Birdie Wing: Golf Girls` Story

Attachment 1958

"Nafres, a country in Europe. Eve, a genius of golf, spends her days gambling on golf to earn a living. One day, she has a fateful encounter with Amawashi Aoi, an elite golfer and daughter of the president of a big company. Two geniuses living in completely different worlds. It was only a single shot that shot through each other's heart. Eve, known for her "Rainbow Bullet", and Aoi is an "innocent tyrant" who enjoys golf purely without any pressure. The two are attracted to each other, influenced by each other, and change each other.

Source: Crunchyroll News"

Genre(s): Sports, Shounen

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Delicious. As mentioned in the seasonal impressions thread, this hits all the rights notes for being dead-to-rights trash. All the flippant smack talk, forceful eccentric personalities clashing and underdog/overdog posturing gels with cute character designs as Birdie Wing tries its darndest to make golf sexy to great unintentional comedic effect. It's clumsy, and the motions are familiar to anyone who gets a smile on their face when they hear 'golf mafia'. The feeling of earnestness is on point, as is the spectacle. I think we're in for a treat.

Leave it to anime to make golf exciting (of course, what's exciting is virtually everything but the golf...).

I have really enjoyed this so far. It's even nice that the rivalry isn't a toxic one or anything, it is, "Their play excites me!"

Sports anime is at its best in heightened reality that you can just turn your brain off and enjoy, but takes itself absolutely serious in-universe.

Like Keijo.

edit:
Apparently...there's a few hints that this series takes place in the same universe as Madlax of all things. Nafrece is one of the main settings there, and both series share the same Series Composition writer.
If one of the future characters comes from Gazth-Sonika, it would be confirmed.

Being a golfer myself I can't really accept everything coming from that show. So it feels a bit boring for now.
Golf is extremely harsh and hard, mentally, physically, technically.
For the moment, it feels too low key shonen.

Did blueballs girl (haha) steal someone's spot again with her shapeshifting quirk ? Because you can be invited to a tournament, but not enter after it started...

At least the season preview months ago had a slice of life highschool club setting.
I'll keep watching because it's about golf. But I do not hope for anything great for the moment.

If I were an actual golfer, I'd probably weep at its portrayal in this show. The real draw here is the shounen spirit of competition, improvement, and the spectacle of faux-mastery of whatever backdrop those fall upon (in this case, golf). If the subject matter itself is causing a disconnect in its absurdity due to your own personal acquaintance with the sport, I can imagine watching this as pretty painful.

But that smooth and precise swing animation for Aoi!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neflight86

If I were an actual golfer, I'd probably weep at its portrayal in this show. The real draw here is the shounen spirit of competition, improvement, and the spectacle of faux-mastery of whatever backdrop those fall upon (in this case, golf). If the subject matter itself is causing a disconnect in its absurdity due to your own personal acquaintance with the sport, I can imagine watching this as pretty painful.

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I would not go as far as painful, but a little annoying.
Also they throw names and techniques that are specific to the game/sport and give no explanation.
So they expected their main audience would be golfers ? If so I understand even less.
The shonen parts I understand, I even like them in most sports anime.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ryllharu

But that smooth and precise swing animation for Aoi!

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Ermmm... haha

It's really weird how nobody gives a shit about baseball or soccer anime accuracy (much less any other random sports).

But they do golf and all the people who play golf lose their shit.

Because Golf is so much more demanding than the shonen spirit.
Also, as opposed to soccer and baseball, you very rarely win on a single shonen plus ultra move/shot.
In soccer a single goal pushed by a single player can win a game. The same goes for baseball with a nice homerun.
To win in golf you need to be the most consistent player, and sure it feels like that birdie/eagle/hole in one is the turn of the tournament, but in reality all of these cool shots mean nothing if you can't perform on all 72 holes or more if you had to qualify to the tournament.

And form matters a lot in golf, while athleticism matters the most in those other mentioned sports.

That's why geezers like David can still play golf professionally, whereas they retire in other sports.

Well golf is slowly becoming a sport for athletes, at the top level. The shift began to happen when Tiger entered the game, he was not the only one at the time. It just became obvious. Then video, next technology with launch monitors and more recently force plates has brought a new era of players able to fine tune their technique to greater efficiency.
Add to that even better physical prep, nutrition, recovery and you start getting golfers with sport injuries coming from overwork and or exceeding their physical/joint limits like in many other sports before.

