Spoilers in the review!

Going into Stars Align I was not quite sure what to expect. I had heard about the LGBT representation in it, but I was still somewhat wary of watching it, because animes are not very notorious for having incredible representation. I was scared about what this was going to feature, considering that this is a show about middle schoolers playing tennis, I was sort of confused on how they were going to engrain such relevant and heavy topics into a 12-episode show.

And when I say that Stars Align almost handled the LGBT rep beautifully, I mean it. Nothing about it forced, it comes so naturally to the characters that I felt as if I was watching a direct documentary of children interacting with one another. The way that Stars Align introduces its problems is very realistic as to how it almost happens in real life. I am a non-binary person and I can say that my experience of finding out my gender identity is almost identical as to how Yu discovered theirs. The fear of leaving your "birth gender" is there, as well as feeling pressures from those around you, especially your family. You feel like you need to discover who you are immediately, or else people will never take you seriously and will only look at you and laugh. The accuracy of the show was so spot on.

The characters use tennis as a form of "therapy", something that they resort to when they feel neglected, alone, and conflicted. They confide in one another, finding comfort where they cannot get it with anyone else. The friendships are truly something else; it showcases what platonic love should be like. The absolute trust that they have in one another that they can't even share with their family members is something that I would say is how friendships in real life normally are like. When you have such strained relationships with your family, your friends are the only family that you have. This is shown in the anime, especially between Maki and Touma.

Touma's mother is extremely neglectful, only valuing Ryouma (his brother). This type of pain is something that no child should ever experience, but unfortunately, it is something that most kids do. However, Touma is not alone. He has Maki, someone who can relate to the feeling of neglect and abuse. They find hope in one another, bringing each other up when there seems to be no one on their side. Their relationship really is a beautiful one.

And like most people have already said before me, the ending of the show is the one true fault of it. We finish with a scene of Maki buying a kitchen knife and standing outside of his father's apartment complex ready to kill him. I will say that the ending does somehow make sense, considering that there were hints throughout the show that foreshadowed this scene (when Touma yells at Maki's dad that he can kill him and since he's a minor, the sentence will be short. We see Maki ponder over his words and stop moving to process what he just said) but I have never really been a big fan of the whole "mystery" aspect of children killing their abusive parents. It does, again, make sense for Maki to do such a thing, since he's young and can't comprehend another way to end his misery. He has been surrounded by violence and abuse his whole life, so it's very logical that he would resort to violence as the answer to his problems. Even if I don't like the ending, I have to admit that it was well thought out, considering Maki's character and his trauma. Don't be too hard on the writers, yeah?

But other than that, I do think Stars Align is an amazing depiction of love, different forms of parental abuse, finding yourself and your identity, as well as tennis (of course!). The focus of the show is not tennis, but rather the characters and how their home life and friendships can explain why players play the way they do, and why friends act the way that they do. It is a beautifully handled piece of work, and I would recommend it to young LGBT kids who are having a hard time finding their identity (it'll seriously help), anyone who is interested in tennis, or just someone who is looking for a show with great character development and writing.