×
  • 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
REVIEW: Run with the Wind




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
Engineering Nerd



Joined: 24 Apr 2008
Posts: 897
Location: Southern California
PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:30 am Reply with quote
I have to wholeheartedly agree with Nick, this show is truly exceptional and has to be seen to realize why people who have watched it adore this show so much.

For me, a good benchmark to determine how good a sports show is, as long as it is accessible, can it motivate people to try out the sport it depicts. Based on what I saw on various Chinese, Japanese and western forums, many people start running and getting fitter, and even more people testified that Run with the Wind motivated and changed their life.

Yes, the show is that good. It gets very philosophical as the plot progressed and some characters which may seem like sidekicks first, become very relate-able and endearing at the end. Witnessing their incredible growth is just unbelievably satisfying.


Please give this show a chance, it may motivate or change your life too. Wink
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ThatGuyWhoLikesThings



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 1000
PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:36 am Reply with quote
I'm not into sports anime at all, and honestly I didn't think this one would be any different, thinking it would be just like every other one I've seen and fail to appeal to any part of me at all.

After about 8 episodes, I was right. There just wasn't anything of value there imo. Good for those that can appreciate it though.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:25 pm Reply with quote
Run with the Wind flags a bit in the middle episodes, but it comes on strong over the last six to eight installments.

Oh, and there's a typo at the beginning of the article, "Kaiji is determined to run in the Hakoden." Of course, it's Haiji.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
poltroon



Joined: 26 Sep 2018
Posts: 104
PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:53 pm Reply with quote
I thought this anime was really lovely. I don't especially like sports anime but I liked this a lot. And yes, even though I hate running it made me want to... go running. The slice of life aspect was well done and it did not have victories that felt too easy or too improbable. The victories there were felt tactical and hard-won, on a razor's edge of everything going well enough.

Definitely recommended.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Zhou-BR



Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 1419
PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:22 pm Reply with quote
To me, this was the stealth best show of the last two seasons. Just beautifully animated, written and directed. By the time it got to the actual marathon, every episode had me on the verge of tears, and I couldn't believe I was getting so emotional over these guys who started out as zany, broad charicatures.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 12:09 am Reply with quote
"Hakoden"? Every time I read that I kept thinking of The Hakkenden. I suppose that might be a legitimate shortening (I'd just use Ekiden, since we know which one it is), although google doesn't show me anyone else ever using it. But at least once in the article, especially in the sentence "His chosen goal is...," it should be called the Hakone Ekiden, if only so that someone could look up more info about the race. They won't find it by searching on "Hakoden."

I think I just have to accept that I don't like Nick's reviews, or more specifically, his writing. Even when we both love a series, even when I agree with his points, his reviews tend to drive me up a wall (which really feels weird) and I'm left wondering if we watched the same show. Smile For example:

"there's not really any way to directly, tactically engage with your opponents." While this is more applicable to marathons, it's not true of running in general. It's like saying a jockey just sits on the horse and the horse just runs as fast as it can. In running, the jockey and the horse are one being, and yes, there is plenty of tactical, direct engagement with opponents. But ok, maybe Nick doesn't know that. Oh wait, 4 paragraphs later, "the course itself becomes one more tactical feast." Then "clever distillation of running into a tactical drama." And the summary, "turns competitive running into a thrilling tactical conflict." I guess he thinks the show created something out of running that's not inherent to it, but what it did was skillfully illustrate something that is part of the sport.

Also, "And even if you win, it's difficult to convey a clear sense of having “overcome” some specific challenge, or defeated a clear adversary." Just admit you've never watched a foot race before. Smile

"the show's underlying insistence that the true nature of running is teamwork" Did it insist that? This kind of made me chuckle, because I remember the weekly reviewer complaining when an episode started focusing more on the boys as a team rather than individuals. Smile

Anyway, I'd say that's too simplistic a way of putting it. The true nature of running in this series is a solitary experience of exceeding your limits, aided by the support of people you care about who care about you, in this case, your teammates. There's a difference between support and teamwork. Except for the handoff, even relay running doesn't have much in the way of teamwork in it, but each member's success does depend on the rest of the team, and it's all mutual. To me the message was, "You have to do this yourself because no one can do it for you, but you can't do it alone." I think the genius of this story lies in making that apparent contradiction practically a self-evident truth.

