Anime Reviews (2010-2019): Ahiru no Sora: Collection One (2019-2020)

If you love basketball anime series or love sports anime with the thrill of competition and camaraderie, then “Ahiru no Sora – Collection One” is recommended!

Click here to purchase on Amazon

TITLE: Ahiru no Sora: Collection One

ORIGINAL SERIES DATE: 2019

DURATION: Episodes 1-24 (600 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, DTS-HD Master Audio: English and Japanese 2.0, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Sentai Filmworks

RATED: TV 14 VL

Release Date: December 15, 2020

Originally Created by Hinata Takeshi

Director: Tamaki Shingo

Character Design by Honda Yoshino

Music by Tsutsumi Hiroaki

Art Director: Takahashi Maho

Anime Production: diomedea

Featuring the following voice talent:

Kaji Yuuki/Cameron Bautsch as Sora Kurumatani

Konishi Katsuyuki/Andrew Love as Chiaki Hanazono

Kenn/Benjamin McLaughlin as Masahiro Saki

Nakai Kazuya/David Wald as Shinchi Chiba

Horri Chado/Greg Cote as Ryuhei Tabeshima

Saito Soma/Heath Morrow as Tokitaka Tokiwa

Uchida Yuma/Joe Daniels as Momoharu Hanazono

Endo Aya/Maggie Flecknoe as Yuka Kurumatani

Yashiro Taku/Michael Wronski as Shinichi Yasuhara

Senbongi Sayaka/Olivia Swasey as Madoka Yabuuchi

Sam Butler as Sumi Yabuuchi

Fujiwara Natsumi/Brittney Karbowski as Sora Kurumatani (Young)

Ishigami Shizuka/Carli Mosier as Yoko Kokubu

Kawaida Natsumi/Christie Guidry as Sachi Fukanoshi

Mori Nanako/Christina Kelly as Sayuri Wakamori

Okasaki Miho/Margaret Lewis as Harumi Tominaga

Sora Kurumatani is short and as scrawny as a stick figure, but he loves basketball with a burning passion. Unfortunately, on his first day at Kuzuryu High, he learns that the school’s supposed basketball team is nothing of the sort.

Instead of a haven for aspiring athletes, the gym has become the home turf for a gang of thugs, delinquents and perverts whose only skill at dribbling involves drooling on the floor while peeking into the girls’ locker room. But since Kurumatani has to play to fulfill a promise made to his ailing mother, he’ll have to take these sour lemons and squeeze-play out a winning basketball team somehow. Impossible? Perhaps. But with the help of a counselor and members of the girls’ club, he’ll do his best to get them all on the rebound!

Since 2003, the basketball manga series “Ahiru no Sora” has been entertaining readers in “Weekly Shonen Magazine”.

With a total of 51 volumes printed, the story of “Ahiru no Sora” continues.

A 50 episode anime series was broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 2019 to September 2020 and now the first 24 episodes has been released on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks.

“Ahiru no Soma” revolves around high schooler Kurumatani Sora, a short teenager whose mother Yuka was a popular basketball player (who played for Japan’s National Basketball Team).

She has always inspired Sora to work harder for his passion of basketball and although he is short, giving him inspiration and also feeback of where he could improve to make him go against those who are taller than him.

When he enters Kuzuryu High School, he learns that the school’s basketball team is primarily delinquents, but when these delinquents who once had a passion for basketball become inspired again to play, Sora and the other club members try to jumpstart Kuzuryu High Schools’ basketball team.

I have watched numerous basketball anime series, some about those who come from the rough part of the streets and features characters who are juvenile delinquents. With the most popular basketball manga and anime being “Slam Dunk”.

“Ahiru no Soma” is different in the fact that while the storyline features basketball players who are delinquents, it also features characters with a lot of faults or handicaps.

The main protagonist is Kurumatani Sora, is a very good basketball player but is very short. Despite his small stature, his mother who was a pro basketball player has always been there to have her son equally passionate about basketball. Where basketball is about size, Sora has worked all his life to show that despite his size, he can play and his mother also believed in him. His goal to play basketball in high school is driven not by wanting to become a professional but a promise that he made to his sick mother that he will see her again, once he can be part of a winning basketball team.

It’s a far stretch considering his team are a bunch of delinquents, with most who never played basketball. But his inspiration to work hard and do whatever it takes, has managed to win over those who tend to look down on him (because of his small stature).

Other members of Kuzuryu High School includes Hanazono Momoharu, an athlete who once was passionate about basketball but due to his problems with depth perception and problems with shooting, he quit basketball and became a delinquent, as with his twin brother Chiaki.

Chiaki is a strategist and can play other positions but while very good at basketball, because Momoharu quitting, he ended up quitting as well and started to become a pervert.

Natsume Kenji is another delinquent who is very good at basketball but because of his temper, always gets into fights but because he promised his sister Juri that he would become the best high school player, he moves with his aunt to attend high school in Kanagawa Prefecture to focus on basketball against his stepfather’s wishes.

And add a few other characters and the first half of the series storyline becomes about the basketball team recruiting players and then trying to be a team that can work together and compete.

For those who are wondering if it’s similar to “Slam Dunk”, probably not. “Slam Dunk” is like the ultimate when it comes to showcasing competition and the intricacies of playing basketball. Team composition and player positions are important. Where there is one juvenile delinquent who eventually becomes better, “Ahiru no Sora” is about everyone on the team who aren’t yet good players.

Sora is small, but quick and can shoot. Momoharu is tough, tall but can’t shoot. Chiaki is a strategist and can shoot but when he’s on strategist mode, he won’t score. While Kenji is cocky, can shoot and play defense but it’s a team game and he needs to be a team player.

So, in a way, Kuzuryu High School is technically is not a very good team, but with practice, with more competitions and belief in themselves as a team, can this basketball team get better?

If you love basketball anime series or love sports anime with the thrill of competition and camaraderie, then “Ahiru no Sora – Collection One” is recommended!

Click here to purchase on Amazon

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