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NEWS: Birdie Wing Golf Anime Unveils 2 Videos, More Staff, April Debut


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Psajdak





PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2022 11:37 pm Reply with quote
I like how anime can make even the most boring sports interesting.

Btw, I get the name Reiya Amuro for Toru Furuya's character, but what about Leo Millafoden (voiced by Shuichi Ikeda)?
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Piglet the Grate



Joined: 25 May 2021
Posts: 739
Location: North America
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 12:41 am Reply with quote
Psajdak wrote:
I like how anime can make even the most boring sports interesting.


It looks like we will get some fan service courtesy of the skimpy golfing outfits.
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earl.m





PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:57 am Reply with quote
Piglet the Grate wrote:
Psajdak wrote:
I like how anime can make even the most boring sports interesting.


It looks like we will get some fan service courtesy of the skimpy golfing outfits.


1. Golf is an easy sport to make interesting with good writing, directing and animation. For comparison look at Haikyuu, Captain Tsubasa or Major 2nd on one hand and then go to YouTube and check out ... actual high school volleyball, soccer and baseball on the other.

2. Out of all the eleven females in the promo shot, only one is wearing an outfit that is any skimpier than what preteen/teen characters regularly wore on the Disney Channel not so long ago: the adult non-golfer golfer wearing black and red to the far left with her tongue sticking out. And even her outfit is what female one shot and recurring characters often wore on the Pokemon anime - which aired on the Disney Channel - until they started chasing a younger demographic starting with X and Y.

3. That being said even though the fanservice isn't much - though I anticipate many outraged claims otherwise by the usual suspects - this appears to be following the standard shonen sports show formula. Which is the right move. This isn't spoken of nearly as often as it should, but shonen hits draw huge female audiences. As a result female characters in shonen media have gotten a lot better in order to draw even more female readers and viewers. There is a real possibility that following the shonen sports formula for this show will draw more female viewers than emulating - say - Chihayafuru or Hanebado would.


Last edited by earl.m on Fri Jan 07, 2022 9:38 am; edited 1 time in total
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njprogfan
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Joined: 08 Feb 2007
Posts: 1208
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 9:36 am Reply with quote
What's with that woman all the way to the left in red?!!! I'm wondering if this will be a straight-up sports anime or will there be some wacky Caddyshack shenanigans going on. The anime website is pretty much only the Youtube video. I'm in if it's Caddyshackian!
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earl.m





PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 9:56 am Reply with quote
njprogfan wrote:
What's with that woman all the way to the left in red?!!! I'm wondering if this will be a straight-up sports anime or will there be some wacky Caddyshack shenanigans going on. The anime website is pretty much only the Youtube video. I'm in if it's Caddyshackian!


I have the opposite viewpoint. Unless this is actually a good character that they are able to justify, then the more screentime and plot relevance that clearly discordant entity gets, the less interested in the show I will be. I am much more pro-fanservice than reviewers and commenters on ANN (who appears to have adopted Hollywood's "eye candy should only be for female and LGBT viewers!" stance) but if the sole purpose of that character is to use cleavage and wacky antics to attract male eyeballs that will be really disappointing. Case in point: where Haikyuu did have the "token busty older female", she was a grounded, realistic character who wasn't used for fanservice (she wore regular clothes and her only "jiggle shot" was for comedic purposes).
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Seif



Joined: 16 Nov 2004
Posts: 458
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 10:55 am Reply with quote
earl.m wrote:
I am much more pro-fanservice than reviewers and commenters on ANN (who appears to have adopted Hollywood's "eye candy should only be for female and LGBT viewers!" stance)


oh gawd [citation needed]
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earl.m





PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 11:19 am Reply with quote
Fuuka#933219 wrote:
>-Golf Girls' Story-
>There are males involved and two of them are even in the poster
This is just sad and depressing. I wish this was a true sports girls anime like Tamayomi and Harukana Receive. The art is nice but the presence of males is just off-putting


Tamayomi and Harukana Receive were both huge flops and examples of what not to do. Ditto Keijo - whose director actually made public appeals to fans to try to get a second season - and the likes of Cinderella 9, Sport Climbing Girls and - ugh - Kandagawa Jet Girls. (Girls Und Panzer is the exception that proves the rule.) Whether your angle is "all female cast to attract males who want to look at pretty girls" or "all female cast to attract female viewers who want sisterhood/empowerment tales" it never works.