As for Aoi's swing, I think I've seen at least once her downsing coming back to her static stance at impact.
It makes sense for a non golfer and to spare some anime frames. But it totally isn't what happens in a golf swing.

As for form, Fred Couples, Jim Furyk and Cameron Champ all have very different golf swings. So much so it feels crazy they are all able to be that good at the game of golf. But they all share a same form at impact. The difference is Furyk loses distance, Champ seems to have physical problems linked to his swing, Couples has the less demanding and most fluid swing.

Myself ? Mediocre for the moment but I have fun in a tidy place and can walk a lot too.

Episode 3: I'll convince the rest of you this series is good!

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There was a nice set-up and payoff with the Helene from the last episode being off her game so badly that she wasn't even under par on the 4th day. Aoi and Eve both mess up other golfers' calm and focus with their carefree and flawless or reckless gambling play styles. Golf is a mental game after all, right?

The cool mafia lady explained it to Punk Grifter-chan very neatly. Eve is actually kind of bad at golf (she's basically Happy Gilmore) but her aggressive play and exhaustive experience at doing stupid gambles on the courses ruins people playing against her because they try to keep up when she's in their group or facing them one-on-one. She knows what risks she can and cannot take, or will try them anyway and she's accurate enough for trick play where she can take those stupid risks.

Shutting up Aoi's manager's arrogance was the other obvious highlight. She's confident of Aoi's dominance and that's fine, but when Aoi recognizes another player...maybe you should pay attention to her too.

That episode was better technically and the shonen parts were well placed, like that shortcut Eve played like we know she would.
By the way there's a similar shortcut in one of the Wii sports golf game, I know I tried to catch the green on a looping par 5 with a thick forrest blocking the access to the green.
It is fitting that U15 golfers would have less experience in managing tricky shots if they have to play them to catch up to a reckless opponent like Eve.

Ball roll on the greens feel so unnatural, but this is anime on a tight 3D cgi budget.

Eve might lack stamina and I'm pretty sure Aoi missed that last putt on purpose to lure Eve into playing her again.
They would be a tough Solheim cup duo in a matchplay.

Now let's see what that very high end high class golf academy has to offer when Eve is drafted there :-)

Episode 04

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Illegal mafia betting on golf to avoid bloody fights? Check.
Return of the French Nafrece Golf Balalaika? Check.
Golf GEOFRONT? Fuck. Yes.
Honorable prodigy left hanging, feels betrayed, and cries on the plane ride home that her new bestie didn't keep her promise? Check and check.
Still obeying the physics of automotive traffic? Check.


Taking things way beyond any reasonable sense while pretending that it is perfectly normal in-universe is what makes good sport anime for me. This is now Keijo!!! tier.

Vipere cheats as much as possible, sexually harasses her opponents, and vows to make her a sex slave once she wins...yet still honors the deal when she loses and drives Eve around for the rest of the day. That's sportsmanship, lol. I'm honestly surprised they didn't end the day playing more illegal golf to improve Vipere's game after shooting golf balls at Aoi's plane.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ryllharu

This is now Keijo!!! tier.

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A bold claim, but you're not wrong.

In the realm of sports associated organized crime, where do you think the golf ranks, fiscally? The production value of the rogue-like golf course was pretty high up there for 'simple' betting.

Aoi is promoted to 'cute-sheltered', because I know she won't hold a grudge (even though she penned a tear onto her Pakman).

5

Also bold for them to pin an enitre episode's progression on the 'power' of VR golf to bring the girls together again... and it paid off brilliantly. They have a very straightforward, plutonic dynamic with no beating around the bush. They are coded as a shounen rivalry and I'm still loving it, even if everything else about this show is trying for a yuri vibe to comedic effect.

I'm especially endeared to the (mis)appropriation of resources in these two girls for reasons yet known. Private eyes investigations, sponsor invitationals, and nebulous 'investments' are good building blocks in this setting of rich people competing in one of the less physically demanding sports. It's funny how golf can pay for a high rise corporate building in anime- that absurdity feeds into the mood.

