Hoshiai no Sora is an anime that really surprised me on what it was going to be like, when i first saw the premise i figured it might just be just a normal run of the mill sports anime but it turned out far different. This show touches on subjects not many other anime do and not being unafraid to explore certain subjects, it also touches on the lives people may have despite on how they act or seem. I think that this anime is more of a drama than a sports show but even then the sports part of it isn't typical main cast suddenly gets good fast or somehow pulls through. (spoilers if you haven't watched the last episode or the anime in general)

To start with as said earlier it isn't typical or cliché, you start with Toma asking Maki who he knows is really athletic to join the team and help since their team isn't doing well at all and he needs help. Immediately we see Maki adapting to soft tennis quite well but not so much that he is suddenly super good at it, all he has is his reaction time and athletic skills otherwise any pro player would easily win against him. The story does good here in which Maki takes advantage of certain pairs of people being able to work really well together or covering the other person's weakness'. Additionally they use tactics to get the upper hand but of course that won't always work and they don't win much matches.

Now for the drama part of the show, it doesn't shy away from the darker parts of people's lives or how some people get treated. Nao and Toma showed how horrible some parents can be in their own selfish/delusional worlds, Toma & Tsubasa showing how siblings/friends can really improve one's life even if only a little, Maki's life shows the difficulty's of a single parent and even worse with the other parent being abusive and horrible, and then with Kanako we saw a bit of cyber bullying, although she doesn't let it bother her too much and is doing pretty well against it as far as we know. Then the others we know about have a normal/decent life, if i missed someone sorry my memory can be bad at times.

Now for the bits of the story i liked and it showed how someone's life can continue to be bad regardless of other event's in their lives. Toma's mom getting a divorce and leaving Toma with his dad isn't a surprise or sudden at all, we've seen how she favored the other son a lot more, how Toma talks about how he is the reason that the marriage is so rocky, how they barely talk, that he gets ignored a lot and so on. Just because he is having a ton of fun playing soft tennis with his peers/friends and almost won against the champions doesn't mean the rest of his life gets better or that his mom changes her views or what she's been thinking about for a long time on how she feels. It's horrible to try to compare someone in your family to someone else and talk about how person A is obviously nothing like person B, but in the end you'll always have people like this in the world and it sucks but it's nice to shine a light on this to show it exists.

As for Maki this is mostly the same, there is a slight surprise with him buying the knife but even then it's not much to be surprised at. He has been dealing with a horrible father his whole life, He deeply cares about his mom especially since she's essentially his world, so of course when his dad comes in again to grab the money after he's been told off in a threat to stop and never come back that Maki would lose it. In life (in which again this anime portrays the struggles of life) this kind of thing happens especially with younger people or kids/teens where their emotions are most often more easily influenced. So it's no surprise especially after a fun as hell day playing soft tennis with his peers/friends that he comes home to one of the most negative things in his life reappearing and he snaps.

I do know how its seems like this anime might not get a season 2 from the talking and how things happened but even then the ending leaves open room for a season 2 and i wouldn't call it off since the anime is still relatively well received especially by those who have experience similar or close experiences as shown in the show, i can easily see the sales doing relatively well enough for a season 2 to be considered.

Anyways i really liked the show and at the end even after all the happy and fun stuff everyone had that it still held onto the fact that some of these kids still have issues that has been going on and that's the dark truth about lives like these. The characters were really good with some great character progression with Maki becoming more comfortable with the sport and everyone and becoming good friends with Toma and having tons of fun with soft tennis which he rejected at first, only joining for money reasons which is understandable. That's all i have to say about this anime, really good and not much other anime/series like it, I highly recommend watching this anime especially if to show a few people the perspective on the bad parts of life others may have gone through.