Review of Stars Align

*SPOILER FREE* Hoshiai no Sora is by and large a drama anime that has the sport of soft tennis mixed in to act as a catalyst for bringing together the main characters and showing growth. For those who are looking for a shonen sports anime with your typical summer camps and special moves and growing the team and lots of matches against strong teams and rising to the top, this isn't really a show for you. The story itself is something that captivated me from the get-go. It was something different, and something very captivating as slice of life animes are typically very appealing to me. Thecharacters are all very unique and have their own dramas going on with their lives, each of them having very upbringings and lots of problems going on in their respective houses, hence drama. The way the characters have grown from the beginning of the show through the main character, Maki, has been very enjoyable to watch. The way it explored psychological aspects of school students and the understanding it takes to see why the kids act the way they do blew me away. Unfortunately due to issues with the production studio, this anime currently remains half finished, as what was initially supposed to be a 24 episode anime got cut in half, and the director decided instead of rushing to finish, they would play out their story and finish whatever they could by their story.

The music and artwork in the anime is very good in my opinion. I loved their choices for opening and ending songs, and the art really captured what was happening in each scene, with each scene exhibiting very normal stuff and drawn so well that you could easily absorb yourself in their world.

Overall, enjoyment of this anime was very high. As I said at the beginning, this is a drama anime with sports mixed in, not the other way around. Many people might be left disappointed by the fact sports is its hook, but not me. I thoroughly enjoyed this anime and would recommend it easily for someone looking for a school drama anime. The way it is able to capture the drama in the families of kids in school is quite incredible and still progress forward, juxtaposing fun moments with sad and tense moments, is quite incredible. A very well written story that I pray will get a season 2 to finish off.