Kohane had always lived her life helping others, which is nice of her, but her friend Uki wants her to do something for herself. Kohane finally finds something she can do, though, when she comes across a cheerleading exhibition–after all, a sport that’s all about cheering people on is perfect for a natural altruist like her. Only problem is, the high school she enters has no cheerleading club, meaning she has to find four other members and make the club herself. Thankfully, she finds the perfect prospective member in Hizume, who she remembers seeing at that exhibition putting on an expert performance. Unfortunately, Hizume has quit cheerleading, as her skills were so much better than her teammates that they forced her out of the team. Nevertheless, Kohane persists in trying to recruit her, even trying to overcome her fear of heights to do so.
4-koma cute-girls-doing-cute-things series from Manga Time Kirara adapted into anime by Doga Kobo… those well-versed in their anime trivia will know that all those descriptors apply to the rather successful New Game! series, and they all happen to apply to Anima Yell! as well. And while that is certainly no guarantee for success, so far the show looks like it will be another good slice-of-life series with perhaps a stronger sports element to it. The cheerleading performance at the beginning is actually rather well-animated, which bodes well for future performances made by our main characters. As for the story itself, it works well enough in setting up the basic character dynamics at play here; while Kohane can be a bit pushy, her final effort to show Hizume how serious she is about cheerleading is quite a good moment. Overall, this show looks like it will be another solid show for cute-girls-doing-cute-things fans; whether it can be anything greater than that depends on how well it can develop the sports side of its story it already looks like it is willing to pursue.
Anima Yell! is streaming on Crunchyroll.
