Attack No.1

It was in the early 90s, when TV stations in Germany realized that there was a market for Anime in the west, before that time we only had shows like He-Man or Saber Riders, they were fun to watch but their main focus was on fast paced action and a paper thin story. That's probably one of the reasons why I was fascinated by the tale of the courageous Mila(that was the protagonist Kozue's name in German), a fragile girl on a journey to overcome her health issues to become the best volleyball player there is. The theme was rather dark at times, so tome it was a completely different experience compared to the action packed American animation shows. That said, there was enough action to be found, I remember being quite surprised as to how interesting watching something like volleyball could be and my younger self got quite invested in the sometimes episode length volleyball matches. I never was a sports guy and watching sports events on TV felt boring and dull to me, especially if it wasn't something like car-racing for example, where at any minute there could be a fabulous crash, I didn't really think about the consequences of human life's ruined or lost by such accidents as a kid. However in Attack No.1 there were also accidents but they were much more intimate and it had a lot of "put your life on the line" scenes, like most Anime after and probably before it. I don't want to spoil too much about the story though, not that I really could as I was watching this anime almost 3 decades ago and am planning on re-watching it in the near future. So what's it all about? Kozue is a transfer student at the start of the Anime and quickly finds her way into the schools volleyball team, impressing the coach with her innate talent, that naturally brings about some rivalry with the current top dog in the team. Kozue finds herself challenged by balancing school, social life and sports from the get go. Trying to make friends at a new school and also training to make her mark as a top volleyball player, while not failing in school is no easy task after all. In the later episodes, when Kozue grows up, we also see romance unfold but I can't go into much detail here, from what I remember it was a love triangle story of sorts, nothing special but still enjoyable I guess. So, yeah, besides Kozue's injuries and her fight to be accepted by her peers, there was more than enough drama to be found. I wouldn't consider Attack No.1 to be the perfect Anime but you will probably not regret finding the time to watch a 100+ action and drama packed episodes of Kozue's way to the top. She's truly a great main character but by no means perfect which makes her struggles all the more relatable in my opinion.

As of now, Attack No 1 is rated lower than a 7. For the life of me, I can't figure out why. This was a great show that holds up well, and is even ahead of the times in certain aspects. Sure, there's some repeated tropes, but the show manages to still be fun while also having tragic moments as well. The story is simple overall. Ayuhara transfer to a new middle school, and the volleyball team notices that she has some skill. She eventually joins and they train hard in the tournaments. Her ultimate goal is the best thebest attacker in the world. There is a repeating plot point. It has an "antagonist of the arc" type of thing going on. Basically, Ayuhara would meet new people, there would be a girl that's initially cold to her, and Ayuhara would have to work around that. How can you work in a team, when one person challenges you and actively roots for your downfall? It's a common plot point, but each take is refreshing. Same as the "rival of the arc" type of thing as well. That's another repeated plot point, some random person shows up and wants to challenge Ayuhara. Yet no matter how many times these plot points are repeated, they're still fun and have a fresh take on them. I think the key is, how realistic vs how cartoonish the tropes are. Some are realistic villains and rivals. Such as a girl hating the situation and taking it out on Ayuhya, so she she's the villain, or a girl wanting to be the best so she's a rival to Ayuhara. Then there's the hilariously cartoonish aspects such as random rivals spinning in like a tornado, or a random motorcycle gang choosing violence and randomly becoming the villain. Variations of the how and the why, keep the show fresh. It also depicts situations in realistic and surreal ways. The surreal ways are usually so to Ayuhara panicking and being paranoid. So she creates fake scenarios in her head. Yet sometimes, things are so shatteringly realistic that it almost feels surreal. What do you mean people don't stay with you forever? What do you mean that bullying and hazing people can make them quit their favorite hobby? Death? Lifelong injuries making you give up your dream? Poverty keeping you from pursuing your dreams? Racism and how it intersects with poverty? Yeah, Attack No 1 explores progressive themes. Even the framing of them is progressive at times. Though they also have a fairytale view on a few things as well. I'll let the watchers fill in the blanks on that one. The only issues I have is that the romance was a bit lackluster. Though it's as if the author knew that, so they pivoted from it and formed a new one; a better romance. Still, even if the main romance got better, side romances felt like a "pair the spares" thing. The animation is old and holds up well enough, but there's a few jecking and spotty areas, and sometimes the audio doesn't link up properly. I think the ending was a bit rushed. They needed some extra time to properly wrap things up and give some follow up. Those are the things keeping it from being a masterpiece. Overall, I rate it a 9/10. The conclusion was satisfying, the characters great, even the repeated plot points felt fresh, it wasn't afraid to go there, and the anime was progressive in some aspects. I highly recommend it.

Attack No.1 is my second volleyball Anime after Haikyuu!! and my first one where all the players are girls so I was curious to see how they would handle depicting young girls at the time it came out. I find it admirable though that the manga and Anime are apparently based on the the fact that the women team of Japan won the Olympics (?) a few years prior to it's release. So this Anime is a sort of celebration for this win at the time. Once again, this Anime is very old so the artstyle and the music aren't what you would probably liketo see and hear today and the character writing is more superficial and stereotypical at times too. We have the bully who becomes the best friend of Ayuhara, our main girl, and at times the story can feel a bit ridiculous when we get to the points of extreme bullying and certain scenarios which just look a bit unrealistic at times. What I did like a lot about Attack No. 1 though is that we see Ayuhara developing her skills over a couple of years instead of just one year in high school and see how she fights and makes it big in the end. We start in the second year of junior-high-school with national tournaments and are by the end at her second year in High School where she's presenting All Japan internationally. Whilst I don't know how realistic the techniques are that they use, things like Trinity Attacks and Balloon Spikes were really fun to watch too. Older Anime easily get forgotten these days due to all the new stuff coming out each season but if you ever have time, I'd recommend trying this show out.

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