×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
This Week in Anime - Run With the Wind is a Breath of Fresh Air




Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2165
PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 1:01 pm Reply with quote
Any chance of getting a rundown of Ulysses?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 1993
PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 1:27 pm Reply with quote
This show is great! Highly recommend it for anyone who wants a bit of a sports shonen/seinen slice-of-life hybrid.

If anything, I'm grateful for a setting that far past high school life.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Engineering Nerd



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Southern California
PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 2:30 pm Reply with quote
If anything, I like how the show is taking risks on the characterizations. It is relatively easy to create a “likable”, cute and perfect character ( just show no significant flaws that may annoy the audiences), but a lot more complicated to make them flawed and endearing, and ultimately, “relatable” and “real”.

I have huge props to Running with Wind to take this risky road, after reading the original novel, I am confident they can make a more-than-satisfying character transformation on Kakeru and other characters, the pay-off will be worthy of wait.

Oh, in case Haiji’s initial forced persuasions does not sit well with some people, his motivation is actually an important plot point that redefines the entire story, I really hope the anime can spend quite some time in the later episodes to explore that. (Hint: probably in the second-cour of this 23 episode series)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Oggers



Joined: 29 Nov 2017
Posts: 357
Location: Ontario, Canada
PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 2:45 pm Reply with quote
I can always appreciate an anime that for once doesn't focus on characters who are middle school or high school students, and I feel like Run with the Wind does a great job of capturing university students and what they're like at different stages of that period in life. It makes for a great sports anime in that respect, too. Definitely one of my favourites to come out of this season!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
rahzel rose
Subscriber



Joined: 19 Apr 2011
Posts: 823
PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 3:30 pm Reply with quote
Yuki has The Best hair.

Run with the Wind is hands down my favorite show of the season. It’s refreshing and beautiful. I also have to give major props to Kiyasu. It’s still a funny image for me to picture Kaidoh from PoT writing the scripts, but apparently he’s won some awards for his skills.

I can’t wait to see where the rest of the story leads, but I am here for this journey.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
j_plex





PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:03 pm Reply with quote
So much anime the past 3 seasons have been gender segregated. Has it always been this way?
Back to top
meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:34 pm Reply with quote
j_plex wrote:
So much anime the past 3 seasons have been gender segregated. Has it always been this way?


Well... would you consider an Harem (1 dude surrounded by 5-10 women) to be gender segregated?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Blackiris_



Joined: 06 Sep 2013
Posts: 535
PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 12:03 am Reply with quote
j_plex wrote:
So much anime the past 3 seasons have been gender segregated. Has it always been this way?


For sports shows? Definitely.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Violet Park



Joined: 18 Jul 2018
Posts: 115
PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 5:41 am Reply with quote
I love that not only they are in college, but also in different stages of it. You get all the range from freshmen goofing off or being emotionally inmature to seniors having employement woes and everything in between.

Problem is, Haiji acts like a manipulative version of a high school sport protagonist and the story refuses to call him out on it and lets him get away with it. Regardless of his reasons he is expecting 9 people to put their lives on hold because this is important to Him and He is the goddamm center of the universe.

It's a pity because everyone else is so well written. Kakeru is what a flawed protagonist should be, you can see where he is coming from but he is going the wrong way and paying the consequences. All the others get both charming quirks and serious moments (and we all agree Prince is Best Boy). The technical aspects of the show are top noch and they even have a cute dog. But fudge Haiji.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Blackiris_



Joined: 06 Sep 2013
Posts: 535
PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 7:44 am Reply with quote
I don’t understand why you think Haiji is not well-written. Because he is not likable? The others decided to follow him in the end (without holding a grudge), and even though they were pressured into it in sometimes more, sometimes less dubious ways, it’s not like none of them could have said no. And if you criticize Haiji’s writing, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to also criticize the writing of the other characters for eventually giving in?

For me, Haiji – especially in contrast to Kakeru after this episode – is one of the main reasons I find the show so compelling.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
MiloTheFirst



Joined: 10 Dec 2014
Posts: 429
PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 10:07 am Reply with quote
I am loving this show. the only character which I consider poorly written are the twins, they are just so cartoonishly one note "they are up beat and horny", each time I see them it reminds me of the twins from harry potters movie
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Vikkio92



Joined: 25 Sep 2014
Posts: 30
PostPosted: Mon Nov 26, 2018 6:57 am Reply with quote
Violet Park wrote:
I love that not only they are in college, but also in different stages of it. You get all the range from freshmen goofing off or being emotionally inmature to seniors having employement woes and everything in between.

Problem is, Haiji acts like a manipulative version of a high school sport protagonist and the story refuses to call him out on it and lets him get away with it. Regardless of his reasons he is expecting 9 people to put their lives on hold because this is important to Him and He is the goddamm center of the universe.

It's a pity because everyone else is so well written. Kakeru is what a flawed protagonist should be, you can see where he is coming from but he is going the wrong way and paying the consequences. All the others get both charming quirks and serious moments (and we all agree Prince is Best Boy). The technical aspects of the show are top noch and they even have a cute dog. But fudge Haiji.


All of this, a thousand times all of this!

This is an overall beautifully executed show, but I just can't get over the unaddressed manipulation and the fact that the way it has been handled has essentially ruined the underlying motive of all the other supporting characters.

I'm not saying a manipulative character cannot be a well written character, I'm saying that the fact that all the other characters simply went along with it for no good reason just makes no sense.

Some of these guys genuinely just don't want to run (and who can blame them? They have their own lives) and somehow being coerced into doing it made them passionate about it? Are you kidding me? If someone pressured me into doing something I don't want to do, I would resent them and definitely be even less motivated to go along with them.

And 8 out of 8? Seriously? This is a realistic show set in the real world, there are no mechas nor mahou shoujos that would suggest I should suspend my disbelief, and you're asking me to believe that 8 people who have no interest in long distance running out of 8 would go along with it and start training like professionals? Laughable. It would have made more sense if a few of them actually decided to move out, and Haiji found a few other guys around campus that were actually looking to join a running club.

What makes it even worse is that somehow pressuring others into doing something they don't want to do is now being put forward as a 'shounen value', like perserverance or believing in yourself, which is absolutely ludicrous.

I don't care whether Haiji is about to die and running in the Hakone Ekiden is his dying wish, it does not justify pressuring / blackmailing others into doing it. While it might make him a compellingly written character (a despicable human being, but well written nonetheless), trying to pass him for the good guy who's fanning the flames of his passion in others is ridiculous, and the way the other characters reacted to his behaviour is completely unrealistic and makes them lose all credibility as characters. They have become nothing more than plot devices for Haiji to achieve his goal.

I'm sure this show has many emotional moments in store for us, but I will never be able to fully empathise with these characters simply because they will have arrived at those emotional moments through completely unbelievable choices forced onto them to move the plot forward, which is a pity because I'm a sucker for emotional anime.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group