I'm not into sports at all but I've watched a few sports anime's and for some reason the sports element seems to help tie the story together and provide a good straight cut direction for the anime. This is a pretty short anime so the characters don't really get fleshed out. That being said the artwork is great for the time period, I enjoyed the score, and although the plot could have been strengthened with more time and development it is pretty sturdy. If I had watched a typical 12 episode half hour each anime I would be quite disappointed, butfor the amount of time allotted, this series it is pretty damn good. It gets a 8 from me for telling a good story in a very short amount of time.