蒼の彼方のフォーリズム

AO NO KANATA NO FOUR RHYTHM

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
12
RELEASE
March 29, 2016
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

The story is set on an archipelago of four islands far south of Japan or even the South Seas. It is all but a different world from modern Japan. From the discovery of anti-gravitons came the dream invention of anti-graviton shoes that let people fly the skies. They introduce people to a new realm by enabling flight with just one's own body strength, without feathers or engines. This led to the rise of the sport of "Flying Circus".

The protagonist who once hoped for a future in this sport suffered a setback due to an overwhelming defeat, and withdrew from the sport for this and some other reason. However, he met the transfer student Asuka Kurashina, and in teaching her to fly the skies, the old passion returned. He takes part in the Flying Circus again.

(Source: Anime News Network)

CAST

Misaki Tobisawa
Azumi Asakura
Asuka Kurashina
Misato Fukuen
Mashiro Arisaka
Nozomi Yamamoto
Rika Ichinose
Madoka Yonezawa
Masaya Hinata
Ryouta Oosaka
Saki Inui
Natsumi Takamori
Madoka Aoyagi
Naomi Wakabayashi
Reiko Satouin
Risa Taneda
Aoi Kagami
Megumi Ogata
Kazunari Shindou
Kazuyuki Okitsu
Shion Aoyagi
Takayuki Kondou
Minori Hosaka
Yuuko Gibu
Irina Avalon
Kaori Mizuhashi

EPISODES

Dubbed

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Not available on crunchyroll

RELATED TO AO NO KANATA NO FOUR RHYTHM

Cover Art for Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm

MANGA DramaAo no Kanata no Four Rhythm

REVIEWS

HidamariSeashore
82/100
A great sports anime for a sport that isn't even real.
Have you ever wanted to be able to fly, not by planes, but by a certain kind of shoes? With those kind of conditions, have you ever wondered what it would be like if there was a sport that you only play in the sky? I'm sure a sport like that would be quite enjoyable, especially in this anime. The only reason for me watching it is the artwork, which I thought was very beautiful, but honestly, I didn't expect too much. Needless to say, the moment I planned to include Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm, or Aokana for short, among the anime I watched for the winter 2016 season, I had gotten myself in for a pleasant surprise.

Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm introduces to us the sport of Flying Circus, or FC for short. Grav-Shoes, which are used to fly for transportation, are also used in this sport. Touch either your opponent's back or one of the four buoys that float above the ocean, and you score a point. This anime focuses on Asuka Kurashina, a girl who is completely new to flying but quickly falls in love with FC. She, along with Misaki Tobisawa and Mashiro Arisaka, joins her school's FC Club and, coached by Masaya Hinata, competes in various FC matches.

The story of Ao no Kanata was quite an interesting one, and I was fully invested in the FC matches that took place within this anime. There are also a decent number of interesting characters that got a decent amount of development throughout the story, like Asuka and Misaki; those two are my favorite characters, to be honest. There is a problem I have involving the characters, though; there are a number of them I personally thought didn't appear as often as they could of. For example, Masaya was the protagonist of the visual novel, but in the anime, he doesn't appear so much; even when he does, he doesn't have much significance. Instead, the protagonist torch seems to have been passed on to Asuka, and as much as I love Asuka, I would have loved to see more of Masaya.

The opening and ending themes, "Contrail ~Kiseki~" by Mami Kawada and "a-gain" by Ray, were actually pretty good songs, and I'm surprised by how much they fit the anime. The voice acting was pretty good, too; Misato Fukuen as Asuka was just so freaking adorable! However, we can't forget about the best part about this anime, which is, hands down, the animation. The animation is colorful and bright, and it's cool this way. The animation especially stands out in the FC matches; it had a great use of 3D animation during those matches.

Overall, Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm was a good anime. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to see a great sports anime for a sport that isn't even real. Who knows, though? Maybe several years for now, we may have the technology to make Grav-Shoes into real shoes and Flying Circus into a real sport! (At least, that's a nice thought I'd like to have.)
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