Prince of Stride: Alternative

Quick Points -Great OP and ED -Solid art design and use of color -Lack of tension in races, due to a predictable story. -Unable to distance itself from otome game source material Review Before I began to watch Prince of Stride I was cautious in my expectations, both positive and negative. Positive because the director of the series Atsuko Ishizuka, did such a great job with No Game No Life. Which stood out last year for its art design and color palate. However, Stride’s source material originated from an otome game (romance games targeted at women). This fact had me worried that the show would become a clone of a certain swimming show involving men from a commercial. The art and style of this show is on point. The styling of the races and OP are reminiscent of Air Gear and Persona, using different textures to create a vibrant background involving all of the characters that filled the screen. Anticipation for each race is a result of how clean and polished the environment was. Everything from the obstacles, to the design of the large scaled font on the sides of buildings created some wonderful scenes. Making me yearn for more action in each race. But that excitement was doused upon by Strides inability to present a race coherently. In early episodes, it was hard to understand the scale of the objects the runners were maneuvering around. Mainly due to the editing and the abundance of tight shots on the runners clearing the objects, the distortion that it created was frustrating. In later episodes this issue is less frequent, but the secondary annoyance is the decision to not provide the audience a layout or map or distance or anything really, to convey basic information about the area where the teams are running. There are quick cuts to a top down map on a screen, but the issue is unresolved because the shot follows the runners instead of pulling out to show them in relation to the map as a whole. The best that Stride can muster is the time difference between each leg of the race as members prepare to relay with their partners, but that information is slightly useless due to the fact that the audience is rarely given overall times or even the average time of each member. All of that should make it obvious what the show is concerned with. _Stride _is a show that puts the relationships first and the competition second. There is nothing wrong with that focus in a sports themed show. One of the common tropes in sports anime is the childhood promise to win a big tournament, stating that you compete for your friends and not yourself, and the clash of two rookies who end up working well together. Stride hits all of those beats and more, but the balance of the show feels distorted. It is hard to justify viewing Stride as sports show about running. While there is a framework for that is in place the running and training is just a device used to enable the students to participate in various antics, whether the students are modeling for a sponsor or going on a trip to their rivals -Galaxy Standard- training facility and throwing a beach party. Even though Stride doesn’t seem to fully embrace its otome game origins, it does not shy away from the potential male/male romantic pairings that are occasionally implied. Making the show awkward at times to sit through. Stride in general is plagued with an attempt of trying to please a wider audience, but wounded itself in the process. There is the generic sports show about running, along with the romance (or “bromance”) created from the winking subtext of the relationships between members of the team. In simpler terms, it’s hard to enjoy the show as a whole if one of these aspects doesn’t appeal to you. Potentially leaving certain members of the audience disheartened when the show is unable to earnestly present enough of a race, or move away from the dreamlike world of male teenage bonding. It is just fine if you enjoyed the show, I know there will be some individuals out there who did. But the if you are considering whether or not to watch Stride just be ready to come face to face with a lesser version of Free!.

Story: 4/10 To be honest for being a sports anime is quite poor. At the beginning you think the girl is gonna be the main character and she ends up being a secondary one. The story revolves around the two main boys and their drama. Mostly the blonde one (I can't even remember his name) and his inferiority complex with his brother. They participate in this competition of stride, which is some kind of parkour sport, and after they solve the inner turmoil of the blond one, we are surprised to find both guys and the girl were childhood friends and they had made the promise of winning that competition. Not cliche at all. So, to sum it up, the whole story is one giant cliche after another. The sport looks interesting but the story is more focused on the boy and his brother. Art: 3/10 I'm actually confused with the animation of this series. At some points the characters look nice, and others you just want to take your eyes out because they're completely out of proportion and in general terribly drawn. And after 12 episodes the scenes with poor animation are way more present than the good ones. Sound: 8/10 Surprisingly I found myself enjoying the music. I personally liked the ending song the best. Character: 4/10 Little to no development of most of the characters, apart from the main one. Enjoyment: 4/10 At the beginning seems nice but with each chapter it becomes more and more predictable and more and more boring. Overall: 4/10 This series was a whole disappointment. It can't even compare to other sports animes. The characters are extremely plain and no developed, the story is one cliche after another and the animation is terrible.

