Ahiru no Sora Series Review

“This isn’t the end. Nothing… has even started for us yet!”

Ahiru no Sora is a show that has many factors which work well, but the show can never successfully tie those elements together to be the sports anime classic one hopes it might be. Some of this can be attributed to it being something of a slow burn, though maybe not in a traditional sense. While we watch the show’s basketball team gradually fill out and develop, any growth they have takes a long time to materialize. If the show has a central flaw, it would be that the characters constantly feel as if they’re taking two steps forward and one step back. Any progress is offset in some way, so attempts to build anticipation and hype feel undermined. This becomes pronounced over the course of the series’ 50 episode run, and, while watching the program wasn’t unpleasant, it does leave an underlying sense of disappointment when reflecting on it. Still, with strong characters, fun dynamics and a technical approach to the sport in question, I’m definitely going to offer a recommendation to check out Ahiru no Sora, but not as wholehearted a recommendation as I would have liked it to be.

The show follows the titular Kurumatani Sora, a high school freshman who promised his mother that he would win his first high school basketball tournament. His mother was a former player for Japan’s Women’s Olympic Basketball Team, and, for years, she has been hospital bound due to chronic illness. Using a sick parent as a motivating factor is something of a cliché, but the show does endeavor to make it come across as a serious problem. Still, the show does play into a pet peeve of mine by not actually identifying his mother’s illness. A tricky family situation isn’t the only obstacle Sora faces though, as he is notably short for a basketball player, and he finds his new school’s basketball team only serves as a hangout for delinquents. As a starting point for the series, Ahiru no Sora finds itself reaching a few too many times into the cliché bag. We have a player who is too short for his sport, AND a sick parent who used to play the sport, AND a team of delinquents trying to reignite their passions. Still, Sora is an endearing character, even if his shonen idiocy makes him incapable of carrying the story on his own.

The rest of the team is appropriately varied, and while several of the characters may be insanely skilled in certain areas, the show never takes the Kuroko no Basket approach of having characters appearing superpowered. A weird aspect of this show is, by episode 50, it only feels like the group has JUST succeeded in forming a cohesive team. I mentioned before that Ahiru no Sora frequently feels as if the characters are following a pattern of two steps forward and one step back, but sometimes the story will just beat them over the head with setbacks, either in the flow of a game or in their lives. This results in a show which tends to have a tone more in line with that of Haikyu!! than that of Hoshiai no Sora still ending up feeling rather bleak in retrospect. I certainly like the personalities at play. From the dutiful captain, Momoharu, to his talented but noncommittal brother, Chiaki, to the antisocial ace, Kite, the show features a swath of colorful but grounded players, but the sense of bleakness permeates all of them and even extends beyond the team itself.

The production was handled by Diomedéa, and, while they did a passable job, I can’t really say the production did much to elevate the show. COVID probably didn’t do them any favors, but even prior to the lockdown Ahiru no Sora was prone to using still images or limited animation to cut corners. This was also combined with a character aesthetic that I wasn’t particularly fond of, with overly large mouths that look particularly odd in angled shots. Also, what is Kite’s initial hair style? He switches over to cornrows later in the series, but I’m legitimately unclear as to how that original hairstyle is supposed to look in real life. The openings are fine. I can still remember the tune to the second OP, but it’ll probably have faded away in a week, and the only thing I can recall from the first OP was that it was titled, “Happy Go Ducky,” which I simply can’t take seriously.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• I mean, I get that the title translates to either Sora the Duck or The Duck’s Sky, but even so… Happy Go Ducky…
• It really is strange to realize that a show which features silly gags like Chiaki drinking milk he found sitting in a storage closet because he’s too tired and lazy to get something that isn’t expired to drink is weighed down by senses of ennui and self-loathing.
• Ahiru no Sora‘s mangaka notably took issue with some liberties taken by the adaptation, so that may negatively impact the likelihood of seeing any follow-ups to the series any time soon.