Backflip!!
a review by Jamiebreeze
a review by Jamiebreeze
Before reading, please consider:
Sports anime has always been one of my favourite genres. I love sports, practice them, and am always interested in learning more about the ones I don't play. Gymnastics isn't particularly compelling to me, but after watching The Gymnastics Samurai from the 2020 fall season, and after a really impressive trailer, I was very excited to watch "Backflip". It was a very pleasant experience to watch this show. I still have not recovered from the trash that was Skate-leading Stars, but "Backflip" made me remember once again why I love shows like this. The concept of a character finding something (hobby, sport) that finally makes them want to live, or be better, is not new by any means but I am a sucker for it. It is one of the most used tropes in pretty much all the shows in the sports category. Using an overused trope is not bad, so long as the execution is done well. This show exceeded any expectations I had in regards to the way the scenes were animated and even gave me chills on multiple occasions.
Before continuing further, I will first talk about things I actually enjoyed, and leave whichever things I disliked at the end. One of the best things about this show is the music. I like the tracks used for the performance of the main and rival teams, the opening is gorgeous, and the ending song is beautiful. Even if you do not watch this show, I believe just the music alone is worth listening to. The animation is also very serviceable so there is little to complain about. There are beautiful cuts, and the movements of the characters, in general, look very nice. There are things and characters moving in the background sometimes too, which helps the show so that it doesn't look stiff unlike this piece of shit right here (not even a sports anime but yeah I hated this crap). For all of the performances, the studio does use CGI models. They honestly don't look too bad. The camera angles and lightning helps so that you don't care much about it (if you do not like CGI, you may want to skip this show but honestly, I think you should watch it regardless). That performance in episode 6 gave me chills.
Moving on to less good things, I definitely feel that this series needed at least 24 episodes. Many times episodes were spent on what felt like "filler". I've not read or checked out the source, but episodes centered around characters shopping, being potentially hunted by a ghost, and characters trying to avoid thinking about how much they want to go back to practice, felt like wasted time. Don't get me wrong, I like seeing all of the main cast interact, and can feel their team spirit, however, you only have 12 episodes to advance this plot. Some of that time could have been spent showing us more about the rival team, and/or even introducing other potential rivals, besides just showing us the aftermath of their performances. While Skate-leading Stars introduced way too many rival teams whilst making me not care about any, Backflip attempted to just focus on one. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but besides the teams having the usual friendly banter, I cannot see them as actual rivals. All the rival team's performances left no impact on me whatsoever, and it was very hard to take them seriously. I only know they are good because :
__1) They are the only rivals with actual names and who interact with our main cast.
2) The people in the crowd clap and cheer.__
You can have a whole stadium clap or whisper about how x is good, and y is amazing, but if I don't see it, it won't matter. Most of the rival characters are just the usual standard tropes, just like the main team. Are they all likeable characters? yes. Will you remember their names in the long run? not likely. In the 12 episodes we were given, we only learned about the coach, how the seniors met him and funded the team, and about Misato's incident from Junior high. We don't need a sad backstory for everyone (Diamond no ace is very good at making you like characters while knowing nothing about their background), but I certainly want more than just walking quirks.
Out of the characters whose backstory we get, only the Coach's one gets a good resolution and is worked fully. He used to be a great athlete, and could have even made history, but got injured and never was able to perform again. His arc begins in episode 7, and finally reaches a resolution in episode 12, as his students thank him for everything he has done for them, and then he himself says they all made him soar again. In contrast to the Coach's arc, Misato's conflict feels rushed. We got glimpses of an accident in episode 8, then in episode 9, a problem that could have made me care about the character, just becomes what feels like pointless drama. Misato couldn't perform a lifting move, as he was scared of potentially injuring someone, just like in junior high. He was struggling at the beginning of episode 9, and then in the same day in anime time, can get it together and perform the lift? unlikely. The ending scene of that episode was directed very well, but there is no emotional value to it since the show didn't even let me properly worry about Misato having a hard time. His change in character happened way too quickly too. He went from a quiet character who doesn't like conflict, to a character that now has comebacks and can work as the straight man in a joke, in just one episode.
In regards to our protagonist, Futaba's character arc starts at almost the ending stage of the series. It centers around him struggling with a sprain, and how said sprain can make him not able to perform. Here is the thing. In almost every sports anime, when a character is injured, sometimes the team just gives in and lets them continue playing, no matter the risk. This show sadly does the same. You would think that having a character like the Coach, who hid his injury and then made it worse to the point that he couldn't return to performing, would be enough for him to at least oppose to putting Futaba in, but alas it didn't happen. Yes, the team could have gotten a point deduction for not performing with 6 members, but their points would have been worse if Futaba had messed up because of the injury. This scenario of knowing that someone may not be able to ever again do what they enjoyed, just for a single fleeting moment of victory, just rubbed me the wrong way. It is nice that it worked out in the end, but it could have gone terribly. I disliked this plot development, but it does make sense for Futaba's character to insist on performing, since in a way he wants to perform with his current team, aka the ones who inspired him to try out gymnastics in the first place.
TLDR; "Backflip" was a good show, and it had many beautiful cuts that I am glad I witnessed. I am interested in checking the source, but I feel like whenever I do that, I'll have already forgotten every character's name. The show was able to show Futaba finding a sport that actually makes him thrive, along with his progression on it, and it never really managed to piss me off (this is always important for me). Albeit slow at times, and that terrible comedy that we got in episode 10, I still enjoyed this show a lot and would definitely check out a season 2. I am glad we only got as far as the regionals cuz I feel like for an inter-high, we need way more characters. I also would like to congratulate Backflip for having Ichimaru Gin's reincarnation:
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