Lacking what is considered the most important asset in basketball, Sora Kurumatani has struggled with his short height since the inception of his love for the game. Despite missing this beneficial aspect, Sora's unwavering drive never allowed his small stature to dictate his ability to play, believing strongly in trying his hardest and persistently practicing to prove his capability.
In hopes of satisfying his mother's wishes, Sora enters Kuzuryuu High School to become a member of the basketball club and compete wholeheartedly in tournaments. However, Sora is disappointed to find out that the boy's basketball team is nothing but a retreat for punks who have no interest in the sport. Sora also comes to learn that brothers Chiaki and Momoharu Hanazono—whom he becomes acquainted with—have also lost their once spirited motivation to play.
Determined to revive the basketball team, Sora challenges the boys to a match against him, where his quick feet and swift movements overwhelm the group. Gradually affected by Sora's impressive skills, sheer effort, and tireless devotion to basketball, the boys unexpectedly find their burnt-out passion for the game rekindling once again.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Dee333
I loved the story of this show so much, the characters are the most real I've seen in a while; they make mistakes, they fall in love and they're not all perfect all the time. and they feel like they're people I know in real life. SPOILERS BELOW In the entire show I don't think I've seen the team win once which as a person who played basketball for 3 years I say that's the most realistic thing ever basketball takes a lot of time to learn and not a sport you can perfect in a couple of month and it's a given that a new formed teamwill struggle just as much as they did especially the three who just started playing and them wanting to quit at the beginning is something I myself have went through and know to well.
The music is amazing I added all the Ops and Eds to my playlist and also the ost is so good.
The only reason it's an 8 and not higher is the animation it didn't affect my enjoyment of the show that much but it could've been better.
NextUniverse
TLDR Review at the bottom. Hopefully, that helped. Thanks for reading this review if you do. Ahiru no Sora truly wanted to be something. Ahiru no Sora had the story, the characters, but with most Shounen anime, high episode count = bad. You know, the Toei Animation disease. The problem with high episode counts is that there is too much room, way too much room. So much room that episodes get drawn out to add suspense for, well, “DON’T MISS OUT ON NEXT WEEK’S EPISODE”. With so much room you would probably expect a magnitude of plot devices here and there to keep the story somewhatentertaining, but instead, anime like so just stick to their ground with overdrawn development and action. It is almost as if the writers understood that there was no conceivable way to make a story out of something so very long to the point where they just gave a middle finger to the story and began writing a product rather than something that can even be considered a decent story. It happens all the time, DBZ, One Piece, Bleach, Black Clover too. They’re all just massive let downs because they decided that it would be best to continue as some over winded product rather than just let up and end the story where it is at. I really don’t think the future for long-running anime is looking too good in terms of pulling the best stories anyone has seen, it is just a curse at this point in which all long-running anime will inevitably fall in the same circle of continuously going through the same thing over and over again with writing slipped conveniently at the right moments to create the illusion of a grand journey. It is a big deception device that people will fall into since it sells well as a product rather than something with the intention of being a true story.
Story - 6:
Pacing. With a count of 50 episodes, do I need to say more? In all fairness though, while the pacing is so bad that you can literally forget what happened the episode right before even during a binge-watch. There is an actual narrative Ahiru no Sora has to show, and that narrative is actually pretty good. It all boils down to the story of the immense training of working towards your dream, via loss, and while this isn’t original, the grand scheme of the story is actually somewhat enjoyable to experience. While the story has a good narrative, the pacing suffers so much that it harms the story way too much. Honestly, one match takes up about 8 episodes, who the hell is gonna remember anything?
Art/Visuals - 5:
Zero effort. You can tell that someone was there at the studio going like: Still shot, add dash effect, opacity = 10%, pan camera. Over and over again. There was little animation half the time that it is not even funny, I genuinely think someone looked at Ahiru no Sora and thought, “Yeah bro, you give us this literal trash, so we are not even going to try anymore”, and when there was it would ironically be used for the most irrelevant parts and less for the basketball matches where people want to see some class tricks happening here and there. I don’t know what the logic is there but someone either couldn’t be bothered, or the studio had the same situation with Sonic The Hedgehog movie where someone looked at the design and thought, “Yeah, this is good”. 3D animation for the ball too, it wasn’t ugly, but it wasn’t good either, though, I would rather have the 3D animation kept in place than some “attempted” 2D animation of a literal basketball. I don’t know how Diomedea rolls especially how this is their only work that I have seen, but I am sure that they aren’t as bad as what they have given to the audience of this anime.
Character designs, however, were pretty good, it isn’t something that you see every day which gave it its unique style, however, it isn’t groundbreakingly good either. It has style but lacks power, the power to be successful as a standalone design.
Sound/Audio - 6:
Very basic sounds, used “in the moment” too, though, with 50 episodes to watch from, the OST easily because very easy to remember, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it was because the OST was good, there were merely just lots of space to throw in an OST whenever a match was played. The 4 OPs and EDs were pretty good but they were box standard in the realm of shounen anime. Nothing else to add onto that.
With VCs, Yuki Kaji on job with Sora and he did a good job at voicing Sora’s personality. Other characters had a good sense of character through VCs too, in that, this is an anime featuring delinquents. So the aggressive attitudes and voices conveyed that well.
