"Tsurune"— The Sound of Youth

My Current Sports Anime Fixation

You might be thinking “Woah, this is Iwatobi: Swim Club but they’re not in speedos” and you’d be right but WRONG.

There’s a bitter little kernel in my soul that knows that every sports anime is the same.

The same tropes, the same personality characters, the same arcs going over well-worn paths. Each sports anime puts a little twist on it, but it really boils down to a solid structure that has what all franchises and TV shows crave: repeatability.

Anything can be made into an anime at this point and I have a love hate relationship with that bit of knowledge. Anything can be animated, the only limit is the animator’s imagination but that also means anything can be animated and there are certain doors R34 has opened that we as a society can’t really walk back from, no matter how hard we try or how much Holy Water we douse on ourselves.

This sports anime is surprisingly fresh. Yes, the all-boy cast lends itself easily to a Boy’s Love pitfall (though no one is outwardly queer or representative in that sense. But there is definitely, absolutely bits of fanservice here) and they’re all just a touch homosexual for each other but what I really love about this anime are the vibes.

And the culture.

And I guess the vibes do stem from the culture, so really, it goes hand in hand.

I think what I love about sports anime is the absolute adoration for the sport you feel in every scene. Of course the creator loves and knows the sport, but here they are sharing it with us in another medium that wasn’t even possible 30 years ago. Would an anime about archery of all things ever be headlining Shonen Jump in the early 2000s? Of course there’s baseball, soccer, basketball, tennis anime and manga. Popular, global sports that people across many countries can understand and relate to.

Tsurune is about the Japanese art of archery, otherwise known as “kyudo,” not as well known, not something that would have as voracious an audience outside of Japan. Yet here we are, able to enjoy this anime and learn about such a beautiful part of Japanese culture that would have otherwise been relegated to the Big 3.

And that love for their culture, the nuance and beauty in the pull of a bowstring, makes this anime a worthwhile watch.

Because it’s not about the competition. There is a competition and that is one of the main conflicts introduced, but we are really witnessing a beautifully animated love letter to a sport that the Japanese have taken pride in for centuries. We get to see culture passed down and loved.

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Friendship Archetype

Look at their color-coordinated goofiness.

I love slice-of-life. That’s hopefully abundantly obvious from many of the other animes I’ve reviewed here [Do It Yourself, Lycoris Recoil, Bocchi the Rock, Heroines Run the Show, Wotakoi] but there is something charming and pure about sports anime.

Because it’s usually high school where emotions run high and every inconvenience is cataclysmic, but these students are absolutely enthralled and full of energy, a hunger for life that just kind of fizzles out when you’re an adult.

We forget how it is to be happy and a child, and I love the pure emotions that sports anime like Tsurune are able to imbue in their show. Sometimes unhealthy because as young as they are, these high schoolers are often dealing with world-shattering issues like death in the family or loss of identity. Not specific to just the youth, but an ever present horn blowing for people across any age divide.

The friends are all typecasts, the usual fodder for a sports anime. They have their cool, perhaps signature personality type. And then right beneath the surface if you stay with them a bit longer, is this wounded inner child asking for forgiveness.

For what, I’m not sure. They don’t even really know either, but it’s a retroactive look on issues people face at all ages and is supremely relatable.

I just adore how optimistic sports, and this anime in particular, are. They give these high schoolers these big, wounded emotions and break them down into manageable chunks. We see the hurt and the trauma that the world has inflicted on these children and they work through it slowly but surely. It’s not a race and it doesn’t wrap itself neatly into a bow. But it progresses with each one unconditionally supporting and loving each other with all their flaws.

Innocence of Youth

I actually don’t remember this scene but it was one of the first things that popped up so there’s that.

I think a lot of adults are worried messes. Be it money, relationships, the IRS.

Sometimes, I’ll watch something (anything really) that is aimed at children and I’ll be annoyed for no reason because I can’t relate. I am not the target demographic and as much as I love animation, I recognize that there are things that are not made for me.

That’s fine.

I think the beauty of anime is how it marries its intended demographic with universal themes and metaphors. We can understand the narrative at face value, but there is more to these characters and their actions if we only just step back for a moment.

Tsurune feels raw and real in the way it handles its themes of identity, love, and optimism.

It’s not a baseless optimism, it’s grounded in the characters and how they interact with one another.

We see a character struggling to find joy in something he used to love doing and realizing that as much as it hurts him to continue doing it, as much as he fails at something he used to be so good at, this pain is more tolerable than not doing it.

To give up on something because we’ve failed is not a good enough reason. And for these boys, being able to perform kyudo with the movement and the steps and the beautiful sound of a bow whipping, that chance to perform with their friends is what keeps them going.

Mistakes are part of the process. Doing what you love for the sake of doing it. They’re young enough that they can take it in stride. The shame doesn’t color their faces to the roots of their hairs and the can turn the other cheek readily because of this youth.

To fail and fail and fail again is a mark of love and madness.

But it is also the road to proficiency.

Grief and the Circle of Life

I love their little relationship. Very composed, silly at times, but super helpful for both parties involved.

Yah man this is a sports anime. But it has so many emotional twangs that I hesitate to only put it in shonen or shojo. It has layers. Like an onion.

I know there are a few movies attached to this series and as much as I’d love this to be renewed for a second season, I’m in love with how they ended it.

A perfect circle.

Memories of the inciting incident coming back to say goodbye at the end and reminding us of how we are all connected in this stupid circle of life.

You’re probably thinking “Oh it’s not that deep, it can’t be that serious” and you’re absolutely fucking right.

It’s not that deep. It’s not that serious.

But it is lovely how the story comes together to remind us how our yesterdays plan for our tomorrows and how the present is all about what we lose and how we live on.

We will undoubtedly lose things and people but we have no choice but to keep moving forward. Whatever mistakes we make, however we lay our bed. We put one step in front of the other and we climb.