Re-Main

This Anime was absolutely a charm. Been watching so many Anime recently, but this was like a fresh breath.
Absolutely loved the characters.
I wouldn't call it the best sports Anime out there, but it doesn't need to be the best. Sports might not be the best area this Anime expels at, but this Anime had a lot going for it. And they were really good.

Characters were great.
Especially the MC. They showed that MC, even though he was good, he was very flawed.
After the incident, he struggled, but he did not gave up. Other characters were also good. The helped lift each other up.
And the ... Sweet Family Moments were like really great Deserts with Cherry on top, if I say so myself.

All in all, might not be as big as other sports Anime, or put too much time into each character, this was still a wonderful and a refreshing watch. And it's Anime Original, it does not have a Manga or LN even. It does not have that much time to build such long story, but still provided a very good time.

Can't remember the last time I had so much fun watching an Anime that I completed the entire season in one day, one sitting to be exact!
MAPPA & Masafumi Nishida, please bring 2nd Season soon of this wonderful Anime.

To remain or to re-main

It’s summer season, so it’s a great time for some water ball, I mean water polo. Sport movies/series genre in general are about underdog story. It’s almost impossible to deviate from this trope. Because of this, many sport anime become predictable. RE-MAIN didn’t stray away from this trope, but to my surprise I actually enjoyed this anime more than I expected.

The reason for this is the character. The dementia aspect helped making our main character interesting and conflicting, not just within himself with also in other people around him. Although his character transition near the end was a bit rushed ... due to the runtime, I was invested and felt satisfied at the outcome. Other characters also have decent backstories, although they are more generic than the main character’s.

It took me 5 episodes to realize that RE-MAIN was animated by MAPPA. The characters have less texture than compared to other MAPPA’s works that I have watched like AOT and Jujutsu Kaisen. Still, the coloring was refreshing. Each member of the underdog water polo team has a distinct color that reflected their personality.

The animation for the water polo games was on point. I could see the field clearly and aware of the positions of the players. Each game only took one episode, but they were pretty intense and entertaining.

The opening of this anime gave me good vibe. The song and the vibrant colors of the characters and the swimming pool made me feel refreshed and calm whenever I start a new episode.

Overall, a great and different sport anime with a twist in the character arc. 8/10

This anime as a whole does not deserve more than a 7. I'm not being honest putting an 8. But the last chapter has made it so for me.

The first 7-8 chapters do not deserve more than a 6, the important event that happens made the series a 7 until chapter 11, but the last chapter.... ah!!! I loved it so much. it has made me bloom many beautiful emotions. There are many anime that I would recommend before Re-main, but if you have time and want to see a nice story of a group of students who become friends playing a sport, give it ... a try!

once again, this cour has presented yet another sports anime, and this time about water polo. Not everyone knows a lot about water polo, so it did pique my interest. Not to mention Mappa was the one animating it, so i thought wow, looks good, let's give it a try. This is what I can say:

Story: 7.4/10. A lot of sport animes, such as Haikyuu, always take up the beginning eps to explain and emphasize the individual stories of the teammates. So far they've taken up 4 episodes doing this. Not that I'm complaining, but since they used up 3.5eps in a 12ep cour, I'm ... hoping for some good pacing throughout the entire anime. Especially hoping that they don't rush the end or something.

The story does have potential though, and I like how the title 'Re-Main' is explained in the anime. It's unique name makes me think this show does have potential. Hoping that I'm not wrong for this.

Art: 9/10. I mean, sasuga Mappa. The intro is beautifully animated, and the water animation feels very real. No complaints here.

Sound: 8.9/10, but it rounds up to a 9. Water splashes are fine. I've seen a discussion about the voice actors though, saying how the mc's voice doesn't really fit his appearance. It sounds fine for me, but I do admit it may sound weird 1st time hearing it. But after the 1st ep my ears got used to it so it's fine for me now.

Character: 7.6/10. Very loveable cast, goated voice actors too. Everyone's distinct, distinguishable, and I love the chemistry between all of them. I'm just giving it a 7.6 because it's stereotypical, but everyone's likeable.

