First Impressions: Ahiru no Sora

Sora is a newly minted highschooler whose diminutive size makes him easy pickings for bullies. But he doesn’t let this get him down, or get in the way of his passion for basketball (which, of course, turns out to be something of a family legacy). At his new high school he finds that the boy’s basketball team is comprised of a bunch of jerks who seem more interested in the social perks of the activity than in actual sportsmanship. So naturally he challenges them on this, and is granted an opportunity to prove his mettle on the court.

I don’t really watch sports anime (or sports in general, for that matter), but you have to change things up every now and then. One thing I do appreciate about the show is that it seems to be going for a grittier, less idealized portrayal of adolescence than most anime (though I could also see how people could be put off by all the cussing and whatnot, and if it winds up taking a rough turn down fanservice lane, it’ll be all the more unfortunate). That said, it feels like I can already predict most of the plot beats already: Sora’s pluckiness is going to reform the team, he’s going to romance that one girl, they’re going to go to the championships and it’ll all be threatened by some incident (someone on the team is going to wind up in jail, I’m guessing), but they’ll either pull through in the end or learn a valuable lesson about being gracious losers. I don’t want to say that I won’t follow up on it, but I also have a habit of not keeping up with shows that don’t immediately grab me, so this may be our last encounter.

Ahiru no Sora can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

Jess W
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2 thoughts on “First Impressions: Ahiru no Sora”

  1. (Not a native English speaker, so sorry).

    Hi. Found that blog by pure serendipity. But as a fan of the manga (it is is punlished in France and only one volume behind Japan for logistical reason), I just think that maybe I could “correct” your guesses. So if we remove the obvious one (I mean, “reform the team” is so obvious. Otherwise, there is no series? Right? Lol. And even regarding that one, “reform” is not the appropriate verb I would say. But, anyway).

    So if we remove that one, I would say that you have only one prediction right (the most obvious one of course). I would even say two but you would agree with me that if you predict both victory AND defeat at the end, you have no possibility to lose. 😉

    But once again, as I said, I found that blog through wandering so I have zero idea about your tastes. But, I would say that if sport is not your cup of tea, there is absolutely zero chance that you would like it. Not because it is classical sport series (it is not. Actually, here “sport is the canvas”), but because eh, there should be some no? Maybe I may advise you to come back after 5 episodes and give it a try once again if you have time to afford.

    This is a very long story (50 volumes so far, even though based on the list of seiyuu, the 4 cours will certainly stop at the volume 18).

    Good job by the way.

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