Spring 2022 First Impressions – Love All Play

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Novel

Episode Summary: Ryo is a middle school badminton player who idolizes one of Yokohama Minato high school’s aces, Kento Yusa. While he’d love to play badminton on the same stage as Yusa, his own skills aren’t quite up to the Yokohama Minato level of play. At least, Ryo believes so until the badminton coach from Yokohama Minato reaches out to him directly and offers to get him entrance into the school on a sports recommendation. As it turns out, Ryo definitely seems to have some untapped potential that might end up giving him a leg-up, so-to-speak.

Ryo’s father is unimpressed and very nearly forbids Ryo from pursuing this opportunity. As a college sports player who encountered trouble after physical injury, he knows first-hand what an inconvenience it can be to lose the ability to access the skills required of the program. However, undeterred, Ryo offers to take a more traditional path toward his dream, by entering the school based on academic achievement. Though this is an uphill battle based on Ryo’s mediocre grades, his sister helps him study and it seems as though he might make the cut. After being asked to join a weekly practice session at Yokohama Minato High School, Ryo is excited to meet Yusa, his idol. But sometimes heroes seen from afar turn out to be very different in person.

Impressions: I always feel a little bit bad when anime focused on very similar subject matter happen to appear in close proximity to one-another, because the comparisons are almost inevitable at that point. I’ve been enjoying last season’s Salaryman’s Club for its unique take on sport series, featuring an adult cast who have more concerns in their lives than just “doing sports.” Love All Play seems very much to be a more typical, traditional sports series with students as its stars, and while the first episode reveals quickly that the show seems decently-made with a very earnest tone, it’s tough to judge it on its own merits rather than from behind the shadow of another series that just pushes more of my own buttons.

Our hero here is sort of an everyman type, mediocre but with potential to advance through hard work and discipline (as indicated by his academic improvement brought about with help from his studious older sister). His motivations are simple, as are his goals; this isn’t, thus far, emotionally complex entertainment. Nor does it have to be, but within a genre with plenty of really incredible examples of emotional achievement and character development, straightforwardness in all facets makes it difficult to feel distinct.

Another challenge to this series is that this first episode doesn’t do a whole lot to attempt to rope in the audience. I’m all for focusing on the personal and emotional growth of the characters in lieu of endless sports matches, but if that’s the case then the sports matches that do occur have to be striking, and it’s often a good decision to start the series off on the right foot by featuring at least one. Backflip does this really well; while there are a couple of routines sprinkled infrequently throughout the series, the opening scene of the first episode starts right off with a full one. In that case, we realize right away what the allure is for the protagonist. In this case, we get a glimpse of some future match and a couple of flashback shots to another, but nothing that really reveals the pace and intensity of the sport. So we’re then left with Ryo and his small-scale battle with his dad, which feels mostly unsatisfying.

I think that will likely turn out to be a fine series, and if your main focus as a viewer is sports anime then I suspect from what I’ve seen you could do much worse. But this season is a crowded field full of very high-profile, greatly-anticipated adaptations and some other nice surprises, so being indistinct in flavor is unlikely to bring much notice to an okay-ish sports series like this.

Pros: I like how the relationship between Ryo and his older sister Rika is portrayed in this episode. Rika really seems to take Ryo’s side quickly and confidently, and proves to be a really helpful driving force in allowing him to work toward something he wants, but which goes against their parents’ wishes.

I also liked how this episode tries to show how Ryo’s friends, one of whom introduced him to badminton in the first place, struggle somewhat with Ryo’s unexpected invitation to join an elite high school team. I think a lesser show would play up the jealousy angle, but while it’s clear that his friend is somewhat let down or disappointed, there’s not toxicity.

Cons: One thing I really didn’t like is how Ryo’s mother very quickly defaulted to saying “it’s okay not to try so hard,” when it appears as though Ryo’s father might be unwilling to budge on his objections. While I get that the sentiment comes from a caring place, perhaps the better way to phrase it would be that they love Ryo even if he tries and fails sometimes.

Content Warnings: None.

Would I Watch More? – This episode was just “okay,” in my opinion. Though I consider myself a fan of sports anime, I’m definitely not uncritical about the genre. While the show is generally what I’d deem “likeable,” it doesn’t have a lot going on that really draws me in personally.