pokoko said:
The sport is ridiculous but, really, so are most sports in anime, even when they're based on real sports. That doesn't bother me much, as most of them depend on made-up techniques, anyway, but to each their own. As for not being what it advertised itself as, what do you mean? What advertisement? I'm really happy that they're taking the whole cast seriously. The main guy will obviously get his moment but the anime is just as much about the club itself. Prince of Stride, for instance, hasn't been just about any one person, either. Seriously, I loved the latest episode, where Tobisawa learned that the "King of Kings" guy didn't really try against her and thinks a lot more highly of the Flying Fish girl. You could see how much that hurt her pride. I'm pretty impressed with the level of writing when it comes to character interactions. Looking forward to the fight with the girl from England. |
Whatever description I read on my illicit streaming site of choice. Even then, the stupid thing is plastered with tags like romance and drama even on MAL, but halfway through the season, and all we've gotten is some artifical, low impact "drama" that is being forced to carry the show since the rest of the plot certainly isn't.
And I don't know how much sports anime you've watched, but a good sports anime should focus on the club while still having one or two central characters in the club that we're invested in seeing grow over everybody else. Haikyu and Kuroko no Basket have a pretty identical setup by having the rookie duo, and while the rest of their teams in both shows are certainly noteworthy and get show time for development, it always comes back to that duo. In Yowamushi Pedal, it was about the whole team succeeding sure, but there are two tiers of interest that go above the team. The first is the focus on the three rookie freshman that you're rooting for, and then it heavily focuses on the improvement of the primary MC, Onoda. Hajime no Ippo is boxing, so obviously you're pretty focused on Ippo over the other people at the boxing gym.
Hell, even in Prince of Stride, it may be about the team, but the show has made it clear that the main characters we're meant to be focusing on are the three freshman and especially the aloof dude who's amazing brother is sure to make a pretty relevant story that still involves the whole team, but pulls the focus in. Honestly, it kind of needs to, since Prince of Stride is kind of weak so far. I mean, it isn't bad, but it's definitely leaning towards average.
If something wants to be a sports anime, it needs direction, a focus, and it really needs to be exciting to watch. Kanata fails in all of those respects. So far it has absolutely no direction, with no clear goal for the team or any one person. There is no focus on any particular character, as each episode we bounce to somebody different and are never given proper time to invest ourselves in one character or another. And like I said, it isn't exciting to watch. Matches are short, predictable, and the invented game just doesn't leave much room for interesting animation.
To close my argument, so far the show is rocking less than a seven on MAL. I don't put too much stock in their ratings, but they tend to be pretty in line with my own thoughts and feelings. Unless the show really steps it up in the latter half and figures out what plot is, I'm going to have a hard time rating it higher than a six myself.