Characters - 7:
The characters are the only thing I respect about the show, unlike the story which had horrible pacing, the characters did have some solid development, whilst it was slow, it still existed, and what made it better was that there was a sense of believable growth to these characters. People don’t just change overnight, and ironically, an incredibly prolonged story made for the best way to prove that statement. Through training, hardships, and dumbass mistakes, these characters went from zero and are still growing to this moment in time. In saying this, however, the only characters who get this kind of development were Sora, Kenji, Momoharu and Kaname (to some extent). That isn’t to say the other characters were just left out because why not, rather, they weren’t focused on much, yeah, there was visible development on them, but in something as long as Ahiru no Sora, you would think that there would be a good 20 mins dedicated for each particular character. Yeah. That doesn’t happen. I really think that the writers forgot half the characters in the show and couldn’t be bothered to do any more work to write them back in.
Enjoyment - 4:
Instead of writing why enjoyment was bad. I will leave you with a (rhetorical) question.
Would you really enjoy what is essentially 3/4 of a show being poorly animated basketball matches, with 4 developing characters and a slow story that gets worked on whenever the writers want to work on it?
Overall - 5.6 (6)
TLDR Review:
Story - 6: Good narrative, but horrible pacing.
Art - 5: Just panned shots with some effects whenever a basketball match plays, otherwise, decent in between
Sound - 6: Very basic OST.
Characters - 7: Actual good characters, but not all of them are developed.
Enjoyment - 4: Too long to enjoy.
Overall - 5.6 (6)
As someone who has never read the manga, I still have every intention to do so but Ahiru no Sora further emphasises that long shounen anime is not good. I know this isn’t battle shounen but these are just becoming products for people in the shounen demographic to just be like: “Yo, I’m gonna start playing basketball now to get as cool as these characters” or “Yo, I’m gonna starting fighting like some that hero so I can get really strong.” And does it work? Yeah. Sometimes I find myself in the position, but that doesn’t excuse that the fact that in anime, there are some genuine stories to be told and I simply cannot place Ahiru no Sora on a level like them as so.
sushiisawesome
Ahiru no Sora is a coming of age story about how easy it is to live an uncomfortably aimless life, with a cast that struggles with how listless living such a life makes them due to their isolation from living a youthful life, social problems and their own apathy, with the series emphasizing the importance of breaking out of that apathy and struggling to find a passion in order to at least move forward, regardless of the excruciating difficulty that would follow. Basketball is the vehicle used to drive these characters forward and plays an important role in these characters finding a way to bereborn, but what the series emphasizes is a need for introspection in order to do something you truly love and can push you forward enough to give you a purpose in life, regardless of the mistakes one might do or the pain that lies further down the road. It handles all this with an exceptional amount of nuance and subtlety, never genuinely shoving these themes down the viewer's throat and instead expects the audience to pick up on hints given throughout much of the first act of the series - covering around the first 33 episodes. This in and of itself is a problem; in sharp contrast to series like Haikyuu and Kuroko, which act more as hypebeasts trying to drag viewers in with gorgeous visuals and adrenaline pumping matches, whereas viewers watching Ahiru no Sora will be treated to lengthy comedy sequences as well as slice of life segments involving the main cast, which due to being very slow paced and often with mixed comedic timing don't endear the show to a wider audience.
While in and of itself neither lengthy comedy sequences nor slice of life segments need to necessarily be a problem, the show ruins this with its dragged out, stretched pacing - a quick distinction from its manga counterpart, where dialogue often flowed naturally and games happened at a quick enough pace to not be dragged out. This made stretches of the show often a drag to watch, and while the slice of life segments don't suffer much from this, the comedy and games proper often do - this is probably why critical reception to the show was considerably worse than much of its recent long-running contemporaries like Haikyuu, Ace of Diamond or Kuroko, which all are comparatively high budget adaptations created by Production IG. By comparison, Ahiru no Sora was done by Diomedea studio, a studio with a prominent reputation for low budget production values and pacing issues with many adaptations they've done; while parts of the series are wonderfully directed, these parts come in-between stretches of very strangely paced episodes. On the flipside, the soundtracks is pretty great, with many standout tracks salvaging many games, and a particular mention needing to go to the various OPs/EDs in the series, with the fourth opening and third ending being my personal favorites. That said, none of the OPs or EDs are particularly bad and all of them are fantastic, which isn't something that can be said for every series with a multitude of OPs/EDs like this one.
Sora's character arc about his complex for his height is greatly expanded on over the course of the series; much about his character seems typical for the standard sports lead, but the distinction is in Sora's nuance. Sora often recklessly challenges delinquents - something used for comic relief - but this disguises a character often insecure about his own height and masculinity in a sport where both are associated with being a better player, with this being contrasted with his mom's upbringing of him which turned that very short stature into a strength instead of a weakness. This largely is what drives Sora forward as a character despite his poor treatment both by his would-be classmates and general student body, with his perseverance standing out in the ocean of apathy that is his school and driving the group of delinquents that largely comprise the rest of the team. However, his character arc is more about how he often defines himself by his mom's upbringing - and how this in return leaves him helpless to find guidance for himself, whose role Madoka fills up as the series continues, acting as the closest thing in the cast to an emotional voice of reason. A combination of his dynamic with Madoka as well as his own desire for independence mean that by the end of the series and after a fair few twists and turns, Sora has begun the steps to attaining his own self-defined independence, with his willingness to turn a certain lie into the truth and take responsibility for his own actions being a driving force.
Momoharu and Chiaki act as another contrast in this regard both to Sora as well as each other, with Chiaki's more extrospective personality concealing a cynical yet realist mind on the team and chances for success, while Momoharu acts introspectively yet concealing a certain hot-bloodedness that drives him to improve further. The two are brothers, growing up taking inspiration from iconic sports manga only to have that idealism crushed when facing odds that are against them, leading to Chiaki being disinterested due to associating his love for the sport with his odds for victory, and Momoharu slowly following by drowning in his own apathy, being discriminated against due to his appearance as well as attitude. Both brothers grow gradually over the course of the series, with Chiaki slowly understanding that he needs to broaden his horizons and reach for the stars rather than simply ground himself in seemingly objective expectations, while Momoharu's impulsiveness leads him to make several mistakes that lead to him slowly taking his passion for basketball seriously and discovering a love for the sport that has seemingly long been lost. Much of their characterization in this adaptation happens in the second half of the anime, but much of their negative traits (overplayed and emphasized as they are) fade the longer the series goes on.
