I cannot possibly separate my nostalgia goggles from my eyes when talking about Attack No. 1. Or as it was known to me and my fellow German speakers in the 90s, Mila Superstar. Before Sailor Moon, before Dragonball, before Pokemon and Digimon...there was Mila. This was in more ways than one my entry drug into the world of anime. While it is rather rough around the edges when you look at it today (I mean it was made in the 60s for crying out loud) but it still had all those tropes I would later come to love/hate in anime. It's a sports show with all theshounen cliches you'd expect. An underdog story with a rival bully who becomes your BFF by the end, ridiculous superpowers and the melodramatic nail biting thrills of...Volleyball. Sure there were no world ending stakes, but it I'll be damned if it didn't FEEL like the world would end whenever Mila was at the face of defeat. Every time she screamed and cried, my little 5 year old self screamed and cried along. The show had a passion that I was not used to seeing in any other show.

And unlike shounen, Attack No.1 had a cast that was comprised mainly of girl characters. Surprisingly well written girl characters. A sad rarity even to this day. Mila's main concerns weren't boy troubles or looking pretty, she was a goddamn athlete. She had a dream, and my god, she was gonna live that dream if it killed her.