HANEBADO!

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

ANIME DramaHanebado!
NOVEL Slice of LifeShousetsu Hanebado!

REVIEWS

• 

  Scenic

  76/100
  Hanebado puts forth a well told story of people whose lives are intertwined with the sport of badminton.

  I went into Hanebado fully expecting a run of the mill sports manga that I would enjoy to some extent and throw away the next day, just disposable entertainment. What I actually ended up with was a sports manga like no other I had read that had a genuinely intriguing main character the likes of which I had never seen before, a great cast of characters and intense badminton battles accentuated by the beautiful artwork of Kosuke Hamada. So let's get on the badminton court and see what makes hanebado work so well.

  

  The Story: The Story centers around Ayano Hanesaki, one of the most unique leads I have seen in a sports anime or manga, as we see her grow out of her disdain for badminton that she holds at the start of the story because of her past with it and come to once again come to love the sport. What makes this specifically interesting is how I consider Ayano a traditionally overpowered main character, but even though she comes across like that on the badminton court, she feels like a very vulnerable character when she steps off of it. For Ayano, the two have been everlinked - Ayano as a person and her as a player on the badminton field, so we see that reflected in how Ayano comes to understand what kind of person she wants to be also allows her to decide what kind of badminton player she needs to be. This exploration of Ayano and what it means to be someone overpowered or how it truly affects different people we see reflected in the different players who are made to bear this Burden including the likes of Ayano and Connie. It does have some problems though such as how the pacing can meander sometimes as well as some odd choices such as the existence of Ayano's father who never really does anything other than serve as a background piece for the whole story which struck me as very odd since there were moments that felt like he would do something, say something, come into action but it never happens and we are just left with a man who has no presence, then we get into the bigger of the two problems with Ayano's parents - Her Mother; Ayano's mother is a controversial figure who is never truly reprimanded for her rash actions such as leaving Ayano and Connie by the people around her and her inability to really make steps towards making up for those mistakes makes it even worse, though we see that Connie and Ayano still accept her even after everything she has done, denying her even the opportunity to apologize for her wrongdoings, showing the unconditional and twisted love that they have come to have for their mother due to the them being apart for so long. Add on to that giving her a sudden illness much later on and you have a recipe for a character that does not sit well with people Even though we see that she does regret these actions and are made to understand her suffering due to these mistakes of hers, it really is not enough to make up for it all.

  The Characters: This is another aspect where the manga truly shines, with providing a large cast of believable and likable characters that have their own dynamics with each other. A great example of this is Aragaki Nagisa, a character who we spend probably the most time with in the manga outside of Ayano. Nagisa is one of the many people ayano has beat in her past and that defeat weighs heavily on Nagisa, we see a focus on Nagisa recovering from that defeat and coming to once again get engaged in the world of badminton and aim for the top. She is a character who has an infectious enthusiasm that is hard to dislike and makes her battles all the more enjoyable to watch - She functions as more of an underdog to root for, in stark contrast to the genius that is Ayano Hanesaki. Nagisa has her own world and friends circle, people she competes with and challenges she has to overcome, which altogether provide for a refreshing breakaway. This contrast between the two serves as a great to the advantage of the story and was one of my favorite elements in the manga. The other characters are of course, shown to a much lesser extent, but still leave a strong impression while they're there, with characters like Ishizawa and Mashiko Rui coming to mind as some I enjoyed the most.

  The Badminton Matches: The matches themselves can be described with one word: Intense. There is an intensity to the badminton matches that is a rarity to see expressed so well. This is in no small part to the art (which I will go into separately), brought together with the strong writing, the matches feel like a conversation between the two players on the field, where they are gradually learning more about each other through how they play and the reader is given this insight with these characters being fleshed out bit by bit in these matches as well. There is no aspect in which I feel these battles lack and if anything is to be considered the highlight of the show It is the matches...with that said there is one badminton match I feel actually does lack and that being the final one. The final confrontation between Ayano and Connie feels like it loses momentum as a large portion of the match is skipped over, while this is acceptable when done in other matches, there is really no room for something like this in the final match that is supposed to cap off the manga, which is why that bit does leave a bit of a bitter taste since I expected it to go full throttle to bring home one final emotional and high octane roller coaster on the court.

