Hinomaruzumou

Hinomaruzumou is one of the most criminally slept on anime in recent memory. The 24 episodes it has run is not nearly enough to satisfy my desire to observe Hinomaru's sumo. Fall 2018 saw a rebirth of sports anime. The trio of Run with the wind (Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru), Tsurune, and Hinomaruzumou have collectively transformed the genre. These non traditional sports made room for more character growth and development than I've ever witnessed in sports anime, and I truly hope that Tsurune and Hinomaruzumou each receive second seasons some day. These three anime show us that sport anime have the potential to be less aboutthe sport involved, and more about human growth, relationships, spirit and passion. If I were to define any of these three anime as being about sumo, cross country, or Kyudo, my definition would be severely lacking. These three masterpieces have ushered in a new era for the sports genre, and I am very interested to see how the industry and the community will react. Before this anime I knew nothing about sumo, and I feel as though I knew even less about spirit. Sumo is a spiritual engagement, and Hinomaru & co. show us an overwhelming amount of spirit, too much to fit inside any one physical body. The animation is the only weak point of this series, as I imagine studio Gonzo didn't have much of a budget to put up. This however, did not take away from the intensity and raw emotion of each and every bout. If your a fan of sports anime or any sort of naturalism, I highly recommend this series. I was constantly reminded of Jack London's White Fang and the Call of the Wild. The kill or be killed mentality, the animalistic instinct and strength put into every move, the willpower to never back down and give your body for the sake of Sumo, all make this title a fantastic addition to the naturalist genre. On top of that the thrill of the mortal combat, watching these characters (and voice actors) give every ounce of spirit, not in the name of victory, but in the name of the Sumo gods, and their teammates. The voice acting was incredible thought the series, and the awesome action scenes were well balanced by a great variety of hilarious comedic scenes. Just watch OP2 of the series for an example of how intense and exhilarating the sumo can be. I appreciate the reflection of how sumo is viewed in contemporary Japanese high schools, as the country becomes more westernized. I believe this westernization may result in a loss of the spirit that defines much of Japanese culture. But seeing these characters change their mind about sumo, and come to deeply respect the sport as an art accurately depicts my own journey that this series has taken me on. I now respect and am inspired more by those that participate in sumo than in any other sport. Seeing Ushio and his team put 110% into every slap and throw for the sake of others has made me miss the joy of team sport, and the catharsis which can result from them. These characters continually put it all on the line and the final bout of destiny will have to go down as one of my all time favorite anime battles. If you've ever enjoyed a sports anime before, I recommend this series that has so sadly flown under the radar, and has received none of the credit which it deserves. So many elements came together to make this a great anime, and if I ever become a multi millionaire, I'm getting Gonzo to make another damn season!!

READ ALL YOU WANT BUT I WOULD SERIOUSLY URGE YOU TO GIVE THIS ANIME A TRY AND STOP LISTENING TO WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY!! Sports anime have been doing well, with a number of great basketball, football, baseball and volleyball animes we finally dive down into an entirely different realm, which is the world of Sumo. Honestly, I never liked the sport in real and whenever sumo came to my mind I would think a bunch of sweaty overweight dudes slamming their chubbiness against each other. But boy o boy! This anime maintains the respect of the sport and shows it from the perspective ofUshio, who is only 152cm but his desire to win, passion for the sport and support of his teammates makes him achieve the impossible. x-----------------Spoilers---------------x - Story: Great story overall. There is a lot of background story telling also which in my opinion is done very well. I would encourage anime producers to please always rethink before splashing forward a 12 episode season. Since in my personal experience it never lets me synch or helps me in understanding all the characters. The moment i saw 24 episodes I was sure the story will have to be great and to my surprise it exceeded my expectations. The best part was that even though obviously the story has to revolve around the protagonist, the story telling of all the other characters has been done phenomenally. -Characterization: Perhaps the most important part of the anime are the characters. The Daichi Sumo club and its members have been well characterized each having a strong background story which strengthened their individual character building throughout the plot. How Yuma who when sees the light to redemption seeks his path of making up to Ozeki and the sumo club for the lost years. Kirihito with his knack for analyzing his opponents and despite having a physical limitation, the way he overcomes it in the last few episode in order to compete in the final and wins it so convincingly is amazing. How, Chihiro the all out genius makes his way through fame and finally competes against his brother in the finals. How Ozeki and his love for the sport makes him realize his goal. How Kei evolves from being a weak individual to someone with a strong will and spirit. Last but not the least Ushio! His characterization is everything I love to see in a protagonist. Strong, fierce, passionate and compassionate makes the perfect recipe for the ultimate protagonist who despite being short in the end beats the Kuze the son of a Yokozuna and makes it to becoming pro. The bond between all these characters and the support characters in terms of their managers and rival teammates makes this anime a seriously hidden gem in the realm of animes.

