Spring 2021 First Impressions – Backflip!!

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Story Summary: Shotaro Futaba has been a bench-warmer all three years on his middle school baseball team. After the conclusion of their final game of the season, he happens to wander into an auditorium where a high school boys’ rhythmic gymnastics competition is taking place. Shotaro is instantly enthralled by the leaps and tumbles of the team from Soshukan High School, to the point that he chooses to attend that school the following year. He doesn’t have any experience with gymnastics, but his history with swimming, soccer, and baseball has conditioned his body to be flexible and strong. Though he may be a newbie, he falls in love with the feeling of his body being in flight and chooses to join the rhythmic gymnastics team. And since the team really needs to have six members to compete with other schools, they welcome him with open arms.

Impressions: I have to admit, my image of rhythmic gymnastics is definitely different than what’s been portrayed so far in this series. In my mind it’s traditionally performed by girls and women, using different props (ribbons, hoops, balls, etc.) and feels more focused around balance and gracefulness rather than the flips and tumbles of a more traditional gymnastics floor routine. It was in prepping for this season, though, that I read about how certain countries (Japan included) have been leading the charge in expanding the sport for boys and men, hence the appearance of this anime series. I think that’s kind of cool.

I’ve admittedly been anticipating this series since I saw several gifs from the opening gymnastic routine floating around Twitter, and I must say it really doesn’t disappoint. I think this episode offers some of what I found lacking in Skate-Leading Stars last season, namely the fact that the group routine is dynamic, enthralling, and fully-animated in a way that captures the physicality of the characters. I’m fairly positive that the routine was motion-captured, but the CG used for more distanced shots melds nearly seamlessly with the traditionally-animated close-ups and it looks really good. If only there were enough resources to go around that every CG element in every series could look as good.

It’s the obviously wonderful quality of the animation, though, that kind of troubles me. You’ll forgive me for feeling a little bit gun-shy after watching multiple anime series last season be forced into unplanned recap weeks; I love watching beautiful action as much as the next anime fan, but not when it arrives on the back of a harsh schedule and unforeseen production issues. There’s a lot of great character acting throughout the episode… but at what cost? I’d trade a slightly less pretty series for one that’s less likely to have caused someone to go to the hospital. I hate that this is constantly such a problem with the medium I love so much.

Aside from aesthetics, though, this is otherwise a fairly typical sports anime that hits all the expected beats. And that’s fine with me – sports anime has become a reliable way for me to appreciate all the different ways that humans can compete with one another, as well as the highs and lows of winning and losing. I was never into sports as a teen (mostly because I’m just terrible at each and every one of them) and so I feel like I missed out on some of that camaraderie (although as a band geek I definitely had other things to fill the void). Being able to watch likeable characters soar to heights I can only really dream of is just one of the many pleasures I get out of watching anime.

Pros: I can’t help but compare this premiere to Burning Kabaddi, because they’re so remarkably different in how they made me feel. Kabaddi was fun in that it helped me learn a little bit about a sport I wasn’t familiar with, but the characters really grated on me to the point that watching the first episode began to feel like a chore. On the flip side, I don’t find the sport of gymnastics to be much of a novelty, but this premiere felt like a breath of fresh air due to its other aspects. I truly believe that there are good series about bad characters, but I’m not going to lie about the fact that I just prefer watching kind-hearted characters do well and have fun. It reminds me that I don’t have to be an asshole to get ahead in life (although people may feel differently about me). In short, I like the protagonist character and his teammates and want to see them do well.

Cons: This sports anime feels like it might be on the more emotional side, and while that’s typically what I prefer I find that there are some series that go real hard on the drama and don’t leave a lot of breathing room for the audience. It’s probably why my interest kind of trailed off with 2.43 Volley-boys last season; it started to get bogged down with the emotional story it was trying to tell and just stopped clicking with me.

Content Warnings: None

Would I Watch More? – I definitely want to see how the show holds up over the next couple of episodes, because I was really enthralled by this one. I think it has the potential to be really fun to watch.