First of all, if I had to describe this anime to a friend in a really succinct way, I would describe it as being a "shittier version of Free! since it has more cardboard for characters and less of a plot." I enjoy sports animes immensely and it's definitely one of the genres which I enjoy watching more/give higher ratings to. So when I heard that Mad House was making a sports anime, I was hyped. That coupled with the amazing voice actor cast this anime has, and I honestly had no doubts that I would at least enjoy it even if it turned out to not quite meet my standards. I was wrong and I'm saying this as someone who did low-key enjoy Free! as a guilty pleasure. The first half of this anime feels incredibly tedious. I was bored whilst watching and didn't find any of the comedy stuff funny at all. The first half focuses quite heavily on characters since there are quite a few character introductions. Usually I wouldn't have a problem with this but when your characters are pretty much cardboard, it's just a waste of screen time. I think it was around episode 8 for me when I realised that I was so apathetic towards all the characters that I actually didn't know any of their names. Obviously this is a major problem for any anime, but especially a sports one. An aspect which makes a sports anime so enjoyable to watch, is that you want to root for the characters/teams because they're likeable and you want to see them achieve their goal of victory. An especially good sports anime in my opinion will also have the side characters developed so you don't know who to quite root for... but in both regards, (of having both the main and side characters developed), this anime completely failed. After just finishing the anime, I can only recall the names of 4 characters max and that's probably me stretching it to be honest. I didn't root for anyone and I didn't care about anyone. The characters are quite literally just their character designs - 'pretty boys' so fujoshis can ship them together and probably write fanfiction about them. Also, I'm not someone to question 'anime logic' but the realism of some the stunts displayed is practically non-existent. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite the fan of Prince of Tennis and KnB and both of those can be pretty ridiculous at times, but the ridiculous things which happen in those series can sort of be accepted because of how they are set up. In those series, the special moves which some of the characters do are sort of justified by, (all be it - complete bs), stretched physics logic/explanations. There is none of that here. A dude jumps from what looks like some cliff edge and lands on both his feet without breaking anything and continues to run without any sort of explanation? Oh he also swings around a flag pole a couple of times even though he's seemingly only ever been in the track club his entire life, not gymnastics or whatever. Sure anime sure. (Me nitpicking but it's something which personally bothered me.) There were also some emotional conflicts some of the characters went through and some pointless backstory sort of crudely thrown in half way through which I felt didn't really add anything at all except maybe help some of the ships sail. Didn't care for these plot points at all and again, I was bored whilst watching these parts. That being said, towards the end of the anime, I was getting some sort of enjoyment out of it. The races in the last few episodes I found myself actually getting a little hyped and I was actually looking forward to the final race... but then they ruined that too. How you think it's justified to NOT show half of the final race in favour of some shitty monologue is absolutely beyond me. Honestly I was appalled with how that final race was showcased and how the anime ended. When the entire goal of the characters, (and thus the anime), is to complete the End of Summer race and you don't even show HOW the race ended just the end result in a magazine? Absolutely dreadful. Okay so on to some of the few positives of this anime - nothing wrong with the voice acting. Just look at the seiyuu cast and that's not really a surprise. The OST was fine too and the track played during the races did it's job in getting me hyped. Not really a fan of the OP or ED but I don't think they're particularly bad, just not to my taste. It's mad house so the animation is fine. Honestly, the blues and greens in this anime look absolutely beautiful to me. I'm not really a big fan of the sort of 'white-wash' look they have going on with the character's skin tones though... but again that's personal preference and possibly me just being nitpicky. Character designs are fine. Nothing too special about them but they're clearly suited for the demographic this anime is obviously aimed at - fujoshis. My personal ratings for this anime: - Story: 3 - Art: 7 - Sound: 8 - Characters: 2 - Enjoyment: 3 So overall I would give this anime a 4.

Prince of Stride: Alternative was a fun show to watch. It's not the best (it's pretty generic, actually) but it's a funny and exciting anime that you can watch mindlessly just to pass time. In other words, it's a sports anime. Like most sports anime, the story was not this anime's forte. A bunch of guys start a sports club in high school, participate in a tournament, fight and bond over some backstory drama and eventually win the tournament. This was just a summary of the entire plot of the series and anyone could have predicted this much based on the first episode alone, because this plotline has been done to death. But in cases like this, the execution of the show is what makes all the difference, and the show had that part down. Running always makes things feel intense, so stride really fits the concept of this anime well. This kind of stories tends to be a safe bet, since there isn't much to mess up, so the story was predictable but good and well executed overall. This anime is a visual novel adaptation, so I expected the characters to be just tropes, with the main heroine having almost no characteristics and being used as a blank space for the viewers to insert themselves into. This wasn't exactly the case. The characters did fall into certain archetypes (sometimes to the extreme) but they had a little more depth to them and most characters could not be described in one sentence (at least not without using the word "but"). But even though the characters still weren't great on their own, the interaction between them made the show a lot more fun to watch. The lighthearted shenanigans the characters did together were some of the funniest moments of the show and seeing them hang out with their rivals when they weren't racing was very refreshing. There was no actual villain in this show and it was really nice to see a truly friendly rivalry in an anime for a change. Also, the lack of romance actually benefited the show. It made the main heroine stand out a bit more as her own character and prevented the anime from becoming too cliched. There wasn't much character development in this anime, but when it comes to anime like this one, I'm satisfied with what we got. The animation in this show was pretty average most of the time. It was very free-flowing during the races, which looked amazing and very intense. On the other hand, some frames were just plain bad sometimes. I did like the strong bright colors, the bold designs and the strong black outlines and shadows that made it look like the frames were inked by hand, but the animation wasn't a big standout overall. The soundtrack was very good, actually. It supported the show well while not standing out too much, which is what I expect of an anime soundtrack. It was very fitting for the show and gave off the right vibe. The opening and ending songs were very upbeat and catchy. The random english words in the opening were really out of place, but the song was still fun to listen to and I didn't skip it once. The ending theme is sung by the rival team (who are also idols, for some reason), I thought it was quite nice. The voice actors did a very good job portraying their characters and it sounded like they were having fun. The biggest standout, in my opinion, was Kana Hanazawa as Nana Sakurai. Her portray of Nana was so realistic and it sounded like she meant each and every line. This further contributed to making Nana stand out as her own character. To sum up: this anime might not have the best or the most original story, but the characters and the animation are decent. The ending was a bit anticlimactic, but still very satisfying. It was a very entertaining show to watch overall and if you're looking for an anime to watch mindlessly when you're bored, I recommend checking it out if you have the time.

