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 quote:The boys' soft tennis club is the joke of the middle school. Not only does it not win nearly as much as the girls' team, its members also come off as lazy, entitled, and just generally lame. Team captain Toma Shinjo is constantly frustrated by his teammates' behavior and things come to a head when the president of the student council announces that clubs with poor performances will no longer receive school funding. When a kid Toma knew from childhood, Maki, moves back to town and proves to have potential in sports, Toma thinks his club is saved. But Maki's got his own issues to deal with, and even if he agrees to join the team, there may not be much he can do anyway. Stars Align - or Hoshiai no Sora - is a sports/drama/slice of life/coming-of-age original show made by 8bit studio, written and directed by Kazuki Akane (Escaflowne). It's available on Funimation (Thursdays 2 pm EST). This anime is full of good boys, relatable characters and some seriously hosed up poo poo -  CONTENT WARNING for domestic abuse. It also looks brilliant - both direction and animation (Yuichi Takahashi is an Animation Director) are top-notch.Few days ago there were some allegiations of plagiarism in the show's ED. The production committee is "looking into the issue". I really hope they will properly credit the artists and resolve this peacefully because those dancing sequences are SICK. But changing the ED and pretending nothing happened seems more probable... UPDATE: It's fine now! Producers apologised for not consulting the usage of the choreography and added the dancers to the team. Now let's just enjoy a good show and anticipate all the feels and heartaches! And if you've reached the ending and are totally confused, here's a translation of director's tweet explaining behind-the-scenes and promising some continuation. update: there are two movies in production , one of them is some kind of promotional 'memorial' video, but the other one is probably the sequel. (i hope) 
macabresca fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Oct 25, 2019 21:12
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Oh there wasn't that much abuse/trauma in the most recent epi- oh. I want to like this show more but all of the suffering seems excessive at times. Every episode is just waiting for it to drop and I kind of dread it. Also I saw on twitter that the dance choreographers are credited in the ED now Centzon Totochtin fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Nov 1, 2019 |
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Nov 1, 2019 06:30
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It's sad how often in anime we see casual violence as comedy and all those Wacky Dysfunctional Families. Or, you know, suffering-porns on another spectrum. I'm really curious how will Stars Align turn out. I'm glad about those choreographers. Also, I was thinking of mentioning Akane's other works (since prob most people recognise titles, not names) but I'm not familiar with anything. He directed Escaflowne though and I heard it's good. What do you guys think?
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Nov 3, 2019 18:03
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Really enjoying this show too, although I can't help but feel that the domestic abuse stuff is laid on a little strong and at poorly placed moments.
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Nov 3, 2019 23:16
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The last episode was just lovely 
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Nov 9, 2019 22:52
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good luck in life tennis boys
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Nov 17, 2019 11:35
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I'm just gonna leave this here https://twitter.com/i/status/1195112974194753537
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Nov 17, 2019 11:54
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I do like how they're getting the most out of doubles tennis as a way of expressing and developing the characters' personalities. They've really leaned into the interplay between the partners and how they work together (or don't).
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Nov 17, 2019 12:41
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I also like how little they care that they're losing and just take an opportunity to think of new strategies and get creative with their games
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Nov 17, 2019 15:33
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Kyoko was a lot of fun this episode. She really is a charming little gremlin.
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Nov 22, 2019 16:20
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Don't you mean Mitsue? Cause the only other girl in this episode was Kamuy and she wasn't gremlin at all.
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Nov 22, 2019 19:39
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macabresca posted:Don't you mean Mitsue? Cause the only other girl in this episode was Kamuy and she wasn't gremlin at all. Mitsue is her surname.
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Nov 22, 2019 19:43
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And her name is Kanako. Everybody keeps calling her Mitsue though, so I forgot.
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Nov 22, 2019 20:06
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This week's ep had a surprisingly earnest conversation about transgenderism and other LGBTQ issues with regards to internal confusion, uncertainty, and depression.
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Nov 29, 2019 00:55
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This show reminds me of O Maidens in Your Savage Season in a funny way, the lowkey school setting, the acuity and honesty(and occasional mean pointedness)of the dialogue, the gentle themes of empathy growing between teens as they try to just have a place for themselves and figure themselves out, interspersed w the odd spasm of rip-your-heart-out intense drama. I'm liking it about as much, which is a lot. What an unexpected treat this series turned out to be.
