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Hoshiai no Sora
Synopsis
The story centres around the boy’s soft tennis club at Shiratori middle school. Constantly outperformed by the girl’s soft tennis team, the boy’s team have lost all motivation to seriously commit to soft tennis. Their lax existence comes to an end, however, when a new rule requires every club to present some accomplishment in their field or face disbandment. This forces the boys to recruit more fresh talent to join their club.
When the clubs very passionate captain, Toma Shinjou, sees the newly transferred student, Maki Katsuragi’s, great reflexes, he immediately attempts to recruit him. Maki’s innate talent and great game sense rekindles the clubs team spirit and love for the sport.
The story essentially follows a group of young boys as they navigate through the difficulties of life as a middle schooler all while discovering their own potential, capabilities and interests. It brings to light their interactions with adults to show how those experiences shape the boy’s young minds and spirits.
Rating
5/5
Genres
Slice of life, Sports, Drama, LGBTQ+
Status
Complete
Episodes
12
Type
Anime
Trigger Warning
Abuse (Physical and Verbal)
Notes
This is such a beautiful anime! It handles very serious topics like abuse and abandonment extremely well. It encourages emotions in boys which is always appreciated (cause the patriarchy sucks). And openly discusses things like gender identity and being gay in such a normalised manner! There is seriously so much, so many people can learn from this anime!
The characters are all very well fleshed out and dynamic. You learn more about each boy through the series and there is not one person who is uninteresting or just there to fill space.
The content is also presented in a very palatable way, as the seriousness of the problems each boy is facing is juxtapositioned with wins and losses at various soft tennis games. It adds some respite to the intensity which keeps you hooked throughout!
Now, I can go on and on about this anime but I’ll stop here I think XP
Bonus
1. The ending song is super fun! (This anime does this fun thing where the fast song is at the end and the slow emotional song is at the beginning)
2. Stay tuned for post credit scenes
3. It ends on an insane cliff-hanger that strangely doesn’t make you feel agitated? Just excited for what’s to come!
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