Okay. Here we go. Story - 3 So to start with the story. If you're a sports anime fan, you're probably used to all the cliches and have seen them a million times in all sorts of different sports anime, well let me tell you, Prince of Stride: Alternative was no different. It uses almost every cliche in the book. Not in an oh-this-is-kinda-refreshing way but in a haven't-I-see-this-a-million-times-? sort of way. Honestly. However, the title doesn't lie when it says 'alternative'. Prince of Stride is an anime centered around a COMPLETELY FICTIONAL and MADE UP sport, throwing any chance of being compared with an anime about the same sport out of the window. Now that's novelty. I personally had high hopes in - only - this aspect of the anime; after all, how often do you get an anime that invents a sport completely for itself? The execution of the races themselves were actually acceptable (I'll go into detail in the enjoyment section) but I think the producers missed a teeny-tiny detail: If you're going to invent a sport, how the hell do you expect the viewers to know what it is?! I just binged all 12 episodes of the anime and I quite frankly still don't know the rules or point system of the sport. Heck, I didn't even know if there was a point system (A character mentioned 'extra points' but I didn't even know there was a point system in the first place! and it was never even mentioned again. Unless they meant it metaphorically but reeeaaallly now). Okay, like I said before, the idea of a completely new sport was what made me watch Stride and I believe that with more time to elaborate (I would suggest between doubling the number of episodes or even doing that and making another season on top of it by splitting the content in the first season up), it could have been a masterpiece and could maybe even have made it all the way up to Kuroko no Basuke and Haikyuu. But unfortunately, that's what they lacked: elaboration. One more new-ish feature in the anime is that it dives straight in to the thick of the plot and you can tell they didn't mean to do it when the timeline was planned out. It starts with the typical fallen club looking for members - the show decided to give less than an episode's worth of screen time to this but that was okay. What I mean is that there's practically no training. Well at least at the start, it plunges straight into the plot because what the hell's practice anyway and instead, puts it's practice into the second half of the plot, instantly killing the albeit forced momentum gathered by the dive at the start. I felt like the halfway point actually killed my excitement for the show. But that's enough of my ranting about the story. Art - 4 So the art. Nothing special. Looked like a cheap reverse harem anime (sorry!), to be perfectly honest. The style was bland and the characters lacked the realism that sometimes carries appeal (refer to any sports anime where everyone doesn't have idol-group hair). The background art was as plain as can be, especially when they should've had a lot of freedom in developing the settings because of the nature of the sport used in the show. In quite a few ways, the style for the characters reminded me painfully of an extremely washed out version of Free (refer to characters section). To be perfectly honest, I can only say that it didn't stand out as anything special like Doukyuusei, it didn't have amazingly drawn and choreographed action scenes like Haikyuu and it wasn't plain but enjoyable like Kuroko no Basuke. In short: It's bland. Probably like what it feels like to eat a tissue (don't question it). The best part of Stride's art is its action scenes, and even those sometimes don't really hit the spot. Sound - 4 The voice actors were actually decent although they didn't really strike me as anything special. The soundtrack, like the background art, is just kinda bland. The opening was actually catchy and I quite liked it and the song, along with some of the other soundtracks, fulfilled their purpose of getting the viewer pumped up (I guess). The sound was not at all memorable (I can't remember any of the songs, including the opening) and they don't leave an impression, and there are even parts where I felt that a good OST would have boosted the scene by miles but it just wasn't really like... I don't know... Just kinda mediocre I guess? As a sports anime fan, I love soundtracks that really get your blood pumping as you watch your team score that point; or kick that goal; or shoot that hoop. But this just... I don't know... I was pumped sometimes but I don't give credit to the soundtrack or voices for that. Characters - 2 Okay. I feel mean but at the same time I just couldn't being myself to rate this section any higher. I, however, don't blame it on the character designs (although I didn't like those too much) but on the lack of time instead. There just simply isn't enough time in the space of 12 measly episodes to make viewers become attached to characters. Of course, this anime just used the usual cliches: the forced crossdresser, the reluctant one, the emotionless genius and the emotionally unstable in the character you'd "least expect" but I was sooo annoyed at some of the characters plainly because I felt like they could've been better. I didn't understand the logic more than half the time and sometimes I even caught myself thinking: "What could possibly possess a person to (insert whatever this rant is about)?!" A bunch of family members do pretty confusing things and the character's reactions sometimes JUST DON'T MAKE SENSE. There's a lot of forced bonding and friendships that only feel that way because they didn't get sufficient time to develop. None of the characters got a satisfactory backstory so in the end, instead of having one or two likable and developed characters, we end up with about 25 odd bland, shallow, uninteresting and unrelatable characters. Now onto character designs in terms of art: they all had weird hair was my first thought. Second thought: Wait... Didn't I just see this character?? But anyways, to be honest, I felt like they ran out of character design ideas because of all the replicas I seemed to see where ever I looked. Actually... Wait a sec... Maybe everyone was a twin... Dun, dun, dun! Oh wait a sec... There was a pair of ACTUAL TWINS. But anyways, like I said, the art was bland and this didn't exactly affect the characters in a good way. In many ways, the characters were quite obviously made in a feeble attempt to appeal to the female audience, with the cute neko boy, the long haired stoic one, the emo kid, the glasses dude. Just generic. for those that enjoy shipping, there really isn't much inspiration and there are technically ships but they feel forced. But yes: lacking develop and design creativity. Any humour also falls so flat I don't even know. I hardly even smiled throughout the whole duration of the series, the jokes weren't bad they were just kinda like: Oh, that was a joke? Okay..? Enjoyment - 7 Okay, to tell the truth, despite all the technical and story faults in this anime, I did legitimately enjoy it at some point; maybe I wasn't exactly in paradise most of the time, but there were still times when I had liked the show when watching it. This is where I say: I reckon this section of my review would be biased. So basically, I'm in high school and I run in competitive track events - 100 m, 200 m, relay and 3000 m. Do we get it? The thing is, there's a high possibility that my enjoyment of the show stems from having some sports background to connect with the characters. To tell the truth, the reason I enjoyed the show as much as I did were the races. It certainly wasn't a mistake to invent this sport because I was sweating when they were running and I was trembling as well as I heard the 'go' being said. For me, this really reminded me of all the 'ready, set, BAM's I've heard during my own races and I was SO PUMPED UP after watching the races. The …