Tobi acts as the closest thing the series has to a veteran player, being cocky and highly individualistic - which betrays a deep resentment of not just his school but most people around him in general, driven by a cynicism of being judged both due to his appearance as well as his estrangement from his broken family life, with his sister acting as the closest thing he has to a bond. He's cocky, arrogant and full of himself, yet these same negative traits conceal a jaded person whose life experiences have driven him to apathy to the point where he'd shun people away. And yet through his experiences joining the team, he realizes that there are players who have undergone troubling experiences yet come out smiling on the other side and being better than he is, pushing him not only to remain loyal to the team but often acting more and more selflessly the longer the series goes on. Much of Tobi's characterization is gradual yet consistent, with his negative traits not detracting from his likability as a character; it's beyond refreshing in a cast filled of delinquents to have a character that only very slowly defrosts over time, and Tobi - partially due to his growing dynamic with Sora but also his immediately sympathetic reason for both playing the sport and remaining loyal to the team - is my favorite character in the series, and I can't wait for more of his progression over the course of the manga.
Kaname is the final central character introduced over the course of the series, with his character arc acting as a foil to Sora's - being one where instead of being discriminated for his shortiness as is the case with Sora, instead being constantly pushed into a sport he grows to apparently dislike due to his height, with his teammates constantly ridiculing him for his low stamina and poor health. His character arc is partially about rediscovering his love for basketball independently of the very factors that pushed him to fall out of love with it, with the cast encouraging him to play to his strengths and be more assertive about his interests while also being conscious about his health. Also relevant is Kaname's subplot with a side character, and how he uses as a motivation his feelings for her in order to drive him forward to improve as a player and win games - making him increasingly become a more prominent player as the series goes on despite his physical weaknesses. Kaname's interactions with Sora are worthy of note due to the contrast between both characters, but there's a surprising amount of nuance and even a thematic point made in the series that what one of them possess the other lacks and vice versa, which grants credence to their friendship as well as their dynamic on the court.
Various side characters are also worthy of note; Sora's mom is a moral support who I loved from the moment she showed up on screen, acting as a kind yet firm voice to guide Sora forward despite her own health. Nanao is an unbelievably likable character whose main flaw is her self-centeredness in taking responsibility for the team's failings when she's the de facto manager upon herself, and yet grows stronger as she realizes that regardless of her tactical prowess, there's only so much she can do alone. Madoka's dynamic with Sora is my favorite in the series, with her acting increasingly as moral support yet due to her own awkwardness in approaching sensitive subjects - a weakness that backfires on her later on in the series - is often easily dismissed in-setting as shallow, when her introspective nature reveals she's anything but that; she bonds with Sora's family, growing ever closer to Sora as she understands his weaknesses and strengths, and grows to become a personal crutch to him as the series goes on due to her own caring for him, even if her consideration for his feelings often stand in the way (even if understandable in-context) from further emotional intimacy. Much of my favorite slice of life segments came from Madoka's interactions with Sora, with their dynamic growing naturally over the course of the series. Many, many characters can be laid out here; Shinichi, Chiba, Fuwa, Satsuki and Yozan all being noteworthy characters that grow over the course of the series.
Ahiru no Sora is a really damn good sports series that has gone under the radar due to various issues I mentioned earlier and understandably so; unfortunately, this means that the manga remains the optimal version to experience Ahiru no Sora's story. What is being adapted, however, is still really good, just marred by all these production problems for those that are willing to give this series a fair chance and are unwilling to read manga for the optimal experience. There's much to love about this series, and considering material that comes later on, I certainly hope for a season 2 to come somewhere down the line, albeit admittedly I certainly wouldn't mind a considerably better production.
Nonetheless, I highly recommend this series and especially in manga format for those that are looking for a damn good sport series, and I don't speak that kind of praise lightly.
Thank you very much for reading.
HenriqueNeves
Formal and Dramatic (Warning: this review contains important spoilers, be warned.) I really liked how Ahiru no Sora manages to act as a collective test of endurance between characters and viewers. The protagonists do not win any game during all 50 episodes. The weight of the practically certain defeats, of the changes that the characters suffer, of the early elimination at the beginning of the championship, all the disappointment experienced by the characters who fail to achieve small conquests is always reflected to the public through a dramatic formality in small details. The anime during matches gives a very significant importance to some more dramatic devices than theoccasional one. There are several things happening at the same time in small details. The anime frames the scoreboard with a distressing relationship. Each basket has a very significant weight, whether the point is for or against the characters, or if they are winning or losing a match.
The result of these formal choices is never related only to the match being played. These small details are very well suited to this dramatic relationship that is very well developed and correlated with Basketball. The main characters already have a relationship linked to defeats and personal problems, or caused by themselves. Instead of the anime victimizing these actions and difficulties, it recognizes and uses them as a means for them to overcome and be able to move on.
Even though the dramatic development is sensational, the way it ends in a few moments disappointed me a little. The truth is that anime most of the time works with this in a very subtle way, and even manages to finish it in the same way in some moments, but in others it does it in a very glaring way, which ends up sounding very appealing.