  The Art: Conveying motion is a very important aspect of sports, It is one thing that clearly puts sports anime at an advantage in the discussion as they have much more leeway with being able to properly show that. This aspect is generally what makes me hesitant to pick up sports manga compared to their anime counterparts if they have one. Once the first match started though, I was blown away by the jump in the art quality in depicting the battle happening, with the art maintaining the strong sense of kinetic motion and fast paced feel that a badminton match is supposed to have, to add to that, the paneling plays very well into this and accentuates the overall artwork. This especially comes as a surprise as the artwork outside the battles tends to be generally simplistic though not to say that is not appealing.

  

  The Conclusion: Overall, Hanebado does have its shortcomings, the biggest of which being the handling of Ayano's mother. Even though it does have a final match that falls short, the epilogue to the manga that follows feels very satisfactory as it delivers on giving you a final farewell to this cast of great personalities, which did somewhat make up for it. With that said I still feel hanebado is a refreshing breeze in the world of sports manga and anime that brings a lot of unique strong points to the table being one of the few sports manga able to capture the sport on the field so well and is worth checking out for anyone interested in the genre.

  So pick up the racket and enter the court of hanebado's engaging story.

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• 

  sushiisawesome

  90/100
  An absolute gem that's well worth your time to read if you're a fan of sports series or great character writing.

  Hanebado is a story about regaining lost passions and allowing the very things that may have sullied something you love turn into a reason for loving that exact thing - in this case badminton. It's a story about a group of passionate young women who all have various reasons to be dissonant about playing badminton, yet continue playing it regardless due to the simple thrill they obtain from playing the game. Despite tackling these themes, the series manages to do this with such flair and tonal consistency that it's hard to not be impressed - and manages to do so while telling an uplifting story about these young girls using badminton as a vehicle to not only grow as athletes, but also as people. Despite this, the series' tone remains largely light-hearted, and while questionable elements remain - a certain subplot tying to Ayano's character arc and the head of the badminton federation who - let's face it - has some shady as hell moments, the series manages to convey this story well in just 16 volumes.

  Ayano is the central lead of Hanebado - being introduced as an airheaded and unfocused goofball who's shy yet aloof of people around her. She largely keeps to herself and her best friend Elena, yet is shown to clearly be proficient at badminton. There's one problem though - Ayano has lost passion for badminton and would rather not play the sport ever again. While she eventually loses a game and is dragged into the fold of the badminton club, questions persist about why exactly she plays...which only gets answered when the team visit and see photos of her mom crossed out. Ayano played badminton because it's a sport she loves, yet this love was tainted partially by her own superiority to most players initially before she inevitably lost to Kaoruko, leading to what appeared to be her mom abandoning her. As a result, Ayano started resenting the sport and avoided it, associating it with her mother abandoning her - however, she never could let go of the sport, and her entering the badminton team eventually leads her to understanding that the sport doesn't need to be played simply for the sake of finding her mom, but also as something she can enjoy playing with others. By no stretch of the imagination does this mean that her finding her mom isn't still a subplot in the series; if anything, Ayano's core character arc slowly becomes about her growing friendship and dynamic with various characters - Nagisa and Connie as well as Elena - slowly conflicting with her motivation to find her mom and receive her acknowledgment at long last. While Ayano finds an answer that's a mix between the two - learning that focusing too much on her mom means being unable to enjoy the sport, while also pressing on in finding answers over her mom. Her character arc is that both of what she wants are perfectly attainable and require assistance from her friends - her match with Nagisa roughly halfway through the manga being an example of that, with that match drilling into Ayano that she can't play badminton for that goal alone, and needs help and shoulders to lean on from others, with Nagisa constantly accepting assistance from Tachibana and encouragement from her friends, while Ayano played alone. This contrast and the result of the game help set the stage for where Ayano's character arc proceeds from that point onwards, having a more relaxed and free playstyle and being more open about what she wants to achieve.

