annahoj
*Hungry Heart: Wild Striker* is not perfect by any means,
but it is definitely worthwhile. Being in the shadow of
other anime based on football, such as *Captain Tsubasa,
Inazuma Eleven, Giant Killing* etc it is a shame the anime
is not much known, but I hope with my review I will be able
to bring this underappreciated show to light. It is a rather
realistic story about football, though they do have a
tendency to jump a bit *too* high sometimes (see the first
image) and their shooting form looks very odd with how far
back they swing their foot. But putting that aside the story
itself starts with Kyosuke Kanou, the younger brother of a
famous footballer, finding his way back to the sport, after
having constantly been compared to his brother. I had not
encountered a story similar to this before, so I was
immediately intrigued and I could also relate to Kyosuke,
having been in the same situation as him. It was not exactly
my sibling but a teammate who shared the same first name as
me. It is natural to want to compare people like that, but
the people surrounding them often do not realise how much
they are hurting the one being downgraded.
While watching it I found many similarities with other
sports anime such as *Slam Dunk* and *Haikyuu!!*, but with
mostly the former. I will discuss those in length, as I
think anyone who enjoyed *Slam Dunk* would be sure to enjoy
*Hungry Heart: Wild Striker* as well. One of those
similarities is Kyosuke himself, who just like Sakuragi is a
self-proclaimed *tensai* and a bit stupid, but someone you
will still end up wanting to root for. He is often there to
motivate his teammates with his hard work or to just lighten
the mood. There were moments where I had to pause the
episode, since I could not stop laughing. Even his friends
remind me of Sakuragi's as they are without fail always
there to support their friend, though being as they are they
do not pass an opportunity to laugh at one of Kyosuke's many
failures. So far I have only mentioned Kyosuke, but there
are many other characters who make this anime a joy to
watch. Perhaps the characters who receive the most attention
besides Kyosuke are Rodrigo and Sakai, both of whom
underestimate Japanese football at the beginning. There is
no need to go into their pasts or analyse their character,
but I can say they both grew on me more and more as the
episodes went on. It is not often that one can even see
foreign characters at such a prominent role. Having powerful
personalities like this on a single team makes one only
wonder how could they all possibly come together and work as
one. What I really enjoyed was seeing the interactions
within the team. The rivarly between the three I already
talked about, or the Conceited Trio as they are often
referred to by their teammates, is interesting to say the
least. Kyosuke and Rodrigo are like the Sakuragi and Rukawa
of *Hungry Heart: Wild Striker* - refusing to pass to one
another, competing over who scores most during a game etc.
The one keeping Kyosuke in check, Kamata ("Sergeant Chin"),
is much like Akagi ("Gori") from *Slam Dunk*. And guess who
gave them such nicknames? Bingo, it was Kyosuke and Sakuragi
respectively. Both main characters have a tendency to give
people nicknames, like Mori ("Glasses-Wearing Monkey"),
Esaka ("Osaka") and Yuuya ("Nesthead"), which are some of
Kyosuke's more notable ones. The boys' team also has good
connections with the girls' team, which is not something
commonly seen in sports anime. The first time Kyosuke's love
for football could be seen is actually when he was coaching
the girls' team by accident. The interactions between both
teams feel real, they support and motivate one another.
Though not the primary focus of the show, the girls' team is
the one whose progress impressed me the most in fact. The
relationship between Miki, the girls' football team captain,
and Kyosuke is quite amusing. I lost count of how many times
people mistook those two for a couple. While the rivalries
within the team impressed me then unfortunately the ones
with other teams, who they were matched up against in
tournaments, disappointed me. Apart from a handful of teams
who have more than one appearance in the show, most teams
are just introduced and then never mentioned ever again.
Even the ones who have more appearances in the show do not
get any backstory or much screentime outside of the matches.
Talking about the matches, they are often very weirdly
transitioned, with one ending and then the other already
starting. Time seems to be an unknown concept in general.
There is no indication given during the matches of how much
time is left, it is always sudden when the final whistle can
be heard. For its 52 episodes it sure fits a lot into the
story, so while it was fast-paced at times it did not bother
me much. There is not a single boring moment in the anime. I
for one have not seen that big of a variety in shots in any
other football anime as here and no, I am not only talking
about the epic goals but the creative and often spontaneous
ones - *or are they?* - that are entertaining to say the
least. What is also a shame is that there is not much
explanation provided for the sport, some basic knowledge
about football is required to understand the matches. Though
the translators have tried to add notes for the harder
terminology.
The art style is nice, really has that 2000's look to it,
but overall the visuals are its weak point for me. As can be
seen from the above image, even though it is raining quite
hard the boys' clothes look dry, there is no hint of their
shoulders even being remotely wet from the rain. Little
details like that brought down my enjoyment, though that is
just scratching the surface. The anime suffers greatly from
the same face syndrome, apart from the main characters there
are only a few that I can actually distinguish from the
rest, but only due to their hair colour or style. The
animation is nothing to write home about either, not to say
that it is bad *per se*. It is just obvious that they had to
make cuts *somewhere*. In a sense it is even commendable
with how few frames they can animate some scenes or the
amount of times a single scene can be reused. The music
cycles through the same three-four tracks during the
matches, kind of like the recycled scenes, *but* I really
like it overall. They create the right atmosphere for the
scenes. Moreover, the openings and endings are really nice,
I would listen to them more often if they were actually
available anywhere. Remember when I mentioned it had
similarities with *Haikyuu!!* ? Well here is one of them,
picturing Esaka and Tanaka respectively.
All in all, *Hungry Heart: Wild Striker* is an anime that
has gone unnoticed by many. While it does have its flaws
with the visuals, the experience itself kept me at the edge
of my seat for the duration of 52 episodes, by the end of
which I even craved for more. I recommend anyone with even
the slightest interest to give this anime a chance, since it
certainly scored in my book.