No idea if we're getting a straight shot to their next match, or some dawdling, but I probably wont complain either way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neflight86

I'm especially endeared to the (mis)appropriation of resources in these two girls for reasons yet known. Private eyes investigations, sponsor invitationals, and nebulous 'investments' are good building blocks in this setting of rich people competing in one of the less physically demanding sports. It's funny how golf can pay for a high rise corporate building in anime- that absurdity feeds into the mood.

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At least for Aoi's family, I've gathered that her mother and father used their collective fame to essentially create Japan's version of Callaway.

But there's definitely a conspiracy going on with Eve. Her past has been purposefully erased by someone.

Based on the preview, I'm really interested that they're bringing Vipere back. I thought for sure she'd be a one-and-done gimmick character. This only proves the healing ability of sportsmanship! Hahaha.

Eps 6
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Very seriously, this just keeps getting better and better.

Does not shy away from hard subjects, nasty behavior, and worse people. Vipere turned out to be a pretty okay person though!

Everyone is scheming about everything, meanwhile pure-hearted Aoi is just a little bummed out her new friendly rival has fallen out of contact.

I'm honestly starting to wonder if Eve is like, Aoi's cousin or half-sister or something.

"Done. I'm in" - Lol. Pour one for the booty.

Aoi, for being the seemingly best actual golfer we've been exposed to as of yet, is the least interesting element in her own little bubble of privilege. I'm sure she has more to impact, but mafia wars is first and foremost right now.

Didn't expect an RPG attack on the freeway in my golf show, but I'm not complaining, either. They even snuck in a little training montage for good measure. More underground mafia golf, please.

Eps 7

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What a post-credits finale!!!

Deliberately keeping any and all spoilers out of this post.

Nothing could have prepared me for that.

Nice misdirect having two (three if you count purple) twists in the episode. Minute for minute, nothing else is more entertaining for me this season.

So the lesson is... if you don't win a golf bet, arrange a highway assassination and force them to play again but hiring the winning golfer last time to your side?

Right. Golf Mafia plays dirty, so don't play for them.

Play because you want to mentally destroy your opponents on tour tournaments. Not hustling.

Aoi taught Eve that the game itself is challenging and fun, you don't need to have your actual life on the line to play like it is.

Technology leaped while I was sleeping.
a 278y drive is not impossible for a 15 years old male with no wind and on flat ground.
For a female the same age you need help from the slope/wind/elevation.
We're talking top 5 LPGA distance here. So you need to develop your body and technique to get there. A U15 girl probably isn't there yet.
This is not a rant, just giving some context to the shonen part :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David75

a 278y drive is not impossible for a 15 years old male with no wind and on flat ground.
For a female the same age you need help from the slope/wind/elevation.
We're talking top 5 LPGA distance here. So you need to develop your body and technique to get there. A U15 girl probably isn't there yet.
This is not a rant, just giving some context to the shonen part :-)

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Yeah, I looked it up as well, because I had no context, but it does make sense why Golf Balalaika fainted when it happened.

Eve's whole technique is very Happy Gilmore.

Happy gilmore and with highheeled boots, haha.
A little detail:
a slice is for a player playing right handed, a trajectory that misses the target line (a lot usually) to the right.
a fade is similar to the slice, but is on the target line.
I'd qualify Eve's traj as a fade, even if you could say it's a controlled slice because of the large curve.

Eps 8
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I love this stupid show.

I think I will like it more in a highschool/golf course setting, than in that mafia setting we've had till now.

...I was hoping she was a part of some government shuttered super golf soldier project that went too far in the pursuit of golf perfection... What we got wasn't much less stupid, I'm glad to report. That one handed drive almost gave me a stroke of my own! Love it.

I'm glad she got to talk to her master one more time before she had to pay the putter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ryllharu

Right. Golf Mafia plays dirty, so don't play for them.

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Looks like, in this instance, crime did pay quite handsomely for our girls.

Eps 9

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Wherein Eve finds a new chipper caddy for herself, has to look up her own new name in her passport, and is startled to realize that she knows how to speak Japanese.

The mystery of her past deepens!

