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Love All Play (TV).




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Tony K.
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Joined: 18 Nov 2003
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 14, 2022 1:29 pm Reply with quote


Love All Play (TV)

Genres:
Themes: badminton, school, sports

Plot Summary: Ryō Mizushima joined his middle school's badminton team full of motivation — but without a proper coach, ended up in obscurity. Nevertheless, he did eventually reach the prefectural tournament on his physical strength. Now he joins the prestigious Yokohama-Minato High School's badminton team under the legendary coach Ebihara and surrounded by talented teammates. He strives to become a top athlete and take his high school team to the inter-high tournament.

Apr. 2, 2022 (Saturdays; Crunchyroll)
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2022 4:52 pm Reply with quote
I really like the character designs in this, and the MC is easy to root for, but man, the animation is just so janky, and by episode 5 it's clear they're really struggling. It also feels like they're really padding the story, although I can't say specifically why it feels that way, except that we're almost halfway through and nothing much has happened yet. Like maybe I didn't need a full quarter of the episode spent on grumpy loner having dinner at a classmate's family restaurant?

I wonder why sports anime are so big on having twins in them? And if not twins, then siblings, though I guess that's not so unusual.
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Princess_Irene
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PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2022 5:42 am Reply with quote
I think the point was to show why he's a grumpy loner, and I kind of liked that - it made him seem less like the same stoic grump who shows up in every sports series. I also wasn't expecting it to be the aggressively friendly guy's family restaurant (I thought our main guy's family would be eating there or something).

But yeah, the plot seems way too slow and I'm not quite sure what it's hoping to accomplish with that.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2022 6:50 am Reply with quote
I don't disagree with that at all. What annoyed me was that they literally spent a quarter of the episode on how he had an empty fridge, picked a place to go out to, perused the menu, found out his teammate was there, looked at the menu again and got a recommendation not even on it, ate, then swapped backstories (which was the main point, right?), apparently got the meal free, then finally got around to a table-setting conversation about the team, etc. on the way home. Most of that felt like padding more than character development, and this far into a series that has just been idling its plot along, it made me antsy, like someone stopping to comb their hair and adjust their tie before putting the car in gear ahead of the rapidly closing tsunami in the rearview. Smile

If this turned out to be a long running series like Haikyuu!! or Ace of Diamond, then the glacial pace wouldn't bother me at all, but I think the chances of that happening are pretty slim. When you've only got 11-13 episodes, you just can't pack all your toys in that little box, no matter how much you love every one of them. You just have to take your favorite ones and let the manga send you the rest later.

Tl:tmtm*:dr: It wasn't the content that bugged me, it was that this was the content we got instead of something that might move the story along.
*too many tortured metaphors
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Princess_Irene
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PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2022 9:35 am Reply with quote
Tortured metaphors are the most fun metaphors! But yeah, I see what you mean and you're right. I like my sports shows to equally blend character development and action, and this one hasn't quite figured out how to best do that while moving the plot. Still love the expressive faces, though, which, now that I say it, may be my favorite part of the whole thing.
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Dayraven



Joined: 21 Jul 2021
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PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2022 10:28 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I wonder why sports anime are so big on having twins in them?

To be a bit cynical, if they aren't given different personalities, it might help with filling up the team roster while keeping the number of characters to remember down?
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11340
PostPosted: Tue May 03, 2022 11:36 am Reply with quote
Re: terrible metaphors, I think I'd have a good shot at winning if I entered the Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest. Laughing

Princess_Irene wrote:
Still love the expressive faces, though, which, now that I say it, may be my favorite part of the whole thing.

Me too! That's why it was the first thing I mentioned about this series. Smile

On that note, this is one of the several series I've noticed in the last couple of seasons where they seem to be using a lot more extreme closeups of faces (esp. eyes) than usual as a technique to avoid animation. I don't think I'm imagining that, am I?

Dayraven wrote:
To be a bit cynical, if they aren't given different personalities, it might help with filling up the team roster while keeping the number of characters to remember down?

Sometimes, probably. I guess to me it seems like utilizing the pseudo-telepathic teamwork between twins that would make them more formidable if it were real. While cutting down on character designs and having fun with mix-ups and mirrored behavior.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11340
PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2022 10:09 pm Reply with quote
Ep 8

I think this might be the first time I've seen a sports series cram "getting a cold" and "improve grades or you're off the team" into a single episode.

I really am liking his sister though - which is kind of a nice change, since sisters of MCs are usually annoying pains whether they're older or younger. And the development that she's the team's (esp. Yusa's) "goddess" is kinda fun too. I can't tell if she's even aware of that, but either way, it's pretty clear she couldn't care less. Smile I just really appreciate how confident and grounded she is without having to be all noisy about it.
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MaritLage



Joined: 25 Mar 2022
Posts: 140
PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2022 5:31 am Reply with quote
on the one hand
it·s Badminton , people , how exciting did u expect it to be ?

on the other hand
there does seem to be an unusually excessively heavy hand on the shoulder of a lot of anime these days
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