertaining mess than I expected going in. I don’t know if I’d recommend it to most people, but it’s worth a watch if you want some goofy fun.
Joshua
June 4, 2022 at 4:50 amYeah, about that wild golf shit in Birdie Wing? They chose to resolve that mafia plot in episode 8. Now they’ve pivoted away from all of the qualities that made it watchable: the mafia politics, the ridiculous characters and stereotypes, the hilariously tragic backstory of one of the mafia leaders who uses a cyborg arm to play golf against the main girl. Instead, it moved towards generic golf high school antics, emphasizing a new caddy character that’s suspiciously sanitized and hinged to say the least. This ain’t an improvement.
Guardian Enzo
June 4, 2022 at 8:10 amI’m not sorry I dropped it, believe me.
John Blacksad
June 26, 2022 at 11:52 amYou should instead
Joshua
June 27, 2022 at 7:24 amAn “over-the-top” show though should never be considered boring though. Which is exactly what describes the 4 episodes of Birdie Wing after episode 8 in a nutshell. They can toss in as many Blue Bullets, yuribait, dramatic stills and music, and wacky (but highly restrained) opponents and banter as possible, but none of it matters if it’s such a limp follow up to the absurd shit that came before that. The best the latest episode could even come up with was a muscular woman opponent, and Eve claiming she’ll (figuratively) kill her next opponent in golf. Still a far cry from the absurd mafia shit that made me curiously pick it up.
And the worst part is that they’re apparently implying a second season of this. This.