I will admit, even though I don't watch a lot of sport-related animes, I'm extremely glad I decided to sit down for a bit and watch Prince of Stride and I'll share why I enjoyed it so much. Just a warning, some minor spoilers may exist below, but nothing that will ruin the anime for you or give away any major plot points. To start, one of the weakest parts of Prince of Stride is the story. While I'm not saying that its bad, it leaves a lot to be desired and is overall somewhat predictable when comparing it to other animes, regardless of genre. The Honan Stride club, the main group in the story, is a struggling team with dreams of becoming the best stride team, but of course, they lack members and talent. As the series progresses, they gain more members and each character has their own set of problems that "prevent" the team from truly coming together and conquering the other teams, which all gradually get resolved throughout the story. As said, it is rather predictable, but it is rather rewarding to see the team eventually come together to race together. Speaking of the characters, one of the best parts of the anime is the characters, specifically the main group, which all receive their own satisfying development, something that was rather surprising for me as I went in fully expecting each character to be rather shallow cutouts of a specific anime trope. On the contrary, each one manages to showcase rounded personalities, especially Hozumi Kohinata, Ayumu Kadowaki, and Riku Yagami, who are able to carry the anime on their narratives alone. The only real exception to this is Takeru Fujiwara, who stays rather the same throughout but is still enjoyable to watch. It was also interesting how each character's struggles felt relatable. Feeling like you're inferior, living in someone's shadow, showing jealousy, being vengeful, conquering your own fears, and defying expectations are just a few of the problems that these characters encounter. It becomes enthralling to see how these problems persist throughout the anime and how the characters are able to take their own struggles and turn them into strengths. As for the music, this anime has both beautiful and intense music mixed together for an all around great listening experience. I'm gonna be honest and say that the music in the background during the races actually made my heart pump, as I was in suspense waiting to find out who was going to end up winning. The opening and ending are also great and fit the tone of the show perfectly. The art flows well, and while there are some repeated frames during the races, nothing sticks out badly and everything seems to fit in perfectly. The art is also crisp, and nothing is stiff or looks badly, especially with the vibrant world around them. The only real complaint I have about the anime is the second half of episodes compared to the first. The first few episodes have this intense atmosphere about them that really seems to die down near the second half of the series, especially the ending, but no spoilers here. Overall though, the anime was thorougly enjoyable and if you want a consistent story with relatable characters, especially if you're a fan of sport-related animes, then you should definitely give Prince of Stride: Alternative a watch.

Prince of Stride talks about a very original sport to the anime world, different from the common volleyball/basket/baseball, but let's give it a look to each of its parts: Plot [5] Well, when we talk about plot in a spokon we don't really have to think to something too complicated since it usually follows the standard of a team competing in a tournament and this show doesn't make an exception, so why have i considered this plot a bad one? There were some episodes which could have been deleted and none would have noticed that, or better, they could have payed less attention to some events and more to some others. Also, the final was something unwatchable but i won't spoil it. Characters [2] Characters were the thing i hated the most about this series, they were flat as hell and never changed their behaviour throughout the series, Sakurai Nana is the biggest example of this problem but also the main character was the same. One of the few, if not the only one, thing i liked about characters is that supporter characters weren't forgotten, any character will play an important role in almost every episode but..yes, since they were so badly developed i didn't consider this as a remarkable thing. I blame this point to Prince of Stride because i think in a spokon characters are always the most important thing to make well and this anime failed overall in this. Art [7] Madhouse did a nice job with Prince of Stride, the competitions were well represented by the direction. The thing i didn't like much was the chara design. Sound [7] Also here we have a good technical equipment with a very energic opening and some very good OSTs which were one of the thing that made me enjoy this anime a bit more, the bad side is that we miss good ones for the common events but competitions won't miss them at all. Enjoyment [6] I won't say Prince of Stride was horrible, i followed it without any problems but, as i said above, characters are the thing i care the most in sports animes and because of the poor development i couldn't relate to any of them nor make any of them like to me so i felt like they were acting just because they had too, for that reason i didn't enjoy it very much. Overall [5] As a conclusion, this anime is something you can skip without any problem but if you really like spokons then try to take a look at it since it also talks about a very uncommon sport that is new to the anime world, just don't expect any kind of deep plot/characters because you won't find them here