I do kinda like that Ichina loathes the idea of being Misono's caddy. It's nice that she's upfront and brutally honest that Misono is arrogant and not really capable of meeting Ichina's potential, since Ichina is apparently quite the rival of Aoi's secretary Amane.

The club juniors being forced to cheer on their senior's hits feels oppressive. Makes me long for the stark and critical, but ultimately supportive, attitude of Fate/Stay's kyudo club. The president comes off as a total bitch too.

Heh, Aoi has developed a weird complex and its even affecting her golf.

Well, introducing a caddie was a surprising development (didn't think Eve needed one). Their only commonality is the appreciation for aggressive golf, which I remain amused to imagine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ryllharu

and is startled to realize that she knows how to speak Japanese.

The mystery of her past deepens!

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Really glad you mentioned that, because it went totally over my head. I honestly thought that the show was breaking the fourth wall when she said that at the camera (I forgot Eve was an amnesiac), folding into its own lunacy. This makes more sense and is much less slipshod storytelling.

Eve seems to be fully blooming into a shounen protagonist now, with her nude declarations of war in the bath and saying she 'loves this king of thing' when the club senpai offers a wager to let her see someone at the school. She is far from the angsty teen she was... two episodes ago.

Misono is attractive; I mean distractingly so. Maybe I'm ousting myself, buy why is her character design so much more... cute than either of the leads? Is it just me? I hope she sticks around for a bit.

Power levels are wobbly right now, but not in a bad way. I look forward to seeing where everybody in this new expanded cast stands in the multitude of friendly matches to come.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neflight86

Misono is attractive; I mean distractingly so. Maybe I'm ousting myself, buy why is her character design so much more... cute than either of the leads? Is it just me? I hope she sticks around for a bit.

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Lily is my favorite character design from this series, not in terms of attractiveness. Overall design.

Comprehensively, she's really well-rounded in terms of character design carrying through her character, or vice versa. Her design comes off young (which she is), a little overly immodest in her clothing choices (she is actually the least-dressed character, which connects to her former profession that she shared with Klein), but also perky and a bit of a tomboy (carrying through her love of gunpla kits), and mischievous (since she was Eve's handler and arranged all the matches and gigs). Her design is simple, and hits all those points. The story filled in all the aspects as we went.

But Eve is a close second. Third was Anri (Rose's punk street hustler).

Aoi is generic ojousama. The rest of the cast is meh, but they all have great voice actors.

I do like Eve's outfit in the ED best out of all the golfing outfits. Same with what Rose and Anri set her up with for that single day event. If we're going for attractiveness, Eve's VR catgirl all the way. It suits her, and the VR clerk in Nafrece knew it after talking to Eve for a couple seconds.

10

Not following the point of the girl's date/night out montage. I know she's apparently no social butterfly... until she is, so what was the point of spending so much time with barely-named characters we may never see again? Just to see the Caddie be jealous?

A high stakes putt-off? Okay. I'm game.

This is the first time Eve's belligerent 'don't got time for anything but my objectives' came off as just... stupid. Eve, you're here to play golf with one person who makes you enjoy playing golf... it really didn't cross your mind that anyone else might also be fun to play against? Is it so hard to join a golf club and do the thing you like all the time when you spent your illicit fortune coming to Japan in the first place for a single match? How short sighted can she be? Good thing she had handlers until now, or she would have likely been sold off into golf-related prostitution given how poorly she handles basic interactions.

They really are also playing up the strength of the 'bullets' as mostly a mental thing in throwing off perfectly good players. Its a nice angle where we get to see each player's reaction to the ogre-worthy clubbing Eve always gives.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neflight86

10

Not following the point of the girl's date/night out montage. I know she's apparently no social butterfly... until she is, so what was the point of spending so much time with barely-named characters we may never see again? Just to see the Caddie be jealous?

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The scene was set up with Ichina saying that once Eve joins the golf club, she can go to the dorms and have food, and all that other stuff, claiming that Eve really had no place to go (which is kind of true). Eve counters her challenge by immediately going to seduce a few girls, proving that she can make a place for herself to go any time she wants. All the food and entertainment she wants in an evening. I suppose it was meant to imply that Eve didn't have a home or family to go back to in Japan...except that the writers and storyboarders seem to have forgotten that Eve is already Ichina's roommate, and they live in the dorms together (and we learned Eve always sleeps fully naked). The discussion and outing felt out of sequence, like it should have been in the previous episode, or maybe even before Eve enrolled in the school.

