The Hakone Mountains!! The steepest in the world. A slogan that initially sounds like a joke, but turns out to have a very big meaning in achieving their final goal.
After the ending of the story of Kuroko Tetsuya (Kuroko no Basket) and Hinata Shoyo (Haikyuu !!), Production IG finally returned to work on a sports anime project, which this time told about the long-distance running team sport. Even though previously Production IG had worked on an anime sport project about dancing sports, Ballroom e Youkoso, but for some reason the anime didn't interest me enough, I thought dancing was a bit too feminine, so I refused to watch it.
SYNOPSISRead also:
This anime taking place story in a house where students from Kansei University's long-distance running club living. These nine students from different study majors didn't really know that they could live free there had to pay their rent by becoming permanent members of the club. Although at first there were many who disagreed, but in the end their finally want to join the long distance running competition at Hakone Ekiden.
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It's really amazing. I was impress to see how good the anime visual art really is. Production IG spends a lot of budget if it is related to the sports anime. This is 2019 and its so fresh to see visual like this.
First let's start from characters design. The characters design of this anime is actually same like the manga's design, but production IG success to build a character that really looks more alive. The characters appear really have more personality, their own accent, and strong motivation in running.
Second, the visual background part. If we often see Production IG sports anime taking more background stories in the room, the Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteru anime takes more background scenes outside the room. Anime that has a background story outside the room actually has its own difficulties, like drawing lots of people, buildings, roads, panoramas, rivers, and other things related to outdoor. Production IG managed to prove how well they worked on this. Some buildings and houses are drawn by hand and some are made with 3D CG, but the coloring that makes all parts of the background look very realistic, and its also supported by the placement of a very precise blur effect.
Third, in the lighting part. This anime lighting is really made very similar to their own time. Such as conditions at 6 am, 9 am, noon, evening, night, and conditions when using the lights on their house at night.
Fourth, the most made me highly praised Production IG, it's the weather effect part. Everything is made very well from hot weather, rainy, cloudy, snowy, nights when there is moonlight, and weather conditions when seeing sakura's leafs fall in spring.
Fifth, the not moving frame part. Although there are some not moving frames that are included, the placement is very precise. The not moving frames look amazing because its added with a blur effect and a good music background.
Then finally, the key animation or movement part. As we know, Production IG is the main pioneer in the use of CG in the anime industry, so we don't need to doubt the results of the work done by Production IG. There is a scene when many runners run simultaneously. If many runners are drawn using hand drawings, it will certainly cost a lot of cost, so the use of CG is the right choice to use. If another studio can easily find out whether the work is 3D CG or not, then on Production IG CG doesn't look like that, they really make a CG that looks very realistic and pleasing for our eyes. PRODUCTION IG IS A GODFATHER OF CGI USER.
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I will not review the opening and ending songs, because it just looks like fits with this anime, although this is the first time I have heard that Unison Square Garden performed anime songs in the sports genre. But I think its okay, well done USG.
Alright, the background music part. This part is one of the factors that makes this anime very interesting to watch. If they don't use good music selection, maybe this anime will be an ordinary running sport anime.
BGM when at certain moments such as when Ouji wants to get official time records, when telling the story of the characters past, and finally when Shindo forced himself to run even though he was in a high fever condition. These moments managed to make my emotions mixed up because of the music.
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I will not sort on who has the best development character, but who has a big role in the development of this anime.
1. Kiyose Haiji: 8
The chairman of the club Kiyose Haiji, he is the first person who come up with the idea of running together in Hakone Ekiden. Having an injury to his right knee and had despair with the condition he experienced. Haiji then decided to return to the running competition instead of staying silent every day lamenting his injured knee. Haiji has an amazing leadership. The way he manages each of his members convince the audience that the amateur people he trained would be able to take part in the prestigious running competition at Hakone Ekiden.
Kakeru has the fastest running time among all members. But his thought about speed is everything makes him doesn't knowing the true meaning of running. Indeed speed is important, but more important than that is being able to run together and get support from the people. During training, Kakeru has a very important role for helping Ouji to get his official running time.
An otaku who hates sports. If we rank among the 10 members of this club, maybe Ouji got the last rank in terms of running. Ouji ran with a very difficult effort just to qualify in the qualifying round. Seeing that he was initially not very good at running and then began training very hard just to this competition has build an audience empathy towards him. Even so, some of his knowledge of the main character of the anime sport succeeded in giving himself adrenaline. Ouji's motivation is to be able to become one of them, like Kobayakawa Sena, Onoda Sakamichi, Hinata Shoyo, etc.
STORY: 10
Actually this anime will only become monotonous if the contents only talk about running sports. Because running sport doesn't have special techniques such as Kuroko and Haikyuu's anime, but running is only enough with good physical and stamina. But production IG managed to execute this anime to be very different. This anime doesn't impress the audience with how special techniques in running sports, but by building a drama story that can stir up the audience's feelings.
Starting from episodes 1 to 6, it only discusses character recognition and their regular training. Then in episode 7, their qualifying match began. This 6-episode without competition starting yet not because of any reason. This is done to make these 10 characters can get closer to the audience, so that we can really know what is their motivation in running.
The story then begins to get even more serious when approaching Hakone Ekiden. The road to Hakone Ekiden is not smoothly. There are always obstacles faced, such as disputes, confession, different goals, etc. There are also where Shindo was in condition with high fever and Haiji's knee injury that has recurred.
I really feel sadness when I saw the Shindo scene running in Hakone Ekiden. Because the audience can feel it for themselves that we dont like how it feels when we had fever, then how if running 5 kilometers on that situation. With the sad music that constantly attacked my feel, finally I could not help myself to be sad to see that moment. I think Shindo is the star in the Hakone Ekiden.
When the Hakone Ekiden starts, these ten characters get their respective development. Some tell their hobbies, their past, their love relationships, their family relationships, their desired future, etc. This is also intended to build audience empathy for each character.
Kiyose Haiji who gets rations as the last runner tries to show the other members what is the true meaning of run. I was very tense when I saw Haiji's knee injury recur when he started approaching the finish line. But when Haiji remembered Kakeru's running style which was like a beautiful line of light it turned out that Haiji made him realize again to stay strong with his injury until it passed the end of the finish line.
Besides shounen fantasy anime genre, shounen sports anime is a genre that will make our time very quickly spent. One episode of anime only lasted 24 minutes, so that when the competition was going started and the scene had to be cut with the end of the episode, anyone would be curious. That means we have really entered the story and really enjoyed it.
Read also my 3 episode rule:
OVERALL: 9
I can say that the power of drama from this anime really touched the audience. They actually executed the usual running sports into something very perfect. There is a similar genre anime that also uses the track, it was Yowamushi Pedal. If we compare both, Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteru anime has a far better level of execution in terms of visual, sound, and storytelling than Yowamushi Pedal's anime.
With Production IG has done a very excellent job. Every time they make an anime sport it will always succeed in the market. I am looking forward to another Production IG sports anime project in the future, but it looks like they are busy working on a mystery anime called Kabukichou Sherlock and Psycho-Pass Season 3.
~ AYBD
Source: Otaku Konyol
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