Enjoyment: 8.4/10. I'm new to water sports, and water polo is just the thing to get me interested. Besides that, it's also interesting to see how they train for the sport, and how their practices work out. With the Olympics going on right now, it's the perfect time to be learning about water polo and seeing it happen in real life.

I also really love how Mappa chose Enhypen to sing the op. The vibes match the anime perfectly, and it is a whole bop. I'm not even a kpop stan or anything, but this song might make me be one.

Overall: 7.8/10. The rivalry between our main team and the other teams seem worth watching for. I would say this gives off the same vibes as Bakuten. Really hoping they don't mess up the ending or rush it!! Might bump it up to an 8 if it gets real good.

Re-Main: the old term for "offside" in water polo, but honestly, this anime can be also said in this manner: it Re-Mains to be seen of the potential calibre of how much this show could've had, that squandered some liberties to make this show a decent one.

Paraded as one of many shows at the MAPPA Stage 10th Anniversary event, Re-Main is the brainchild of Tiger & Bunny author Masafumi Nishida, of which this not-so-young director has oversaw the anime and movie adaptations of his work in the past. And now, Re-Main is his 2nd self-directed series, and imagine someone like him has to manage all ... of these positions: Chief Director, Original Creator, Series Composer, Scriptwriter, Sound Director. That's 5 main staff roles all burdened into one for some creative control, and I feel that while Masafumi Nishida might've overworked himself to the core (as with MAPPA's inhumane work standards), with the upcoming Ex-Arm "successor" lookalike show that is Tesla Note (which is also written by this guy), I'm not sure if Nishida-san is able to cope with the backlash that was the full-on CGI abomination when the anime comes out next season in Fall (trying to futureproof if it does look like Ex-Arm, which I hope it's not).

Back to the anime, Re-Main tells the story and plot of water polo from the perspective of Minato Kiyomizu, who was a prolific water polo player in his middle school days, until a traffic accident led him to comatose and being an amnesiac. Exactly 203 days later (which I really find it very specific, anyone can tell me why), Minato is awakened, but he loses 3 years worth of his water polo memories in exchange, both skill and expertise. The challenge is that with his "newfound" brainwash of a memory, Minato remembers that he has done water polo before (at the slightest hint), and that everyone idolizes him because he was part of a winning team, so much that they tried to recruit him. Nonetheless, he would come back to water polo being the newbie veteran that needs to jog his memories every so now and then, abetted from a fellow girl athlete that challenged him to be Japan's top water polo athlete. Win, and they'd be boyfriend-girlfriend; lose, and 110,000 yen (taxes inclusive) would be paid out from Minato's hands to her. If you can't tell already, Minato has a lot of things going for him at the height of his passion for water polo garnering fame and popularity, but alas the accident would tell a different story about a handsome guy like Minato, wearing a facade that breaks all expectations and reveals their true colours.

Since this is a sports show, no doubt that the characters will have to play the most important aspect of the anime: sell their characters of their teamwork, camaraderie, and objectively their likeness reflected towards us the audience. But this is where Re-Main shows it's Achilles Heel of characters that are nothing more than one-note motivational spokespeople, while having their backstories as simple as possible to fit into the context of the entire anime. That's not to say that it's bad though, it's just that there was something missing towards the overall execution that kinda hampered my watching experience of watching so many sports shows come and gone, using them as bookmarkers of comparison. Maybe it's the idea of knowing who is your rival, should at least help to have a goal for yourself, that the anime failed to focus on what's important at certain scenes.