Quote:

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This is the first time Eve's belligerent 'don't got time for anything but my objectives' came off as just... stupid. Eve, you're here to play golf with one person who makes you enjoy playing golf... it really didn't cross your mind that anyone else might also be fun to play against? Is it so hard to join a golf club and do the thing you like all the time when you spent your illicit fortune coming to Japan in the first place for a single match? How short sighted can she be? Good thing she had handlers until now, or she would have likely been sold off into golf-related prostitution given how poorly she handles basic interactions.

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I think it is a reasonable expectation for Eve to believe everyone else in Japan is trash at golf. She beats European players routinely, she beats adult men routinely, she can defeat many pro Underground golfers, she can outshoot an adult pro she was impersonating. The only person she cares about is an all-around golf prodigy.

Aoi has the same problem. She has no one else good to play against in Japan, or worldwide.

Or so they both think.

The interesting thing about sports like golf, tennis, or boxing, is that there can always be someone a little better than you on any given day. They can be unbeatable on an otherwise unassuming day. Aoi plays "perfect" golf, but she was running out of enthusiasm before she met Eve. Eve destroys mentally weak opponents, but doesn't face a lot of mentally strong ones like Kaoruko.

We've also been told Eve stands no chance against that golf club president.
Like in most sports, men outperform women.
But in golf there's a surprise: putting. You'd think men and women should have the same chances as there's no athletism involved
But for some reason men still have the edge.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David75

We've also been told Eve stands no chance against that golf club president.
Like in most sports, men outperform women.
But in golf there's a surprise: putting. You'd think men and women should have the same chances as there's no athletism involved
But for some reason men still have the edge.

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The Coach? I thought that was a nice touch actually. The anime has been portraying Eve and Aoi as these amazing golfers, and yeah, Eve can beat men who gamble against her. But the series admitted with absolutely no hesitation or concessions that Eve has zero chance against a male pro like the school's coach, a nice injection of realism.

That's an interesting fact about putting, I'd never even considered it. So of course I did some quick research to learn more!
Golf Digest's article here seems to suggest it is because pro-golfer women don't practice putting, and get bad at it over time compared to junior leagues where the skill levels are more evened out. Women are more concerned about beating each other to the green rather than beating each other on the green. They end up focusing on fairway accuracy and their drives instead (like Aoi and Eve respectively). The ones that set aside time to practice the skill specifically begin to dominate their competitors in the collegiate and LPGA.

So maybe the ace putting girl is more competition for Eve than she realizes. She just needs to work on resisting Eve's hustling skills that crush the confidence of her opponents. There's no backstops for Eve to use on a real course.

11

Surprised that the captain's 'weed inferiority' complex was allowed to play out and she had to abandon her dreams to push Eve forward, if I'm understanding this correctly. While she wasn't necessarily a memorable character (by design), her rushed background story felt like wasted potential to have Eve's boorish golf perhaps make a positive impact on someone else's life. Instead, we have our power pair preparing for the tournament arc. Also, another good montage for the books, but no technical skills were expounded upon, only some philosophical and hypothetical practicals which I'm sure will be useful, but it really is/was looking like Eve is the inferior golfer by two training montages... as a unit of measurement.

I didn't take it as Eve being worse at golf, but Eve plays a very dangerous style.

Eve will either make it farther than anyone, and take her reckless shots hitting the pin directly or ricocheting off of berms, but every stroke she takes is All or Nothing. She has never needed to develop a game sense for when things aren't entirely under her control or how to recover from accidents.

This was made evident when Ichina needed to save her at mini-golf. The club president drummed into Eve how she might have to play in non-optimum conditions. Eve can already do trick shots and things like that, but she needed more experience in an environment with actual rules. Eve's particular play requires her to go first as well, in order to ruin her opponents' concentration. That's why it didn't work on Rose, and they've introduced characters who specifically play very Zen like, and Eve will struggle to perturb.

The President might not be a phenomenal golfer, but she does make a pretty good coach.

This really has a lot of parallels to Happy Gilmore, and thinking about that makes me laugh.

