Review of Hanebado!

Hanebado! is the first of my attempts in the sports anime world and even though the story certainly won't wow audiences, there's so many little things that they did well that made me, at the very least, appreciate what this anime series is. As someone who used to play badminton a lot, though not at a high level, I loved those finer details. Story & Characters: Hanebado! starts us out with us viewing Nagisa Aragaki, who is very clearly competing at a tournament, and lost 21-0. This is obviously a hard blow to anyone who plays badminton competitively and sets us up real wellfor what's to come. Skip forward to her high school days where she is now captain and basically bullying students who don't appear to be putting in the same passion that she has. Then, a surprise - Ayano Hanesaki, who humiliated Nagisa, is set to return to the world of badminton after a short hiatus. What proceeds is us viewing how our characters go through their club training for tournaments, and hashing out various problems between themselves, and other rival schools.

Each character has a different story to tell and basically the only similarity between them are that they want to work them out through badminton. This has obvious cons to them in that the 'solution' always feels somewhat the same, but they are told ever so slightly that I didn't mind it here. Nagisa is likely the most physically fit and most passionate about badminton than anyone in her school, and it very much gets to her head, even at the caution of her best friend Riko Izumi. I really enjoyed the story elements surrounding these two because there's so much to like, and cheer for. It allows Nagisa to open up, all while not throwing her central characteristics away. She stands out because she's really tall her age and clear favours smashes over any other hit type. Ayano, by polar opposite, is really not a character that I enjoyed watching. Her mother walked out on her at a young age and while this is a decent attempt to build up a decent backstory, it completely flops when you consider Ayano's complete disrespect for her classmates and opponents when it comes to crunch time. This stays mostly in check through the first half, but it makes the second half of the series difficult to watch. Her standout is that she's a lefty and excels in defending more than anything else.

Riko is clearly not as talented, but she's still a strong addition to this series. She comes off as a voice of reason and attempts to be patient with her classmates. Elena has been Ayano's friend since a young age, bit she feels too similar to Riko, outside of the fact that she doesn't play. Her characteristics feel the same, and tries to not intervene until things start to boil down. Individually, these two are strong, but being in the same series, they feel kind of redundant. Various teammates have short character arcs and they were all individually nice to watch, but though don't stand out as much as our main two characters. Kentaro Tachibana is brought in to help coach the badminton club early on and I really appreciated advice he has in this series. He finds a way to get through to Nagisa, and is a decent character outside of the really odd first episode appearance he has.

When you're watching a sport, you really do need to mix up the story formula because it's already predetermined that the sport itself will be one of the focusing points throughout the whole series. When you watch your characters play through the story, you realize really early on that a lot of the story elements aren't terribly interesting. Nagisa's plot points are strong because you see character development happening. She has problems that she wants to resolve herself, but clearly needs a second hand to help her along. I appreciated this. However, Ayano's your other main character and I didn't enjoy any of her story. It doesn't develop her character at all and you're not really left with a sense of relief. Once more, while the setup for the finale was decent, I thought Ayano really brought down the mood.

One of my favourite aspects of Hanebado! was all the little touches that make you feel like you're watching real badminton players play the sport. From the familiar brands like Mizuno and Pocari Sweat, to the correct terminology used to describe hit types, everything feels so refined. Similar to Sound! Euphonium, much of the focus is getting to the national stage, and even though that part of the story didn't have room within one series, those details makes me appreciate this series just a little bit more, despite the rough story and character development. (Story: 6/10, Characters: 6/10)

Art: Hanebado! is a beautiful anime series, no doubt. It takes most every angle imaginable when watching our characters play the game. It could feel a little fan servicey, though not in the traditional sense, and the extra effort put here makes this series really stand out. I'm not sure if this is the norm is sports anime though. Regardless, my eyes liked what they saw. (9/10)

Sound: The OST kind of meshed together and never really played a favour here. You'd like it stick out a little more, but there wasn't much here. The OP, Futari no Hane by Yurika, attempts to create a happy mood here, but this series really doesn't feel like it for most of the run time, leaving this to feel like an odd choice. The ED, High Stepper by Yuuka Ohara, felt similar. Voice work was really strong here with many well known VOs not really using their well-known voice tones, including Amber Lee Connors (Ayano), Jill Harris (Riko) and Sarah Wiedenheft (Elena). Still, they worked well here. One oddity that occurs here is the way in which the characters say badminton in the English dub. I'm not sure if that's because they wanted the lip syncs to look better with the sound, but it sounds really awkward - a strange decision for sure. (9/10)

Overall: Hanebado! felt like a bit of a longshot for me because of my unfamiliarity with the genre, but I'm glad I watched it, despite it's shortcomings. I haven't seen a series do some many little things well in quite some time, and if only the story and characters were more likable, this would have been an easy recommendation. (7/10)