When was that? And where? I only remember one thing. Just one sound… A sound like soaring. Like a ray of light flashing in the Dark.
Tsurune is an anime directed by [Takuya Yamamura]( /staff/126449/takuya-yamamura) which is based on a light novel of same name, by Kotoko Ayano with illustrations by [Chinatsu Morimoto]( /staff/124011/chinatsu-morimoto). Anime was produced by Kyoto Animation in fall 2018.
Plot revolves around a young man, Minato Narumiya and kyūdō club in Kazemai high school. Our protagonist used to be in his middle school's kyūdō club until an incident in his last tournament caused him to quit archery. His friends Seiya Takehaya and Ryōhei Yamanouchi try to rope him into rejoining the kyūdō club in high school, which he refuses to, at first. This story is about how our protagonist relearns what was it that made him attracted to kyudo with the help of a really great cast of characters. This is such an appreciable story about rehabilitation and teamwork. The presentation of story is done through really serene visuals and elegant pacing. What this anime best is representing the essence of kyūdō in story and characters. Motivation of protagonist towards the Archery is so pure and yet so real.
Kyūdō is a Japanese martial art of archery. This beautiful form of sports, is exhibited in one of the most beautiful ways I have seen in anime. Anime captures the true essence of art like none other I have seen before. This anime forefronts true spirit of kyūdō that is, Shin Zen Bi rather beautifully. Where;
Each aspect of kyūdō has been touched upon rather lovingly by the anime, and I truly appreciate how well it was displayed through our main protagonist.
I cannot encapsulate true beauty of this anime without going into spoiler territory, so from this point forward spoiler warning.
One of the main aspects of the story, which I really love, is how the rehabilitation of character was not a physical one but instead a mental one, that is, target panic. This gave an in depth of what character is like and what is it that makes kyūdō important to him. He relearns this with the help of Shin, which is true shooting without any thought in mind.
Another thing this show does greatly is Teamwork, often with sports shows, teamwork is not as much explored, but this show goes deep with the philosophy of teamwork and how it makes a team sports much more compelling than the individual sports. Our team of boys Minato, Seiya, Ryōhei, Nanao and Kaito really make a good team; they go through a perfect balance of growth in the show. Each member of team grows individually with focus on self-acceptance and also acceptance of other members of team without any prejudice. Throughout the show we see how our team grows and gradually come to accept one another. It is as Seiya says it’s like the tale of three arrows, except it’s five arrows, I guess. Which encapsulates perfectly how team works. Seiya’s quest for his friendship with Minato, Ryohei’s quest for self-acceptance, Nanao’s quest for helping Kaito, Kaito’s quest on focus and acceptance of others and finally Minato’s quest for Tsurune; Everyone got room to grow, and they did beautifully.
Our coach Masaki Takigawa is also very compelling character with his own character arc. He grows throughout the story and learns from his students. His initial motivation of “revenge” is changed during the course of time. I love how his character was explored. Although the car accident, clichéd, wasn’t necessary. Also why’d you cut my man’s beautiful locks, it should be illegal.
A thing which I thought could have made this even better was, focusing on the female members of the kyūdō club; Like Rika Seo, she was one of the characters I was most interested in as she represented perfect form of Zen, amongst all the members of the club. Show is definitely not without its flaws, it has some of the clichés, but they can overlooked easily.
Will I recommend this show, of course I will, If you want to watch something healing with beautiful visuals and sound design, definitely do watch this. This is not a regular fast paced sports anime, and does gives you space to breathe and think about it.
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