I seem to recall Rose evaluating that Eve is actually fairly poor at regular golf in that her style has many weaknesses (which I inferred more than was said), like a house of cards: impressive outwardly, but prone to tumbling down when pressured. She didn't even know how to put spin on the ball. Like you said, her style has drawbacks, and I think evolving her play beyond "shoot straight at the pin" is going to be the fun growth of this story, or it won't and we'll get more outrageous bank or trick shots which might become one note.

I am most excited to see her style deconstructed by better players; Eve has been an overdog for too long.

12

Man, Eve really can be embarrassing to watch, in a chunni kind of way. Don't get me wrong, she remains a captivating presence on the screen (wow that outfit), but she would be right at home on a pay-per-view wrestling roster with how she conducts herself and her general lack of social decorum.

So this girl is the next mid-boss, if the OP is anything to go by. At least the format of alternating strokes with Aoi should give this face off a unique texture.

It still amuses me just how serious all of these rich people are taking high school golf. Commandeering magazine articles, starting tournaments to promote family members, holding strategy meetings going over qualifier results in the most dramatic ways possible; never stop being anime you, anime.

This is the only series this season that I definitely want a sequel for. The dynamic of Eve and Aoi oddly flirting in a non-romantic way (at least from Eve's perspective) while constantly challenging each other to get better at golf. Eve consciously and actively irritating and destroying her opponents and Aoi crushing them while being intensely oblivious (because she is obsessively focused on Eve).

Also, Eve got some Bogeys!

Hopefully they announce a 2nd cour at the end of the next episode.

I enjoyed Amane and Ichina fighting (and Ichina getting some recognition with an instantly regretted high-five), the club President confirming to her entire club that the coach is her property, and Lily being upset that Eve sent her an ancient and basic gunpla and not a Master Grade.

Back to the minigolf scene some eps ago: putting a dent in a minigolf matt is impossible. Like the ball, everything has to last a very long time and will be replaced well after it should have. So the matt is heavy duty stuff that will not get marked by a chip/pitch shot.

Never heard the terms slice/hook used for putting. I get the idea, so why not.

Also, everything Ryll said.

Second season on its way for Winter 22/23!
(edit: Yeah, don't watch the Season 2 promo. It shows a lot. Too much.)


Eve's definitely going to get stabbed someday.

I wasn't sure if the peaceful Japanese school tournaments could keep up the level of engagement that the Nafrece mafia arc did, but so far it has! They're starting to inject the interpersonal drama and ambitions into the series. It's also interesting that they've kept Eve's identity from the audience, but pros recognize who her mentor was immediately on seeing her. Someone out there knows who she is for sure, not just her legendary mentor.

Honestly, this became one of, if not my favorite shows of the season, by being one of the absolute dumbest. It feels like anime from decades ago. The dialogue, the pacing, the building of tension over generally low-stakes stuff is a welcome change from series that rely on edginess or grimmdark to get there. The whole room assignment teasing and joke-flirting felt like an anime from the late 90s or early 2000s and I really enjoyed it. Eve acts and feels like a shonen heroine and Aoi feels like a shoujo heroine.

The ED is really beautiful too.

So Aoi's Mother wants her to win a grand chelem, talk about ambitions for your offspring !

Aoi be like: who's that girl who wants to steal my father from me !
Girl: I am his daughter better than you are !

haha

We have very little data on Aoi's father, except he was a number 2 in the USA. Not much on Leo, Eve's mentor.

Also, probably a mislead, but Eve feels like Aoi's hidden sister when Aoi's mother looks so much like an older Eve.
And there's Eve fluent japanese.
We'll eventually get to know how some couples decided to protect there daughters....

Edit:
Something fun came to mind: this feels like Initial D character setup.
Keisuke was the track pilot, having theory flowing in his veins, applying that to street racing.
Takumi was a pure natural only knowing outdoor/street racing.
Fun trivia: at some point we get very detail panels of one of Takumi's girlfriend and her golf career. But the author never pushed that idea. Not easy to mesh with the street racing main story.