Starting off with the MC Minato himself, the first thing you'd see him of is the cheerful and innocent young boy look who kinda resembles the mentality of a 6th grader. And you'd be right because of the loss of his memories that exhibits his youthful self to others. Turn things up a notch, and you'd see a darker side of Minato, which is nothing like who he was initially. And take everything that I said about the "Light" Minato and turn it on its head to see a boy who is quite proud, arrogant, spiteful and full of ego because of his accomplishments, thinking that it's all a one-man show (which is painfully, obviously not). Minato, maybe you should learn this adage not to "take things too far". Minato's "stalker" Eitarou Oka is a spirited, bubbly boy who is like a walking encyclopedia about all things Minato related and not to mention water polo as well. But like Minato himself, Eitarou bases on lies and deceit just to follow the icon around in his tracks and acts whatever is appropriate to be like the water polo ace in every regard.

I'll touch on the other players in a lightning round (because there isn't much to say about them):
- The fellow Yamanami High players of Captain Jo Jojima, Shugo Amihama, Takekazu Ejiri, Yutaka Babayaro Inomata and Yoshiharu Ushimado, along with Minato and Eitarou. Captain Jo has to bear the beginning grunt of recruiting members into the water polo team. Shugo has a beef with his older brother, Shogakukan's Keita Kakihana, because he always felt that as much as he is a fellow sibling, he's also a rival that Shugo looked up to in swimming, before Keita's tonal shift to go water polo broke his momentum and gave up swimming altogether. It's the efforts of Jo and the rest that brought him back to water polo. There's the hot-tempered Ejiri, the sweet-making Inomata and the soft-spoken Ushimado, and that fits the 7-men water polo team.
- The "rivals" that are all against Minato because of his expertise: the Rikka Academy's "Hokuriku Three" of a hilarious trash losing joke team (Takeshi Toyama, Akihisa Fukui, Norimichi Ishikawa) and the serious contenders from Minato's former rival team Shogakukan High (Riku Momosaki, Koki Toguchi, Akimitsu Bizen) which gives them a real challenge.
- The girl at the very beginning, Chinu Kawakubo, she's just there to fill in where the plot breaks are to "smoothen" relations between herself and Minato. Like she's a LITERATE plot device, and that kind of characterization is always a no-no when it comes to AniManga, especially an original series like this one. To say the least, she acted out of sympathy and spite towards Minato, so she's no love interest or anything. What a sad thing to squander her character like that.

I'll give credit where it's due: whether you'd think that MAPPA is turning into the modern Madhouse where it used to be quality over quantity (and now the other way around), you cannot deny that there're some good production artistry within Re-Main. All of these are still heralded by Masafumi Nishida, who devoted himself to research about water polo, even the effects that you see in the anime are all actually based off from real-life water polo sports, add in the effects for some colorful visuals that's culminated in the show's OP. MAPPA always pumps out some good animation and visuals, and Re-Main adds itself into the catalogue of being artistic more than anything for a nice touch.

Music, top-notch. The experimentation of K-Pop bands resurging in anime has been a popular choice to break away from the usual J-Pop stuff that becomes more stale overtime, and look no further than ENHYPEN's debut into the J-Pop scene with the OP song "Forget Me Not" I find it quite the fascination that while I'm not so much of a K-Pop hypebeast fan or anything, this inclusion (which is slowly becoming the norm) is a great one to diversify the music scene in Japan and for good reason. But to me, Shuugo Nakamura's ED was a pure winner because of one main reason: it's pellucid tones and lyrics (which foreshadows Minato's character development in the entire show) which makes the song a lot more enjoyable, one of my absolute favourite EDs of the season worth the listening repeat loop. In the backdrop of Summer shows of pretty mediocre OSTs, Re-Main managed to stick the landings for both songs.

I don't know about you, but while Re-Main isn't bad (or good for that matter), both the base and its foundations are quite shallow-thinking if you sum the anime up altogether as a whole. It's interesting if you're a pure Yaoi fangirl to gleam at the guys' naked 6-pack bodies with sporty underwear to cover privates, but as a sport, Re-Main falls short of something that is prevalent in most sports shows: consistency and good build-up, not rando situations that feel off and doesn't transition well with the core themes of the show. It's great for eye-balling naked bodies, but it's not on a story-character level, and the potential was there that sadly didn't get developed much. A shame, really.

