Ahiru no Sora Episode 1 | Review

When I first heard about this series, I was pretty excited because I just starting getting into basketball but have yet to really dive into any basketball anime. I did read the basketball manga Rebound WAY BACK but it was so long ago. In hindsight, I probably should’ve started with Kuroko no Basket first since everyone talks pretty highly about it. Instead, here we are talking about the Fall 2019 Anime’s Ahiru no Sora.

Normally with any new series, I try to avoid PVs and just go in blind. To be honest, I think this series doesn’t have the greatest introduction possible. I feel like I NEED to give it a three-episode test.

Ahiru no Sora is a basketball anime revolving around our main protagonist, Sora. Sora is short but will never back down from a fight. With the disadvantages he has been given in life, he has taught himself to always fight on no matter the obstacle. Funny enough, all he was dealt with in the first episode were obstacles. First, he gets jumped by five guys, then he gets locked into the locker room for attempting to play basketball and then he plays a five on one with the other members of the basketball team.

Sora is a character with heart who just wants to fly like his mother did when she played basketball. There are many unanswered questions revolving around her but it seems like she became ill. We don’t know whether she passed away or not but I would believe so with how much he cherishes the sneakers she passed down to him. I initially compared him to Hinata from Haikyu but I believe it was mainly his height and wanted to soar through the skies in his sport. I mainly just want to see how this little guy with a big heart can win over all of these jerks into playing basketball with him.

Jerks would probably not be the best way to describe these guys. They are awful, to be honest. I can see why many people aren’t enjoying the first episode because of these characters. This is mainly why I would rather give it the good old three episode test. They have given us a bit of information but not enough to work with. Momoharu has some issue with Chiaki that is related to him running away from problems. Why does everyone HAVE TO join a club? Was there any previous love for basketball or were they all truly only there because they were forced?

What studio is working on this? I would assume Production I.G. or some other studio that pumps out a bunch of sports anime but nope. Instead, we have Diomedea who people would mainly know from Domestic Girlfriend and Fuuka. Looking at this list of series they’ve animated, I’m surprised that they are taking on such a project. I was pretty surprised with how polished Domestic seemed to be initially and Aho Girl, even though it was a short, I feel that it was done pretty well. I feel that we may be pleasantly surprised with the final product. They may wow us on the basketball court.

Not the biggest fan of the OP and ED for this series. Someone on Twitter mentioned that the OP was super good but I’m just failing to see it. The best thing about the OP for me was getting a look into the future of this team and seeing them train together gave me hope. Though, the OP is made by THE PILLOWS! So it may just need to grow on me. The ED is just Sora texting for a minute and a half. The music is alright. Maybe I’m just disappointed because I know that Domestic’s OP was FIRE from the start and this one is pretty meh.

I will be continuing this series and hoping that it changes our opinions on it. They may pull out some god-tier character development for all we know. We’ll find out in the next weeks… hopefully.

I’ll see you guys next week for episode 2! Thanks for reading!