PRINCE OF STRIDE: ALTERNATIVE

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA Slice of LifePrince of Stride: GALAXY RUSH

REVIEWS

• 

  Warptoon

  35/100
  Madhouse's show about running, falls flat.

  Synopsis
  Prince of Stride Alternative is a sport anime focused on the relationship of three first year students -Nana Sakuri, Riku Yagami, and Takeru Fujiwara- as they reinvigorate the famed Hōnan high school stride club. Beginning with a search for new members the groups strives to compete in the End of Summer tournament. Stride is a fictional competition that blends parkour and sprinting with six person relay teams in head to head matches.

  Quick Points
  -Great OP and ED
  -Solid art design and use of color
  -Lack of tension in races, due to a predictable story.
  -Unable to distance itself from otome game source material

  Review
  Before I began to watch Prince of Stride I was cautious in my expectations, both positive and negative. Positive because the director of the series Atsuko Ishizuka, did such a great job with No Game No Life. Which stood out last year for its art design and color palate. However, Stride’s source material originated from an otome game (romance games targeted at women). This fact had me worried that the show would become a clone of a certain swimming show involving men from a commercial.

  The art and style of this show is on point. The styling of the races and OP are reminiscent of Air Gear and Persona, using different textures to create a vibrant background involving all of the characters that filled the screen. Anticipation for each race is a result of how clean and polished the environment was. Everything from the obstacles, to the design of the large scaled font on the sides of buildings created some wonderful scenes. Making me yearn for more action in each race.

  But that excitement was doused upon by Strides inability to present a race coherently. In early episodes, it was hard to understand the scale of the objects the runners were maneuvering around. Mainly due to the editing and the abundance of tight shots on the runners clearing the objects, the distortion that it created was frustrating. In later episodes this issue is less frequent, but the secondary annoyance is the decision to not provide the audience a layout or map or distance or anything really, to convey basic information about the area where the teams are running. There are quick cuts to a top down map on a screen, but the issue is unresolved because the shot follows the runners instead of pulling out to show them in relation to the map as a whole. The best that Stride can muster is the time difference between each leg of the race as members prepare to relay with their partners, but that information is slightly useless due to the fact that the audience is rarely given overall times or even the average time of each member.

  All of that should make it obvious what the show is concerned with. _Stride _is a show that puts the relationships first and the competition second. There is nothing wrong with that focus in a sports themed show. One of the common tropes in sports anime is the childhood promise to win a big tournament, stating that you compete for your friends and not yourself, and the clash of two rookies who end up working well together. Stride hits all of those beats and more, but the balance of the show feels distorted.

  It is hard to justify viewing Stride as sports show about running. While there is a framework for that is in place the running and training is just a device used to enable the students to participate in various antics, whether the students are modeling for a sponsor or going on a trip to their rivals -Galaxy Standard- training facility and throwing a beach party. Even though Stride doesn’t seem to fully embrace its otome game origins, it does not shy away from the potential male/male romantic pairings that are occasionally implied. Making the show awkward at times to sit through.

  Stride in general is plagued with an attempt of trying to please a wider audience, but wounded itself in the process. There is the generic sports show about running, along with the romance (or “bromance”) created from the winking subtext of the relationships between members of the team. In simpler terms, it’s hard to enjoy the show as a whole if one of these aspects doesn’t appeal to you. Potentially leaving certain members of the audience disheartened when the show is unable to earnestly present enough of a race, or move away from the dreamlike world of male teenage bonding.

  It is just fine if you enjoyed the show, I know there will be some individuals out there who did. But the if you are considering whether or not to watch Stride just be ready to come face to face with a lesser version of Free!.

