Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Prince of Stride: Alternative
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chex mix
 Posts: 415 |
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It seems like a portion of the salt in this thread is because how dare Madhouse make a show for girls, ew ew icky icky ew ew. Y'all can leave.
I have no idea why parkour is now a shitty relay sport called stride. It's fine, it's the premise. As far as excessive inappropriate use of capitalized nouns goes, this show at least keeps it to a minimum. I do wish that the races themselves were actually animated, not just a bunch of cutaway shots to Generic Girl and crowd reactions. Hopefully DinnerSinterFestSpringCupFinalBattle will be better. It does seem like they at least tried to start giving some of the guys character traits in the last episode. Unfortunately, we had to learn through dialogue that headband guy is good at defense (why is that a thing in running? ) but it's something at least. |
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WashuTakahashi
 Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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It seems the reviewer and a lot of people watching this are missing one key point (though a few in here have brought it up). The boys' personalities ARE based on dating sim archetypes because they are FROM a dating sim. I've only watched the first episode so far, but I liked what I saw. Hopefully each character gets his feature episode with Nana, as is standard for otome anime, and NOT for just regular sports anime. (Hence why we don't have episodes of Gou getting with Haru, Makoto, Nagisa, etc, but rather focus on the boys' relationships.) That'll be what can set this show apart from other sports anime. (Whether that's a good or bad thing is up in the air) |
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Ambimunch
 Posts: 2012 |
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The characters and pointless dialog are the least compelling parts of the show. The best thing are those awesome races.
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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Everyone here seems to have different expectations of the show and is going away mildly disappointed. I wonder if that's because the show is trying too hard to appeal to too many demographics. I'm enjoying it though it's a mishmash of lots of other anime, but I'm wondering when it will decide what it wants to be.
I was struck by how "Prince of Tennis" the palette was this time. It's almost a game of "spot the reference", which can be kind of fun. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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I have to admit that this part of sports anime always has me roll my eyes a bit, especially since in (most) sports shows the main team usually wins anyhow, so i'm having a hard time feeling the tension...but clichéd drama aside, i'm still enjoying this show. Now the questions are, how bad are the injuries (he sure looked like he was close to death...  ) and will the sexy senpai have to be re-activated?!
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Merida
Posts: 1945 |
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Is anyone but me still watching this show?
Well, i don't have much to say either to be honest, except that this has officially become the gayest sports anime ever. Eat your heart out, Free! 
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WashuTakahashi
Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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You're not alone xD I'm an episode behind since I'm too cheap to get Funi/Hulu's premium subscriptions right now, but still watching and enjoying it. I'm looking forward to hearing more of Riku's angsty past since something obviously went down with his brother. (If it's just the fact that he's studying abroad, that LAAMMMEEEEE) |
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Henshinbeetle
 Posts: 61 |
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Nope, still waching it also. I like it! It's light and easy to digest and got a nice art direction. But yeah, this is not a hyper agressive sports anime at all.
For the record, I liked Free aswell. Could do less with the blushing though. Anyway my biggest problem is that yet again the girl got shafted to a supporting role. Seriously, I actually thought she would be a Strider. Silly me for thinking such a progressive idea! Anyway, it's like a 7 in my book. Nowhere near my favorite nor shall I recommend it to the avarage watcher but it's not bad at all. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5507 Location: Mexico |
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I'm definitely still watching and enjoying it a lot. I actually did like this episode quite a bit, even if it was super clichéd I didn't feel like it was hollow, contrived or insincere. I really like Hozumi, so I was glad to see him get a lot of screentime this time around. In fact, it seems the three third years, which are allegedly the protagonists, are the flatest characters of the bunch, Fujiwara has his stoic obsession and his leg fetiche, Riku's just kinda the happy dumb dude and the girl's just kinda there. The senpais all feel more layered and interesting, and I'm glad the tragic backstory was revealed and resoved so early into the season, I didn't want them to drag the whole Kuga stuff until episode 13 or something. And well, I'm also biased for long-haired anime dudes, so getting Kuga back on board asap is perfect in my book 
Oh, and this definitely is way up there in terms of "gay" anime, which is also something I won't complain about |
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sunflower
Posts: 1080 |
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What are you talking about? Nobody knows how to use words? This episode was all dialogue, and I found the bluntness refreshing. The drama behind it was silly and bland, but one of the guys even pointed that out. It's not a great show but don't critisize it for something it's not doing.
