Posts Tagged ‘sofuteni’

SofuTeni
Studio: Xebec
Premiere Date: 4/ 8
Genre: Ecchi Tennis

First Impression: If Asuna were gone this could be a lot more entertaining.

At a middle school in Japan, the soft tennis team is made up of four girls: the air headed pervert Asuna, the enthusiastic but not quite talented Kotomi, the always hungry and even less talented Chitose and finally the bizarre Kurusu who enjoys wearing oversized animal masks. Togeter with their coach, they are aiming to take the national championships. If they can ever manage to get some practice in.

Good and the Bad

If this episode is an indication, this might as well be titled ‘The Perverted Asuna Show’ now. For most of the episode, everything is centered on her perverted thoughts and misunderstandings. The good news is that this is an ecchi comedy that is happy to play those notes perfectly and with the girls as part of a tennis club, there are all sorts of legitimate reasons for them to be wearing short skirts and chasing balls.

And if that’s your sort of thing, you’ve found the right series.

For what it is, SofuTeni isn’t a terrible entry into the genre, just a cliché one. It has everything that a fan could want include moe bait characters, pointless fan service comedy and requires absolutely zero mental digestion. Naturally if you’re looking for something with slightly more substance, I’m sure that I’ve already long since lost you.

Very occasionally, SofuTeni tries its best to be clever by not relying on a fantasy sequence. Occasionally there is a bright spot of predictable comedy which led to a chuckle. When Chitose, for example, can’t hit a ball tossed to her but will take an 8 foot sideways leap to capture a dumpling in mid air, that’s silly comedy I can laugh at.

Music

There’s really nothing to write home about in the music department for this series. Bland and common, nothing ever stood out for being particularly memorable. It does its job by staying in the background and selling the visual humor. After that however, it’s just simple themes that you’ve heard variations of in many other series.

Overall

A few things will have to happen before I can really get behind this series. Asuna either needs to stop talking or more attention needs to be paid to the supporting cast. Second, something has to happen to make me absolutely fall in love with these characters because right now, I’m looking for just one more reason to drop this series like a bad habit. Empty and completely fan service based, there’s nothing of substance worth picking up here.

Reposted from Ani.me

Why not? The last anime I can think of that was directly about tennis was Prince of Tennis so why not bring it back with a dash of moe?

According to the official website launch and cover of latest Comic Blade magazine, a new anime has been green lit for middle school tennis anime, SofuTeni (Soft Tennis) based off the manga by Ryo Aduchi. The ecchi sports comedy has been running since 2008 and centers on a team of junior high girls who are aiming to reach the national tennis championships while having mishaps along the way. With the website being launched, a few crew details have been revealed along with the initial announcement:

Animation Production: Xebec (Rio Rainbow Gate, To Love Ru)
Director: Ryouki Kamitsubo (Abnormal Physiology Seminar, Hidamari Sketch)
Character Design: Yuichi Ouka (To Love Ru)

Eh, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen a good sports comedy (… actually, I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a sports comedy period) so this might be worth looking at for a little while. If it’s anything like the ecchi comedy that Xebec usually tries to put out though I can see myself just as quickly dropping this one and finding something else to do with my time.

Via SaiAni