CBMiura
I really enjoy basketball so for me it's hard to see such potencial wasted. Ahiru no Sora in order to develop the characters nerfed our main protagonist through the entire show. The animation it's decent, the characters are being developed. But our main protagonist that have his name in the anime title, just vanish through the show. I don't know the original source but to have such a useless protagonist kills the entire show. Even though the animation is pretty decent, it can't save the story. Ahiru no Sora fails in build and keep the hype. Sora it's sold as a badass hidden and unpolished gem, butin the reality he's nothing near this. I was getting more and more frustrated about the development of the anime.
I wouldn't recommend this, they made 50 episodes and still doesn't properly developed their characters, quite the opposite, they nerfed their characters and the story doesn't go anywhere in those 50 episodes.
hikkikomori8man
The show starts out really well. All the characters are introduced one after the other and all of them are great. The starting few matches are really great as well. Most of Kuzuryu's players are inexperienced and hence they lose a lot of their starting few matches which makes sense. The players from the other teams like Konishi, Chiba san, Tokiwa and Nanao's cousin are all really lovable characters. After playing a few practice matches and gathering a full team, they finally get to an official match. I really liked the fact that they gave some history to the opposition they faced in the officialmatch. But this is where the anime starts its downward spiral. Kuzuryu plays really well creating a substantial point difference between themselves and the opponents. At this point the Kuzuryu players start to get tired. Although this makes sense for the others, it doesn't for specifically Tobi and Sora. Sora is shown to have amazing stamina running 10 kms everyday, attending practice and classes and then doing 1000 3 pointer shoots. Tobi was someone who was a regular in his middle school team and hence had played many matches before. This didn't make any sense to me. Regardless Kuzuryu soldiered on. There were 3 seconds remaining on the clock. Nanao is able to accurately predict who is going to receive the pass after the rebound. Sora goes to block him from making a shoot or even receiving the pass in the first place. Moreover the player was not adept at making 3 pointers as he had failed until now. I though that the victory was in the bag but suddenly we cut to Sora's mom dying. I liked her but this abrupt cut made me really angry. Sora tells her that they won the match and I feel great but then we find out that they actually lost. I calmed myself and moved on but they burnt down their club building to force character development and romance. That angered me even further. Not only that they did that through a cigarette which fell along with juice and chips packets. This means that the cigarette fell on a damp floor away from inflammable objects and set the whole building on fire. Next Nabe accepts a practice match invitation from the best team in their area. We already know that they are going to lose terribly yet that match is extremely long and boring. I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone past the official match.
JaaXTM
I see a lot of comments of people that Say its boring i would say as a basketball fan this anime is complete. It shows every aspect of what a basketball game is it highlight most of the values of being young and dedicated and passionnante about a sport. I felt like when i was playing all the emotions that this anime is displaying and not only being hype like in Kuroko there is much more depht to the story. 50 ep isn't enough i would like to see a S2 as its only the beginning its rising from the ashes ( for those who sawit and have the ref 🤣 ). For every sport fan i recommand this anime 100%
rayenmarcos23
Review and rating of Ahiro no Sora The past decade was full of popular and high-quality sports anime, such as Haikyuu Diamond No Ace, the third IPO season, but in the second half of the decade there was a decline in the number of sports anime, despite the release of one of the best anime, Running from the Wind, which raised the level again until the release of the anime, which was expected in an absent sport, the anime Ahiro no sura Information about the anime Anime name: ahiru no sora Genre: School Comedy Comedy Drama Sports ShounenAge group: +13
Studio: Diomedéa (same studio as Habiba at home)
Quote source: manga
Number of episodes: 50
Presentation year: Fall 2019
Author: Hinata, Takeshi
Global Rating: 7.38
Anime story:
The story revolves around Sora Kurumatani, who promised his mother that he would dominate his first high school tournament. But after entering Kozuryu High School and joining the basketball club, he discovers that it has become a place for delinquents
Character Rating
Although the characters of Ahiro have a repetitive template, especially the hero, but they are realistic characters close to me. Reality has changed and internal conflicts. The best character in the work was Momoharu, who faced internal conflicts and developed as a person from a delinquent to a leader who depends on him and Natsume and trying to overcome his selfish complex and work not only focus on the heroes, but give The role of the rest of the teams and adults, which gave me the matches value, especially with the lack of them, and this is a point that the writer counts for me
Evaluation of the story and events (contains burning)
Ahiro's story at the beginning seemed to have a repetitive mold and the events are also like a short boy trying to achieve his dream and delinquents trying to change, but after the first match in the national championship qualifiers, the direction of work changed and became better after their loss logically after the writer explained that experience played its role and the death of the hero's mother and the club's fire and their separation and then Depriving them of playing for me for a year. All these events have developed the characters. They have made sports and the story a more important goal for me. We see different aspects of the characters and we are interested in the team as well, waiting for the rest of the events
Production evaluation (drawing and animation)
The production in general, I don't want to lie, was a disaster and almost finished the work, were it not for the rest of the events and the weekly viewing, there is literally no Sakuga scene in one!! Game clips, just spaced clips, bad and heavy animation, faded colors, backgrounds that do not change, character design. It is true that it is similar to me manga, but it is without soul. It is clear that the studio focused on the number of episodes instead of their production quality, and this is a big mistake for me. This type of anime has greatly reduced its level.
Output Rating:
Most of the director's work was to cover the obvious production flaws, which made the production very ordinary without any distinction and it does not deserve to be expanded more except for the excellent Opining.
