After a season start full of the usual series with bad to adequate animation, ditto characters and stories, it was a relief to finally watch something actually good.
Good fluid animation is important in any anime series, but especially in a sports anime as this is. Hoshiai no Sora (Stars Align) is about Maki, a transfer student coming back to his old home town and old friend Shinjo Toma, the current captain of the boys’ soft tennis club. With the club not doing well, lacking members and those remaining not all that motivated, Shinjo jumps at the chance to recruit him for it. Though Maki is at first reluctant, eventually he is convinced, which is more or less where the episode ends. Not perhaps a very original plot, but it’s all in the execution. The episode takes its time to reach its inevitable conclusion and gives the characters room to breathe. There are lots of things happening that do not directly contribute to the plot and care and attention is taken to set up just why the soft tennis club needs Maki so badly. What’s more, it’s clear from the start that Toma’s desire to save his club is not entirely healthy. There’s an anger to Toma that is visible from the first scene we see him in.
I really like the attention to detail and the strong characterisation shown in this episode. It’s so nice to see proper background characters rather than bland, anonymous CGI mobs. Look at the people watching that scene between Maki, Toma and Mitsue Kanako, Maki’s downstairs neighbour & classmate. They’re all looking at it but none of them are quite looking at the same thing, with the fuzzy haired guy blatantly staring at Mitsue’s ass. Mitsue herself is fun as well. She has nothing to do with the main plot, but she’s a slightly sarcasting observer to what’s going on, quickly befriending Maki on his first day at school. Like the rest of the cast, she doesn’t fall neatly in any of anime’s usual high school character types. She could be a love interest, but she doesn’t have to be.
There’s a realism to Hoshiai no Sora that reminds me of Tsuki ga Kirei and Just Because of a few years back. There’s a depth to its world you don’t see often in high school anime series. It’s all a bit more grounded in the real world. There’s more to Maki or Toma or even Mitsue’s lives than we are shown. This is not a typical sports anime even if the plot superficially looks like one. It’s been a while since a new series surprised me as much at this one did.