AKA: “Sky of the Duck” or “Sora the Duck”, あひるの空

Genre: Sports

Studio: Diomedéa

Episodes: 50

Seasons: 1

Ahh, sports. Don’t we love them? Let me tell you about the greatest sports anime of all time; Haikyuu- wait no this is not the review for that. This is a review for the basketball anime Ahiru no Sora. To be honest, the only basketball show I’ve seen was the GOAT Kuroko no Basket. I stand by my opinion that there’s no greater basketball anime than that one, so naturally, I had high hopes for this show. I will admit I was biased going in because like I said I had already watched the greatest basketball anime in my mind.

Now Diomedéa is a studio that I am not familiar with whatsoever. After researching their list of shows, Ahiru no Sora actually would not be the first show I’ve watched produced by the studio. Just in case you were wondering, they are responsible for; Handa-kun, Aho-girl, Chio’s School Road, Domestic Girlfriend, Futsal Boys and etc. They have a few nice hits under their belt but I didn’t recognize the rest of the titles.

That bad thing about having high hopes is there’s a lot of room to fall short. I could excuse the art style even though it wasn’t my cup of tea. I could even excuse the poorly drawn “cornrows” drawn on Natsume (apparently he also has box braids, and Bantu knots…..*DEEP SIGH*). I did get a chuckle from one of the characters saying his hair looks like melon pan 😂 I’m never really a fan of these character designs because they just look silly in my opinion. Plus, it’s always to try to depict the character as having a “tough” image or something related, it’s annoying but, that’s a whole different discussion.

Actually, let’s have a conversation because what is this?? They didn’t even try and that’s what kills me! He looks like he took a comb and just sectioned the top of his head and called it a day.

And I’ve seen some ridiculous characters trying to pass off being in high school but you CANNOT tell me this is not a grown man going through a divorce with 3 kids.

If I’m being honest, the show wasn’t that bad but it could have been better. There was a total of 50 episodes and it really only covered like 2 1/2 games. Of course, the first few episodes had to be the build up of the team and their styles coming together as with any sports show. I do understand it couldn’t just jump right into the action but it didn’t really hype me up to see them play as a team. If they were going to cover a game so in-depth, I would have preferred more episodes or either a way to edit it so we get half the game and then the result. One of the challenges of sports anime is keeping it interesting to the point the viewer stays invested in what is going on.

Not only is there a physical game happening in front of them but, there are little stories going on with characters in the midst of that. I can understand why people aren’t into sports anime and I don’t think this show helped the case.

I honestly didn’t really have a favorite character and most were forgettable. Even right now I’m having trouble even remembering all of the characters’ names and I’m not sorry 😭 I hate to say it but the series was just….well…..boring. The games were interesting to watch but it just failed to really keep me entertained all the way through. I feel as though this may be a series I will enjoy reading it as opposed to watching it.

Pros

• Back stories are on point
• Comedy is up my alley
• Some great female characters

Cons

• Not a fan of the art style
• Doesn’t stand out in terms of being a sports anime

Conclusion

Now with all this being said, further research showed that this was the studio’s first sports anime and their first long-running anime series. I think there is definitely room for improvement. The animation was fine and the story wasn’t bad either but there was just something that didn’t click for me in terms of liking it as a show. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind watching a second season of the show if it had some improvements in some of the character’s designs. I would love for them to really research doing different hair textures on characters. I know what they were going for with Natsume’s character but it still was cringe. Like I said, it’s not the most terrible show I’ve watched but compared to what I have seen, it was sort of a disappointment.

But for now, I am going to give this show a rating of:

🍙🍙

It wasn’t the worst sports anime but it wasn’t in my top 5. As always, thank you for reading my review. Please like, comment, and/or share!