So, another sports anime, this time about a sport I have never even heard about, a sport which I thought was made up before I did some more research into it, but as it turns out, it's pretty interesting....

Story - 5
Storywise I think the anime has been lacking. We’ve only been introduced to the sport and characters in not the most interesting way, and all they have done is train and do some practice matches. If this somehow gets another season I really hope they finally go on the tournament they have been talking about (but obviously not yet participated in.)

Art/Animation - 4
The animation is definitely not the selling point of this anime, the style is pretty good for both the characters and their surroundings. But movements do often look choppy and unnatural, that's if there even is any movement at all… Yet they have pretty good looking animations of things like gears, chains or fire which represent different elements and tactical moves in the sport. Now I’m not an animator so I don’t know if it's as simple as just focussing on the characters movements instead of these tactical visualisations, but I think it would have done the show great justice. Does it impact my viewing experience, yes it does, you still experience a rush of sensation while watching, but the extreme hype that beautiful animation brings with it, being able to actually see exactly what the players are doing is not what you’ll get from this show.

Sound - 6
Let’s just get the OP out of the way quickly, it's decent and I won’t skip it, but it is not really that good either. The Indian-inspired OST on the other hand is quite surprising, and fits this originally indian sport amazingly well. It's able to hype you up even with practice and explanation. Other sound design is just what you would expect from a sports anime, and does just a good job in conveying a bit of extra emotion in action packed moments. The ED is definitely better than the OP I would say, it's catchy and very fitting.

Character - 6
Shakunetsu Kabaddi revolves around Tatsuya Yoigoshi, a once nationally recognized soccer player who is now a first-year student at Noukin High School. Though through time he developed a hatred for sports, he has abandoned his previous aspirations in sports to become a famous livestreamer on the internet. One day, Souma Azemichi, a first-year on the kabaddi team, seeks to recruit Yoigoshi and spontaneously interrupts his livestream. His obsession with live streaming fits his character and other character traits such as his loneliness perfectly. Most other characters are likeable, but also feel a bit cliché, recognizing a lot of characters plus their traits almost straight up from Haikyuu.

Enjoyment - 5
For my own enjoyment I feel like there is not much to say… There just isn't any interesting story to really hold on too, and the lack of story and animation is killing it for me. Though the sport is quite interesting, I would watch another season purley because they hinted at a tournament coming up.

Overall - 4
Countering a story which has not been really interesting thus far and a lack of animation, sound design and the characters save this series from being ultra mid tier. So I would only recommend you watching this if you have either a high interest in sport anime or an interest in kabaddi.

If you are interested in watching this anime I would recommend getting some sort of introduction to the sport first, seeing how it can be a bit difficult to understand immediately. The YouTube video “It's Time You Knew About Kabaddi: The Ancient Game That's Gone Pro” really helped me understand a lot more about Kabaddi, it's a great introduction to the sport and if that got you interested I would recommend you give this show a chance.

NOTE: I wrote this review over 2 years ago when the show was still coming out