Knight in the Area–First Episode Review

Episode Summary: Aizawa Kakeru is perfectly happy being the manager of his school's soccer team, since he can watch his talented older brother play the game. Aizawa Suguru is convinced that his younger brother would make a good addition to the team himself, but an injury left Kakeru with little confidence in his abilities and so he prefers to keep to the sidelines.

An argument between the two brothers, as well as a strange encounter with an "alien" Kakeru has in the park one night, prompts Suguru to force Kakeru to try out for the first string squad. Kakeru is angry, but he buckles down to give it his all in spite of it.

Thoughts: Like several other fans, I was hoping that this series might turn out to be just a little bit like 2010's Giant Killing, which was great fun due primarily to its investment in its characters and its well-animated soccer action. One major advantage that Giant Killing has over this series, though, was that its cast is comprised of adults rather than children and thus its focus is on more mature topics. While there was still plenty of opportunity for the characters to be silly, the obstacles that many of them challenged and overcame were more resonant with me because I felt some kinship with their situation. This series already feels like it's aimed at a completely different audience demographic because its characters are younger and their antics seem more geared towards an immature mind set (or at least towards an audience who is more unquestioning of overused character tropes).

I was also cautiously hopeful that this show might be a little bit like Cross Game, which was an engaging show in spite of the fact that it was also considered a shounen (rather than seinen) sports series and thus had no obligation to appeal to anyone older. Despite being spoiled for Cross Game's big first episode "twist," I still blubbered like a baby because the drama was handled so sensitively. Unfortunately I don't see this series accomplishing the same feat. Wikipedia has already spoiled me to the fact that this series has a similar narrative twist coming up, but what's lacking in this case is the connection to the characters that Cross Game so deftly forged. The major characters that were introduced in this episode, namely Kakeru, Suguru and their childhood friend Nana, all have very simplistic, flat personalities. Suguru especially comes off as irrationally angry and violent towards his younger brother rather than sympathetic. Yes, he might feel that his brother's wasted skill is a very important issue to address, but when he corners him and becomes physically threatening, my agreement with his cause begins to falter. Likewise, Kakeru is kind of a boring kid, and Nana still occupies the spot of "probable love-interest" without being engaging. The secondary cast isn't much to speak of either, with one character in particular acting so goofy about girls that I couldn't stop rolling my eyes.

Some of these problems might be easier to ignore if the sports action were a larger part of the narrative, but I don't think that that will be the case. Most of the first episode is comprised of character drama, and the more action-oriented parts of the episode aren't animated with fidelity towards reality in mind. Even when watching sports anime I'm not necessarily that hung-up on the animation quality, though it helps; the aforementioned Giant Killing wasn't the greatest in terms of animation, but the most important parts were given the most attention and were better off for it. But in this case... well, if I were forced to pick between watching Prince of Tennis 2 which I know for a fact would be just as bad or worse as far as silly shounen tournament garbage is concerned but is ten times easier on the eyes, and choosing to watch this series, the choice might not be an easy one for me to make.

Does the first episode manage to get anything right? Well, one refreshing thing that definitely puts this episode ahead of whatever Prince of Tennis might have in store for us is that this isn't a shounen sports series that relies on special attacks or super powers. There's very little drama to be had when a series can easily grant god-like power to its main characters to use in decimating their opponents; even though the protagonists (almost) always win, it's best when there's always the underlying threat that they might not. I'm also thankful that Suguru isn't the series' main focus because, though he may play an important role, his skills are too developed already and his personality leaves something to be desired.

At this point, I don't have very high hopes for this show. Unlike some anime fans I'm not hardwired to dislike sports anime just because they involve sports; though I'm no sports fan I think the genre has something to offer even those of us who couldn't name more than a couple of currently-active sports stars. The genre does tend to be problematic for those of us who aren't that interested in bundling high school melodrama or shounen tournament plotting with our entertainment, and this show appears to suffer from a bit of the former. It may improve, but I don't have very high hopes.

Pros:

• The action is pretty down-to-earth and doesn't rely upon overpowered special attacks to drive the action.
• The assumed protagonist seems to have room to develop, both in personality and in sports skill.

Cons:

• The show so far seems a bit too immature for my liking.
• The characterization overall leaves something to be desired.

Recommended? Hard core fans of sports anime may want to give this a try, but taken as an overall package the first episode is decidedly underwhelming.

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