Review of Stars Align

This was the best anime I have seen all year. Everything in it made me feel happy. From the drawing of characters to the Tiktok dancing at the ending animation, I loved every bit of it - except for the cliffhanger ending because, unlike most anime, Hoshiai no Sora is not based on a manga - it is an anime original series. Now, basically, it is a sports anime and it focuses on the developments of a boys' soft-tennis team and how their lives change when a new member called Maki Katsuragi joins them. If you only look at it as a sports anime, I believeit is up there with my previous personal best sports anime, Tsurune. However, as some other commentator here also says, it goes beyond being sports anime.
I have watched countless slice of life anime and Hoshiai no Sora/The Stars Align was the first one to include so many society-level and family-level everyday problems in it. Through the 12 episodes of the show, we see divorced couples, a father who extorts money from his ex-wife and kid, an overbearing mother, helicopter parents, a father who hurts his child and doesn't even consider what he has done, a mother who actually hates one of her children, an adopted child, a young man confused about his gender preferences - and all these in a very believable, very real-life-like storytelling. It shows how following a sport may make kids feel better, more confident, and how it canalizes them to establish good, solid friendships.
I recommend this anime series with all my heart.