First Impressions – Prince of Stride: Alternative

Because regular running just wasn’t exciting enough for anime

Yaaay, yet another promising sports anime! This genre needs some love and this trio is here to give it just that! Our reasoning might be a bit different but hey, cool colours, beautiful animation, interesting bishies and a heart pumping, adrenaline rushing sports. What else could anyone want?!

The next sport for anime to tackle is parkour, which has been re-purposed into a more complicated event called Stride. It’s the perfect excuse to watch hot guys perform all kind of flashy flips, jumps, and whatever the heck those other dangerous stunts would be called. They certainly know their target audience!

I wasn’t overly excited for this anime (my excitement was reserved for Norn9 since I’ve really enjoying the game), but the first episode of the anime convinced me differently.

Analyze This

Kyokai // What is up with sports anime and clubs that are either at the edge of being shutdown or in need of the exact number of interested freshmen joining in? It is called the anime-logic of plot, which is completely fine by me. There is of course enough history here with Hozumi, Heath and Ayumu keeping both the Stride and Shogi clubs alive, supposedly after the legendary members quit. This seems to be a shame because Stride seems to be quite popular with the school crowd and more probably so after the success of Honan’s previous stars. For now, I have a feeling that Shogi is the least of their problems except for Ayumu crying his eyes out for an interested member but hey, let’s talk about adrenaline rushes! And of course, I will pick the new megane-kun. It’s my type after all. ^_~

Fujiwara Takeru seems to be the quiet yet forceful type, with the special power of hawk eyes to analyze athletic skills of anyone. It’s almost funny how he glares at Riku during class and even guesses that Nana would be interested in joining the Stride club… Does he possess clairvoyance or he can feel the Stride obsession cells in a human…? Whatever the case maybe, his skills are well-honed and sharpened with much experience, acknowledged by the experts. A perfect straight-man material as well, whose deadpan looks should definitely be used. Creepy feelers aside, he should be the perfect partner for Yagami Riku, who seemed ready to join any club except for Strido-bu.

We will hopefully soon discover the mystery behind his trepidation (suffering similar symptoms as Tsukki of Haikyuu! or hiding a previous failure?), and his brother’s present shenanigans. For now, the scene seems set with the highly flexible senpais who are happy to accept the trio in their fold: Over powering, Heath (Another OD character, yes!); a light-voiced Hozumi (Kuroko, is that you?); and the obsessive Shogi captain, Ayumu (Perfect, Shimono!). This seems to be a promising start.

Gotta Go Fast

Overcooled// There are many mysteries that episode 1 coyly teases us with, and one of them is the human whirlwind that is Yagami Riku. First of all, Yagami is implied to be the brother of the famous Stride Club member who performed a phenomenal run and then quit. Unfortunately, not much else is revealed as Yagami squirms his way out of questioning due to his extreme discomfort at even being in lose proximity to the Stride Club. His unwillingness to join this one club is another mystery in of itself! All in due time though. This is something I’m willing to wait for.

Secondly, Yagami runs like a demon and no one knows if he was born this way or trained for it. You would think having nearly inhuman speed would make him a tour de force at any sport, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Yes, he can use his speed to easily blow by someone in basketball or dive for an out-of-bounds ball in volleyball. However, he doesn’t have any of the other, finer motor skills associated with those sports to be a threat yet. That’s why he misses his lay-up and the volleyball thumps him in the noggin. I like that there’s some realism to his abilities in this way. He’s not that One Character who is a prodigy at every sport without even trying. He’s just got raw athleticism and speed that can be applied in many different situations. The clubs are all desperate to have him because he is a blank slate with all the potential in the world. He’s just waiting to be trained to be a master at just about any sport that requires speedy reflexes (and I’m having trouble thinking of sports where you wouldn’t need that).

Yagami is an interesting guy who just needs to learn to channel his talents. Afterall, it would be such a waste if he became a jack-of-all-trades from club-hopping instead of an elite level athlete in one or two sports. Anyways, I hope we learn more about Yagami using his talents, because speed can be a blessing and a curse. Unlike Heath, he was completely out of breath by the end from running so quickly (and being not as in shape, perhaps). I love the way this show addresses his talents (and not just because it looks hella cool when he speeds by people) and doesn’t just make him this all-powerful athletic prodigy off-the-bat. Yagami still has a lot to learn.

Best_Stride_Ever?

