Aoashi

Well I may be a bit biased coz I'm just a sucker for sports anime... and now you feed me an actual good football anime (and yes its football your american game where you barely kick the ball isn't) .. I'm orgasming right now but even leaving that aside I highly recommend watching Ao Ashi. It takes the overused shounen and friendships formula and What a Surprise?!?! (sarcasm) It works yet again. But it still doesn't change that Ao Ashi is kinda unique in its own way as we take a step back from the usual high skill but no brains kind of main characters in such shows to kinda the opposite.

Edit: Just a little fix thanks to my man @SplatteredCake for pointing out that the anime is actually targeted towards seinen demographic. Which does make sense how it tends to go more toward the psychological and mental side of the game and the life outside the pitch as well. But it still has many shounen tropes so i guess I'm not completely wrong in assuming it was that :P.

Ashito (our main character) is an aspiring football lover from the kinda country side. At first he comes across as the standard main character who is a total idiot but his high skills make him shine. But our eyes are not as sharp as the random drunk looking guy who finds something unique. Turns out he is the head coach of a J League football team and luckily had scouted a diamond in the rough. Ofcourse small town boy Ashito had never thought of playing at world level but on attending the youth trials something lit inside him. He recognised how much he's yet to learn and here begins his journey to the top.

Now you'd ask D4nk... whats so great about it? it sounds like every other shounen sports anime. Well what changes is after it. Usually you see that the characters are skillfully a par above but what they lack is the mental side of the game. Ashito is quite the opposite. He wants to be a star striker he wants to score all goals but that is not where his strength lies. Where he shines is thinking outside the box. Imagine what if you could look at the game from a spectators perspective. You could all the holes in the defence.... all the passing lanes... all you players who you could've passed to. Ashito is able to do that subconsciously. And after Fukuda (The J league Coach) recognises it he forces Ashito to play a deeper position (Left Wing Back). Well from a football perspective its hard to see Left Wing back to be the best position for him considering he's a nimble player with short height so I'd say he should play left midfielder kinda like Eden Hazard did for Chelsea or atleast a CAM or like Anri Suggest in the anime but I digress. The reason they give tho does kinda make sense(though not the most but its anime after all) that from way behind he has more vision of the field and hence his eagle eye(crow in the anime.. What with these Haikyuu easter eggs) power is levelled up. But ofcourse converting a striker to a defender has its own demerits and Ashito has to basically reinvent himself completely (against his will) to adapt. And even tho he didn't like it at first he soon realises is that what is loves isnt just scoring goals.. but to be the General on the pitch.. to control the game from the back .. with his pin point long balls and through passes... with his ability to read the game... and move the pawns on this giant chessboard.

And that what really seperates or more likely i hope that will seperate Ao Ashi from the other great shounen anime like Haikyuu, Diamond no Ace, etc (I feel the later is more similar to Ao Ashi). It's that it kinda delves more into the thinking side of the game while still somehow maintaining the shounen aspects that makes this show a much more interesting watch for me atleast. The strategies and the terms used are very basic for now but i hope they delve more into the advanced workings on the game in the future. I cant wait to see how Ashito breaks apart different kinds of setups that other teams throw at him.

But even apart from the technical side the anime does everything well. The shounen aspect of it is well executed. The characters are likable and seeing them grow is entertaining. We also have few sparks of a love triangle flying around. His and Hana's relationship is very cute to watch.. kinda reminds me of Goro and Kaoru from Major. The artsyle does suit the anime of this kind vey well and the Music i dont even know... I was so invested in every episode that I could barely notice anything. So i guess we can say that it was really good coz it never took me out of it.

Though one criticism so far would be that we really haven't seen Ashito suffer that much so far. Though its kinda rude to ask them to show so much in just 24 episodes. I really wanna see the parts where he's stuck in a rut for several episodes and how he's able to come out of it. That was something i really enjoyed in something like Diamond no Ace where he literally goes like 10-12 episodes i think.. trying to come out of his mental trench and that makes the whole setting more believable.

In the end I'd definately say that give Ao Ashi a try, even if you don't like football or sports anime it is something that I think most shounen fans will end up enjoying. I though will be biased and give it maybe a higher score than it deserves but fuck it. Reviewing doesn't need to be strict to the standards set by the industry but a run through of why you enjoyed the show and present them to fellow people who might think in a similar way. So if my word dump above interested you enough to watch the show... definitely go watch it. I love Football and I loved this anime.

**GGMU I hope we also get someone like Ashito soon... Oh God please its been so long suffering let us be champs again soon.