Stride. A trail created by relaying trust and connecting emotions. Or, more specifically, a relay race involving five people, combined with parkour and obsactles through various enviroments. Story;3 Strides story is a simple one, three people meet on the first day of high school. Two, with the intention of joining the renowned Honan High Stride club, and one who was forced into joining. These three are our stories main characters, and throughout the 12 episodes of this series, we see them grow as athletes, as people, and as friends. EXTRA emphasis on the friend bit. Advancing this group's friendship is a massive part of the story. as they work to their goal of winning the renown "End Of Summer" tournament. On their journey the race many times, getting just a little bit better every run. now if I made it sound better than I rated it, here's why. Strides story is ONLY what I said, there's not much to it. Race, get rivals, get better, repeat. And every god damn episode they spend half the time talking either about Yagami's (the character who was forced into it) brother who is the king of high school stride, friendship, or running. While all of these plot points are what drive the characters, it gets a bit too repetitive. Art:7 it looks decent usually, which is 75% of the show. But, when stride kicks in the art gets quite good, not amazing stuff but it took time and effort to make all of those complicated race courses, tracking shots, and a seemingly 3D environment. You can tell that plenty of time was spent animating this show, and none of it spared by CG characters. The character design is, well its good but its very cliche. however, it does fit the character types they set out, and everything looks pretty good so no real complaints here. Sound:4 The opening was... well it was pretty good and got the tone set for the show well, but the use of English was. Interesting to say the least, and i found it kinda broke the mood of what's actually a pretty good op. Background tracks, none of them really stood out to me, I didn't actually notice them there to be honest, which is a good thing! They blend in well and didn't break immersion. Actions scene tracks, there was one particular one that when listened to actually brings back the emotions of the show with it. which I consider to be a success in a musical sense. The ending track, it had a good groovy feel to it and showcased everyone's favorite rivals, Saisei High. The track had stylish animation to boot, and I would listen to it again. Characters:3 Like I said previously the characters a VERY cliche. You've got your upbeat comedy relief duo who are more emotional than they show of nerd in glasses and a girly boy. A manly captain who cares more for his team than he lets on. Your long haired mysterious cool guy alumni that talks about the wind constantly. Your overly cheerful girl who always says Ganbare! And tries her best to "keep up." Then your have your two main characters, the competitive rivals that get better because of each other. All very cliche and not much in the unique department is shown here. Enjoyment:6 Now while I wasn't a fan of most of the stuff this series did, and admittedly, I texted through half of it. But when everyone was running at their best, I'll admit I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. While the concept is unique, everything that was stride was just blah. But if you're into shows that showcase nice animation and rivalries, I actually think its worth a try. Overall:5 I kinda already did an overall in my enjoyment sections. But I think that I liked this show, even though I hate super cliche shows like this it wasn't THAT bad. give it a shot, but be warned, the show gives off some pretty god damn gay vibes. be careful. With that i end my review, i hope i helped in some way on whether or not you decide to watch Stride. Thanks for reading if you got down this far and sorry for it being so long!

The first time I saw this anime was in a thumbnail on youtube. The art style looked amazing, but I didn't have time to watch it back then (I think it was around the time when it just aired). Then my friend asked me if I saw it yet, the answer was obvious. I finally got around to watch it yesterday. The art style didn't dissapoint me at all, went past my imagination even. The characters seemed so lovable and relatable to me. I know that Riku's struggle with his self esteem was a widely discussed theme her, but I can see why. He was against joining their club the second he found out what club it was. I sure would have complained if the reason wasn't explained. His low self-esteem is also justifiable. As the younger sibling, I can relate, the non-stopping strive(or stride if somebody wants to insert a pun here) to be better or at least as good as your older sibling. It is very hard to best your older sibling at anything, beacause they have more experience, especially in something they enjoy doing. Besides, that is usually called character development that thankfully happened in this anime. I also have to say that it was well paced. There were no boring parts as well as not those that went by too fast. I am content saying that I watched this anime in two days with a break for sleep. In my eyes, it really deserves recognition, because I have the tendency to drop the anime I am watching midway (or just after a watching session), then come back to it a few months later or forget about it. This anime made me want to watch each episode, not in the style of "I want to just finish this", but "I really want to see it". My rating for this anime is 10/10.