Look, I absolutely love sports anime, so seeing Re-Main, a show about water polo of all things, I was so excited for some fun, tense, and hype stuff that even I enjoyed, but in the end, I was ultimately let down by some of the most outrages bullshit plots and *some* terribly boring or basic characters. Re-main has been a pretty forgettable experience as an anime.



Plot/Story: 4/10 "So how do we make an interesting show WITHOUT any of the steps to get there or making it airtight whatsoever", well just do what Re-Main does. Basically, the main character gets in a fucking car crash, lands ... himself in a coma for about 200 days or so, and on top of that just to the cherry on top, he loses 3 YEARS WORTH of memories. Which personally by my standards is a really big thing that should have a decent weight on the character's family and himself but no. They really just gloss over it all and honestly, I feel like it was brought up to some level of importance and does make some impact, but they all weep over it for like half an episode, and then oh it's straight back to water polo. They could have done this so much better, at least some resistance from a family member may be being tormented over almost losing their child to make it for real in a sense. but in the end, it feels like they put the most minimal effort into it


Characters: 5/10 honestly not much to say here, the main character isn't that bad whatsoever, and neither are any of the other characters, they all have something they want to strive for and work towards, and a really like that because it shows some level of care (unlike in some places). But this is where the compliments end for the cast, half the team at least which there are 7 of are the blankest, basic dead characters I've seen in a while. if you go look up the tall 'cant play basketball' guy, his description is that he's a gentle and soft person, mother fucker they are all like that seriously there's nothing to hate about them as people but come on something juicy at least. hit me hard with some of these guys. sadly on like 3 of them did, the main protagonist, the coach/senpai of the team, and the guy who really wants to surpass his brother.


Art: 8/10 Mappa puts in work, the strongest point of this show IMO, Never ever thought was per say lacking in some points, so good job Mappa, very well done here truly.


Sound: 7/10 Does just fine, sound doesn't really affect an anime for me unless it is actually unbearable at some points, but almost 95% of the time it honestly does not pose a problem at all. This is no different.


Overall: 4/10 I was hoping for so much more from Re-Main but it's not a manga-based piece,its a collab with Mikasa the sporting goods brand so I guess I shouldn't have hyped myself up, but I did and were here now. and who knows maybe this opinion is subject to change but this is how I feel currently at this point in time

i really do not understand why people avoid watching sports anime because they dont like or they havent played that particular sport the anime is about.

Re-main has been a little slow but very decent anime till now and now that its catching up some pace from episode 4 it seems that it will become even more enjoyable from here on out.
The anime only has 12 eps for this season and maybe it will get renewed for new season depending upon its success in west and especially in japan.

Other than all that the animation seems good ,it is not very detailed but its very clean.
... voice acting is also decent nothing special in this depeartment.

So overall I would recommend you to definitely watch it ,in my opinion this anime has been better than most of the animes which started airing this season like detective is aready dead ,aquotope, etc.

Re-main started as a great show but ended up being the most generic drama in existence. Be warned that this show tricks you to think that it's a sports show, but it's a drama with water polo wrapped around it.

The pilot episode was very good. The amnesia that Minato suffers is cheesy, but the pilot executes the pacing and sets the tone of the story. Minato loses his memories, goes through rehabilitation, gets accepted to a new school, and get introduced to two to three new characters, and everything seems quite natural. You aren't overloaded with information, but a lot of events happen. The second ... episode is not terrible either. It follows up with the pilot episode by introducing Minato's potential love interest as well as introducing Minato's motivations, mental fragility, and his eventual caving into playing water polo again.

That's where the magic ends. There's no practice that's meaningful. There's no rival teams other than Minato's former school to hype games up. In fact, there are only two official games that the water polo team participates in anyways. There's some stategy, but it goes nothing more than "PASS TO ME!!" You know peoples' struggles through flashbacks and backstories rather than them suffering defeat in official games and trying to improve. There's a hint of some rivalries everywhere, but in reality, it's all telling and no showing.

