English Dub Review: Ahiru no Sora, “First Flight,” “Broken Wings,” “Now’s the Time”

 

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The revenge match between Kuzu High and Maru High unfolds. The limits of Sora’s skills are tested, as well as the team’s will to keep playing.

Our Take

All three of these episodes are Kuzu High’s informal match against Maru High. That’s a long time to dedicate to the very first match of the show and a fairly inconsequential one at that. However, the value in this match lies beyond mere numbers.

The match itself follows a pretty typical formula. The opposing team underestimates the protagonist’s team at first and has their feet kicked out from under them. Then they start taking it seriously, identify and take advantage of some weaknesses, and quickly outpace them. The outpacing part occurs very rapidly in this case, as Sora and Momoharu are basically the only players with skill and their arsenals are exhausted before halftime.

Sora makes a few impressive plays, but ultimately he is done in by his lack of experience. At first, the moments where he gets knocked down (sometimes quite literally) make it seem like he may be ready to lose hope or even scared. And every time, he gets back up with a smile on his face and perseveres. It’s dead simple, but it’s also very effective.

There are several flashbacks Sora has about his mother. Flashbacks in shonen anime are usually called out for being cheap opportunities to exposit and for slowing down the pace of the plot. They do slow the story down here, but I think the exposition is worth it. Young Sora is a whiny kid who gives up immediately when things don’t go his way. Every time he throws a fit about something, his mother calmly stops him and lays out some hard facts to try to motivate him. Sora’s mom is a very warm character and watching her try to teach her son is touching. Through these flashbacks, we see how the strong-willed, present Sora was formed. 

Madoka does spend a lot of time on the sidelines cheering in this episode. I had commented previously that putting her into this role would diminish her character and it does a little bit. But there are a couple of times where she steps off of the sidelines to locate one of the main characters and has a talk with them. These conversations aren’t just simple pep talks; they’re straightforward, no-nonsense, assessments of their behavior. She tells them they need to pull their head out of their ass and put it back in the game. This shows Madoka has not only guts but some wisdom as well, adding more to her character. She helps turns Sora’s blind stubbornness into real resilience and drops some hard facts on Chiaki to whip him back into shape.

Chiaki spends most of these episodes providing his usual brand of obtusely funny jokes. However, he still maintains his attitude of not putting in effort for something he feels is useless. This trait of his is expanded upon though, as we see that he is not merely lazy; he is afraid of being laughed at for failing, due to past trauma. This is a fairly standard character arc and one needs resolving through the use of several flashbacks and a talking-to from someone else. Both ingredients are provided courtesy of Madoka and he makes his gallant return to the game of basketball.

Watching Chiaki off the court was funny and watching him on the court is no different. As he is making his return, a spectator from the opposing team throws a can onto the court from the second-floor stands and trips up Sora. Chiaki responds to this by slowly dragging out a table and throwing it up to the second floor, hitting the railing and spooking the spectators. His complete disrespect for decorum and common sense is one of his best character traits and makes the resulting humor so effective. 

In general, all of the characters in this show have foul mouths as well. The English dub dialogue contains some pretty nasty insults being lobbed around carelessly. It might seem a little extreme, but unbridled high school boys truly have no filter, so the blatant cursing further adds to the humor.

Chiaki’s basketball skills turn out to be nothing to sneeze at. All of the basketball aficionados in the area waste no time acknowledging how high-level his plays are. Seeing them in action is fairly impressive as well. 

The animation of the basketball is slowly improving. The show still favors using a lot of freeze-frames to punctuate the plays. Previously, they would use freeze-frames just to anticipate a sloppily animated action. But now they’re expanding it. A shot will cut to a freeze-frame and then transition into a slow-motion action, usually a skillful ball-handling technique or a tricky basket attempt. This isn’t ground-breaking, but it’s executed much better than what they were doing before. As the match heats up and the plays come faster, they also cut several freeze-frames together which works well as well. 

I think by now, in 2019, most sports/action animes would fall onto 3D techniques to clean up the animation. But here, at least as far as I can tell, everything is pretty much done in 2D. The only thing that is obviously 3D is the basketball in some shots, usually during extended shots where it travels mid-air. The 2D isn’t perfect, as there are plenty of small drawing errors present. But sticking with it when there are better alternatives is admirable. Or indicative of a tight budget. 

Another thing I’d like to highlight is the music, which is pretty high quality for a sports anime. The instrumentation is comprised of a pleasant mix of guitars, violins, and vocalizing. It becomes upbeat and pleasant for happy and uplifting moments. It turns dramatic and rapidly increases in tempo during tense plays. It’s all very strong and while the melodies might not be that memorable, they’re very effective in the moment which is what counts. This is far beyond what I would expect for a show about basketball and I appreciate it. 

Ahiru no Sora continues to play within the bounds of sports anime conventions. But it still works, because while it might be an iteration, it’s a very polished one. Even if it’s a familiar one, there’s always pleasure in watching a good story unfold.