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AwaysAnnoyed
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On Episode 6:
I agree with most of the review, not anything that I really disagree with. However, some things pointed out, such as the "shallow[ness] [and] resist[ed] urge to delve into more intense characterization", is for me, in this case, not really a flaw. Look, if any one wants to compare it with a well-fleshed out sports show like Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke, Yowamushi Pedal or Daiya no A (sorry I'm not caught up with the older sports anime), it's important to keep in mind the episode count: More episode means more opportunities for character development AND a satisfying amount of sports action. Given, the first season of Free! was also twelve episodes, and it had a good dose of characters development, but not that much competition (2/3 races in total?) In Prince of Stride, we have a whole tournament to get through, so that's 8/9 races. We've already seen an entry race, about 3 official races, a few practice races, and a backstory race in 6 episodes. There's only the purple school from the opening left, and then the rematch against Saisei. Let's give that 3 episodes. That leaves us with three episodes of character development: the upcoming training camp episode, a Riku backstory episode, and a 'team's falling apart' -or something episode. That's not a lot of time to get a lot of characterization done, but it could work. (NOTE: This is only speculation) In the end, rather than heavily leaning on the 'competition' side or the 'character development' side of the scale, Prince of Stride could have a somewhat imbalanced amount of both, i.e. not enough of either. And that's fine (given the source material). I'm a sucker for bishies, 'friendship always wins!' and even more so bishies who believe 'friendship always wins!'. Also, it's entertaining enough for me to keep coming back, so I'm happy xD |
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AholePony
 Posts: 330 Location: Arizona |
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This is a pretty big flaw tough and worth a reviewer pointing out. If they don't geek out about the finer details of the sport ( say, like chihayafuru), then the viewers don't care about the sport or how difficult it is etc. If they don't develop the characters, the viewers don't care about the characters. So what are the viewers supposed to be invested in? The art? Sound track? Neither of those are that special in this case. IMO thus far this show is a mess due to the poor balance, which is a shame because burried in there somewhere could be a really fun show to watch. |
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AwaysAnnoyed
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I agree that it's a shame. I personally can't say what viewers are supposed to be invested in, whether it be the soundtrack, the colors and art direction, the running, the characters or just the interactions. I'm rather easy to please, so with just some sugar, spice and everything nice, I'm happy. If I were to look at it from the other side: I can't help but wonder if there is something in the visual novel/game that the readers/players really liked, which caused it to sell well and get an anime adaption. It could be precisely because of the unsatisfying plot that it didn't sell well and needed an anime adaption to boost the sales. Whether it's working or not though I can't yet say. In the end, the show could have an unsatisfying end which makes people say "but there could have been more". In that case, the show would just have been a screw thrown into the mechanisms of sports anime to show "what not to do" |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11428 |
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So far my biggest complaint is the timid relationer girl (can't even remember her name). Every race feels like the only real tension in it is will she screw things up or not. Which is weird, because she hasn't yet. She does keep getting overwhelmed and suckered by the opposing relationer...and yet it never makes any difference. It's like her team knows telepathically when to ignore her. But I still keep feeling like she's the weak link, when apparently she's supposed to be the linchpin that holds it all together. I just wish she had a little more grit to her.
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WashuTakahashi
Posts: 415 Location: Chicago, IL |
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As someone who plays a lot of otome (though I have not played this one yet), what's keeping me around is trying to figure out the boy's types. Obviously, Heath's the macho man and Hozuki is the more femanine one, but the others don't fall into clear character troupes (for example, my preferred type is usually the playboy, which we don't seem to have here) Either the game is more plot heavy, OR the anime is cutting out a lot of (insert character) X Nana time. I could see the game having been more plot oriented, with the romance taking the backseat, making it popular with some otome fans. It could give more of an aspect to that "forbidden romance" kind of thing (though romance isn't forbidden, it can seem wrong for her to date one of the boys while she's supposed to focus on helping all of them) I'm thinking it's far more likely though that the anime is making itself a "sport's anime" instead of an "otome anime". They probably thought sports would sell better than romance, and are cutting out a lot of the romance. That's just my speculation though. Like I said, I haven't played this particular game. |
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