'Hanebado!' Delivers High-Octane Badminton Action

Badminton is not a sport I’m particularly fascinated about.  However, since sports anime tend to portray sports in a more thrilling manner than they usually are in real-life, I decided to watch the new badminton anime, The Badminton Play of Ayano Hanesaki!, a.k.a. Hanebado! (which is the abbreviation of its original Japanese title).

Hanebado! centers on Ayano Hanesaki, a genius badminton player who grew up under the tutelage of her mother, a retired professional badminton champion.  One day, her mother suddenly leaves her, and the heartbreak from it eventually leads her to stop playing badminton while in middle school.  However, in high school, she enters Kitakomachi High, whose badminton club has just brought in Tachibana Kentarou, a former Olympic-level player, to be its new coach.  Ayano catches the eye of Coach Kentarou, and he proceeds to recruit her.  She initially refuses, but her best friend Elena Fujisawa, believing it’ll be for Ayano’s good, drags her with her to join the badminton club.  There, Ayano begins her rivalry with Nagisa Aragaki – the testy, obsessive captain of the team – whom she destroyed before in a match in middle school, and who has since been carrying a chip on her shoulder.  In this new status quo, surrounded by her new clubmates, she gradually recovers her passion for the sport.

As a sports anime, the most important thing is to portray the featured sport in an engaging, visceral manner, which would require consistently stunning, dynamic animation.  Hanebado! succeeds in this aspect, as the best thing about this series is definitely its badminton games.  Right off the bat, it showcases an eye-popping match which declares what kind of high-octane animated action can be expected from the rest of the series.  Though it will take up until the final, climactic match of the season before the epicness of the opening match is surpassed, the matches in between are nevertheless exciting to watch.

There’s also a sufficiently compelling story at its core; it sells the character study drama really well.  When contemplating about it in retrospect, one would realize how laughably overdramatic it is with its soap opera logic and preposterous plot points (in relation to this, Ayano’s mom is probably one of the worst moms in fiction, and though the plot tries to rationalize her decision, it doesn’t redeem her one bit).  But this assessment only comes much later.  While it’s being watched, these are all contextualized solidly by the direction, that the narrative comes off as poignant and riveting, and not goofy and pretentious.

As the central protagonist, Ayano has a unique character arc.  She initially starts as shy, carefree, and timid.  However, she has been apparently suppressing her real personality.  When she finally unleashes her true strength, her true personality is unleashed as well – arrogant, intimidating, and almost sociopathic.  The transformation is so radical that it seems she has dissociative identity disorder (DID), and for about half of the season, she even seems to be the villain of the story.  However, the season concludes with her being set off on the right path.

Meanwhile, as far as this 13-episode first season is concerned, Aragaki’s arc arguably makes the character as much as a main protagonist as Ayano, if not more so.  She initially comes off as acid, insecure, and obnoxious, but this only lasts an episode or two at most.  The rest of the way, she inhibits the “confident, dogged, purposeful competitor” archetype.   She works hard to improve herself to reach her goals, but she does so without neglecting the importance of having fun along the way.  This makes her a sports anime character worth rooting for.

Nevertheless, the show isn’t ruined at all because the secondary character is more of a sports anime protagonist than the eponymous one, who spends a lengthy time being more of an antagonist.  Actually, this only makes the show more interesting, as it somewhat breaks the mold.  Moreover, it’s not like Ayano is a terrible character.  In fact, the strong implication that her ruthless side is more of her real self than the sweet demeanor she initially showed adds layer to her character.

In the end, sure, Hanebado! does have a couple of flaws.  But all things considered, it’s a very enjoyable sports anime.  Seriously, the high-quality badminton action alone makes it worth the watch.