Pootybutt fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Dec 5, 2019 |
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Dec 5, 2019 00:11
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Yeah, same. Although I enjoy this one more
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Dec 5, 2019 16:29
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Good to see Nao got better. I didn't expect that
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Dec 13, 2019 19:25
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I'm glad one of them just has embarrassingly supportive parents.
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Dec 13, 2019 19:59
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Guest appearances by Riku and Sora this week
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Dec 13, 2019 22:43
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I'm really proud of my boys. They grew so much
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Dec 20, 2019 22:58
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I'm confused about the big tennis bro referring to little brothers plural...is it going to turn out adopted boy is angry boy's brother?
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Dec 21, 2019 20:23
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Whatever it is, seems like there's going to be A Twist in the next one.
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Dec 21, 2019 21:27
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Sindai posted:I'm confused about the big tennis bro referring to little brothers plural...is it going to turn out adopted boy is angry boy's brother? That's what it looked like to me
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Dec 22, 2019 05:22
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Well. At least tennis plot got resolved. I guess.
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Dec 27, 2019 00:29
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I guess that's one way to end it. I read on Twitter that it was intended to be a 2 season show but they were informed during pre-production that it had been reduced to one season which explains a bunch of the pacing problems. Still there were a lot of uh, questionable twists and turns in the final episode.
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Dec 27, 2019 07:52
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I wish I heard about the cancellation after watching that finale. It would have been an incredible episode to behold if I wasn't constantly thinking about how all those great character arcs they set up and are continuing to set up even in that episode will likely never get the payoff they were building towards. I certainly got enough enjoyment out of the show that I don't regret watching it but man, I thought that it being a sports anime made for a difficult enough recommendation but now it's an insurmountable one.
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Dec 27, 2019 15:47
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I went in almost completely blind, I only heard the last scene is shocking but with this show it could've meant anything. And boooooy, was I surprised...
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Dec 27, 2019 16:40
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More info on what happened.. Apparently, the staff (including the director) were told it would be split-cour... and then it wasn't.
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Dec 27, 2019 17:08
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Lovely. I wonder whose decision was that. Anyway, I really hope they'll continue it somehow
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Dec 27, 2019 17:45
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im very mad about the studio being screwed over like this still glad i watched the show that ending was a wild ride before I read the news
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Dec 28, 2019 23:41
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Seems like there's a chance that the story will be finished after all. Doubt it will be in animated form though.
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Dec 29, 2019 13:40
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Finally watched the episode and  Now I'm pissed that the studio got screwed over. At least the director is still adamant about finishing the story in other ways. EDIT: https://twitter.com/hoshiaino_sora/status/1210246142317023232 In case you didn't already know, they're collecting impressions on Twitter. Leave your impressions here theGrooseofLegend fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Dec 31, 2019 |
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Dec 31, 2019 00:46
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The anime will be continued as a movie but there aren't many details yet.
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Feb 4, 2020 11:08
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quote:The Stars Align anime announced on Friday that it is producing a "special collaboration movie" and a "special fan movie." The "special collaboration movie" will involve the ED theme "Kago no Naka no Bokura wa" (We Inside a Cage) artist AIKI from Bless4 teaming up with the dancer Melochin, who provided the choreography for the ED's dance sequence. The "special fan movie" will be a "memorial" promotional video. this doesn't sound like a continuation
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Feb 7, 2020 02:39
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drat, I thought that the phrasing is a bit weird, but I assumed it must be a sequel because why would they be doing anything else?
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Feb 7, 2020 12:31
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It comes off sounding like it's the kind of thing that would try to drum up support for a continuation.
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Feb 7, 2020 15:35
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I think it's much more likely it'll be a manga or a novel, and I really hope it won't be the latter because I don't think we'd ever get a translation.
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Feb 11, 2020 22:56
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An interview with the director! It's pretty interesting and apparently there'll be a second part where he talks about the future of the show
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Mar 4, 2020 23:08
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So the ~special collaboration movie~ is out now on Youtube and it's a new dance to the ending theme! Also the dancers have shirts saying 'to be continued' in hiragana. This thread has officially become a dump for all Stars Align related information
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Mar 19, 2020 23:42
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That's pretty neat. Really hoping we'll get that sequel some day.
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Mar 20, 2020 00:00
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