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Prince of Stride: Alternative (TV).


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2015 10:59 pm Reply with quote


Prince of Stride: Alternative (TV)

Genres: Tournament
Themes: Track & Field

Plot Summary: "Stride," is an extreme sport that involves six people on one team who run relay races through towns. Hōnan Academy and other schools compete to win eastern Japan's top Stride competition, "End of Summer." However, Hōnan's team has shut down. First-year high school students Takeru Fujiwara and Nana Sakurai attempt to restart the club, but they must recruit six members for the team. They ask Riku Yagami to join, but he turns them down by saying that Stride is the one thing he doesn't want to do.
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I was surprised this is getting a TV anime tbh but it has the premise of track & field in it. I've not seen any shows with such a theme except maybe Suzuka. It's also by one of my favorite studios, Madhouse. The preview looks well animated imo.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:21 am Reply with quote
Episode 1:

Hmm that was alright. We got basically the intro of the main characters and some running (I expect pacing to pick up soon)

Riku Yagami seems like a fun guy introduced in the episode. Then, there's Sakurai. The OP song was okay, catchy in some ways and showed a lot more characters than I had expected. The artwork is nice, definitely has the vibrant quality from Madhouse.

Fun stuff overall. I wonder how much characterization we'll get for the main characters. Sakuraki has quite a bit of responsibility though. Also glad to see a little bit about the mechanics of the running fields, rules, etc. I think the episode introduced the premise and story consistently overall. The competition and running angles with the tense atmosphere was actually exciting!
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 7:30 am Reply with quote
Episode 1

Pretty good! It did basically everything in the book for sports anime first episodes, the animation and soundtrack were nice, and the comedy was pretty on point as well. It was a little cliché I suppose but nothing that made me enjoy the episode less.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 8:14 pm Reply with quote
That kind of felt like watching Free! on land. Same characters, same start up the club again, same relay work, girl manager, some animosity over past relationships apparently (as in why the other 3rd years are deliberately sabotaging the team). At least they don't have them running with their elbows flung out like they're shoving their way through a Black Friday crowd.

I wasn't quite clear on the stakes of the race though, since only one of the participants maybe didn't want to join the club. Had the current members lost, would that mean none of the newbies would get to join? Why was the Haru clone trying so hard to win, since he definitely wanted Riku to join? It would have made more sense to just have a one on one race between the 3rd year and Riku to see if Riku had to join or not.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 8:27 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
Why was the Haru clone trying so hard to win, since he definitely wanted Riku to join?


He was on Riku's team, it was 1st years vs 2nd years, wasn't it? Or do you mean that part where it looked like Riku wouldn't reach him on time? To me it seemed like he was just trying to get Riku psyched for the race in there, and show that he trusted Riku would reach him.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 11:19 pm Reply with quote
It was newbies vs the existing club members, and I thought the stakes were that if the club members won Riku would have to join the club, and presumably would not have to if the newbies won. So you'd think Takeru wouldn't want his own team to win, since he wants Riku to join along with him and manager girl.

If that wasn't the bet, why were they racing at all? I mean, naturally, the outcome either way would be that Riku would get psyched and want to join, but that wasn't what I understood the set-up to be.

To clarify, what was supposed to happen if Riku's team won?
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 11:26 pm Reply with quote
What I got from it was that if he'd won he could make the choice himself whether to join or not. To win he'd have to run seriously and Takeru seemed to believe that he'd want to join as long as he tried it once. Pretty cliche.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 2:15 am Reply with quote
I think part of my confusion was not being able to tell the seiyuu apart when they're being serious. The way the subs came in while we were still on Takeru, it seemed like Takeru was expecting him to dog it, which made no sense since Riku didn't want to join ("I wonder if he's going to run properly. If he slacks off and we lose, I'm..."). But now I see that all of that was Riku muttering to himself in his head.

But yeah, that makes the team set-up still not make sense. It should have been a one-on-one race between Riku and the club's best. Which of course would have defeated the teamwork, yay! theme.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 8:16 am Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
I wasn't quite clear on the stakes of the race though, since only one of the participants maybe didn't want to join the club. Had the current members lost, would that mean none of the newbies would get to join? Why was the Haru clone trying so hard to win, since he definitely wanted Riku to join? It would have made more sense to just have a one on one race between the 3rd year and Riku to see if Riku had to join or not.

This was the major complaint I had. I was following everything, but then suddenly the guys says that they are doing a race of first years vs club members in whether they would have to join. It felt like the deal came out of nowhere, that it made no sense what was at stake for land Haru.

Looking at the layout of the episode, the sudden parkour match really came too quickly, as if to justify and or explain the concept. Looking at a sports anime I love that also does a competition of new members related into joining, I look at Haikyuu, which let some tension rise before the first year students compete in the next episode. This series is obviously pulling a lot from FREE, of which I will call this "FREE! running", there were a couple humorous moments that kept me interested. I can't quite remember the episode structure of FREE, but I think it ended its first episode with building up tension with a race, instead of shoehorning it in.

I think something I found particularly humorous was building up her reason in joining the school by being from a video, and then subverting it in apparently it being removed by the association. I thought her reaction was funny and at least some build of a character past the main draw of male characters.
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cathalibm



Joined: 17 Mar 2010
Posts: 1
Location: Dublin, Ireland
PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:03 am Reply with quote
Just saw the first episode. I must say that it kinda reminds me of Free! It look good, and hopefully they will expand on the characters. One thing that annoyed me was Spoiler => running the race in the middle the end credits. Overall, im hoping that its gets better. Razz
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ookamigirl



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 2274
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 11:33 am Reply with quote
Colors sure are vibrant.
That's the first thing I noticed.
Characters seem interesting ^^
The plot is a bit weird-ish & LOL though.
Race was very intense & interesting.
Will give it a few episodes before I decide.
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phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
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Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 8:31 pm Reply with quote
I enjoyed the first episode. I found the characters easy to like and enjoyed the OP.
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 10:38 pm Reply with quote
Episode 2:

Hmm, I wonder if the team really is ready for their first match.
They got a powerhouse to take on already.

Also, something caught my eye about Riku this episode. When they were talking about his brother, he showed more of a darker expression or at least not his usual goofy reaction. Wonder if we will learn more about their relationship in the future episodes. I'm curious about his past.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 2:55 am Reply with quote
Not only are they offering up a cast of thousands to keep track of, they also want me to follow the teacher's 4-character idioms and a parade of acronyms too? This does not bode well for me.

So...the other school's stride team are idol singers on the side? oO

Is vogue-ing still a thing?

The OP lyrics bring out my inner 12-year old. Embarassed
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ookamigirl



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 2274
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:31 am Reply with quote
Riku & Takeru training hard.
And now they have something to look forward to.
Stride Festival up ahead!
Very fun episode. Enjoyed watching ^^
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