Ginga e Kickoff!!

[Miles vi Britannia]

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!!

At last Kickoff is done. I've been keeping up with this for about a year and it only finished recently. Well, actually it finished like a month and a half and ago, but subbers being slow meant that I didn't get to complete it until a few days ago. Anywho, I was pleasantly surprised with this anime. Didn't think much of it going in but as I kept watching over such a long time I ended up enjoying it more and more.

Basically, there's a loud, high-spirited boy named Shou Oota who really likes soccer but sucks at it. His old soccer team disbanded so he tries to bring the team back, though he struggles to make this happen. After meeting many different people (another girl who's good at soccer, a professional player, a former pro and coach for a different team), he's finally able to bring back some of his old teammates and get the team going. Shou decides that he wants to make his team #1 in the galaxy, and you can guess what happens from there.

It's probably pretty obvious that it's a Shounen sports anime. At times it felt a bit kiddy and it's just what it looks like: a series about a bunch of kids having fun playing soccer. That said, it's not as straightforward and bland as it might seem. There's actually a pretty good deal of character development, and even though it's never anything extremely dramatic, it can actually be pretty emotional when it needs to be. The characters grow not only in skill (and there's quite a lot of that for a few of them) but also as people and they learn to appreciate one another even though not all of them are on perfect terms right away.

And as any good sports anime knows to do, the team doesn't win every single match they get into. There are a few significant losses that really test the resolve of the characters and make them work even harder to get better. The matches are actually pretty enjoyable, with some being really badass and filled with awesomeness and intensity. Granted, for the most part it keeps some degree of realism, but I can definitely say that some of the plays are still pretty cool and I doubt I'd see any kids that age being anywhere near that good at soccer, even with a lot of practice.

In any case, I can actually say I liked this. It's very low-key in comparison to many series out there and most people I know probably have never even heard of it. Kickoff isn't one of those godly life-changing anime, but all the same it's still pretty good fun and over time the score definitely did rise as I got more attached to the cast and their story.