For the record, the converse is true too. Male sports shows frequently have regular female characters (managers, sisters, girlfriends, classmates, even assistant coaches) also, and this even includes fujoshi bait like Free, Tsurune, Yuri on Ice and Skate the Infinity. There are genres where single sex shows are viable, but sports isn't one of them. Instead this appears to be a lot more like "Haikyuu except with females and golf" which means that it has a much bigger chance of actually attracting an audience.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 11:29 am Reply with quote
Let's hope the creators of this show know more about actual golf than the folks who made the one-shot Sorairo Utility anime that aired this week.

Japan has one woman, Hataoka Nasa, in the top-ten of the womens' golf rankings, and two more competitors in the top twenty. That's more than I can ever remember, and I've watched womens' golf for decades.
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Piglet the Grate



Joined: 25 May 2021
Posts: 739
Location: North America
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 12:02 pm Reply with quote
earl.m wrote:

Tamayomi and Harukana Receive were both huge flops and examples of what not to do. Ditto Keijo - whose director actually made public appeals to fans to try to get a second season - and the likes of Cinderella 9, Sport Climbing Girls and - ugh - Kandagawa Jet Girls. (Girls Und Panzer is the exception that proves the rule.)


I would put High School Fleet in the same category as Girls und Panzer in this context. Of course, the two shows have many common characteristics.
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earl.m





PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:18 pm Reply with quote
Fuuka#933219 wrote:
earl.m wrote:
I am much more pro-fanservice than reviewers and commenters on ANN (who appears to have adopted Hollywood's "eye candy should only be for female and LGBT viewers!" stance)


earl.m wrote:
but if the sole purpose of that character is to use cleavage and wacky antics to attract male eyeballs that will be really disappointing.


So you're much more "reviewers and commenters on ANN (who appears to have adopted Hollywood's "eye candy should only be for female and LGBT viewers!" stance)" than "pro-fanservice".


You are right ... my two statements were contradictory. Let me try to explain it better. Suppose the entire cast had character designs and outfits straight out of One Piece or Fairy Tale, and the show availed itself of every opportunity to show the girls changing/showering in the locker room, communal bathing, sitting in the training tub (therapeutic hot/cold baths for athletes for the uninitiated), accidental exposure from the stereotypical klutzy girl tripping and falling (and causing a chain reaction with nearby girls) every other episode, the stereotypical girl who "skinship gropes and exposes" the other girls every other episode, and even a 4 episode "beach training arc" followed by a "let's go to the hot springs to celebrate the 'grueling beach training' being over!" episode. I personally wouldn't mind it one bit because - like it or not - it is easy to work that stuff into the narrative.

But the character that we are talking about here - adult woman, black skin-tight cleavage baring catsuit, red sleeves, black makeup, tongue sticking out - appears to be a character from another genre. Like from a reject from the crime anime from 15 years ago (Black Lagoon, Gangsta, Noir) or maybe a demon lord army lieutenant from some low budget isekai. Doesn't fit the tone of the series and doesn't even seem to have the same basic character design as everyone else. So it makes you concerned for the purpose of the creation/inclusion of the character and what it means for the direction that this anime is going to take ... is it going to be a serious sports show or is it going to descend into camp and silliness?

