Hanebado!

[KrayZ33]

https://myanimelist.net/anime/37259/Hanebado

"Ayano Hanesaki, a first-year student at Kanagawa Prefectural Kitakomachi High School, has a badminton ability able to surpass others effortlessly yet avoids playing the sport. She meets Nagisa Aragaki, a third-year student who practices day and night aiming to become the best player in Japan. Encouraged by coach Tachibana Kentarou, supported by club colleagues, and fired up by various rivals, the two engage in their youth and adored sport so thrilling like a shuttle flown at high speed!"

(Source: MAL News)




EP1

Badminton is very fun, glad there seems to be a good anime coming up for it this season.

Pretty amazing artwork, but the first episode is always better than the rest.
Looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Girl x Girl vibes too.

(Just to open some discussion)

[David75]

A good shonen with dynamic boobs
Could be a good sports anime.

[Ryllharu]

Honestly, I loved the moment where, back to back, the two main characters, one a hard worker, one a prodigy, both question and doubt why they're playing at all. For similar reasons, no less.

That kind of sold the series for me.

[KrayZ33]

Wow... the matches are amazingly dynamic.

This is very fun to watch. I hope they'll keep this up. So far, so good.

Pretty obvious "I'm not a prodigy, I'm a hard worker too" going on with both of the main girls.
Coach is a cool dude too.

[Ryllharu]

Really liking episode 2 as well. This one is a definite keeper.

Animation wise, they're relying a lot on motion capture/rotoscoping for reference, but like KrazyZ33 said, it's really working for them. The action is phenomenal.

[neflight86]

Agreed. This is my favorite kind of sports show: high energy animation, a drive to succeed, good characters, and some drama to put it all into context. I've got high hopes for this.

[KrayZ33]

The matches and all that are fine, but I don't get what's going on and why they are all acting like dicks

Either Ayano has been huge bitch in the past or they are all crazy. It's almost annoying how cocky they get while at the same time Ayano doesn't even know why and thus has no reason to challenge it.
She's not given any FKs whatsoever which is completely understandable.

[Munsu]

Yeah, I'm watching this myself and enjoying it too.

[shinta|hikari]

Ayano is clearly not a bitch. She might've overworked after her mother left, but that has nothing to do with her personality. This show is aimed towards women, that's why all these artificial drama and emotionally challenged characters exist.

I'm guessing Ayano's mom isn't really a total asshole and left her daughter not because she was disappointed but because she saw how painful it is for Ayano to live that way, to the point Ayano had to play through the flu at its peak (the other bitch cheated because she was already recovering by the time they played, none of that was fair or equal). Blondie here is angry at Ayano because the mom keeps comparing them, and she feels inferior to all the stories.

I wish Ayano would just return to her saiyan form of wiping out spiky hair 21-0.

[David75]

Connie is ayano's mother genius student. It's understandable Connie wants to confront another genius, Ayano.
Then the drama around is decorum coming catering to the targeted audience.

[KrayZ33]

I expected as much myself but it doesn't work when they don't give Ayano a reason to fight seriously.

"Whatever dude, I'm just playing for funsies - calm down it's just a game"

If I were to play Ayano in these situations, I wouldn't be able to get fired up at all and my "revenge/proof" would be meaningless because I didn't even tell Ayano why I'm doing this.

[shinta|hikari]

I was hoping Ayano would just do this the entire time: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Buffalobiian]

I'm re-adjusting my expectations for more drama and less sports, now that I've seen this play out more.

Oh and tits, this show has some pretty well drawn bodies. That was a nice surprise.

[Ryllharu]

It's a chain.

Aragaki works her ass off and got skunked by a middle schooler (Ayano).

Ayano loves badminton, but her mother, a former champion, doesn't train her and ignores her for her pupil (Connie).

Connie gets trained by a former champion, but for some reason we don't know yet, wants to beat Ayano.

Then there is the pink-haired girl, presumably the top prodigy.

We also get the "part of a team" and "play doubles properly" angle. Ayano wants to be part of a team, and she surprisingly plays far better with Izumi than she does with Aragaki (who is a lot better than Izumi individually). Connie thinks she is good enough that her partner literally doesn't matter, while Aragaki is slowly learning to be less like Connie.

It's not drama-focused. It is still sport technique, teamwork, rivalries. The inferiority complex chain is interesting, but it's really just the vehicle to get to technique.

edit:
Take Ayano the perfect defense and Aragaki the expert smasher, playing together properly as a duo and you have a pretty crazy team.

[Munsu]

I don't think we've seen much indication that this will be more drama focused than other sports anime. Most sports anime as it is are slow starters as far as action (sports portion) goes. So, maybe seeing the female melodrama is biasing the expectations a bit. But guess we'll see, we're starting to get on track.

[shinta|hikari]

I don't think it's the amount of drama that people don't like. It's the type of drama, which is mainly menstrual female conflicts.

Shounen sports stories make you feel good. This makes you feel bad, especially for Ayano.

[Ryllharu]

I disagree. It's not "girl" conflicts. It's largely been rivalries and inferiority complexes.

I do think there is a bias in sports series, and a lot of it is Hajime no Ippo's fault. It has such a complete and total focus on the sports and training, and long, that a lot of people think that's what a sports series is.

The other person to blame is Adachi. His series are so lauded and so praised, that it seems his usual format is the gold standard for sports series with flavors of drama. I like some of his series, but they focus a lot on the training too, and the romance/drama often seems sidelined, even when it's woven in to all the other more visible stuff. They're all slow burns.

It's episode 4. Let's wait and see if this is a 12 or 24 episode series, because that hasn't been defined anywhere I'm aware of.

I'd compare this series, thus far, and quite favorably, to Bamboo Blade. It's a good comparison, with some of the character introductions shifted forward, but with less focus on individual talent.

[shinta|hikari]

But Bamboo Blade wasn't this angsty or melodramatic. Just talk it out, jeez.

[Ryllharu]

Uh...did you watch or read the same series?

It very much was.

The manga moreso than the anime, because of the alternate arc in the anime that served as a similar (and equally good) replacement while the manga was ongoing.

Most of the angst comes from the side characters, and not the primary cast. But the exact same stuff is there.

[Munsu]

I don't think it's the amount of drama that people don't like. It's the type of drama, which is mainly menstrual female conflicts.

Shounen sports stories make you feel good. This makes you feel bad, especially for Ayano.

I wasn't commenting on whether people like it or not. I was mostly looking at Buff's comment which discusses amount of drama vs sport.