Kohane Hatoya is a girl who loves to be helpful to others. After she moves from middle school to high school, she becomes fascinated with cheerleading, and she starts a cheerleading club at her high school. Joining Kohane in her cheerleading activities is the experienced Hizume and Kohane’s childhood friend Uki. – ANN
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 12
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: Kohane has a formative experience one day when she happens to see a group of cheerleaders performing a routine outdoors. She decides to join her high school’s cheer squad in the upcoming school year, but the joke’s on her – there isn’t one. Not one to wither in defeat, Kohane decides to create her own club, but faces an uphill battle in both recruitment (not even her friend Uki seems interested in joining) and skill level (she’s a beginner who can’t even pronounce “cheer” correctly).
Kohane recognizes her classmate Hizume as one of the squad members who inspired her that fateful day, but Hizume’s a tough sell; she’s dealing with some emotional baggage that’s caused her to give up on the sport all together. Still, Kohane spends the next several days practicing her skills, including trying to overcome her fear of heights. When she jumps out of a tree to support Hizume in her emotional time of need, Hizume finally seems convinced. But they’ll still have to find three other people willing to give their new cheer club a chance.
Impressions: Though I don’t say this to insult any of the individuals who participated, my high school’s cheerleading squad seemed like a bit of an afterthought. They were always there to support the football team and had an arsenal of ways to pump up the crowd, but they were never the sort of athletic powerhouse I’d seen watching cheer competitions on cable television. On the upside, there were also never the same sort of “geeks versus cheerleaders/jocks” conflicts at our school that were romanticized in fiction (did any school ever actually deal with those kinds of subculture issues?). Our local schools never had much of a “cheer culture” which was fine; I understand better now that the type of competitive cheer I always thought was so fascinating required people to have backgrounds in dance and gymnastics, and I can’t say I knew of many people around there who had that specific type of training.
That said, as a sport it still kind of fascinates me. Not in the sense that I care all that much about high school sports in general, but more that I find the idea of building a sport around the idea of supporting others in a flashy way to be an interesting concept in itself. In that way I can definitely sympathize with Kohane; while I’m not so nice a person that I’d want to display my support in a flashy way, I am the type of person who tends to put others first. Being able to combine that inclination with others in a group and have fun doing so is appealing in its own way.
Normally one of my pet peeves in anime are characters who attempt to participate in some activity that they know literally nothing about. Generally this is more irritating when it comes to workplace anime; if you’ve taken a job in a specific field, you ought to know at least the basics about what the job entails and how the system works, even if you’re not experienced in the particular culture of that workplace. Kohane spends a good portion of the episode being unable to pronounce the word “cheer” correctly (it was honestly difficult for me to hear the difference sometimes, but it sounds to most of the other characters like she’s saying “chair,” which is a gag that gets used a lot throughout the episode). While this does still come across as annoying, I found it difficult to get too upset about it. Kohane is stubborn, but her enthusiasm for an activity that she feels might play to her own strengths is infectious to the point that I had a tough time being too curmudgeonly about it.
I felt somewhat more drawn to Hizume’s situation, since it provided a well-needed dose of drama to cut through some of Kohane’s cotton candy sweetness. While I can’t say that I personally identify with being “so good” at something that other people have tried to knock me down (or I definitely haven’t noticed), it’s a commonplace refrain in anime (and, I understand, within Japanese culture) that “the nail that sticks out will be hammered down.” Whether that’s through brute force or through some of the more subtle bullying and coercion we see through Hizume’s brief flashbacks, it can prove as a strong de-motivator to those with natural gifts. As those of us who watched Mob Psycho 100 know, having talents doesn’t make someone better than anyone else; I think the counterpoint to that is that people with talents shouldn’t be socially punished for using them, especially when they’re not used to gloat or put others down.
I’ll echo other reviewers and mention that I’m impressed that this series treats cheerleading as an athletic sport, rather than simply a socially-acceptable means for girls to look cute on the sidelines. While I’m not against watching “cute girls do cute things” in theory, the framework of sports anime allows the slice-of-life aspects to have some forward momentum. There are times where I’m in the mood for something lackadaisical, but that (ironically) tends to be in fits and starts; it’s nice when subject matter that would typically be explored as a “cute school club” is given a more focused, purposeful treatment.
My one big critique (which may not bother everyone to a similar degree) is that the show is incredibly fluffy and sweet, to the point that it becomes a little bit overwhelming. I can deal with that type of tone sometimes, but this episode bombards the viewer from the get-go with Kohane’s hot-pink color palette and mild airheadedness and it can be a little much. This series also seems to suffer from the issue that so many moé-type anime do, in that the characters are all very similar-looking and fit within a narrow set of body-types. This includes the main five club members pictured in the key art (for fun, mentally swap their eye colors and hair styles – you can’t really tell the difference as their faces are roughly the same), as well as older female characters. There are likely multiple reasons why this is the case, ranging from a character designer’s range, the ease of animating multiple characters, and simply the standard set by the original manga. But it’s something that really sticks out to me, especially in series I otherwise have positive feelings about.
Overall, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this episode. I have a complicated relationship with very cute anime to the point where I’m often wary of them. It’s often a matter of their being “too much” of something – too cutesy, too exploitative, too pointless… I find that extremes are more often than not detrimental to the final product. This episode is cute, for sure; it’s also peppy, fun, and focuses on the power of working towards skill mastery. In short, it’s also in touch with some of the better aspects of many sports anime. Specifically, I think this episode has good things to say about the power and purpose of being supportive to others. For those of us who consider ourselves “background” individuals, it’s nice to know that cheering others on (in the ways we are able) is just as valuable a skill as being the star basketball player.
Pros: Very cute. Focuses on the athleticism of cheerleading. Kohane is quite enthusiastic.
Cons: Could be too saccharine for some tastes. There’s some serious same-face going on.
Grade: B