But hey, I just noticed that the guy next to her (give me a break for not paying more attention to him before but good grief between the blonde girl's navel in the center of the picture and the strange lady's cleavage towards the right what was I supposed to notice?) and it appears that they are a pair of some kind. They have matching outfits (tight, mostly black with a little red) and the fellow's character design reminds one of, well, Sephiroth from Final Fantasy? I guess he is a player and she is his manager, coach, sponsor or whatever. Fine ... shows about men's sports generally have the token female athlete or team too. In that case just put her tongue back in her mouth and everything's cool.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 02 May 2011
Posts: 3020
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:33 pm Reply with quote
earl.m wrote:
I am much more pro-fanservice than reviewers and commenters on ANN (who appears to have adopted Hollywood's "eye candy should only be for female and LGBT viewers!" stance)


Sir, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGYtN4mve1Q&t=14s
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Piglet the Grate



Joined: 25 May 2021
Posts: 739
Location: North America
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:37 pm Reply with quote
earl.m wrote:

But hey, I just noticed that the guy next to her (give me a break for not paying more attention to him before but good grief between the blonde girl's navel in the center of the picture and the strange lady's cleavage towards the right what was I supposed to notice?) and it appears that they are a pair of some kind. They have matching outfits (tight, mostly black with a little red) and the fellow's character design reminds one of, well, Sephiroth from Final Fantasy? I guess he is a player and she is his manager, coach, sponsor or whatever.


To me the character in the black shirt with four rectangles on the lower sleeves (just above Aoi Amawashi's head in the picture) looks to be another female golfer.
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all-tsun-and-no-dere
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 06 Jul 2015
Posts: 638
PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:30 pm Reply with quote
This looks like a lot of fun! It's hard for me to be optimistic after getting my hopes up for a decent women's sports anime only to have them dashed so many times over, but I really liked the trailer, particularly Eve's. It was full of the hot-blooded, competitive energy that I really crave in a sports series, and while I have no interest in golf, their swings look good to my eyes, trained by years of suffering through my dad taking over the TV every weekend morning. My husband even noted from across the room, "That sounds badass."

I'm not particularly fussed by Eve's outfit, either. It's a little skimpy but it looks like something someone with a particular fashion sense would wear, and her body shape is fairly realistic and well-proportioned. Also she's gorgeous and okay maybe I already have a little crush on her.
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earl.m





PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:42 pm Reply with quote
Piglet the Grate wrote:

To me the character in the black shirt with four rectangles on the lower sleeves (just above Aoi Amawashi's head in the picture) looks to be another female golfer.


Thank you. We are talking about the same character. (I have an issue with discerning my left from my right. Sorry about that.) Looks like one of the million characters inspired by Sephiroth - or maybe Griffith from Berserk - to be. I guess we will find out soon. Either way, her - presuming that you are right and I am wrong - having the same character design as the one staring at the sky (watching a long drive maybe?) while doing a Gene Simmons imitation does make that character look less concerning. But again, remove the Gene Simmons imitation and the character would look less potentially problematic still.
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earl.m





PostPosted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 4:24 pm Reply with quote
ANN_Lynzee wrote:
earl.m wrote:
I am much more pro-fanservice than reviewers and commenters on ANN (who appears to have adopted Hollywood's "eye candy should only be for female and LGBT viewers!" stance)


Sir, please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGYtN4mve1Q&t=14s


All right. Let's pitch a harem series aimed at 10-16 year old Japanese boys to feel.
Premise: a guy and 4 females stranded on a deserted tropical island. Yes they will need to deal with food, shelter, potable water, surviving the elements/predators, plans to somehow get rescued/get off the island and all that boring stuff.

Pitch 1: give the females One Piece/Fairy Tale bodies, clothes/situations to show them off regularly and do the standard Tenchi Muyo plot (where the guy is physically attracted to the girls but has good reasons not to act on it and the girls - while interested in the guy on some level - are far more interested in competing with each other than in the guy).

Pitch 2: give the females "realistic" bodies, make the male gaze a nonentity and have the plot (or subplot) involve the guy having sex with the females and and the 5 having to deal with the various issues that result (start with "no women's health education or care facilities available on the deserted island" and go from there).

Now assuming all things are equal - in terms of budget, animation quality, writing etc. - which pitch will be more successful in attracting a large number of 12 year old boy viewers and why?
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