Review of Giant Killing

NOTE: THIS IS AN ANIME WITH A SOCCER SETTING!!! AND NO, YOU DUN HAFTA KNOW SOCCER TO ENJOY THIS ANIME!!! I guess I should warn you guys about this first, no it's not some massacre or some dark times living under Nazis or during Stalin's times. I say this cos I hesitated watching this cos I thought it was something like that. Boy, was I wrong. Synopsis/Traits: An interesting concept, I saw a personality like GTO trying to reform a soccer club, like the guy in there with his class (That's all I know about GTO, hahaha...). Inspirational theme, belief and hope runs deep, it is able to capture theattention of the viewer.
1 interesting trait is that, unlike a few other 2x anime series I watched, this series takes it slowly at the front. Momentum is built up, some mysteries here and there, and potential is abound. This anime will probably do very well if the pace doesn't change too dramatically.

Story:8
To be honest, it isn't too surprising. Compare it with Slam Dunk, and you should get what I mean. Something like "Giant Killing" and some similar features can be found in both series.

The content and the setting isn't very surprising, but the process is. The flashbacks, the way events occur, they were organised very well and gave root to momentum. It isn't really the content that really made the series shine, but rather the way of presenting it. It's simply amazing.

Art:10
Natural, 3D usage was very good, plus the 2D animation is one of the higher-level ones. At times, very fluid animation that is on or above the standard as the 3 famous-for-animation anime (Clannad, Air, Kanon(2006)).
Facial expressions, body language could be felt clearly, it's as if they were alive.

But, I did not like the art of some characters, but well, they were meant to be that way, I guess. I can't expect a cunning opponent to look like a protagonist can I? (Guess who I'm referring to)

Sound:8
Both OP and ED songs and animation were very fitting to anime series, but I prefer OP cause the ED seems a little too rock (I think) for me. But lyrics were really good.

Voice acting was very expressive, emotional when needed and overall, very good. Sound effects were there as well when needed, and were of a high standard.

Character:8
This section greatly depends on the rest of the episodes. I understand that this series starts out slow (which is good for a 26-ep show), but plenty of potential is already showing.

The characters already developed have a 3-D feel to them, they show both strengths and weaknesses, and in this aspect, probably better than Slam Dunk.

Problem is, with only 2 characters developed to some extent, it
s hard to tell who will really be the main or side characters, so it's hard to determine a definitive score for the character section.

Enjoyment:10
I'll probably be looking forward to every ep of Giant Killing, not to see them finally accomplish "Giant Killing", but to see the processes that happen before they reach there. It has been very interesting, and I watched 5 eps at 1 go.
Ep 1 captivated me the moment I watched it, yes, not only the OP is good, but the show itself is really good, one notable point being animation.

Overall:9
I didn't even know the term "Giant Killing" b4 watching this series, so I really dun think you hafta enjoy watching or even have any previous experiences of watching soccer before you like this anime.
Quite a bit of action, drama and inspirational content in it. Of course, soccer content too.

[With updates from ep5-26]
Well after watching the whole thing all I can say is that this anime is good, but there were a bit too much recaps. Also, the length of focusing on important matches vs unimportant matches is huge, which sometimes will cause boredom along the way. But other than that, this anime is excellent from ep 1.
The ending was nice too, the producers wrapped up this show pretty good.
(Note: score lowered from 9 to 8)