Knight in the Area Released: Jan. 7th 2012 Studio: Shin-Ei Animation Genre: Sports
Initial Thoughts: I must admit I'm not as thrilled with this show as the others. If there's one genre of anime I'm more biased against than comedy, it's sports anime. Buzzer Beater, Eyeshield 21, Prince of Tennis - they all do nothing for me. I suppose Air Gear and Chihayafuru are exceptions, but both cover sports that are just too unconventional to ignore; I've never seen an American sports show about motorized roller blades or snatching cards with poems written on them. We have basketball, football and tennis in the U.S. too, and the same thing goes for soccer. Unless this is the soccer anime to end all soccer anime I don't think I'll follow it for very long.
Post-credits Verdict: This show is somewhere between a "Meh" and a "Blehhh." I don't know what it is about sports anime in general, but the main character always seems to doubt him/herself only to find some hidden talent locked away deep within. Knight in the Area follows this formula to a T; the main character, Kakeru Aizawa used to play forward but hung up his cleats (due to an injury from the looks of it), and now has a psychological block against playing soccer. Instead he's the manager for his school team, where his older brother Suguru is the team's captain and ace player. Kakeru looks up to his brother (of course), but vows that his days of playing on the pitch are over. Then Nana Mishima (aka "Seven"), a childhood friend who played on the same elementary soccer team as Kakeru and Suguru, shows up out of nowhere and I almost overdosed on cliches. It didn't help that then animation was average throughout, with this choppy Six Million Dollar Man slow-mo being used during the action segments. The episode ended on a cliffhanger as unforeseen circumstances force Kakeru to put on a jersey once again, but I'm not really tempted to take the bait. However, I did see that the show had a lot of defenders in the comments section who swore that the manga this anime is based on has an amazing story, so I'll stick with it to see what happens next week. In the meantime, I hope they pour more money into the production budget.
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