First of all I'd like to mention that this is my first review , and since I'm not a native English speaker , I dont know how good I'll be able to review this anime. MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS So... lets start... Why do u watch anime? I watch it to spend my time and enjoy doing it , What I want in anime is to be interesting enough to keep me going , to be hyped or atleast thrilled about the next episode , Prince of Stride does this job quite well ( Because madhouse always does their job) , If that is your purpose in anime , better start watching! Story - 7 Its isnt hard to understand what " stride " is , I'll leave it to you , the viewers to watch the anime , and understand what it is. The story of stride is a generic story used in some other sport animes although it starts differently it comes up to one of the MC's ( since Its a sport anime there are quite a few) having an event in the past that changed their view of the sport , later on they overcome it and lead their team to victory or atleast try doing it , at first the anime seems passive but as u watch you notice tension between protagonists or , other characters... I'll keep it short , Its a sports anime afterall , overall the story is a solid 7 it keeps u entertained throughout the anime. Art - 9 As expected of madhouse , in this department the anime beats most of the other sports anime I've seen. ( some of them are madhouse too so cant compare) The competition scenes are very fun to watch and I think that they couldnt be any better. Sound - 10 aside from a certain anime *cough cough* K * cough cough* this anime has the best soundtrack ... ever , The background music makes the anime enjoyable and fun to watch especially in competitions and races Character - 7 Sports anime will stay sports anime , There is character development in this anime , although its kinda' like a 180 but I would'nt give it less than a 7 because its a sport anime, Two of the MC's will experience a big change since the start of the anime , and one of the MC's will stay dull but assist in changing the others , I would'nt have it any other way doe , This anime needs character to be like that , It just has to :) Enjoyment - 8 As I said at the very beginning whats important is that u enjoy the anime , Show interest in it , I feel that Its worth to watch and you wont be wasting your time , but rather spending it in joy. Thank you for reading my review , Hope you enjoyed it and you will watch the anime!

Prince of Stride may be the most appealing anime this 2016 and I actually fell bait for it. Initially I didn't want to watch it but I was kind of forced to and actually enjoyed the first episode but as I was going along with it, then, well, the every hole starts to pop out. Story (6): Fair enough the story of Stride is pretty decent. It's your typical friendship through sports sort of show. Unfortunately, it's trying to show some sort of fanservice, with beautiful men and amazing legs. I dunno. The saving grace of the story would have to be its random bursts of comedy and recurring gags. The friendships were cute too but it didn't make me burst to tears or wipe away any snot from my nose. Sports anime should be riveting through its story. This didn't make it happen. Art (8): The art is definitely the reason why this show makes quite the impact. It's beautiful, colorful with hints of cool tones and how can you not like beautiful bishie boys. The stride animations, the running and the tricks were pretty solid and I think that they pushed to make it at least work in order for it to be appealing to sports fans. Sound (6): If we're talking voice actors, this show is peppered with all of my favorite seiyuus... Well, I LOOOOVE ALL OF THEM! But it was the only thing that was memorable. I don't remember the background music. SFX didn't seem to be a huge deal and I'd skip the OP and ED, though the OP is kind of nice. Character (7): The characters of this show are weird. Dedicated to their sport though and bloody entertaining, Ayumu and Kohinata. You know what? The reason I even finished this show was because of these two adorable cuties. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have survived it. It's either I'll drop it or give it a really low score. But yeah. Like I said, there's so many seiyuus in this and so there are tooooons of characters because teams. you know. but they don't necessarily leave a mark. I'd be screaming when I hear a character speak because their seiyuus are my fave but other than that, I'd be disappointed by how little they actually got to do. They couldn't leave a proper impact. Enjoyment (6): There were moments were I would enjoy the show and then skip to certain parts. It's such a waste of time to be honest, so just skip some of the parts. I only enjoyed the running parts and the Ayumu x Kohinata duo but more than that, I'd say, it's a pretty shallow show. Overall (6): I think I've rated this pretty fairly. It was okay. Maybe you'd still like it. Personally, I didn't like it as a whole but there are bits and pieces that worked for me so I survived.

After getting many recommendations for this anime I decided to watch it and I was pretty surprised to see so many bad reviews for it. Personally I thought it was a good anime. So normally sports anime over exaggerate the sport and how people feel about it and this one was no exception. They made the high five seem like the biggest deal ever like it was all about connecting feelings which it was just it was a little too dramatic. The characters in this story were nice. I love how they didn't make a fussy little female mc like they normally are. She was always trying to improve herself for the team, but it wasn't to the point where you would want to slap her in the face. Art- It was pretty good. It was colorful and bright and it set the mood of the anime really well. Story- I think they kept Riku's whole internal struggle going on too long. It was like they were using it as an excuse every time they got into a fight which was a little annoying. Sound- It wasn't that noteworthy, not really good but not really bad either it was just kinda average. Character- It had nice character development in the end anyways. They really grow up and finally Riku accepts all the hard facts and everyone has a nice ending/ Overall- I loved the ending since they tied it up. All the popular anime try to keep you hooked by saying 'oh no we lost lets have another chance in the second season *wink wink* you should watch it and see if they win' this one they were just like ok this is this. It's the end. I read online too that this anime was actually a dating sim and normally anime based off of dating sims are super annoying since the mc is obnoxious af, but this one was focused more on the actual team, the players, and the sport and less about them all dying for her attention which was good for me anyways. So basically this anime had good humor, good characters, nice pacing, and decent art. If you like sports anime that they don't forcibly drag out and you can deal with the losses and internal struggles you'll probably like it. That's all thanks for reading ^~^

Let's start with a small summary of the anime : The anime is based around of stride, which is a combination of parkour and free-running, it's following the story of a club named Hônan stride and their goal is to win the EOS, simple right? However, the plot itself is weak and makes no sense. The first couple of episodes were okay, it actually looked like this is gonna be a good sports anime, but it turned out to be otherwise after the 6th or so episode because you realise this anime has stupid plot which makes no sense. All the characters have their own problem/background but the problem here is that it's not bad or something, it's rushed, the whole anime is rushed and you will notice it very well throughout the anime by half-animated races, rushed introductions and background story which makes the characters very lame to watch. The art was not very flashy (as in outstanding/something new and not the light because it was certainly blinding) or something but they did mix it good with the running, so no complains here. A positive point about the anime are their soundtracks, i did enjoy their soundtracks and they were well made, if only the anime itself was a little better. Overall it's an mediocre anime, their biggest problem is that they rushed through things too much and tried to focus on the runs/background story which they also rushed through..