In fact, I have to believe that this show's writers had no one in their staff that was actually knowledgeable about water polo or swimming. I'm no water polo expert, but I know a bit of swimming and just some damn common sense. Oka gives a calculation about Amihama's 100 meter freestyle time. He states that it's 52.77 seconds, and so naturally, his 150 meter time would be 52.77 times 1.5, which is 1:19. Think about it for just a moment here. Amihama's 100 time is 52.77, so naturally, his 150 meter time is 1:19. Obviously fucking not. Amihama's 52.77 time is only achieved by sprinting 4 laps. If he had to add an extra 2 laps, his lap time would be slower since he has to accomodate swimming extra laps. I'm using a hyperbole as an example, but if Amihama could maintain a 52.77 pace for the 400 meter freestyle event, he would be 10 seconds faster at 3:30 than the current 400 meter world record of 3:40 set by Paul Biedermann.

His 52.77 time by the way, would still blow the current world record for high school swimming out of the water, literally. Roman Jone's 100 yard freestyle world record time is 49.75 seconds. Converting Amihama's 52.77 100 meter freestyle time from SCM (meters) to 100 yard freestyle time would be 47.54. Yeah, Amihama's just casually beats the world record holder by a WHOLE 2.21 seconds. Let alone beat his brother, Amihama's the undisputed world champion of high school swimming. Yet, he only placed third for the 100 meter freestyle in Japan nationals. Isn't that strange? Doesn't it feel like the writers didn't even bother figuring out what was reasonably realistic for swim times, and how swimming more laps would obviously mean a longer time per lap? These writers probably never swam in their life, which is fine, since they're writers, but they also didn't do any due dilliegence in researching how swimming or water polo work. It's pathetic.


The next 4-5 episodes are generic club activities with forced drama. In each episode, I was thinking, "which insecure club member is it this time?" I was surprised that the show didn't go round-robin and go through everyone's dramatic past with the likes of Babayaro. Everything about the club is forced, and you get to know characters only through the cringy drama that they go through in the present with the current club members, and the dramatic past they had in the past. More times than not, the episodes rarely had a focus on water-polo and more on the drama that was playing out.


But it gets even worse. Generic club activities and drama turns into even more drama. It's funny that the writers are self aware that the show is painfully predictable and cheesy by having Minato create a self-fulfilling prohpecy, joking about how predictable dramas love to have the amnesia-ridden protagonist remember everything at a critical moment. Guess what happens?


*spoilers ahead


Then the show just becomes a bunch of drama, teenage angst, and edgy bouts of anger by Minato. This is very normal, actually. Minato's circumstances are pretty crappy, and his dreams of becoming Japan's best is shattered. Even Chinu was just gaslighting him. The problem is, I though this was a damn sports show? Hello? I did not expect to watch a cheesy drama. If I wanted to do that, I would fucking watch a cheesy drama that does a much better job than this show does. Like wow, Chinu actually hates Minato! Wow! Minato was an asshole or something! Wow, Minato coincidentally loses his memories AGAIN. WOW, he's standoffish to his current teammates. Wow!! Minato's world is falling apart, as if everything in this show was fabricated in order to have some shitty drama.

The animation is just dreadful in games. While out of games, everything is pretty normal, but the game CGI is glaringly obvious, and there's absolutely no effort put into framing any shots and having any meaningful perspective of games. It was cheap, and it looked cheap. When people swam through watter, it sure as hell didn't feel like they were gliding through it. There aren't any amazing scenes at all, and half the games are slide-show decks. I expected nothing less from MAPPA.

Chinu's the most miserable plot device and victim of the show's attempt to be as dramatic as possible. She's only there because she simultaneously serves as a love interest, serves the dramatic past that she had with Minato, and finally, as a info-dump to explain Minato who he was previously. There's absolutely no characterization or depth to her since there was no screen time other than when she's relevant to progressing the story forward. This show is a damn farce.

(spoiler-free)
This show is one of the strangest sports anime I’ve ever seen. Calling it just a bad show feels wrong somehow. And don’t get me wrong- this show is not good, but there’s just something so, so weird about it. It can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. It seems like they want to tell a more serious story but can’t figure out how to. None of the characters are likeable, and the show has a bad habit of retroactively making itself worse. The worst example of this is the final scene, which is so genuinely unsettling in its implications that I have ... no idea what to make of it.