Edit 2: Scrambling and up&downs
I was a bit annoyed at Aoi's bunker shot for multiple reasons.
Scene wise: animators do not have the budget/time/knowledge.
So they show us a pluged ball in a step bunker wall blocking green/flag direction and a bunker lip.
Then Aoi comes to the ball and it feels like she's on flat sand for her shot.
Then everyone is "nice out" but the ball hits the lip like it happens most of the time with a pluged ball in a steep bunker wall and an overhanging lip.

I know it's hard to draw a player's body trying to adapt to a steep bunker wall and even more difficult to animate that swing. But they could have done it another way: show us Aoi from behind the flag, That way you animate only about shoulder high and the club, a lot easier and you still get the action.

Nice out is dumb here, because you do not have the time to speak before it touches the lip, because it's such a bad shot... And in fact you know it as soon as the ball lifts up... it's way too low, so instead your face shows it might not make it, since you know golf.

For the story it just shows these girls are monsters, but fragile ones if they can't scramble better.
Golf with long drives, long second shots finding the easy putt zone or even a short wedge for the same zone is boring golf for the audience. PGA in a nusthell...
Instead the golf audience wants tricky shots that do well, because it shows how good a player really is.

For team Aoi/Eve, it should be: one is very long and aggressive and the other gets out of tricky shots when needed. Both have to be good in both cases. And I think that's where the win is against that perfect stats girl.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David75

For the story it just shows these girls are monsters, but fragile ones if they can't scramble better.
Golf with long drives, long second shots finding the easy putt zone or even a short wedge for the same zone is boring golf for the audience. PGA in a nusthell...
Instead the golf audience wants tricky shots that do well, because it shows how good a player really is.

For team Aoi/Eve, it should be: one is very long and aggressive and the other gets out of tricky shots when needed. Both have to be good in both cases. And I think that's where the win is against that perfect stats girl.

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It sort of feels like how the series handles that to me. Aoi/Eve have played 2-3 teams now, as have most of the others, but they usually only show us a representative hole or two to show how they're doing. They rest are presumed to be pretty standard birdie holes (except when they're telling us Eve got an Eagle).

It's a sharp contrast to the mafia matches where they showed us nearly every hole, because they were always sudden death.

Eps 14 (start of 2nd cour)

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Just when I thought this series can't get any more incredible with it's overly dramatic bullshit (I mean that in a good way), it succeeds with a searing comeback with reveals, mental strain of super-abilities, and Aoi suffering from anemia due to a yuri deficiency.

I admitt I had troubles getting back into that show until I unpluged my brains...
Animation was a bit choppy and low budget, it didn't help.
Then I just chilled out: sports shonen spirit for my favorite activity, I'm in !

The only thing I'd like is better ball physics for landing, roll and that impressive 280y drive. But then I remember: low budget sports shonen spirit.

What I liked though is the scene right after that long drive is that Eve felt tall and very well built. I don't know if they did it on purpose but it felt right.

Details again: it felt like the hole was huge, way too big compared to the ball. At their level of play, that would make the game far too easy.

Now the show in itself. Well the zone is a concept that applies to golf, but I'm not sure it's about maxing out your power output and precision. It helps as fluid, fast and precise motion is easier when in the zone. But for golf I'd say the most important part is course management and steel nerves regardless of what happens.

For Eve, we probably discussed that last cour but she might well be Aoi's sister, or half sister. Now we just need to witness what bullshit they come up with to explain why she had that life.
Let's think something fun: Initial D train of thoughts... We have a by the book/rules top golfer and a backstreet underworld top golfer elevating their sport.

Its back! I missed my overly serious golf.

Animation didn't feel any worse than last season, and I had no complaints about that, though there are not many full motion shots on the whole now that you mention it. I suspect that's just the direction hiding that fact from me (and it worked really well).

They still have the story beats and tension of shounen sports down pat. Gimme more.

Aiming for the flag with a sniper rifle gun motif... talk about elevating the derp. Chef's kiss.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neflight86

Aiming for the flag with a sniper rifle gun motif... talk about elevating the derp. Chef's kiss.

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Another less than subtle reference back to Madlax.

15

This was so schloky and heavy handed I assume it was all intentional. Birdie wing has gone full soap-opera cheese.

Weird how they made a big deal out of the orange shot just to ignore it completely with an Aoi powerup.