Music Rating
Bahiro’s music was very good. The Obings were excellent. I follow the work atmosphere and employ it after another, especially the first Obeng, which presented the future in a light and can be considered one of the best in its year and in the classification in general, but it does not reach me the level of the best in the industry, and for me Ending is also not less than Obeng level. Quiet and dramatic, it adds to the atmosphere of the story, and it complemented the dramatic side with the work. As for Austat, it is not a good one. I did not notice any other Aust that deserves to be mentioned, so we can consider the musical side to be very good in general.
sounds
The voice actor has become a prominent role for me these days by showing the character in the required way and in a strange way. The studio brought the best voice actors to me. Most of the characters who increased the dramatic aspect and the internal struggles of the characters showed me. It also added me the comedy in a good way. I can only say that the voices were really excellent.
As for me, the other effects, such as hitting the ball, etc., were annoying and uncomfortable, and sometimes you did not feel their presence at all, and this is another negative point from the negative aspects of the work that abounded
The athletic side of my work
The matches were few, which helped the writer to write the story of all the matches well, as although they were training and preliminary matches, but we felt their importance to the teams, and the players’ positions were explained well and some good tactics were presented, but there is a defect, which is that the teams’ methods are literally one and not
There is a team that is distinguished from the other by anything in its style without forgetting to allocate a high school student to me to train the team, which is completely illogical. In short, the sports side was good in simple tactics and very weak in playing methods.
Positives
Good main characters
Comedy is light and fun and does not interfere with matches
Excellent drama with the inner struggle of the character
very good music
Match stories and characters
Explain the rules of the sport well
Negatives
Double output and output
Lack of diversity of playing styles
There are some illogical things like a high school girl perceiving me tactics
The writer is confused in choosing romantic relationships, where you suddenly find a character who loves this and suddenly the other
My opinion in general
Ahiro's work had great potential for me to become among the best, but the poor production, the failure of the studio and the writer's lack of sufficient knowledge of sports made him drop me to the average level.
My rating: 7.5
Jaikeis
Nothing really stands out about Ahiru no Sora. At the immediate surface level, the animation never really goes beyond perfunctory in the basketball games, with many scenes being obvious manga panel stills embellished with some sliding motions in the foreground. As is rather infamous, the animation team tries to ape Kuroko's Basketball in conveying how fast the characters are moving, but without the polish of Kuroko's production it just looks comical. Game flow massively suffers as a result, so it's hard to get invested in games when it's often unclear what plays are happening. Storywise though, I have to give the show props for not beinga cookie cutter underdog narrative. We start with the basketball team as a complete sham and front for a delinquents' hangout brought about by the school's mandatory club rules. So when the team does get dragged into trying to play a game, they suck. A lot. They never win any of their practice games. They lose their first match in the tournament prelims. In fact, in the show's 50-episode run, the team plays five games and wins exactly zero of them.
The basketball games aren't really what's important in the show though. They're simply the medium for carrying the real meat of the show: the character arcs. You've got the usual spiel with the kids about finding a passion and working hard to achieve something even if you fail, but I find the advisor to be the most compelling character as the representation of the primary conflict of the series. Because of their reputation, the basketball team commands not an iota of respect from the school, neither from the faculty or the other students. The advisor comes in only because he is told to by the principal, and he immediately lays it out that he is not invested in the future of the team and would really have it be disbanded as soon as possible. He is convinced that people don't fundamentally change, but the team's earnest efforts to get better and make up for their mistakes slowly wins him over. They might cause trouble and get into fights, but they're ultimately just kids, and kids need to be nurtured and encouraged, not abandoned.
It's a sweet sentiment, but it's a bit undermined by how much of this show is its very lame treatment of its female characters. We get a scene early on with one of the main characters trying to peep on the girls' locker room and then steal their underwear, and that pretty much sets the tone for the entire show. The most egregious instance is when they play a practice game against the girls' basketball team. When the coach brings it up, the boys scoff at the idea that any game with such a lopsided physical advantage could possibly be worth going through, and one of them cheekily suggests that maybe they'll be motivated if the girls all strip naked if they lose. This turns into the captain of the girls' team getting stuck as the sole victim of the losing condition, and absolutely none of the boys even try protesting this despite the show presenting some of them elsewhere as good-natured and nice people. I've never been a high school boy, so perhaps having uncontrollably horny urges is simply accurate to real life, but I'd rather not see it in my media.
Ahiru no Sora is basically a melodrama in disguise, complete with a obviously dying mom for the protagonist, and to that effect it's pretty good. Worth a look if you can ignore the lackluster animation, somewhat slow pacing, and questionable characterization, but there's no doubt in my mind that the manga is the better format for the series.
micro4
Let Me get this out of the way. If you like Elfen Lied(The Saddest Anime ever made) you will like this show.The show really is good... Until it isn't. You watch all of Sora's pain and frustration and watch him build up his skills and abilities and what do you get in return? The show slaps you across the face. I know reality is harsh but come on. Every time you think the show is going to payoff all the buildup it spits in your face. Especially the season finale. The animation is fine, but considering I have low standards as long as the story is goodmy opinion is a little off. Until the season finale I had this show at about a 7.5 I was quite happy watching it. Until the final episode of the season, the show takes all your hopes out back and puts them down like Old Yeller with a rifle bullet to the brain. I will not spoil but damn its rough. If you want a feel good sports anime look elsewhere
BTKB
Best anime series I have seen. I wanted to watch this because I finished watching Slam Dunk, and so, I wanted to find and watch an anime that involved basketball. Luckily, I found this anime. It had comedy and great animation when it came to playing basketball. Hopefully, they make Season 2 of this. If they don't, then that would be sad. Plus I might get angry because I am not a fan of cancellations of anime series. Anyway, waiting for Season 2. Of course, reading the manga is another option, but I like seeing it animated and all. Hopefully, they do release Season 2. Of course, thatinvolves every other anime series.
