Name: The first few eps are rough & some drama could use rewriting, but when the show hits its stride (haha) it's sheer fun
Item: Prince of Stride: Alternative
Rating: 64
Author: Kalladry

Waifra

The first few eps are rough & some drama could use rewriting, but when the show hits its stride (haha) it's sheer fun · Waifora

Stride, a competitive relay race/parkour team sport, is popular across Japan, and freshman Nana Sakurai chose her high school specifically because of its team’s great reputation. One problem: she finds the team a shell of its former self! Can Nana and fellow obsessive freshman Takeru help re-establish the team, recruit new members, and get the team to the top competition?

Sports anime! We love a good sports anime, right? Stride is fictional, a parkour relay race where runners must “relation,” or high-five, within a certain distance of the next section’s beginning instead of passing a baton. This means each team requires a “relationer,” someone who coordinates and communicates with the team (using very accurate GPS and earpieces) about when to start, whether to adjust their speed, and so forth.

The idea is intriguing, honestly. I don’t know if the GPS technology is there yet, but otherwise I could see this being a viable real-life sport.

Being a short (12 episode) sports anime, it follows the typical outline: getting the team together, teamwork problems, competitions, Big Tension That the Team Must Address To Move Forward, more competitions, more teamwork problems, personal doubts, all interspersed with good-humored group gatherings, and an ending that leaves you feeling happy.

I wavered occasionally while watching, though, because the drama of other teams and most of the other teams themselves, are the series’ weak spot. (The main exception is the Designated Arch-Rival Team, who are nice.) Trash-talking obsessive caricatures who raised my hackles, not in a good way. It was just like, Oh, I see the writers can’t find any other way to characterize other teams, so we’re dealing with this again. It took away from the fun of watching Parkour Tag Racing.

Plus one of the main characters is, of course, the Guy Who Is Way Too Serious and hardly gets called out, because being an asshole is okay if it’s In the Name of Sport. True to tradition he learns how to be less of a jerk to people by the end, but still.

(I will admit that others may not dislike him as much as I did; he could be quite charming and a funny character when the writers were having a good day. When handled well, his inflexibility and one-track mind were hilarious.)

The drama feels uneven. There would be entire parts of episodes where I thought, meh, why should I continue? and then they would be immediately followed by narratives of teammates goofing around, puns, the perfect sports show.

Like, I know it’s going for drama, but there’s a bit where relationer Nana discovers her father is playing a pivotal role because it’s announced at an event she’s at. And as the viewer I’m supposed to be surprised about this, but mostly I was pissed because dude, seriously you couldn’t tell your daughter, whose phone you called like 10 minutes ago? Couldn’t text? Couldn’t send an email to say “Hey, let’s get lunch”? It’s a small part of the show, but it’s a lazy way to write in shock.

Okay, so why am I complaining so much about something I said I enjoyed? Because I did enjoy it. Who doesn’t love a team of generally nice, quirky people who get humorously enthusiastic about things? When the series focuses on the team together, it’s really good. The first few episodes were rougher, but when the show hits its stride (haha) it was really fun, and I genuinely enjoyed watching it overall. I ended the finale with a big smile on my face.

Verdict

English dub? Yes

Visuals: Fine, with bright colors.

Worth watching? Yes. Look, there are plot points I take issue with, because it felt like the writers put little thought into most things they inserted beyond “this will add tension for this episode.” I long to march back in time, to take this as a first draft, and oversee a revision where people rearrange and re-pace some things so that it’s more even.

Because: I liked it. It was, genuinely, fun. It’s a 12-episode sports anime and the nice thing about sports anime is that you can usually predict the overall way the story is going to go, and end, and that’s not a bad thing.

A very interesting fact I found out after I had finished the series: the Alternative part of the title is because this is based on an otome game (basically, the player would be Nana, and there would be routes to romance various boys). While that answered my question (which was WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE, ANIME? TELL ME!), it’s interesting because there’s no way I would’ve guessed by just watching. There’s no romance in the show whatsoever. Nana has a definite personality and is part of the team, but the core of her relationships (and all the other boys’ with each other) is pure friendship. Additionally, she’s not set apart more than any than fellow first-years and fellow main-ish characters Riku or Takeru, as far as story focus goes.