They also did Himekawa dirty. She never even had an opportunity to be a proper antagonist to overcome; two mid tournament power ups just jobbed her hard. Strange and unsatisfying, but it looks like the story is going to try to steer into more drama aspects now. I hope we don't lose sight of the spectacle of rainbow golfing in all its forms!

I don't think they've ignored the Orange shot. But they have shown the two variants that are legendary.

Amuro's (and now Aoi's) golf swing is apparently cursed. It's part of what destroyed Amuro's ability to continue playing golf. Seira was extremely concerned seeing Aoi use the shots, because she may destroy herself, possibly even faster than Amuro did because it is coupled with her already showing signs of the anemia (due to her lack of yuri attention from Eve??).

Eve on the other hand, showed the perfected swing from Kazuhiko that represents the best golf in the entire world. It's Eve's normal rainbow bullets that are cursed golf she learned from Char (Leo Millafoden). The true rainbow shots are perfect golf that can even defeat Leo. The effects of the Orange bullet (or where Red bullet destroyed Rose Aleon's cyborg arm from the strain last season) are proof that they're incomplete.

Himekawa is getting done dirty. I get the impression they're not done or will be back later because they didn't really get to show off at all. Aoi and Eve are better and going to bigger things, or at least Aoi will because Eve can't go Pro. She'll be killed by the mafia if she does!

16-17

Stupid. Contrived. Melodramatic. Needlessly oblique. Endlessly posturing. Perversely entertaining.

This has gone from soap opera to fan fiction dumb writing without batting an eye, and for that I have to respect the hustle. Turns out everyone was involved with everyone else, and there's even more golf mafias with family ties to Eve. Make it stop... but no rush.

Somehow it's so bad, but done right, it feels good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David75

Somehow it's so bad, but done right, it feels good.

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Yeah, this is a series that I enjoy because it is so badly over the top. The melodrama is funny because it is taken completely serious in-universe, but presented in a way that shows how silly it is.

Yeah, and I have to assume it is intentional, which is its own genius of making schlock entertaining.

Eps 19

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Aoi got her power-up, but I still don't think she has a chance to beat Eve.

Kazuhiko correctly taught Eve that 'Golf is a game you play against yourself.' But it doesn't appear that he or Amuro taught the same thing to Aoi.

Eve has always subconsciously followed that advice, even before she got her memory back. She dismissed everything external, all the distractions, all the cheating, gets angry about the personal drama and then shoves it into one of her rainbow bullets rather than getting hung up on it, etc. She just golfs, and that utter confidence is what Leo taught her can be used on her opponents. But the defenses she built are all from Kazuhiko.

Aoi is way too emotionally unstable. She has perfect golf when she's ignoring everything and having fun, but she can't keep from getting distracted.

Also...Amuro's disease is real and genetically dominant. But the plot benefit is that the symptoms vary wildly, so Aoi's anemia may be the only symptom she gets, at least for a long while. Instead of the debilitating damage that has happened to Amuro over time.

It's also really weird now that the club president is still romantically entangled with Amuro now that we've found out his actual love is Seira.

Eps 20

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"I'm glad I got certified to be a weatherwoman..."

Incredible.

Just caught up. How dare they try to make this tragic as well as ironically serious? As contrived as ever, but I'm in for it.

Sadly ended a bit on the underwhelming side.

I still enjoyed it from start to finish, but there were some real plot and planning bungles in S2.

Agreed. The first cour was making the dough, but the second baked it in an oven without letting the preheat finish first. Lopsided and slightly doughy. The pace picked up too much and focus shifted to the arms race between Eve and Aoi so much that the antagonists didn't get any chances to shine or be interesting foils. Too many went from 'I'm gonna win' to 'So... I lost' within the same episode and matches felt like more of a formality.

I liked the soap opera drama, but it fizzled out and nothing interesting was done with it narratively, which fed into the repetitive power ups and jobbing.

I respect that the ending wrapped things up and Even didn't win the British open before time heals all wounds, legal and otherwise. Eve is such an unlikable character - pure bravado - that I was rooting against her by the end and that might have played into some matches being uninteresting, if mercifully short.

In short, this is a good, simplistic take on old school shounen battle anime; but a terrible sports anime.