When Maki Katsuragi moves back to his hometown after being away for years, he finds himself pulled into his school’s soft tennis club which is on the verge of disbandment.
Sports animes in recent years have found solid popularity in the west after years of struggling to find a fanbase. The anime that really pushed sports anime into larger popularity was Free! With the shows popularity, there were three things that became expected in the sports formula in the West:
- Large discussions and playing with sports (usually with an underdog team).
- Plenty of “teamwork” and “friendship” moments that can be interpreted as indicators of romantic interest between the members of the male cast.
- Strong focus on the core cast. (These shows tend to be character pieces first and for most).
The result of the focus on these three points is that sports anime tended to be very escapist in nature. Sure there would be tension when characters are lose or get into arguments with their teammates but things tended to resolve themselves before the arguments got uncomfortable.
But how about an anime that took the sports formula and DID go to those uncomfortable places? That’s what Stars Align does.
Stars Align is a 2019 anime by Kazuki Akame who is known for his work on animes like Escaflowne and Birdy. The show takes the sports anime formula and teems like it will just run with it at first, having the first episode play out basically like any other sports anime episode. But what made it clear that the show would be different was how the first episode ended.
SPOILER FOR EPISODE 1 *****
While Maki is home alone, the doorbell rings. The person on the other side covers the peep hole so he can’t see who’s there. It turns out the person on the other side of the door was Maki’s dad who barrels past Maki in search of money. Maki’s father taunts him and hits him and after he finds the money he leaves with Maki left in pain in the corner of his room.
*****
That’s not exactly what you would escape from an escapest show now is it? Well this scene and the episode overall setts a good standard for what the rest of the show would be like A show that has many of the scenes that you would expect in the genera. The underdog working hard and improving past anyone expectation. The bond between the teammates growing and having tournament games but then the show will contrast these moments with scenes like I described above. And it’s not just Maki that has a troubled family life.
All of the main characters have complicated home situations and because of these home situations their characters are shaped and they find a place in the group of misfits which is the soft tennis club.
Honestly, I think the contrast between the home lives and their tennis lives is very compelling and dives into issues I rarely see talked about in shows let alone in animes. You have domestic violence, gender identity, adoption, pressure to succeed and more being discussed and things that are as much a part of many people’s experiences as any sport is.
If I were to say that the show was good just because it talks about social issues that wouldn’t really speak to the actual quality of the show. The show handles these topics well while also being able to build up interest in soft tennis. I wanted to see the team succeed and though there were times where I felt that the anime was making the players too good at soft tennis in a short period of time, it never took away a huge amount from the show. Though we were never shown a full game, we were shown enough to get a sense of what was going on and, honestly, I think that though a little more soft tennis would have been good for building up suspense in the episodes, if the show had shown too much soft tennis I think the show would have gotten stale fast. They had to do a balance in terms of how much soft tennis to show and I think they did a reasonable job measuring it.
The largest issue with this show is how it ended. The studio that produced the show but the amount of episodes of the show in half and did so late in the series production which led to the show ending on a cliffhanger that was one of the biggest cliffhangers that I have ever seen. Though Kazuki Akame has said that he will look for ways to continue the story, the ending leaves a sour taste in my mouth for the time being. The show is not a complete story and it’s a shame because the show made me invested in the characters.
Conclusion
This show is a show that I do recommend. Even if you are not a sports anime fan I think that the social issues that are discussed are engaging in themselves. The animation goes from good to what were they thinking? But I don’t think it’s too distracting so I think if your an animation lover you will do fine with the show as well. The only people that I do not recommend this show to is people that can’t enjoy a show that has no conclusion. If that is the case, you will really hate the ending of the show and may find that it ruins in hindsight the rest of the show.
Otno 