I truly appreciate the excellent, realistic characterization and the show's unique focus on personal struggles over typical sports action. However, the experience is severely hampered by rushed development, low-budget animation, and an abrupt, unsatisfying cliffhanger ending. While I recommend gi...

I don't want to write a long review, but I wanted to mention that a lot of the lower scoring reviews for this show all seem to rag on it's 'lack of realism' or 'melodrama', with some going so far as to call it a train wreck. It is not a train wreck. It isn't realistic and it is very dramatic. All...

Without Drama, this series would be 12 episodes of boring; exploring the concept of drama we are able to experience the characters rather than just watch them. This review will contain a lot of spoilers. TL;DR if you enjoy Drama and plot twists along with a bit of sport action, you will enjoy thi...

"Hoshiai no Sora" is an experience I can't easily describe. It's incredibly easy to ignore as "just another sports anime," but it'd be incorrect to call it as much. The story involved is how they are connected through the sport rather than the sport itself. It's a driving point and a reason each ...

this was definitely the best slice of life anime i've ever watched. it was a mixture of sports and drama, which i highly appreciated. there are few cringey moments, but overall, it's very realistic. It has one of the best animations i've ever seen, and I enjoyed every second. None of the characte...

This anime was a nice change of pace. Nothing crazy, nothing over the top. It's just Tennis. However, as much as I enjoyed this show, I can't ignore it's flaws. I'll start with the positives: The art style was nice: Most animes nowadays are either way too colorful, flashy, over the top or just us...

I thought it was excellent anime, I loved how each character had their own tragic home lives but Soft Tennis brought them all together and it was used as a coping tool and in a sense it was therapeutic for them. While it didnt always focus on the tennis aspect of the show it was there just enough...

Hoshiai no Sora started out good, with an interesting plot about Maki having a dysfunctional family; this made it slightly more unique, setting itself apart from just the usual sports genre. However, nearing the end of the show more complications arise without any of the past complications being ...

Hoshiai no Sora (Star Align) is an original anime that was planned to be 24 episodes but after production has been carried out for 2 years, it was restricted to be 12 episodes. So we ony get to see the current anime ending rather than true ending. This review will be for the anime ending. Story: ...

TW: This series tackles multiple forms of abuse. This series was initially intended with 24 episodes in mind, but at some point during production, it was cut to 12. At the time of this review, the series does end on a cliffhanger and there are prospects of a film, or something else, to continue a...

Child abuse is not something that I often see handled with tact in anime. They often reconcile quickly without any good reason. One of the few that i remember handle it well is Tomoya relationship with his father in Clannad. So when Stars Align came with so many type of child abuse and handle it ...

I have mixed feelings about this show. The focus on tennis is fun and what makes this anime worth watching, but the fact that every other character in the story has some family trauma is unrealistic and takes you out of the show as well. What are the odds that out of 10 friends 9 of them have som...

This anime was something completely different than what I first perceived it as. I thought I was just going to watch some lighthearted tennis action of saving a club. WRONG, it's much more. Hoshiai no Sora, or Star align is about a soft tennis club with a bunch of loser club members. They've neve...

Stars Align is a sports anime that very publicly and unabashedly demonstrates itself to be far much more. You meet a misfit Soft Tennis Team that struggles both with one another and in their own personal lives. This anime does not shy away from touching on a wide range of social issues such as ge...

Just like how some people may perceive Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons as an unfinished product with lost potential due to studio interference, Stars Align finds itself in a similar predicament. Stars Align became the victim of production issues when its originally intended 24 episode run...

First thing I want to say about this show is just. Wow. Going into this anime has you absolutely floored. Everything that happens is the opposite of what you would expect, and it's hard to try and break away from the story after the first episode. Hoshiai no Sora is something different. It's so i...

To think this would be the first anime review I wrote, I honestly would have never guessed, but I think this story captivated my attention in a way I didn't expect at all. I started this back when the first episode had aired and I didn't exactly know what to expect. After half way through the fir...

I loved the character-driven narrative, the authentic LGBTQ+ representation, and the nuanced way the show explored diverse experiences of trauma. While the pacing felt off at times and the tennis matches were occasionally repetitive, these minor flaws did not detract from my overall enjoyment. I ...

I want to love this show so much...and I do, but before you dive in I will advise you to remember that this was originally supposed to have 24 episodes so take that as you will. This is not just a regular sports anime this is more of a character case study but on all the members of the soft tenni...

I went into watching Hoshiai no Sora knowing nothing about it but it's name. I don't particularly enjoy sports animes, but maybe that's why I ended up enjoying this one so much. Of course, there are many scenes of soft tennis being played, and technical explanations, as I would expect from any sp...