Review of Ahiru no Sora

I started watching this anime after having an urge to watch sports animes. I started watching Kuroko no Basket, and after seeing about 12 episodes, i stopped, not because it was bad, but i just kinda wanted to see other "competition". I found this anime on crunchyroll, didn't look at the rating or anything, just went for it, and i am glad i did. SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Before i jump into the story, i just want to say, after watching Kuroko no Basket for a little while, this anime is a complete opposite. While Kuroko no Basket has overpowered characters with superhuman abilities, this anime is much more realistic anddown to earth, more about the team building, basketball overall, tactics, rough starts, etc. For people that enjoy anime for being this ridiculous amazing unnatural abilities, this anime might feel slow, boring later on, or even early on, but to those who enjoy sports, or just don't mind anime being more realistic, you will for sure enjoy this.

STORY is an 8 for me, for simple reasons really. The story starts focusing on Sora, the short basketball player showing the basketball team on his high school why they should start playing basketball, we get introduced to other great characters and so on, but later on in the story it feels like it starts to focus on a different character, Kite, who is this amazing prodigy apparently, talking about him like he is the best out there, and while that might be true, it just feels really weird, that another character is "outshining" the main character, that's name is in the title even... Another character that just makes me, personally angry, is the other short player that arrives late in the story (i already forgot his name). That learned how to play basketball by Sora's mother, and the anime makes him look, and mentions him like he is "very similar" to Sora's mother, which just seems really stupid, considering Sora had his mother for years with him, while the other small dude saw her like once or twice, and now he is her clone all of a sudden, and is much better than Sora, despite being in the same situation as him, i'd say even worse? What?.
And to end it all, Madoka...... From the start of the anime, Madoka seems alright and just a good "romance" character for Sora etc. But later on in the anime, she just becomes this completely pointless, stupid character that makes no sense and only makes the anime longer. Which just ruins the story.
But, the story overall is great! The characters (for the most part) are well written, have their moments and feel really "real" so to speak.

ART is alright, for the year 2019 i feel it could be less static at moments, and i feel like the characters could've been done "better" maybe, but that's just my personal taste, and for me, the art is a solid 7.

SOUND is a 9! Thankfully. I think it's important for anime, and especially sports ones, to have good sound, and it just does. simple as that.

CHARACTERS are easily a 9! Apart from the 2 shit ones i mentioned above, that just make me annoyed for even existing, all the characters have their own personalities, traits and cons , they all are different in their own right and make them super great, their personalities are just bright (or interesting) and you can see the development, and how they mature slowly throughout the show (or at least some of them).

MY PERSONAL ENJOYMENT is a strong 9. Again, the two characters made me enjoy the slow end to this anime less, so much so i had to skip some scenes to not lose my mind. But take that out of it and this one is incredible. I was surprised it only has a rating of 7, but not everyone is into this kind of..realistic, slow, anime about basketball especially. But i loved it. Realistic, funny but serious if need be, bright different characters from different schools and lovely start and middle of the story, the matches last throughout multiple episodes and it really has you on edge at times, which is what you want from sport. Being nervous for a team. You see all the feelings and aftermath after every failed shot, dribble, lost match, everything, the detail into how real basketball can feel and really any sport can be is incredible. I couldn't stop watching even though everytime i see an anime with 40+ episodes i just feel like it's going to eat away my time more than anything, this was an exception and i couldn't be happier.

OVERALL 9. As i explained earlier, i feel like this anime deserves more spotlight, more people looking into it and not giving up after afew episodes. And while yes, towards the end this anime starts to be annoying af, it is still worth to watch until the end and i bet you, you will love it. Its real, its entertaining, its funny, its serious, it has interesting characters, all you can ask from a sports anime. While many sports anime make characters overpowered and feel like they have some sort of cheats on, this one just shows you how the real life is (kinda) by showing you how people have to work hard, how they fail and have cons they have to work on. Noone is perfect, but with practice you can get better, there is no cutting corners and talent can only carry you so far, especially in a team game like basketball.

Basically, if you want to see an anime that feels and seems real, without any (well, some...) Overpowered moves where they just seem to have godlike speed, or can score from the whole court, or they can do something godlike, this anime is for you. Amazing. Simply amazing.