In the first place I know basically nothing about the original Shoot! except that it ran in the early 90’s, used an exclamation point in the title before it was cool, and got a contemporaneous partial adaptation (and a movie).  I’ve never seen any of the anime or read any of the manga.  It seems to have been fairly popular in its original forms, but you don’t ever seem to hear it being hailed as a classic or anything.

As far as the sequel’s connection to this original series 25 years after the fact, it seems to be that the coach character, Kamiya Atsushi, was vice-captain of the Kakegawa soccer club in the original series.  He returns now to take over at his alma mater, as the school club has fallen on hard times and is in danger of termination.  The new protagonist is a kid named Tsuji Hideto (nicknamed “Shoot”) who was a soccer genius but quit in favor of MMORPGs, apparently because he was separated from his fated soccer life partner, Kokubo Kouhei (I thought he might have had a run-in with Truck-kun but it looks like he just transferred schools).

With all that said, I have no clue if the tone here is similar to the original or not.  What I can say for sure is that this is retro in every possible way, some good and some not so much.  It really does look like a 90’s sports anime (apart from the CGI action shots), I’ll give it that.  But you know, 90’s anime don’t generally look all that great by 2022 standards.  And that tone is so over-the-top dramatic that, while it has a certain goofy charm, it sometimes comes off as self-parody.  There was more than one instance during the premiere when I wondered whether the writing was playing it straight or not.

That applies to the Hideot-Kouhei angle, too.  Goodness me, some of those flashbacks were like something from Wuthering Heights (and I’m not a fan of Wuthering Heights).  My suspicion is that this isn’t really meant ironically or anything – I think the writer (Hirota Mitsutaka) is trying too hard to have the show play as authentic to the original.  But for me at least it’s unintentionally funny more than anything, which is a real problem.  Unless of course it’s trying to be funny, in which case “Bravo”.

It must be said that it doesn’t do Shoot! any favors to be running concurrently – even broadcast on the same day – with Ao Ashi.  That series is simply on another level in every respect – writing, production values, casting, music.  That’s not fair of course, but it’s reality – comparing one soccer anime against the other is inevitable.  That said I will give Shoot! a chance to grow on me, since I love soccer anime and generally appreciate old-school.  The premiere didn’t do a lot to convince me this series has enough in the tank to go the distance, but I would be quite happy to be proved wrong.