Story (5/10) It could be better but the ending creep the story. Madhouse rushed the ending. Well, atleast i scored the story 5 because this is otome games. Madhouse do a good job not making this as a romance. But the friendship is thingy is still creep me out. Art (6/10) Their budget go to the music and seiyuu so don't expect the good animation so much. Sound (9/10) Some reason why i complete the anime, because the good ost especially the end because of Mamo-chan (okay fangirling). Character (6/10) Okay until episode 11, they have a good character development. They do a good job to make me emotional on watching this. Enjoyment (8/10) There are so many fujo-bait that refresh my eyes. Aside from that, They have a good comedy. Also the seiyuu is make me enjoy watch this. A good material for fangirl. Overall (7/10) Something that make me stuck to watch this is only the seiyuu how can't you resist Mamoru Miyano Idol voice and Nobuhiko Okamoto stoic voice. I recommended to watch this if you search for material not a plot. Well, not the best sport anime for me but's it's still enjoyable

Prince of Stride is your typical sports anime, nothing all too special. It fits right in with all the others like it, but that's not a bad thing. While the story is like any other sports series where we focus on the team practicing and getting into drama amongst each other, the concept of the sport is unique. If anyone realized already, "Stride" is a fictional sport (a mixture of relay and parkour). One of the more positive things I can say about the show is the execution of the sport, which is also its strong point. Other than that, the backstory and drama has been done before, but it still fits in this case. Though, I will say some of these recycled plot elements felt like they are added there only to get emotion from the viewers. One in particular (which I will refrain from mentioning), brought onto us during the last few episodes, gave me that notion. Also, the series suffered from a rushed ending that had not much of an impact that it could have had. For characters, I could only vouch for the Honan team (our main set of characters), because they are the ones we focus on the most. We also get their backstories, why they are on the team, as well as their personalities. Their opponents, not so much, save for one that appears more than the others. The animation, at best, is adequate. It might come as a shock to many when they see that this is a Madhouse production. Still, I will not point fingers for not making the greatest animation (there's at least one with every studio). However, much like how the races are the strong point of the story, it is the same in regards to the animation. In the end, like I said before, the series doesn't really stand out, even amongst all the other sports anime out there. Again, this doesn't make it a bad series, nor does it make it a good one. Despite that, I would still recommend this to people who are into sports anime. But, for me, it wasn't anything all that special.

Prince of Stride: Alternative is an anime produced by Madhouse and was released in Winter of 2016 with 12 episodes. The premise is about Takeru Fujiwara voiced by ''Nobuhiko Okamoto'' and Nana Sakurai voiced by ''Kana Hanazawa'' trying to recruit members to their Stride Club of Honan Academy. What is Stride?, it's an extreme form of running and parkour involving 6 runners running relays throughout the town. Takeru and Nana request help from Riku Yagami voiced by ''Ryouhei Kimura'' to compete in the "End of Summer", thee top school competition for Stride in Japan. This anime adaptation is based off an otome visual novel and it shows!. Now LA will note immediately that LA isn't much of an anime sports fan, LA goes with some of the more "irregular" ones such as ''Saki'' or ''Walkure Romanze'' though LA watched ''Free!'' and it's second season. What a person who doesn't look at sports anime looking at Prince of Stride?, well there was one element that LA gotten into to watch the entire series but that will be for later. The plot by all means is a typical "underdog" team with the goal to win a huge competition, from the asshole teams to the friendly rival teams they meet in one or two episodes to bringing us the team dynamic of the main cast from some of the team member's past and backstories to their own "character development" episodes are there, how they USE it however is actually an entirely different matter. LA says this as although it is focused and ''dramatized'' when it NEEDS to, the story does tend to fluff around during the middle of it and resolves ''some'' obstacles as quickly as the episode ends sometimes leaving no room for development. Ohh sure the entire main cast of Honan Academy gets focused and developed hugely both as a team and individually but by the near ending (for LA) you tend forget even some of the main characters NAMES and why they are there besides "winning the competition" as "they are in the team so of course they have to participate", but LA gets it, it's about the team...and three of your main characters, but the team nonetheless. Well LA is rambling on, let's actually move to the characters. The characters are by in large feels like an otome visual novel characters just mixed in with the typical characters you usually see in a sports anime. LA won't fault this anime for trying something like this and for the characters who get the most development get to be the most memorable thus Nana, Takeru and Riku are seriously the only characters LA remembered by the end of the anime as for the rival school characters?, besides the one or two that really matter to drive the plot forward, you'll forgot about most of them due to either the huge cast of characters as a whole for this series or the lack of ANY development outside their likes and quirks. Well you want to know why LA wanted to watch this anime all the way through?, the animation and to be more precise the animation when it goes into a match, that is the main reason why LA watched it, typical of Madhouse to make even running both fluid and exhilarating at the same time and LA loved watching it merely for that, on speaking of the animation, the character designs do look slick and fits into consistency when it needs to although some of it's animation do get slightly lower quality at times. The ending actually felt lackluster and again LA will say that word again "typical" and what's worse is that considering that the match in question is built up so much, the ending result although heartwarming didn't leave the same as when LA first started getting into the Stride matches, what's the word "rushed?" is best. This anime does have some pacing (drum beat) issues from handling the drama when it occurred to just having filler episodes here and there, sure at least the comedy is the typical running gags from the main cast, but LA got bored from all the development, drama and filler shove into the anime and just wanted what the anime's focus was...the god damn Stride matches. Overall, this sports anime DID still entertain LA, it has it's faults and some faults were actually a GOOD thing (heck we all need character development and drama for the characters and plot no?) but La will say this about ''Prince of Stride'', if ya want to see an otome-ished typical sports anime involving running and parkour with Madhouse's animation, then this anime is something to run for, if not...best to walk this one out.