Hinomaruzumou is an anime from late '18 to early '19. It's based off of a Kawada manga and the anime was handled by Gonzo. Gonzo has worked on some spectacular anime like Chrno Crusade and Bakuretsu Tenshi. They've also done really mediocre stuff like Strike Witches & Trinity Blood and some absolute rubbish like Sunabouzu. So, predicting their quality isn't exactly plausible. Let's just dive in and see how they did with this one. Story: We open with our protagonist, Little Mac, going to scout a school with a strong sumo team. He accidentally takes a wrong turn and ends up at a school where the Sumoclub is made up of one, dedicated guy. Naturally, he ends up going to this school with an under dog team. As he's very short, his one hope of entering professional sumo is to do well enough in High School Sumo to be able to bypass the physical exam. Don't ask me if that's an actual thing in Sumo wrestling as I don't know. The biggest issue with this series is that it follows every trite, over-used Sports media cliché. If you've seen literally any other work about an underdog sports team, you can easily predict the arc the story's going to follow and, in at least 90% of cases, predict who's going to win each bout. No twists, turns or originality. The writer is also a bit weird about the way he talks up sports. He clearly has a thing for Sumo wrestling, but even when it comes to the characters who used to be Judo and Wrestling champions, he spends a bunch of time hammering in the idea that their performance in Sumo is not reflective of whether wrestling or judo is a stronger discipline. Like he's deathly afraid that his audience will think they know his position from how the characters do in a sumo match. I mean, obviously Judo is stronger. Even ignoring the fake wrestling with the personas, Olympic wrestling is basically just muscular guys having foreplay. Which shouldn't be a surprise, since it comes from ancient Greece. Honestly, the best part of the series are the thirty second, comedic bits you get at the end of the episodes, after the ending theme tune. Characters: Having compelling, complex characters could make up for predictable, generic plot. Unfortunately, this series doesn't have those either. The characters are really bland. You have the highly driven, and skilled one who drives the team forward. The one with a lot of potential and passion but a huge losing streak. The former delinquent turning their life around. The athletic one who's new to the particular sport. The one who's in over his head but doing his best. And we can't forget the one who loves the game, but shouldn't play it for physical reasons but irresponsibly does it any way. Art: The artwork looks fine. The details are pretty well done. The characters have decent designs. The bouts are a bit mixed. A lot of the "special moves" are pretty boring. The character will shout out that they're doing a hundred demon take down, or something and you'll get a still image of the character doing it or you'll see the other character counter the move by firmly planting their feet. You'd think a series that's a love letter to sumo could make sumo look more interesting. Sound: The actors do well enough. I can't really fault Abe Atsushi. Kumagai Kentarou, Satou Takuya or any of the other actors on their performances. However, you can't really call it great acting to be able to portray characters this generic competently. I actually really like the Fire Ground theme tune, but the rest of the music is just kind of... meh. Ho-yay: There isn't any, really. Maybe if the characters had developed relationships, it would be different. But they don't. Areas of Improvement: The element of surprise is your friend. Just have some moments where you defy expectations. They make things more interesting than if you can predict everything that's going to happen really early on. Develop the characters. Having generic characters that develop into something distinct and more complex is fine. Having generic characters that follow completely typical arcs is just boring. Take yourself less seriously. The best parts of this anime are the short, comedic scenes after the ending theme tunes. And a big part of that just comes down to the comedy being less bland than the typical story and characters. If they went a bit more comedic, the series could well be more enjoyable. Final Thoughts: If you want a very typical underdog sports work about sumo wrestling, this anime is for you. If you want any kind of originality, you might as well skip this one. I'm giving Hinomaruzumou a 5/10. It's inoffensively bland.

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