Suzuka is a story about Yamato Akitsuki, who had arrived at Tokyo to start his new highschool life. He just so happens to see a girl practising her high jump and falls in love with her at first sight. Having made his way to his apartment, which is an all girls apartment complex by the way, he is surprised to find out that the girl from earlier was - surprise, surprise - his neighbour. And yes, this was indeed Suzuka Asahina, the main heroine of the anime. Sounds like a typical plot for a harem, right?
It started off very cliché heavy or actually I could guess what was going to happen right away. The story was predictable in that sense, but it was more of the story itself which I liked. It is not that it excelled in any aspect but it was just an enjoyable ride overall.
Starting with the most important aspect of any story for me - the characters. Well, there were a lot of them, only a few getting any sort of backstory to them, but there were some notable ones like the main duo themselves who I will discuss more in length.
I have mentioned sports a few times and the show is even classified as one, but it was more like a drama with a touch of sports. I was expecting a story focused on the track and field club, but was disappointed in the end by how they handled it. It was as if they brought in the sports aspect only when it was convenient for the story. There are episodes where they cannot be see practising or even mentioning doing that and then suddenly episodes where they are full of determination to get a new personal best or become the number one. It is only used as a device to create drama. What I did however like was seeing high jump in anime, but it has likely more to do with me having been in the same boat as her.
I got nostalgic to say the least when watching Suzuka. She made me want to take it up once more, that's how inspirational I found her to be. The little details were done nicely, like the run-up and jump and even quirky things such as setting the bar right, which I did not think anyone but me had messed up before. So, that was something that really resonated with me. However, coming back to the sports as a whole, they did not really explain any of the technical side, so I reason that without any prior contact with track and field it could be confusing a bit, but since I do not really consider it a sports anime, it can be grouped together with school sports days and watched without thinking about rules or such.
What again disappointed me a bit was the animation, especially in scenes such as the picture above where I really expected it to shine. A lot of panning shots were used, which became noticeable even to a viewer like me who has no real knowledge of cinematography. Overall it was decent and did the job. The art itself, truthfully, I was not a big fan of at the beginning of the series, but I started growing more fond of it as the story progressed. It has a similar look to it as other anime from the same decade, however it looks quite pleasant.
The music left me indifferent in most cases, but it created the right kind of atmosphere, the opening especially, which gave me a good idea of what the tone of the series would be like. My personal favourite was the first ending, which perhaps did not fit so much with the anime itself being so cheerful, but it was nice to hear and to look at, sort of like a little present to escape from the drama a little.
All in all, Suzuka is a decent romance/drama anime that reminded me of Lovely Complex in a lot of aspects, though it never came close to brilliance of that I would still recommend giving this series a shot, perhaps not for the sports fans but for people who like a bit of romance in their lives.
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