Have you ever wanted to be able to fly not by planes but by a certain kind of shoes? With those kind of conditions have you ever wondered what it would be like if there was a sport that you only play in the sky? Im sure a sport like that would be quite enjoyable especially in this anime. The only reason for me watching it is the artwork which I thought was very beautiful but honestly I didnt expect too much. Needless to say the moment I planned to include Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm or Aokana for short among the anime I watched for the winter 2016 season I had gotten myself in for a pleasant surprise. Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm introduces to us the sport of Flying Circus or FC for short. GravShoes which are used to fly for transportation are also used in this sport. Touch either your opponents back or one of the four buoys that float above the ocean and you score a point. This anime focuses on Asuka Kurashina a girl who is completely new to flying but quickly falls in love with FC. She along with Misaki Tobisawa and Mashiro Arisaka joins her schools FC Club and coached by Masaya Hinata competes in various FC matches. The story of Ao no Kanata was quite an interesting one and I was fully invested in the FC matches that took place within this anime. There are also a decent number of interesting characters that got a decent amount of development throughout the story like Asuka and Misaki those two are my favorite characters to be honest. There is a problem I have involving the characters though there are a number of them I personally thought didnt appear as often as they could of. For example Masaya was the protagonist of the visual novel but in the anime he doesnt appear so much even when he does he doesnt have much significance. Instead the protagonist torch seems to have been passed on to Asuka and as much as I love Asuka I would have loved to see more of Masaya. The opening and ending themes Contrail Kiseki by Mami Kawada and again by Ray were actually pretty good songs and Im surprised by how much they fit the anime. The voice acting was pretty good too Misato Fukuen as Asuka was just so freaking adorable However we cant forget about the best part about this anime which is hands down the animation. The animation is colorful and bright and its cool this way. The animation especially stands out in the FC matches it had a great use of 3D animation during those matches. Overall Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm was a good anime. Id recommend it to anyone who wants to see a great sports anime for a sport that isnt even real. Who knows though? Maybe several years for now we may have the technology to make GravShoes into real shoes and Flying Circus into a real sport At least thats a nice thought Id like to have.
82 /100
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