Prince of Stride Alternative. I truly loved this anime. With fantastic themes of friendship, connecting emotions, and never giving up, it's truly wonderful. I've seen that a lot of the reviews for this anime are pretty bad, and I really don't understand why. No, it's not the best anime ever, not even out of sports anime's, but even if it's not flawless, that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. The story is your basic sports anime story line, a team of high-schoolers getting together to become a team and set their sites on victory. The art is very pretty, the Opening theme is great, and the characters are adorable, and all very different. You really come to love each and every one of them. Overall, I think this anime is really good, and I think everyone should give it a try. I'm definitely glad I did. (And I really wish there was a season 2)

This anime is good and fun to watch. I feel a bit boring at the 1st episode since it just showing a very unclear backstory. But it got a lot better afterwards. I watched without referring any reviews nor playing their game. It has a good plot. If you like sweet friendship, bromance and sport, this is suitable for you. Forget all about bad reviews or harem game, just enjoy the show without looking at both factors. Additional: Other characters are fine, but the only girl in this anime is really boring. I know they couldn't be dropped out this girl from anime since it based on otome game (main girl), but she has no big role at all and boring boring and boring. That's why people are shipping man to man because there is no interesting in this anime. LOL. KnB, Haikyuu, DAYS have reliable girls on it (manager, coach etc). Do I recommend this? YES (to people who love sport, bromance, friendship).

First off I will say, that this anime was WAYYYY better than I expected. My friend suggested this to me, and it even exceeded his expectations. I refused to watch it at first, one because I thought it was yaoi, two because sports anime is specifically the one genre I haven't watched. That should tell you how good it was. I didn't refuse to watch it at first because of the trivial reason other people did, the people who gave it low ratings are just being oppositional. The music was was upbeat, it made me feel the determination of the characters. The opening was good as well. The art was good, only complaint is how thin the characters were. I felt a connection with each individual characters, I rooted for all of them in overcoming their struggles throughout the anime. I think the opposite of all the haters of this anime on another thing too. They said the first few episodes were good, then they gave up because it became boring. That means they didn't even watch it all the way through, and gave up when a boring part appeared. I thought the reverse, the first few were slow and from about ep 6 on were perfect. After episode 6 I binged it, planning on changing to another anime by ep 8. I loved this anime, I am glad it was my first sports anime. This might be the thing that leads me to watch Haikyuu, and Free! I mean, I don't know about Free! Looks too yoai for me.

I've been looking for an sports anime, but not an usual one about soccer or baseball. In the end I collided with "Prince of Stride: Alternative" and gave it a shot. As far as I know stride is a fictional sport, mostly comparable to a mix of relay and parcour. All protagonists have their own little background stories, which result in the slice_of_life part of this anime. Not extremely deep but still good enough to create likeable figures. And let's be honest: With a basis of only twelve episodes it would have been almost impossible to draw out more of the main characters. Same case concerning the story: not worldshaking but still interesting by revealing a few twists towards the end. Moreover the story doesn't appear rushed and fills the little amount of episodes perfectly. Watching the stride-races was undoubtedly exciting and enjoyable. The lovely animations and character designs are the main strength of this anime. Very smooth and dynamic movements plus unusual strong, sometimes cartoonlike colors express an unique charm. By using powerful music the overall atmosphere of the anime is mirrored pretty good. While I liked the opening best because it set me in the right mood for the episode following, the ending rather appeared to be average and didn't really stand out. The main topics of "Prince of Stride: Alternative" are quite similar to most of sports anime, since it's all about team spirit and faith and I think those topics are quite well implented. Another important part of the plot is "running" and "running away", which should be considered on different levels. What we deal with here in the end is an overall solid anime that is able to tell its story within only a few episodes. Nevertheless it has potential which could habe been used better if there were more than just twelve episodes. After all most of sports anime usually need more room for character development due to numerous characters. I recommend this series, which I believe to be slightly underrated considering its good overall quality, to every sports anime fan.