Evening all
Tonight we are checking out Ao ashi, a football (soccer if you are across the pond) anime series that caught my eye on the good ol Munchyroll site.
The series starts off with 2 junior high school football teams playing an important high school preliminary tournament, with some interesting play.
Ashito Aoi is the star man in his team, like literally the only good player in his whole team. He is the power house of his team, without him they can't win a thing.
The teams winning streak comes to a sudden halt, when Ashito loses his temper and does a 'Zidane Special'
Ashito gets shown a red card and is ejected from the game after losing his temper and acting out.
With their star player gone, the team get eliminated from the tournament and that's the end of their tournament.
Ashito sinks into a pit of despair and feels like all hope is lost. Then Ashito is approached by a youth team coach, Tatsuya Fukuda, who seems a potential in him and asks him to prove his ability in a try out for the team in Tokyo that he coaches.
This opens up a potentially life changing and exciting future career for Ashito.
Year of release: 2022
Aired: April 2022 to September 2022
Number of seasons: 1
Number of episodes: 24
Studio: Proguction I.G
Genre: Sports
Episode run time: 24 minutes per episode
Age rating: PG-13
My rating: 5/10 so far as I haven't finish the series yet
With the series being 24 episodes long, it is actually a long one for me. The most recent series that I have watched have all been around the 12 - 15 episode mark. So for now this is gonna be a long watch for me. I'm still stuck on the fence if I like it enough to watch it through to the end or not, but so far it is looking to be a half decent series.
The intro song is pretty good, a good opening score to get you in the mood for some good football action.
The ending is a complete 180 in how the song feels. A much more relaxed and easy going track. It's actually quite lovely and fitting for the end of a high speed anime.
I am currently up to the 5th episode now and it is actually getting good. Episode 3 gets a bit rough and tough in the closing minutes of the episode. Some dirty tactics and shenanigans which remind me of my days playing football at school. Yes I was one of them players, but playing in defense/defensive midfield you have to use all you have to win the games!
For sure I would do it all again if I was to play again 😅
It does benefit from a great set of songs to open and close to.
The art style is pretty good, the use of contrasting colours in parts of the episodes is great. There are parts with some amazing character facial details and you can't help but root for the 'Good Guys'.
As I have continued to watch it, the enjoyment I am finding in it are actually quite good.
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