Karakuri// Right away, the art style of Prince of Stride was interesting with everything looking overexposed, saturated, and bright. …I had to turn down the brightness of my screen since it was a bit too intense for me, but it was interesting nonetheless. Luckily, the episode toned down as it went on (or maybe my eyes got used to it). But the anime art seems rather reminiscent of what I’ve seen of the game artwork (though the game doesn’t seem as bright and neon-y), so I can see why they went this way. The actual Stride animation looks really cool too! It’s fun seeing the characters run all over the place, even when it was just within the confines of the school. I can only imagine what will happen when the track expands to the city and the characters are allowed to run loose. …It’s just a shame that Nana is stuck there watching arrows on a screen as opposed to being able to see the actual runners do their thing.

The anime was also an interesting mix of Nana’s perspective and Riku’s. I was expecting it to be from Nana’s, since the heroine’s POV always seems to take priority in otome game adaptations, but from the beginning, we seemed to get more of Riku’s thoughts. I guess this makes sense in a sports anime, since you would want the runner’s perspective as opposed to the onlooker’s, but then they didn’t even really have anyone commentating during the actual run. This made the run seem more exciting though, since it didn’t really require much explaining other than the commentary Nana added about the ending and the pass off that happened (which I guess is a mechanic in the Stride matches). But other than that, it was just a lot of action and freedom, which seems to be what Stride is about anyways, so it was very fitting. It will be interesting to see if the characters get monologues or anything in other races, since the running was really exciting this episode without it, and so far Stride doesn’t seem to need much thought or strategizing. Maybe that will change when the matches are less about introducing Stride and more about glory and competition.

It’s also interesting how high tech and popular Stride seems. I guess in real life, runners have sensors on them and such, since it’s a way more accurate way of keeping track of finish times, but I don’t know if GPS watches are a thing runners have. Plus the 3D model of the school that the animation had (which I’m not sure if the runners get to see or not but it was useful for visualization) made the race seem more complex than just a run. Also, people in general seem pretty excited about Stride. They seem to have shut down the school to make a path for the runners, they had spotlights and mats set up, and it seems like the whole school showed up to watch. If this is how a simple school match is set up, I can only imagine what a race in the city is like.

I only checked this out due to the sport genre and I’m glad I did because even with a typical sporty show start, Stride has a lot of potential. It was not only the amazingly animation but movement of clothes, breathing rhythm, intensity of the run and the technique used by individual players to reach their goal. Each and every element was showcased beautifully and kudos to the staff for the detailed presentation. Madhouse is really becoming great in adapting sports shows and I hope they do more. So, conclusion is that I’m definitely watching this one regularly.

I love sports anime, but I tend to go into them with low expectations. Maybe it’s because they all feel similar or because there’s a fine line between cool sports superpowers and Dragonball Z nonsense that just doesn’t belong. Anyways, Stride was very low on my radar since it was not only a sports anime, but based off of an otome game. Otome games are great when you’re playing them, but I feel that their anime adaptations leave much to be desired. Stride worried me with a very cliché start, but once it picked up some speed, my wall of apprehensiveness fell away and I truly began to enjoy it. I felt myself getting genuinely hyped up for that race at the end. At one point I recall even thinking to myself “why is my heart beating so fast?”. Stride is a really cool sport and I can’t imagine how wonderful things are going to look when they have bigger arenas, more Striders, and more competitive opponents. The vibrant, sun-in-your-eyes style of animation works well with the frenetic pacing of the races, as well as the liveliness of the characters during their off-hours of idle chatter. Stride is a pleasant surprise that seems to have the right amount of drama hidden under the surface (why is everyone afraid to join Stride Club? Why did the previous member quit? Why is Yagami so hesitant to join?), interesting characters, great art, and a sport that looks fantastic in action. I’m in. I’m so in!

There’s just something about sports anime that manages to get me excited. I never used to like the genre, but now I can really enjoy the tension behind competitions or appreciate competitiveness the characters. I’m definitely enjoying what the sport of Stride has shown us so far, and Madhouse has made it look excellent! I wasn’t sure what to expect since the game shows pretty much the screen with the arrows, but it’s just so much more entertaining with actually seeing the characters give it their all while leaping off and climbing over things. The characters are fun regardless though, and while Nana is a little uninvolved in the actual races, her role of setting up the relay is more important than I thought. …Though of course, maybe it’s just that I like having HanaKana as an announcer. But in any case, I rather enjoyed episode 1 and it looks like a fun season ahead!

About Tag Team

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.