Offset
Subjectively the anime of the year. Such a unique one.Most of the goodness of Ahiru no Sora come from the realness of the characters. Each one has a rich lifestory and his own character. We assist to the whole mental process, grind and struggle they go through. Trust me you won't lose your time; I do not really understand these such negative comments, those may come from fans Kuroko's style, fulfilled with superpowers stuff. This anime shows us a realer side of basketball; it tooks a lot of time to progress, lot of struggle to get to the top. The art may not beas good as other animes, but the soundtrack, the openings & endings are pretty good. The overall story has is own kind of originality, especially after the third match. The 50 episodes make the pleasure last. Ahiru no Sora enters in the category of the Sports anime which make you motivated to grind. Thanks to all the people who contributed to making this anime.
nate_iskm
STORY (6/10): The story itself isn't bad, but the way that anime presents with that slow paced show, make it look worse. All the emotional parts was truly good for the development of the characters, but as I say before, the rhythm wasn't collaborating wtih what the story suggests. The major problem of the story is the pace. ART (7/10): Some say that the art isn't good but for me, for what they purposed. This anime is NOT a sports anime, it's a drama anime surrounded by a sport background. Just see that even a single time the anime focus on the moves, but yeton the story of which character. The art is for a drama-comedy anime with a sports direction on the plot. That's why the art is good, because they clearly complete for what they purpose.
SOUND (6/10): The sound is very good when it comes to music. But sound itself it's different from music, and that's the problem. The anime doesn't have a good sound design when it comes off the story, in the matches for example. So it wasn't good but also it wasn't complete trash, I would say as the rate says: fair
CHARACTER (8/10): The very best part of the anime is how they develop the emotional part of very each character, and how they use that emotional part into others and into the sport itself. I mean, Momoharu was the best character so far in the anime by the things that he say and felt, not because of him at the basketball match.
ENJOYMENT (7/10): I really appreciate the anime, but the slow pace at the story and plot, really got on my nerves. I understand it is a narrative style remembering the old sports animes and manga (80s/90s style to be more accurate). So, about this, they could step further a little faster considering that the story that they tell, wasn't so necessary to spend that much time on the games, because the characters are evolving, not the match itself.
OVERALL (7/10): It's an unfair comparision to Kuroko no Basket for example, because Kuroko is bad. Kuroko is a shonen with no character development and good animation so stop do this. If you want to compare with an anime we have the old good classic Slam Dunk and the underappreciate Dear Boys (good old times from animax here at my country). Both this animes use the basket, the sport, to tell a story and not the otherside as happens in Kuroko. The drama and characters evolve with the narrative construction alongside with the games. I truly recommend Ahiru no Sora and Dear Boys as equal, because they are truly similar. And if not watch Slam Dunk, give your a life a good reason and never watch Kuroko again.
yum3ji
as a self proclaimed hooper hooper, this story really hits right. it feels very real and grounded, but still has those little anime touches. the characters are relatable and well developed (sometimes a little too much), and the whole high school sports brotherhood dynamic works really well. but the mediocre at best animation, the frequently drawn out games, and the at times sloppy direction (oh and that time nao said lifting makes you shorter, still mad about that), are what severely hurt this series. while for me it didn't affect my overall enjoyment too much, I can easily see someone who doesn't play basketball or casualfans being quickly turned off.
as for the actual basketball in the show, it varies between slideshow animation, slideshow animation with hype storylines, and slideshow but slightly less slideshow-y animation. at first I thought the way they explained anything basketball related was super cheesy and exaggerated, but after a few episodes it seemed like the explaining slowed down and those feelings subsided. there were times i got reallllly hyped and just wanted to get out on the court and play myself, and there were times where i struggled to pay any attention whatsoever to what was happening; and unfortunately this doesn't just apply to the basketball, but also often times to the show as a whole.
the soundtrack isn't nearly as mediocre as the animation, but I wouldn't say it's outstanding either. it's there. it does it's job of setting moods and amplifying big moments, but it's nothing special. although, the op's and ed's are mostly pretty solid. especially the first op. man i love the pillows.
in the end it's a clear 7/10 for me. despite it's numerous shortcomings, this will be a long lasting favorite of mine for the story and characters alone. if you love basketball and anime--or just want to watch kuroko no basket without unnatural hair colors--then DEFINITELY give this show a try (or at least check out the manga).
Machine_of_Ice
Ahiru no Sora is no masterpiece. In fact, it honestly barely even qualifies as good. For a shounen sports anime, it’s distractingly lacking in its visuals, the character designs are rather ugly, and on most technical details it’s unremarkable at best. If any of the above sound like dealbreakers to you, then give this one a pass. If you’re more interested in the journey only a long shounen can offer, however, read on. This show may be exactly what you’re looking for. As an aside, I have not read the manga, this is my anime-only opinion. The show’s strongest aspectis how it nails its premise, one which is unique by shounen standards (though considering the age of the genre I’m probably wrong on that). Kurumatani Sora is a skilled high school basketball player who is hampered by his short height. OK, so maybe it’s not all unique in our world with Haikyuu, but what’s more interesting is that his high school’s basketball team consists of a bunch of hoodlums who don’t actually care about basketball and are only members since the school requires every student to join a sports team. The plot, rather than angling at Sora ejecting the punks and replacing them with different students who want to play basketball, takes the more interesting path as a redemption story.
Watching just how much these kids change from the anime’s beginning to its end is one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had watching an anime in the past year. The transition these punks go through is incredibly seamless and natural. They don’t just become radically different characters between episodes, though of course some episodes create more change than others. I honestly can’t stress enough just how well done these characters’ evolution is, it’s absolutely the handsomest peacock feather in this anime’s cap.
