English Dub Review: Salaryman’s Club “Synergy”

Overview

Mikoto loses against Tatsuru and is forced to play doubles with him. However, due to their polar opposite personalities, they struggle to get along at work and practice. Meanwhile, Sunlight Beverage has a practice match against the powerful Unisics team. Mikoto and Tatsuru face off against Kirishima Hayato and Oginome Daiki, the world’s second-ranked men’s doubles team. It’s an intense battle against a superior team, however…


Our Take

Regarding the story and characters, the anime sticks with the classic formula of the sports genre, of what is possibly the first-ever badminton sports anime, and it’s just as solid as the first episode, even if it arguably doesn’t bring anything new on the table. And its narrative is refreshing to switch it up from school life to work life with the age brackets between characters in their 20s-30s. 

Other than badminton, the guys also have to do their part on sales, because that’s part of the job as well. Also, Mikoto’s issues of being afraid to jump due to a past incident are going to take a while to be resolved like most cliché character arcs. And not something you can instantly just get over, so it’ll be up to Mikoto to try and find his groove and be both comfortable and confident to jump to unleash his full athletic potential.

Overall, a passable episode with great animation in physical articulation and less dramatic than a few other Sports shows. The badminton match was nice, and the relaxing atmosphere and pacing are also equally welcoming. We also get introduced to a rival team who thankfully aren’t complete jerks since that’s something that’s also cliché in other sports shows. But regardless, I think this anime still has a lot of promise and has good legs to stand on.