as someone who tends to dabble in sports anime/manga and whose favorite work of all time is haikyuu, ao ashi is such a breath of fresh air !!! as someone who isn’t as well-versed in sports i loved how ao ashi was able to make such compelling matches and comparisons while really delving into the youth system. i haven’t even known that such a system existed until recently !!! even as someone who’s not super into sports, there’s always going to be athletes that we intuitively know (messi, ronaldo, yuzuru hanyu, to name a few…) but i’ve never really thought about the pathways for people to become such legends before !!! unlike haikyuu that focuses on the experiences of high schoolers trying to pursue such an intense endeavor, i think ao ashi’s strength is being able to really convey the stakes and challenges of wanting to become a professional. whenever i hear of kids my age becoming pros (alysa liu, oliver bearman, alex aela and the like) i begin to question myself and compare my life to theirs. in actuality, i don’t think that theyre even that comparable !!! if even a quarter of ao ashi conveys what actual young athletes have to go through then the real pros in our world must be going through so much more than that. i’m so lucky that there’s a whole world of sports for me to explore and as a spectator, i can’t wait to cheer these athletes on !!! thank you so much ao ashi !!!
as someone who tends to dabble in sports anime/manga and whose favorite work of all time is haikyuu, ao ashi is such a breath of fresh air !!! as someone who isn’t as well-versed in sports i loved how ao ashi was able to make such compelling matches and comparisons while really delving into the youth system. i haven’t even known that such a system existed until recently !!! even as someone who’s not super into sports, there’s always going to be athletes that we intuitively know (messi, ronaldo, yuzuru hanyu, to name a few…) but i’ve never really thought about the pathways for people to become such legends before !!! unlike haikyuu that focuses on the experiences of high schoolers trying to pursue such an intense endeavor, i think ao ashi’s strength is being able to really convey the stakes and challenges of wanting to become a professional. whenever i hear of kids my age becoming pros (alysa liu, oliver bearman, alex aela and the like) i begin to question myself and compare my life to theirs. in actuality, i don’t think that theyre even that comparable !!! if even a quarter of ao ashi conveys what actual young athletes have to go through then the real pros in our world must be going through so much more than that. i’m so lucky that there’s a whole world of sports for me to explore and as a spectator, i can’t wait to cheer these athletes on !!! thank you so much ao ashi !!!