Since the review didn't bother, I'd like to give a shout out to the original author Shion Miura, whose novel The Great Passage is equally excellent and also deals with similar themes of mutual support (and teamwork, definitely) in an obscure occupation (creating dictionaries). If you liked Wind, go watch Passage.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Merida



Joined: 21 Feb 2012
Posts: 1945
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 3:51 am Reply with quote
I wouldn't call it "sports anime at its best" because that might deter people who usually dislike sports anime (like yours truly...) from checking it out. Which would be a shame. It's simply a good, character driven anime which manages to avoid most of the standard sports anime tropes but uses running as a metaphor for life instead.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime
relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 9:03 am Reply with quote
As a runner(formerly competitive) I was more excited for this than I usually am for sports anime. I had literally no idea how incredibly taken by it I was going to be though. I feel so blessed to live in a world where the sport I love most has received such a perfect series. This is my favorite sports anime as of the moment I finished it, and I would go as far as saying it's one of my favorite series of all time. I don't think there was a single episode in the last 8 or so that I didn't cry my eyes out while rooting wholeheartedly for each of these kids and their perfectly portrayed reasons for running. I have never considered running to be a difficult sport or topic to write about in interesting ways, since it is such a personal experience that is super ripe for all sorts of character exploration and drama, so I was honestly pretty surprised that nothing like this had ever been made before, but I'm just glad it exists now. Nearly a perfect show right here.

Like Gina, I have to question some of the content in the review in regards to its understanding of competitive running though, because I assure you that it is inherently very tactical, and I don't think I've ever experienced, as a spectator(or as a competitor), any single race that wasn't an incredibly visceral and directly competitive affair, with more of a clear and obvious sense of achievement and of overcoming a challenge than essentially any other sport out there(and I do mean this from the audience perspective. Just look at the expressions on the face of anyone as they finish a race. I don't think it's possible to have more of an open window into someone's soul than the moment when/just after they finish a race. How has running actually not been explored more in anime???). As with competitive bicycling and swimming, I think running is one of the most easy sports to express as an example of overcoming a specific challenge and defeating a clear adversary. In most cases it's literally one against an entire field of competitors, and your official task is to overcome all of them. And of course, with some decent character writing, it's not difficult to clearly express more personal goals and adversaries. And each course is clearly a series of unique and specific challenges both literally and metaphorically. Anyway, those are just a few of my thoughts.

Gina Szanboti wrote:
"Hakoden"? Every time I read that I kept thinking of The Hakkenden. I suppose that might be a legitimate shortening (I'd just use Ekiden, since we know which one it is), although google doesn't show me anyone else ever using it. But at least once in the article, especially in the sentence "His chosen goal is...," it should be called the Hakone Ekiden, if only so that someone could look up more info about the race. They won't find it by searching on "Hakoden."


It's a legitimate shortening, though I haven't seen it used in English much. He probably picked it up from Twitter. It's mostly used in Japan, but yeah, if you search 箱伝 you will get the actual official site of the event and a bunch of stuff related to it, as well as the anime for this.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 10:27 am Reply with quote
relyat08 wrote:
It's a legitimate shortening, though I haven't seen it used in English much. He probably picked it up from Twitter. It's mostly used in Japan, but yeah, if you search 箱伝 you will get the actual official site of the event and a bunch of stuff related to it, as well as the anime for this.

Fair enough, but if you don't know the Japanese characters you won't easily find it by searching "Hakoden" (I guess google doesn't crawl Twitter other than to log @names?). So I still think the entire name should've appeared in the review at least once so newcomers would know what they're looking for. Smile
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
poltroon



Joined: 26 Sep 2018
Posts: 104
PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2019 2:49 pm Reply with quote
Gina Szanboti wrote:
There's a difference between support and teamwork. Except for the handoff, even relay running doesn't have much in the way of teamwork in it, but each member's success does depend on the rest of the team, and it's all mutual. To me the message was, "You have to do this yourself because no one can do it for you, but you can't do it alone." I think the genius of this story lies in making that apparent contradiction practically a self-evident truth.


Loved this distillation.

Also totally agree that running is full of tactics.
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