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• 

  Kalladry

  64/100
  The first few eps are rough & some drama could use rewriting, but when the show hits its stride (haha) it's sheer fun

  _Stride, a competitive relay race/parkour team sport, is popular across Japan, and freshman Nana Sakurai chose her high school specifically because of its team’s great reputation. One problem: she finds the team a shell of its former self! Can Nana and fellow obsessive freshman Takeru help re-establish the team, recruit new members, and get the team to the top competition?_

  Sports anime! We love a good sports anime, right? Stride is fictional, a parkour relay race where runners must “relation,” or high-five, within a certain distance of the next section’s beginning instead of passing a baton. This means each team requires a “relationer,” someone who coordinates and communicates with the team (using very accurate GPS and earpieces) about when to start, whether to adjust their speed, and so forth.

  The idea is intriguing, honestly. I don’t know if the GPS technology is there yet, but otherwise I could see this being a viable real-life sport.

  

  Being a short (12 episode) sports anime, it follows the typical outline: getting the team together, teamwork problems, competitions, Big Tension That the Team Must Address To Move Forward, more competitions, more teamwork problems, personal doubts, all interspersed with good-humored group gatherings, and an ending that leaves you feeling happy.

  

  I wavered occasionally while watching, though, because the drama of other teams and most of the other teams themselves, are the series’ weak spot. (The main exception is the Designated Arch-Rival Team, who are nice.) Trash-talking obsessive caricatures who raised my hackles, not in a good way. It was just like, Oh, I see the writers can’t find any other way to characterize other teams, so we’re dealing with this again. It took away from the fun of watching Parkour Tag Racing.

  

  Plus one of the main characters is, of course, the Guy Who Is Way Too Serious and hardly gets called out, because being an asshole is okay if it’s In the Name of Sport. True to tradition he learns how to be less of a jerk to people by the end, but still.

  (I will admit that others may not dislike him as much as I did; he could be quite charming and a funny character when the writers were having a good day. When handled well, his inflexibility and one-track mind were hilarious.)

  

  The drama feels uneven. There would be entire parts of episodes where I thought, meh, why should I continue? and then they would be immediately followed by narratives of teammates goofing around, puns, the perfect sports show.

  Like, I know it’s going for drama, but there’s a bit where relationer Nana discovers her father is playing a pivotal role because it’s announced at an event she’s at. And as the viewer I’m supposed to be surprised about this, but mostly I was pissed because dude, seriously you couldn’t tell your daughter, whose phone you called like 10 minutes ago? Couldn’t text? Couldn’t send an email to say “Hey, let’s get lunch”? It’s a small part of the show, but it’s a lazy way to write in shock.

  

  Okay, so why am I complaining so much about something I said I enjoyed? Because I did enjoy it. Who doesn’t love a team of generally nice, quirky people who get humorously enthusiastic about things? When the series focuses on the team together, it’s really good. The first few episodes were rougher, but when the show hits its stride (haha) it was really fun, and I genuinely enjoyed watching it overall. I ended the finale with a big smile on my face.

  Verdict

  English dub? Yes

  Visuals: Fine, with bright colors.

  Worth watching? Yes. Look, there are plot points I take issue with, because it felt like the writers put little thought into most things they inserted beyond “this will add tension for this episode.” I long to march back in time, to take this as a first draft, and oversee a revision where people rearrange and re-pace some things so that it’s more even.

  Because: I liked it. It was, genuinely, fun. It’s a 12-episode sports anime and the nice thing about sports anime is that you can usually predict the overall way the story is going to go, and end, and that’s not a bad thing.

  A very interesting fact I found out after I had finished the series: the Alternative part of the title is because this is based on an otome game (basically, the player would be Nana, and there would be routes to romance various boys). While that answered my question (which was WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE, ANIME? TELL ME!), it’s interesting because there’s no way I would’ve guessed by just watching. There’s no romance in the show whatsoever. Nana has a definite personality and is part of the team, but the core of her relationships (and all the other boys’ with each other) is pure friendship. Additionally, she’s not set apart more than any than fellow first-years and fellow main-ish characters Riku or Takeru, as far as story focus goes.

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