Prince of Stride: Alternative || A Review on Sports Anime that Runs Free in my Mind!

Last Friday night was supposed to be our acquaintance party, and thankfully the attendance wasn't mandatory. It's really fortunate that I've spared myself from that grueling socialization, and of 'course I've spent that night for far more interesting stuff—stuff binge-reading an anime! It's not that I just started it that night, but I've been busy the past few days. School stuff and even house responsibilities crowded my schedule, so I rarely have time to watch an entire series. So on the fateful Friday night, I finished an anime series, and this time it's about stride.

At first I thought stride was just the same as running or relay, but it turns out it's more than that, and it's not even a real sport. So what's stride? Stride is a fictional and futuristic sport, and it's a combination of free-running, parkour, relay, and sprint. Each team consists of five runners and a relationer, who monitors and gives them information about the members sequence during the match. The relationer is also responsible for giving signals and directions during the match on when they should start running or what route they could use to arrive the quickest to the transition zone.

The transition zone, by the way, is a blind corner where the relay happens. Unlike the usual relays where the first runner passes the baton to the next runner, in stride, the first runner and next one need to have contact, which is mostly through a high-five. It's really an entertaining sport, but I know it will be a challenging one if it's a real sport. So now be with me as we sprint our way to the fast world of stride in Prince of Stride: Alternative.

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About the Anime:

Prince of Stride: Alternative is a sports anime that premiered in the winter of 2016. It aired from January 5, 2016 to March 22, 2016. It was produced by Media Factory and Kadokawa and was animated by Madhouse. It's genre is mostly about sports, and it's main theme revolves around school. Each episode has twenty-four minutes, and in total, it has twelve episodes.

Enthralled with the stride performance she saw in a video before, Nana Sakurai enrolled in Honan Academy, hoping that she could also join the Honan Stride Club. With her classmate and also a stride freak, Takeru Fujiwara, they both aim to enter the Honan Stride Club. But much to their dismay, they found out that the stride club was no longer operational. Due to lack of members, they merged with a solo member of the shogi club, and they are now under the shogi club. However, the first-year students were sure determined to revive the Honan Stride Club, and that's why they'll hunt for another member that will complete their team.

On the other hand, the preppy student—Riku Yagami enthusiastically tries every sport that he finds interesting. With his unusual speed, most of the sports team tries to recruit him, but he insists that he'll play in all clubs, and 'of course the stride freak has set eyes on him. A two-on-two race between the first year and the stride club will determine if he'll join the club, and fortunately, it ended well. With the new members, the Honan Stride Club is officially back on track, and together they'll sprint their way towards the End of Summer competition with only one goal, and that's to win!

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I was really entertained with this anime! I never felt so hype about new sports anime, but this made me feel that hype again! It started pretty good, and I'm glad it maintained the hype until the end. Although the plot was pretty generic, what I really like is how they slowly build up character developments. The characters were the usual sports anime character trope, but surprisingly they didn't bore me up. Each of them has unique qualities that really made the story interesting.

As for the art style, some of their character designs somehow remind me of characters from Haikyu. The two first years specifically remind me of Hinata and Kageyama. I haven't watched Haikyu yet, but my sister does, and there's a certain time where she can't really stop yapping about it, so I kinda tagged along with her—that's why I'm quite familiar with most of the characters from Haikyu. So much for that small trivia (ahahaha, I'm starting to veer off from the topic lol), what I really like in their art style is how unusually vibrant the colors they used. The action scenes were also visually pleasing. The sharp movements sure made those match scenes gripping and really entertaining.

The movements were so fluid, and the angles and composition were sure utilized well to make the gimmicks and stunts look cool. Madhouse doesn't really disappoints viewers with how well they animated those matches, and the soundtrack sure made those scenes more dramatic and exciting to watch. The opening song in particular caught my attention because I really like how catchy it sounds. The lyrics did also match with anime, and it highly gives off an angsty vibe, which really fit well with the extreme sports they're portraying.

I also like how they featured the Saisei Stride Club idol group song as the ending theme. Those boys were sure charmers, and I really love how fluff and friendly their rivalry with Honan was. Like the usual laid-back ending songs that complement the fast-paced opening, their ending song was really fit to end the mostly fast-paced action during the episode proper.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching it. It's been a long time since I felt the fun and adrenaline with sports anime (prolly it's way back in my SlamDunk watching era). Each episode was fun, and the humor sure got me laughing. My personal rating for this anime is 8.9/10. It has the pretty generic plot, but the animation and the quirkiness of the characters made up for it. I have mixed emotions about its season two (if it will have) because, like how the SlamDunk manga ended, it will never be the same after some members graduated.

I like how it ended, and somehow I agree with their last tagline: The End of Summer will last forever. So if you're looking for an unusual sports anime with cool characters and blood pumping matches, then you're in luck because the Prince of Stride: Alternative has definitely a lot to offer.

Before I end this review, I gladly share with you one of its previews, so—

Have you watched this sports anime before? Or is this your first time seeing it? Feel free to share your comment if this one piqued your interest. That's all for now, minna-san! I hoped you enjoyed reading my review.