Review of Stars Align

Some minor spoilers below Story: 9/10 Usually, in a genre in which Hoshiai belongs, conflict is the driver of story. It's simply amazing how the creative team managed to get the watchers feel so involved (and hype) for such personal, small scale conflicts. The story is presented as a slideshow of our revolving door of central characters, each taking up a mini arc consisting of an episode or two. These arcs run concurrently and sometimes intersect with each other. The surface core narrative, as typical of a sports anime, involves trying to get a downtrodden team to win some grand prizes or another. What makes the executionstand above and beyond the typical sports anime is how few conventional tropes it uses. There's no secret technique that helps our team turn the table instantly, no training montage that inexplicably turns an amateur into a pro in ridiculously short time frame, no wizened mentor with atypical teaching style that turns out to work regardless...Only an athletic guy with a grasp on how to read people. In fact, the endurance training montage FAILS the one time they explicitly mention relying on it. Teamwork, unconventional tactics, and psychological warfare are what allow our little guys to punch above their weight, and it's this devotion to realism that makes every match so engrossing for there is no plot armor or DEM BS.
Of course, none of this would mean a thing if the there isn’t stake in the match for us audience, and it’s here that the show really shines. Without going into too much spoiler, the existential stake we learnt of at the beginning is not the focus of the show, rather, it’s the characters who made it enjoyable to watch.

Art direction: 7, perhaps 8/10
At the end of the day, production constraint hits some anime harder than others. Even a beautifully animated masterclass like Yuri on ice had to reuse footage, so that part is unavoidable here. The problem lies in the fact that with only 2 major matches, the animators don’t have a large variety of stock footage to use. This results in scenes that are cut and paste from a minute earlier showing up. Some 3D models in the background also stand out jarringly, though one is unlikely to notice this unless especially nitpicky. An emphasis on watercolors with fadeouts in key scenes make the whole thing have such a soft feel, almost pastel aesthetic. Reminds me of Wandering Son, too. That said, what reused footage there is is all gorgeously animated, and the running shots in the 3rd episode alone should bump Art to at least a 7.

Sound: 6/10
Sound direction is OK, not much to note other than how satisfying the sound of softball hitting the racket is. I could listen to it all day, which I did binging this show.

Character: 10/10, full stop
In 12 episodes, there are basically only 2 major matches, with the rest of the time spent on showing the characters dealing with their lives outside of the clay ground. Nobody acts in a blatantly unrealistic way, and this really helps sell the social commentary of the anime. Hoshiai shows us the trial and tribulations of dealing with helicopter parents; the uncertainty of being LGBT in conservative Japan; what it feels like to live under someone’s shadow; the long-lasting trauma of abuse… These are obstacles between them and the field, so every swing of the racket feels like a victory earned for them. In no uncertain terms, the anime shows its audience how despite their flaws, these kids can achieve much greater if only their environment allows – a message both empirically and morally true. It’s so, so refreshing to finally see students act like humans with actual depth that they are instead of caricatures written by those who fantasize about high schoolers: Sex objects constructed to be harem candidates with personalities to match, introverted losers who are inexplicably popular, power fantasy baits…Hoshiai’s cast are teenagers being hurt by the world around them and find solace in similarly hurt people. Each of them has long tried to deal with their pain on their own, but only by opening up to their true companions did they grow as people. Witnessing the soft boy protagonist threaten homicide to his fear to protect his friend, then breaking down in his friend’s shoulders later; or seeing the 2 bullies macho dudes crying about how they can’t tag-team together in the big match; or how the team console a girl who was recently ganged up on by some bitches even though she’s technically outsider…makes me tear up. This, in my view, is why each swing of the racket feels like a small, personal victory for both the cast and the audience.