The characters are enjoyable outside of just their development, too. They’re all actually written like people, and as a result I had no trouble remembering all of their names, no mean feat in a genre as saturated as sports. One set of characters I particularly want to draw attention to are, ironically enough, the team’s benchwarmers. Usually benchwarmers in sports shows are a bit on the dull side, even with more critically acclaimed shows like Kuroko no Basket and Haikyuu. But between how there are fewer of them then your average show and the shows’ character focus, the benchwarmers are as memorable as the rest of the cast. While this normally would be something I would point to as a negative, here it’s instead a testament to just how great this cast is.
Also good is all the show’s OPs and EDs. The songs are all enjoyable listens and the openings and endings themselves are very well put together. They’re more memorable than the show itself in some ways. You’d hope the first one, Happy Go Ducky, would be anyway, because that one’s from The Pillows of FL;CL fame. I know right?
Unfortunately, nothing else about the show is anything more than average. Your average episode is standard outside of the overarching story; just normal, sometimes goofy shounen stuff. Animation is adequate, but obviously cheaply made, which is harder to forgive when you’re a sports show and your main drawing point is supposed to be killer action shots. Lined up next to other stuff airing during this show’s run, the characters look rather distractingly ugly. Usually this isn’t something I pay attention to, and even in this case I didn’t particularly mind, but if even I’m noticing it then I can definitely see this being a deal-breaker for some people.
In every episode there’s a scene where a cool basketball scene action, and in every episode I failed to follow where the hell the ball was moving during these scenes. One moment the ball is in basketball man’s hands, the next moment it cuts away to basketball man doing some cool basketball-related technique in a dimension with no background, and then it cuts again to show basketball going into the net. It’s all really silly and tacky, and I don’t think that’s what the show’s staff had in mind as they were making this. It’s enough to communicate the point, but not much else.
Perhaps worse of all for me was that the writing beyond the main story line simply isn’t all that great. The jokes occasionally elicited a chuckle or so out of me, and the side stories could be heartwarming at times, but overall nothing really stood out. And that’s really the show’s biggest problem, nothing stands out, it’s just an average shounen that just so happened to nail its premise to such a degree that I could get through the whole thing. I honestly don’t have any regrets about watching it the whole way through, but it’s hard for me to recommend this to someone unless they’re looking for this particular kind of redemption story.
If you’re looking for a good redemption story with memorable characters and the visual aspect of anime is less important to you, this may just be what you’re looking for. Even if you just can’t get past how bad the show can look at times, I’d say it’s definitely worth checking out the manga at the very least if anything I’ve written here has persuaded you. You won’t regret it.
Teritas
[SPOILERS CONTAINED FOR MULTIPLE SPORTS ANIME] Mentioned below with severity of spoiler: Ahiru no Sora (major, but mostly summarized), Diamond no Ace (intermediate), Haikyuu (minor), Hosiai no Sora (very minor)The two words I would use to describe this anime is “peak edging”. Watching all 50 of these episodes has made me realize what it’s like to be on an opposing team in a sports anime like Haikyuu. You have players who are amazing and strive to get better and continue to fail and fail until the end. It’s as if this was the unneeded prequel to an actual sports anime.
Story: 5/10
First of all, excruciatingly slow. The story is relatively simple which allows it to be easily followed. However, there were certain occurrences throughout that just threw me off. Perhaps they have meaning eventually, but it feels like fodder in an already stretched out story. One of these is Madoka and the random dude (what I can remember off of the top of my head). I get that adding depth to characters is important, but that whole side of the story felt unnecessary and unrelated to the actual events of the anime. I have not read the source material, but parts of the plot just felt abysmal. I will talk about my disappointment in the constant losing in the enjoyment section. Even though it somewhat adds to the story with “wow they’re so determined” with how they get up and up again, it is frustrating seeing huge losses followed by small wins. Be warned.
Art: 6/10
The art was nothing amazing. Considering the anime completed 50 episodes in one cour, it’s not surprising that the animation was typical. I honestly would also say there weren't any scenes that really stood out either in terms of animation quality. Similarly, there wasn't any noticeable "bad"/lazy art.
Sound: 7/10
Ahiru no Sora had a pretty decent soundtrack. I personally enjoyed the opening and endings. Songs throughout were sort of repetitive, but nothing stood out like a sore thumb for being played in the wrong situation. Nothing really made an impact in an impressive way either. The sound quality was nice though. I did not have to adjust the volume due to parts being too loud or too quiet. Overall, everything sound related flowed quite smoothly.
Character: 5/10
I respect this anime for being able to show such detailed character growth and development between various relationships. I want more, but this could have been done with less. There is just too much. I get that every character has a backstory, forms relationships and so on, but a lot of meaning in the main story gets sort of muffled. This comes from the example previously stated in the story section with Madoka and the random dude. There was so much time spent on that connection, but it is then dissolved in an unsatisfactory way then used to progress the main story (at least this is what I got from watching it)? I wish we got to see more of Sora’s and the other’s on the team stories. I can see there is a lot of effort put into the characters, but one can easily see that effort is poorly directed.
