It’s a high school bowling club competition, and Mai’s turn is up. She steadies her breathing, focuses on the center pin, and releases the ball. It’s a strike! That makes a turkey or three in a row for Mai and Rina, her partner in the doubles event. But when Mai tries to follow up with another strike, she ends up bowling snake eyes, followed by a gutter ball. Rina is not pleased, and her displeasure lasts, even in the face of celebratory bottles of chilled ramune shared among the team members. “What are we celebrating?!” she protests. “We had fun!” replies club captain Mai. “Mmm hmm! It was fun!” echo the other three members, who are part of the club only because of their friendship with Mai, or for the sake of their CVs (joining a sports club looks good!), rather than a passion to excel at bowling. But Rina has had it with club members whose idea of perfect leg spin is the little pirouette they do into an Instagrammable pose after every throw, or who use the time in between turns to apply false eyelashes. She quits. The rest of the girls let her go—they just wanna have fun, and Rina has always been a bit of a downer. But as they pass a construction site with a suspicious object sparkling in a grave-like hole, Mai begins to have second thoughts. As sudden thunder begins to rumble, she turns and runs after Rina, knowing she’ll be at the bowling alley. The others follow her (they really are quite loyal to Mai!), and watch in suspense as Mai faces off against Rina in a bowling match to determine the fate of her membership. Is Rina right? Does Mai lack the drive to win? Is she unconsciously sabotaging herself? Or can she break her pattern of bowling snake eyes after a turkey and win Rina back to the club? Suddenly, something at the construction site…

Guys, there’s a twist. There’s a TWIST!!!! And it officially makes this series the one I most want to see episode 2 for out of all the premieres this season! That’s all I’m going to say about it—also don’t read MAL or LiveChart, you’ll be spoiled! Oh, and there’s a post-credit mini-scene, so be sure not to miss it. Ok, phew. That was a jaw-dropping way to end the episode! I went in blind, and I’m so glad I did. I do love me an anime original, they can be so much fun! And I have a feeling this is going to be one to keep us guessing all season. The main setup—with the girls debating what constitutes fun—recalls the central tension in S1 of Sound! Euphonium, though the animation is not up to KyoAni standards, and none of the characters have the presence of Reina Kousaka. Instead, it’s all pretty bright and cheerful, with familiar character designs and animation that is suitable for cute girls doing cute things. There are some nice action shots, but don’t expect Birdie Wing or anything here—this is realistic bowling, not a shonen sports drama take on girls’ sport. The music score stands out in a couple of places as being more dark and dramatic than I would have expected for a slice-of-life high school club series, which…now makes sense (well played, sound director-san!). But honestly, it’s all about the final minute or so! That’s what makes this one stand out as the most intriguing wild card of the season. I’ve been a fan of Bakken Record studio since their inaugural series, Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood, and their sophomore series, which veered into the girls’ sports genre, Mou Ippon! Let’s just say that with this, their third serial outing, they’re not staying confined to any boxes, and I’m here for it! Let the wild turkey chase begin!

Turkey! is streaming on Crunchyroll.

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claire

Claire is a cultural historian by day and anime enthusiast by night. She grew up watching anime without knowing it, misspent her youth studiously avoiding it, and finally came to her senses a few years ago and embraced it. Mostly because of Boogiepop, Kensuke Ushio and Naoko Yamada.

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