The second half of Haikyu!! season 4 aired during fall
2020. However, while it was great, the
sports anime of fall 2020 that actually got me to anticipate each week was Iwa-Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls (for
the record, I did eventually get around catching up to Haikyu!! season 4 before the end of the year). It’s actually pretty mid, both in animation
and narrative. Yet I got invested.
If it isn’t obvious already, Iwa-Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls is about
high school girls engaging in the sport of indoor rock climbing or bouldering. It follows the Hanamiya Girls’ High School
Climbing Club – which is composed of novice Konomi Kasahara, freshman Jun
Uehara, team captain Sayo Yotsuba, and team vice-captain Nonoka Sugiura – as
they compete with other high school girl teams for the honor of being the best
in the country.
Among the four, the most interesting
character is Konomi, who is justifiably the main character. As a beginner to the sport, she serves as an
effective surrogate for the audience, who get to learn more of the sport
alongside her. Moreover, she has the
most interesting technique.
In many sports anime, each character
has a distinctive, personalized technique or motif for playing the sport, which
often basically functions as a super power (Eyeshield
21, Kuroko’s Basketball, and Prince of Tennis are the best sports
anime that have such trope). Only a few
characters in Iwa-Kakeru! Sport Climbing
Girls actually have such quirks (other than Konomi, I also like the girls
with the “spider” and “zombie” themes, respectively). But, yeah, Konomi has the best one.
Prior to high school, Konomi was a
die-hard gamer. And this background is
what allowed her development in rock climbing to be meteoric despite having
just picked up the sport. For, somehow,
she manages to redirect her impeccable skills in gaming toward bouldering. In particular, her expertise in puzzle games
gives her the analytical aptitude to solve a route by simply observing it, as
she’s able to simulate the climb in her head.
This ability of hers is eventually dubbed as “Murder Observation.” Later, she would also overcome her weakness
in speed climbing by treating it like a rhythm game.
Apart from Konomi’s cool technique,
there is actually nothing else of note about this anime. The plot and characterizations are
unremarkable. But somehow, I didn’t find
it boring. It’s kind of surprising,
really, that I stuck with it considering how mediocre it is. Maybe it’s because this is the first time
I’ve encountered a rock climbing anime.
I do wish the animation was
better. If the rock climbing scenes have
more sakuga hype and aesthetics, the weak script won’t actually matter to
me. In fact, a huge reason why I decided
to watch this anime is because its poster (the image at the very top) somehow made me think that it would
have Hanebado! levels of animation
direction and quality. But, as it turned
out, the show is not as visually striking as the poster.
In the end, although I found Iwa-Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls to be
an entertaining weekly watch, I don’t think I will have a lasting fondness for
it. If there’s a season 2, it’s unlikely
that I would still watch it.
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