Enjoyment: 4/10
My main reason for writing this review. The exact feelings I have towards this anime is written in the first sentence of the actual review. It pains me to see a potentially amazing anime fail as bad as the Kuzuryuu High School basketball team. I would say that I definitely was expecting this to be similar in some ways to other shounen sport stories where the main character’s team does well or struggles then does well. But no. This anime is literally 50 episodes of a scuffed team with individually strong players. Perhaps they will get better in the future. WELL THEN WHAT’S THE POINT OF THIS? I’m sure wins later on will be sooo satisfactory, but yeah, you need to miserably watch 50 episodes of suffering before you get to see the results. Or maybe they just never get better and the story is meant to be different from the standard of always winning. If drama was a focal point, I would expect games between schools to be less drawn out and a story similar to Hoshiai no Sora. An anime that does wins/losses well is Diamond no Ace. You can actually see progress after the team faces defeat rather than continuous losing. This comes along with the realism of being a beatable team which doesn't win every game.
Overall: 5.4/10 (rounded up to 6/10)
Pain.
animeshitha
This anime has all the elements of a standard sports anime - the talented hero with the handicap, passion for the game, the extremely difficult path and some geniuses. But still, and maybe because of, following the general formula too closely, it managed to remain very mediocre. I'm really struggling to write something unique about it or something I liked, but nothing just hits, which should tell you a lot about it in itself. I will say though, that the technical part of basketball is quite well explored, which I appreciated. Also, I don't really understand the point of Madoka? She never really did anything throughoutthe series, and nothing would have changed if she wasn't there.
The anime has the team losing every single time, which I'll admit is realistic. But since the anime itself was average, it just makes you even more depressed instead, so that kinda backfired.
This is a pretty long one, like 50 episodes, and I honestly don't think it's a good investment of your time. The art to me is annoying, the characters are too generic, and there isn't really anything much to write home about. The only reason I'm even giving it a 5 is the=at with all it's mediocrity, it still kept me going and made me finish it. SO that's gotta account for something, right?
Poipoii1
My first long review Story-6 It’s about a boy (SORA) who wants to form a basketball team where he finds it rather difficult because of the school he picked. Why did he choose this school? Well it was to be closer to his mom who we then learn was hospitalized, that’s basically the sum of it. However I will say later on in the story they really just drag the episode which gets annoying. Art-5 It’s pretty ugly not going to lie but why a 5 you may ask? Simply for the fact that I can tell if it’s a character from this series by how it’s drawnthis different to say the least.
Sound-6
They had maybe two decent good ops ,but what I really liked was the endings they had emotion every time you finished a episode if you get what I mean voice acting was good I’d say not the best but not bad but the swish the ball would make when they scored was amazing.
Characters-9
Cmon now, CMON NOW what can I say the character development in this series was amazing first we have natsume he went from this “thug” always fighting to being way more controlling over himself for his little sister, he has the same goal as SORA does with trying to take his team to the top, and always gets better when he looses, so his sister can be proud of him and see him succeed. Momoharu, dam he really did grow up a lot to say the least he went from always fighting arguing to being a decent team captain, being way more serious at basketball then we was before, getting better at basketball, he basically just grew up. He had a better understanding of life after the whole incident. Chiaki he’s just doing his thing I guess nothing to crazy going on with him. Shigeyoshi nothing to crazy bout him as well he just trying way more and finally found the love for basketball he once has when he was younger. Shinichi separated from his two friends and grew a lot into this person that didn’t know a single thing about basketball to someone somewhat reliable at least way more then he was before. Nabe and Chuckie, wow just wow it really wasn’t much but I liked the side story (kinda) of how those kids wanted to play basketball but the older kids wouldn’t let them so Nabe and Chuckie tried to help (after quitting/leaving the team) ,and after they got wiped buy these middle schoolers or elementary I forgot, they both asked how they lost, to which the kids responded about how they wanted to be the best at what they do and want no one to stop them. This opened their Eyes and found a new respect for the game then they came back the same not better at all but with a new mentality for the game. Satsuki sensei, wow as well what I can I say about him, he struck with the team even tho it looked like the team was going nowhere because he saw hope, and you can really tell he loved this team even missing his unborn child’s birth to watch the deciding game even though they where bound to loose. Madoka was eh just eh may be kind of salty because she chose momoharu, but it doesn’t even end there she was kinda how do I say this... messing around with other guys after momoharu said no and I don’t mean in a you know.... anyways, next person. Nao, just yes, really. She is the coach for the team, and wow (sorry for saying wow so much) she really brought a uncoordinated team to become a serious threat in due time, she’s really smart for her age and what she does it’s just amazing, but how did this amazing coach become their coach? She met sora, sora taught her that height doesn’t define what you can do, all you have to do is try. I also like the little romance that’s kinda happening, but after this last episode I feel like there’s way more to her so I want to see how she develops. Sora, just amazing before we even begin the majority of why all these characters changed( not all but had at least somewhat part in them) was because of him, he was their light to see everything a new way. Now let’s begin this first season we didn’t see much development from him he started off as a already amazing basketball player, that shocked a lot of people because of how short he was. He did change however after he lost in the prelims he tried even harder, but it hit him different because of what happened (to much of a big spoiler) not a lot of character development ,but slight I feel like the next season will focus more on that well at least I hope. Well I kept y’all here long enough I would continue but this is all y’all really need to know.
rocky-angelo
This show is a very love-hate relationship for me. Don't jump into this expecting sports only. It is much more than that and that is probably why I'm having this love-hate relationship with this show. I love the realism in this show, particularly in the sports aspect. My problem(and not because the show is bad) is the drama. When things felt too real, it felt painful to watch. I really wanted for Sora to end up with Madoka in the beginning but my view on their relationship is messed up right now. I sincerely hope the best for the characters and the anime has done decently enoughto make me interested in reading the manga. I don't see a possibility of the next season of this any time soon with how the story is on hiatus. Do I regret watching this? A bit.
This is completely false but I feel like I was NTRed with Madoka from this show.
