Stark700

Close your eyes and picture a moment in your life that really affected you. It could be anything like made you into the person you are today. As humans, we are bound to change in some ways or another throughout our lives. Especially in our teenage years, we can be easily influenced by others and events around us. I can safely say that without a shadow of a doubt, we have all experienced change in our lives some way or another. It’s called growing up. Like most sports shows, competitors experiment with themselves to be the best they can be. Tsurune lives as an exampleof a rare form of sport not seen too often these days in the anime medium. In fact, what exactly is Tsurune? The term itself refers to the sound of a bowstring made when an arrow is fired. As you should expect, that relates to archery when a bow fires an arrow. Adapted by studio Kyoto Animation, Tsurune feels like an anime that could raise a bar. In 2018, there were several sports shows that made a noticeable presence so where does Tsurune really hit the mark? To be fair, understanding Tsurune as a sports show isn’t difficult despite not being a very popular sport. Be honest, when was the last time you’ve watched a competition in real life or TV about archery? The only time I remember is during the Olympics on an international scale. As a competitive sport, it deals with individuals and teams trying to shoot their arrows to land the center of the target as close as possible. That’s the base of the rules and scoring applies to the performance of the archers. There’s time limit, signals to be followed, and styles that each archer adapts to perform their best. Even the equipment plays an important factor on the result. However, don't be too alarmed. Archery isn’t really hard to understand and this show is more of a character driven story. If you’ve seen the promotional poster and trailers, then you’ll easily recognize how producers made the cast. Characters are built with a bishounen features to attract audiences and most of them look young and healthy for competition. Deep down though, characters faces inner problems that runs deep in the veins of their past. The most prominent example is Minato Narumiya, the main male protagonist and first year at Kazemai High School. Despite being an experienced archer, he lacks confidence in the present timeline due to a tragic event of the past. Remember what I said about how humans can be changed especially when we were young? Well, here you have it. Minato battles his personal demons throughout the show and we see how he feels detached from himself. The story explores his past regarding his relationship with parents and how events influenced his character. It’s a type of self-discovery where the main character has to accept his past and move on to build a better future for themselves. Luckily for Minato, he has friends and supporters. His childhood friends Seiya and Ryohei brings him to join their school’s archery club. After encountering the mysterious Masaki in the forest one night, Minato became fascinated by archery again despite having forsaken his bow. Now obviously, the idea isn’t easy as it sounds. Being part of the archery club also means that Minato has to deal with his past. Despite this, he experiences change in his character thanks to the positive influence of Masaki. With the club, Minato’s emotional scar begins to heal. You’re probably wondering at this point if the show will maintain this sort of melodrama throughout the rest of the duration. Make no mistake that while this show can be quite moody, there are still much room for fun and entertainment. Because at the heart of the show, we have the archery club that is growing alongside Minato. The show offers competition, character relationship building, and even a training camp for the team to grow together. While the anime advertised itself as a cast with a male dominant cast, there are even girls joining too. This doesn’t change the general tone of the anime though as the story is still built around the main characters. The more I watched this anime, the more I felt compelled to understand them. Even after half the show, there are moments where I wonder how these characters became who they are in the present. So in a sense, this show has a feeling of mystery. After seeing a good deal of Minato’s past, I think people may feel sympathy for him. Or maybe not. Maybe you want him to be a man and deal with it like a mature adult. Either way, the show does a fairly consistent job at building Minato as a character. In a sports competitive environment, there are rivals and a name like Shu Fujiwara is no pushover. As a prodigy, he and Kirisaki High School stands as a challenge that the Kazemai archery club must take on to prove themselves. Not only that, the club also faces the pressure of competing in the regional tournament. It all feels too real when we see the emotions and look on the characters’ faces. Then again, competition pushes everyone to be their best so it’s assumed that pressure is a common experience. The bottom line is, the competition itself feels like you’re there with them. Every second, every minute, every moment counts. From the start, it’s no surprise the anime is produced with sheer amount of visual quality. Kyoto Animation is recognized for their high quality production so naturally, a show like Tsurune would get a similar treatment like Free. Now, I don’t want to compare the show but it’s easy to make comparisons with some of the character designs. Tsurune does have less man service as the visual performance lies in the photographic scenery of camera angles. It draws the audience to see how archery is treated in the anime medium and to be quite honest, I feel like the producers hit the mark. (that’s not a pun by the way). Similarly, the soundtrack plays on a serene tone from the start and shifts between melancholic and dramatic depending on circumstances. I’m not too familiar with the director but they got the point across to the viewers in the safest way possible. Watching Tsurune reminds me how people can change but often times, it’s a difficult journey. For Minato, he had to realize the truth and accept it. There’s a lot to say about his overall growth process but definitely watch this how to really understand his character. To me, Tsurune made itself as a show that emphasized on human feelings and change. Maybe once you’ve experienced this anime, you can realize it too.

BackstageMage

Tsurune is weird. It’s a Kyoani anime that wasn’t a cultural phenomenon, probably because it aired two weeks late and had to share the year with both Violet Evergarden and Free!, but let me say I enjoyed Tsurune the most out of all the Kyoani anime I’ve watched. Why? Because Tsurune felt real. There is drama, and there is a lot of it, it feels hectic, nothing gets solved right away and more problems pile up, and some people may have a problem with this but I like this part of Tsurune. Life is hectic, Tsurune just follows the example. Along with drama Tsurune also has a lotof character to it, even though it does seem characters go into tropes, particularly Kaito, Nanoa, and Ryohei, at the same time they don’t. Kaito “Kaachan” Onogi, is a good example because even though he’s the angry one he does self reflect on himself, albeit it’s subtle. In all honesty, these three were in a bad position since the anime really focuses on Masaki, Minato, and Seiya, but those three made the anime worth watching. Seiya and Masaki especially, the struggles they deal with connects them together through Minato, this creates an interesting dynamic. The characters do seem shallow at first, but when you start noticing aspects about their character you truly start falling in love with the anime. Tsurune also excels at atmosphere, every shot is Tsurune is dynamic and well-placed, especially in episode 10 and 12. The production is obviously top-notch, and this helps Tsurune in the sound and animation department, because every frame deserves to be placed in an art gallery and every track is full of emotion. Good examples of shots in Tsurune is episode 2, the blue moonlight mixes extraordinary well with the characters. Also, shots of them doing kyudo have dynamic camera angles, making hits feel all the more satisfying. The themes in Tsurune aren’t anything new, but the way Tsurune portrays it is different. “Are adults actually mature?” or “do you love the sport?” are simplistic questions with a wide array of answers, and Tsurune can’t fully answer them either, but the dialogue used to address the questions had a certain charm to it. The payoffs in Tsurune feel good, they take a while but when it happens, does it happen. Sometimes you might not even realise the answer, and you figure it out as the characters learn which I think is done well. Some might call Tsurune tedious, character drama is everywhere, Kaachan is a bit of an arse and annoying, or whatnot, but I think those two things are fine. Kaachan did get on my nerves sometimes, but he did change subtly and the little things really shifted my opinion on him. Overall, I’d say Tsurune is a charming show, as long as you like the characters that is, everything about the anime has a flow to it, no matter how hectic the problems get. I think it would be great if it got a second season, because Tsurune has much to expand on and I don’t think the Free! Treatment would hurt Tsurune. Anyway time to buy the novel and overpriced merch ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