● I've added one of the anime soundtracks to the soundtrack section. If you wish, scroll down, start it, and use it as your background music while you read.
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The Story ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ Ashito is a middle schooler who believes he is the greatest striker to ever live, and he aspires to become a professional. He aims to join a school with a good soccer program, yet because of his bad temper, his team ends up losing a major tournament. But, hopefully for Ashito, someone very important was watching his match.The story of Aoashi is pretty good. I'm already very fond of sports in general. One of the things that stood out for me right in the beginning is that instead of having "X club wants to win the national," Aoashi aims way higher. Ashito and everyone else are aiming at a professional career.The story has an amazing mix of action and drama. I honestly think that Aoashi was one of the few animes for which I was able to feel myself deeply attached to its drama. The anime also dives deep into the tactics of soccer, formations, roles, body language, and much more. As a soccer fan, I felt like I was in heaven. No superpowers, no "protagonist power wins." Just raw soccer and its hardships.════ ⋆★⋆ ════
The Art ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ That's honestly the only mixed point in my review. While I do like the animation, it wasn't the best. There are episodes that were just straight-up bad, but the anime overall didn't look bad to me. When it was needed (like an important game), Aoashi was able to provide a satisfactory level of animation. Neither too good nor too bad.
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The Characters ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ There are a large number of characters in this work: Ashito, his family, his school friends, his team, and his adversaries. His family and a few of the characters on his team are really well developed; others act more as a support for the main drama without actually adding any relevance to the work as a whole.As I always like to talk about the main character, Ashito is one of my favorite main characters in sports anime. The way that this kid starts off ramping up the hype is absurd. His simpleton style from the countryside is also pretty nice to see, especially for someone who wants to achieve not only a professional career, but also get in the world stage.
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The Sound ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ The soundtrack in Aoashi is average. There are a few that really stand out, but mostly they're not sounds that really pumped me up or that made me look for certain tracks because of that. They're mostly made with a mix of bass, guitar, and electronics to pump up the BPM. If you want to get an idea of the OST, I also recommend Red and Blue and String of Hope.
(Highest plateau)In terms of voice acting, I think Aoashi as a whole was pretty good. There weren't any characters that felt missing, and I feel like the tones met the personalities of the characters, especially when it came to an emotional moment.════ ⋆★⋆ ════
Conclusion ════ ⋆★⋆ ════ If you're like me, you skip everything and read only the conclusion because you don't want to get spoiled with other themes. So I will try to be brief on this point:Definitely watch it. Aoashi got a 9 for me because I couldn't remember an anime being so tactical and still being able to have entertainment. It's almost like Initial D, with so much information and yet delivering good action. The story and characters are definitely what stood out for me. I hope that with the success that the work has gained, we can get a second season with better production.98 out of 103 users liked this review
