Review of Stars Align

I'll just start by saying that they better make a second season because I need closure with everything that went down in the last episode. I was reminiscing about Prince of Tennis which I watched as a kid when I looked it up on MAL, I found out that there were too many episodes and wanted to watch a tennis based sports anime but, shorter. I came across Stars Align and upon viewing knew that this wasn't a normal sports anime. I like the setting, characters, how the boys team isn't good and so they get hand-me-down gear that the more successful girls soft tennis team hasused. The art in the show is very consistent.

Stars Align is trying to address deeper social issue and there is nothing wrong with that but, every character in the anime seems to have something or the other going on for them. I understand that life isn't perfect, I know that from first-hand experience just like most everyone else. We all have our struggles but, the way the show portrays it is just that every character has a different social or identity issue with themselves or that is forced upon them by their family. It's not that I don't like it, growing up in India I have seen what tiger or helicopter parenting does to someone but, it took a long time for a friend of mine to come out of that situation and for us as friends to gain his trust so he could share his struggles and burdens with us. When you want to cater or address that many social issues with all the side characters, you have to pace it in a way that conveys their struggle. Some of their troubles were believable and some just weren't, I would say that the problem isn't that the writing is poor and is unable to convince us rather that the writers were given too short of a time to deliver all these emotions to the audience and failed at some, rightfully so.

While it addresses all these social issues and tries to be grounded it also does the exact opposite in the sport aspect of the anime as the main character Maki who hasn't played a sport in his entire life, who upon his introduction is shown to have good stamina because he prefers to use the stairs instead of elevators (which is a good and healthy habit that I employ occasionally) but, does that mean I can pick up a tennis racket and be a genius at it, NO. Even if I were to suspend that disbelief with it being an anime and all, where does Maki learn tennis and doubles team strategy? He just started the sport, they could've at least given the strategy and picking the doubles team to Toma, because he has spent time on the court and played with the other members for a longer time than Maki but, Maki just had to do everything. I picked up Badminton after a decade of playing it as a hobby myself and I've been able to improve my skills on the court better (playing every weekend) but, my strategy is pretty much crap and my doubles partner keeps me in check with what to do so we don't clash on the court. Ok, so maybe Maki isn't as stupid as I am but that still doesn't land well when the anime wants to portray such grounded realism with the problems all the characters are facing in their everyday life but, becomes a full-on sports anime on the court. I would say that all out sports anime do a better job even though they are very cliche and cheesy but they at least show the characters spending most of their time in the court and just not becoming a genius after touching the ball, racket, bat, etc.

Having said all this and realizing that this is now my longest review on MAL for an anime, Stars Align is worth watching. It has its ups and downs. Most people either love the anime or absolutely hate it, in what I've seen of the reviews. I happen to be one of the few in-betweeners.

I was also told that the anime was originally slated to be 24 episodes then got cut by the studio to 12. This explains the abrupt ending of the series, even though this is still a good setup to have people anticipate for a second season, hoping that it does happen. It sucks that it is an anime original and isn't based on a novel or manga. The endings of this anime would've actually made me pick up the manga to check it out.

Give it a watch and decide for yourself.