Review of Hanebado!

It takes a lot of effort to fail at sports anime but this one manages to do it. Yeah, it's pretty bad. The worst thing for me was that it felt like they didn't really know if they wanted the show to be your typical "funny, upbeat with a few serious moments here and there" sports anime or something more serious and realistic. At times they want to make the whole thing sound really serious and realistic and then they give one of the main characters an "eye transformation" power up or an "i win because of the power of my heart even though i'm actuallyplaying injured" moment which throws away all the seriousness they'd built up and overall makes the whole thing feel bs af.

The characters are average at best. By the time the last episode came i really didn't give a banana peel about any of the characters involved in the final match. Both were annoying, bland and quite boring, although "psycho eyes" mode girl was interesting for a little bit but they also ruined that with a bunch of cheap drama. Their reasons to "fight" were lame or even non existent. Things happen because the plot dictates it, not because the characters have real motivations and feelings to make them happen.

The plot is basically non existent. Several things are happening but each character's stories never really come together as a whole. The ending feels rushed and incomplete. They never really explain important plot points like why the hell the main character's mother just decided to leave her like a bag of trash and go live in another country and adopt another girl. Don't ask how the hell is a japanese single woman able to adopt a kid in Denmark? I don't know either. The mysteries of bad writing.

Overall looks alright, sounds average, plot is bad, characters are bad.