This show is underrated and a true gem. Note that the review will contain minor spoilers related to the plot, you have been forewarned.

Story: 9

Run with the Wind is a really special show, it’s been a long time since any story has quite impacted me this strongly. The story is actually quite simple, a bunch of college students decide to run a marathon, and their journey to reaching it. The execution is where the anime shines, there is never a wasted moment at all, every episode either focuses on the growth of a character, the growth of the team, or a major cliffhanger that leaves you wanting more. The anime outside of some unrealistic dramatic scenes, felt very relatable and refreshing, the college students felt mature, but not to mature, just the way people out of high school should feel. There weren’t to many stupid scenes involving walking into a bathroom that was unlocked or getting into a fight with some rival school or team like you would see in a show set in a middle school or high school. The setting was executed effectively, the jokes were solid, the pacing was consistent, and the story did not ignore anything that was very important.

The last part is important because it allows the viewer to actually believe a team largely comprised of people who have never run competitively before could somehow actually qualify for the hardest college marathon in their country and perform well in it. The story focused on their training, on the amount of suffering they went through, on the support they had from their community and family, and most importantly on how each character overcame their obstacles one at a time instead of suddenly being a top tier runner.

The story is a strong execution of a sports anime plot, it will keep you wanting more, it will make you feel excited for the team and their performance, and it will make you actually focus on all the subtle scenes that are thrown in and connected to the characters in the final race.

Art: 8

The animation is smooth and clean, there were no major problems with it, the running choreography was some of the best I seen in anime, especially during the final race. Character designs did feel a bit basic, like the characters were just remodels of other shows done by Production IG, specifically Haikyuu. There is not much else to say, it was a good production, but nothing super amazing, it gets an 8 just for the angle and animation quality for the running scenes.

The sound: 8

The second opening was a very fun song especially the last 30 seconds. Overall the music suited the series and was designed to get the viewer hyped up for major scenes, worried during dramatic scenes, and focused during training scenes. The sound could have been better yes, there wasn’t any part of the OST I would listen to outside of watching the show, but for a sports anime this is good enough.

Characters: 10

At first, I thought the characters were just Haikyuu clones, with Kageyama as the main character, but I was totally wrong. The character development between the team started pretty slow however it was the right pace for a 24 episode show. The characters were funny, charming, interesting, well written, and extremely real, despite the very large cast by the end of the show you will know them all by name and know them as people. Although some of the characters did not get any real development until the very last episode outside of a few small scenes through the show, their final performance added up to so much more.

We had a character quit his addiction to smoking and got to watch it slowly build up in the background until he could run, we got an otaku who couldn’t even jog run a marathon over time, we even a pair of twins each with very distinct personalities coming to terms with each other’s talents and how they should chase separate goals. This was easily the best part of the series, the characters were absolutely amazing, they had good chemistry, great inside jokes, and they even managed to bring an African character in and not have him be 1 dimensional fast runner because he is from Africa.

The show also has a very strong MC who grew from a cold expressionless results-oriented person to someone who cared more about his team than his own performance. Overall the characters were simply the best part of the series and even if you don’t like sports anime, I would recommend watching this just for their growth in the series.

Enjoyment: 8

Being straight here, I never thought a show about running could be this exciting. I really enjoyed this series, it’s so far, the best sports anime I seen in the last year, and one of the strongest I ever seen. The characters, the drama, the growth, struggles, the successes, all of it resonates with me and anyone else who has ever attempted pursuing any competitive goal before. This is a much watch if you seen any other Production IG sports anime and wanted more.

Overall: 8

I give this show an 8, it was really hard deciding whether or not to give this show an 8 or 9 since it was very close, however I will give it an 8 for 2 reasons. One because although the main characters were great, the ending did not tie up all the loose ends for their development, I really wanted to know what happened to some of them given that one had injuries, one had a thing for a girl in the cast, and one that was graduating soon.I also wanted to know more about the future of their running club however that was left unclear and open ended.

The second reason why I did not give this show a 9 was because the show required a bit much on unrealistic drama, for example a member is sick before the last race, another gets injured before the race, Kakeru’s argument with his rival also seemed really stupid and I can’t imagine anyone being angry for so long over something like that. But overall everything else was very good and this was one of my favorite recent shows, I still highly recommend it, and its definitely a high 8.