Ao Ashi: The Power of Teamwork and Resilience

Have you ever played a team sport? In this day and age, it may be traditional or online sports, but the importance of teamwork prevails in all of them. While individual skills and capabilities also play a big part, there’s just something beautiful about collective efforts paving the way to great victories. Perhaps you have your own story to tell, but let’s look at an anime example.

Ao Ashi is a 24-episode TV anime series that aired from the 9th of April until the 24th of September in spring 2022. Studio Production I.G. brought it to life while working with Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Marvelous, NHK Enterprises, and Bandai Spirits. Its episodes ran for 24 minutes each, featuring the sports genre and the team sports theme. The series was targeted at the Seinen demographic and received a rating of PG-13 for teenagers 13 years of age or older.

Kobayashi Yuugo and Ueno Naohiko are the authors and illustrators of the anime's original source manga, which bears the same name. It began publication on January 5, 2015, and is still ongoing. It was serialized in Big Comic Spirits and spawned a spin-off titled “Ao Ashi: Brotherfoot,” featuring Ashito's older brother, Shun.

The story starts in a quiet rural town, where a local junior high school football team's demanding spotlight lands on one player named Ashito Aoi. Ashito is well-known for his unpredictable moveset and self-centered playing style, becoming the sole powerhouse pulling his team through an essential high school preliminary tournament.

Unfortunately, their win streak ends abruptly when an opponent causes our MC to lose his temper and lash out violently, leading to his removal from the remainder of the game. It was no surprise to many that the star player's absence led to the team's swift elimination from the tournament.

When all seemed lost, Tatsuya Fukuda, a coach for a youth team, approached Ashito and saw potential in him. Fukuda invites Ashito to Tokyo for tryouts, placing our MC in a strange and unfamiliar setting with outstanding talent. No longer in the minor leagues, Ashito must perform to the best of his abilities to establish himself and secure what could be a life-changing career.

The story of Ao Ashi is full of essential lessons and tribulations that can be applied to both football and real life. Obviously, neither a love of football nor an in-depth familiarity with the sport are prerequisites for appreciating this tale. The plot is complex and emotional, and the characters must navigate it.

Ashito starts in Ehime, an island not famous for its football players. While he was the best player, everything changed when he entered the football powerhouse, Esperion. Something Ao Ashi does so well here is how well it portrays the hardships Ashito, his family, and friends must endure to reach this inevitable state. As an athlete, Ashito must also sacrifice much and singularly focus on football to make things work.

Well-written bittersweet drama and characterization are rare in modern anime, so this title stands out. Like a kid who relocated, Ashito must face many tests and struggles while being treated as an outsider, including bullying, stiff competition, and bad sports conduct. Despite all these hardships, we see an MC who works hard, makes believable progress, and makes new friends in this new environment.

This title also does a praiseworthy job of showing the audience the actual difficulty of football. Real-world techniques and improvement practices are well emphasized here. Ao Ashi shows us how physically tiring and mentally jarring the sport can be, potentially even running your body and psychology.

We get to see how the techniques are taught, how athletes must behave inside and outside the field, how they must take care of themselves, and how vast an emotional capacity is required of them. These come coupled with real-world negativities, like trainers who use athletes for their own benefit, teammates who can sabotage their own, and people who just don’t care. Be geared for the realism of it all!

Regarding the characters, Ao Ashi effectively portrays different kinds of behaviors prevalent in the football world, be it from coaches, players, managers, and so on. It’s also beautiful how each plays their own role well, culminating in the bigger picture.

While Ashito wants to improve, he must face many others who only care about their own benefit and nothing more. This is a harsh reality that is often sugar-coated in the media. Still, this anime does a great job of showcasing it and ultimately letting it evolve into something more splendid, like team spirit and positive emotions. None of us are alone in this world, so the strength and faith of people who care about us are essential.

Although not everything is perfect regarding the characters, Ashito’s personality might put you off. He’s immature, ambitious, and quite annoying on occasion. But this side of him is pretty realistic, too, making any character development all the more worth it.

This is a protagonist we can mature alongside, slow and steady. The subtle change in how he views his friends, family, love interests, and football are all such treats. Even the supporting characters have depth, helping us to see many different perspectives and behaviors. The character writing is detailed, leaving room for them to have a unique story and dream to pursue.

This excellent combination of football matches and colorful characters makes the series thrilling. There will always be something to capture your interest, and the development is done right.

Art and animation aren’t Ao Ashi's strongest suits. It’s not bad in any way; it's just very plain and simple. If you love flashy art, fluid animation, and non-stop action, this might not be your ideal cup of tea. But to those viewing this with a more moderate eye, the art is colorful enough, and the character designs are good, too, making for a fairly decent visual and aesthetic experience.

The sounds and music are solid. The OSTs are sumptuous and set the perfect atmosphere for this title. The opening themes are "Mushinhakusuu" by [Alexandros] and "Presence" by Superfly; the ending themes are "Blue Diary" by Rinne and "Color Lily no Koibumi" by Kami wa Saikoro wo Furanai.

The first opening is genuinely one of the best themes in sports anime, just full of good vibes and radiating hype. The second opening may be less appealing to the ears, but its animation is a league above. All the endings do a great job of closing each episode as well.

Moving onto voice-acting, you’re not going to find industry giants here. But this anime deserves props for giving young and aspiring voice actors opportunities. Despite the lesser-known cast, they all do a good job and leave a positive impression. Some of them make you eager to hear them again in future anime!

If you compare Ao Ashi to more popular sports anime like Haikyuu, you'll notice how the volleyball series has better character dynamics and development during its matches between both teams. This focus on teamwork and friendship is nothing new in Shounen and is a selling point of the show.

On the other hand, Ao Ashi focuses on past events, such as when a specific technique was explained to Ashito, suddenly becoming very relevant in the current match. This little gimmick allows us to learn more about the sport and see progress while remaining focused on the present teamwork aspect.

Overall, Ao Ashi is a superb sports anime with many positives rather than negatives. This is not your typical sports series, but its unique aspects make it a worthwhile watch. Give this anime a spin and see if it sits well with you; you can just walk away if it doesn’t. It is an exciting series with top-notch writing, if you want a reason to watch it. Recommended!