  Nagisa is the second central character of Hanebado and my personal favorite of its three main characters - starting off as a rough tomboy with a heart of gold that has become more withdrawn and isolated from the sport due to her loss in a past tournament. This makes her stop enjoying playing the sport and straight up resent it, yet she pushes on, desiring to improve despite that; this, however, only leads to her self-destructing further and finding the sport almost insufferable to play, which she only snaps out of by playing with Kentarou. While her dynamic with her coach isn't the only one relevant to Nagisa's character arc - her dynamic with her friends as well as both Ayano and Connie is also important - it is by far the most important one, as her contrasts greatly with Nagisa by being a former badminton player whose career got cut short due to injury. This in itself highlights a character flaw of Nagisa's; her pride in willing to continue playing to the end, ignoring any potential long-term damage that may happen to her for the sake of her self-centered pride. The Nagisa of the beginning of the narrative is one who's licking her wounds yet determined to push on and wields that pride - even if it also gets hurt fairly badly in the process at times due to her initial refusal to acknowledge that despite everything, players much better than her exist. Kentarou acts as a worthy foil to Nagisa and his dynamics with her is my favorite dynamic in the manga, being an upstanding and caring coach who constantly looked out for her health as well as empathizing with her due to understanding where her pride comes from and yet being unwilling to allow her to make the same mistake he once did. Her arc is about realizing that her badminton career isn't the only thing that matters to her, but rather that by hurting that not only would she hurt herself but also the people around her. This makes her last match in the series one where despite the outcome, feeling beyond satisfying and being in my eyes the best damn match in the series and one of my favorite out of sports manga in general. Beyond liking many of the basic tropes she's associated with, her character arc was a powerful one about simply letting go of pride for the sake of not hurting oneself and others, a breath of fresh air in a genre frequently known for characters that push themselves beyond their breaking point and are glorified for doing so.

  Connie is the third and final main character of this series, being Ayano's sister in a sense due to both receiving training from Ayano's mother, Uchika. Her upbringing is similarly influenced by Uchika much like Ayano, and much like Ayano also suffers from a complex and neglect from Uchika's presence in her life - yet retaining a more positive outlook in general despite this due to her having more friendly teammates for a longer period of time, who she desperately tries to keep at arm's length but fails at spectacularly. Her dynamic with Yuika in particular is worthy of praise, being tightly written with both characters inspiring and bouncing off the other for self-improvement while also being a crutch for the other's flaws - Connie being her lack of social awareness in how to deal with others, often resorting to self-centeredness by instinct before realizing her carelessness, while Yuika tends to be overempathetic and often get lost in caring for others but not herself. This dynamic helps progress both characters considerably, with Connie in particular receiving much character development and acting as an excellent foil both to Nagisa and Ayano - Nagisa due to personality similarities in being self-centered power oriented players, with Nagisa being someone that is more extrospective personality-wise and Connie being more introspective, as well as Ayano, who shares a bond with Uchika that in many ways is more strained than Connie's bond with her, both striving to prove that they're worthy of her attention. Connie's character arc even symbolically in many ways acts as a foil to Ayano - similarly becoming more outwardly expressive, but become more emotional in her plays and approach to people as opposed to Ayano, who still maintains a calmer - even if passionate and heated occasionally - demeanor.

  The artwork for the series is phenomenal and extremely capable of swapping tones, often relying on broadly spaced panels and dynamic illustrations that make the series easy to read despite its very dialogue-heavy nature outside of matches. Facial expressions are often beautifully drawn, with subtle changes in character expressions all over the manga adding much to characterization - Nagisa in particular has had a lot of care go into her changing features, which adds a lot to the overall weight and tension of the badminton games. Speaking of the badminton games, they're in some ways the best and worst thing the series has to offer - on one hand, being beautifully drawn and extremely tense, with one particular game being straight up one of my favorite matches in a sports manga period and a classic example of how a sports match can add so much characterization to characters. Other times, it often feels like they progress too quickly, and while this does not hurt the manga too much it does mean that certain matches happen too quickly for my liking. This is a minor complaint, however, and otherwise on a technical level the manga is absolutely beautiful and easy to read and reread if you want something easy on the eyes and yet extremely engaging.

  Another major flaw is a certain subplot that ties into Uchika's character which while thematically fits the series - about how badminton if seen as a reflection of life itself is quick, fleeting, dynamic and forever moving forward - still left me wanting due to both the suddenness of a revelation that happens near the end of the series as well as wishing to see a few more character interactions before her role in the series ends. To go beyond this is to enter heavy spoiler territory, but anyone that read this series understands what I'm talking about.

  Despite my gripes, Hanebado is a fantastic sports manga that is well worth your time if you're a fan of the genre.

  Thank you for reading.

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