Let’s start with the plot. In the first episode, we are introduced to our main character, Minato. He used to be a star water polo player, but on the way back from one of his games he was in a traumatic car accident that put him in a coma and caused him to lose several years of his memory. He has no memory of ever playing water polo, nor any particular love for it. In addition to that, his body has been affected by the year-long coma, and he isn’t in any condition to play a high-intensity sport like water polo. When he’s asked by his family if he intends to keep playing, he straight out tells them no. Of course, we as the audience know he’s going to get back into it- it’s right there on the cover! But the way that this happens is… not great.

Minato gets back into water polo not because he wanted to, but because some random girl tells him that before his accident, they agreed if he doesn’t become Japan’s best water polo player, he will owe her a lot of money, and she’s going to hold him to it. Putting aside the fact that no sane person would hold Minato to this deal he doesn’t remember making and is physically incapable of fufilling, this is dumb and creates further plot-related problems down the road. It takes away Minato’s agency as a character- he’s not taking up his old hobby because he chose to, he’s doing it because some rando is convinced he owes her money.

As for the sports aspect of this sports anime, they do the same thing every other sports anime does (school club with no members gets all the members they need except one, the guy they recruit has some baggage related to the sport, they give him group therapy for an episode and the show moves on), but the issue is that they’re… REALLY bad at water polo. Like, genuinely terrible, and they don’t ever get better. On one hand, I’m glad they didn’t try to make us believe this group of total amateurs has a real shot at winning a national tournament, but it’s also a bit frustrating watching them struggle to tread water eight episodes in. At one point they lose a practice match against a middle school team, and they take it embarrassingly hard.

The real issue with this show isn’t the water polo, though. It’s how every single character is an absolutely irredeemably awful person.

Multiple characters in this show take advantage of Minato’s condition, lying to him about past events or holding him responsible for things he has no memory of doing. Without getting into spoilers, the girl I mentioned before reveals something later on that completely ruins the show retroactively and also just makes her seem like a terrible person. One of the characters on the water polo team is, genuinely, one of the most unlikable and disgusting characters I’ve seen in a while. Don’t get me wrong- I love shithead morally grey anime boys as much as the next guy, but he is so out of place in this show. His actions feel too real, and he is never framed as anything but a sweet guy who might just be a little misguided in his attempts to make friends. He comes off as such a manipulative little toad that I genuinely had to get up and take a walk to calm down at one point.

The team constantly feels like it’s on the verge of falling apart. Nearly everyone has a token “I’m quitting the team” moment, but they never feel properly resolved. These moments don’t feel like road bumps they have to overcome as a group, they feel like wedges driving the characters further apart. It’s not even fun to watch them interact, they barely have any chemistry.

The final scene addresses a new aspect to the plot that was always there, but the show was carefully avoiding addressing directly. I don’t think the writers meant to retroactively turn their sports anime into a borderline psychological horror, but they sure did. After the final episode, I had to spend a few minutes just sitting in front of my screen, processing the implications of the protagonist’s final line. I have never been made so uncomfortable by a sports anime before.

Overall, I really can’t recommend this show. It can’t decide what it wants to be, and in its confusion it creates a surprisingly heavy plot that it simply cannot handle properly. I know that everyone has different tastes and are entitled to their own opinions, but I genuinely struggle to understand why there are people who like this show. If my description piqued your curiosity in any way, I would honestly just tell you to save your time and read a plot summary. There are a lot of hidden gem sports anime out there, but this is not one of them.

So, i finaly watched Re-Main.
I was looking forward to this show but just could not find the motivation and time to watch it.
In the end im glad i actualy watched it instead of letting it rot in my plan-to-watch.

I was doubting weather to give this show a 9 or an 8 but this was not due to an outstanding plot or outstanding characters but rather my own enjoyment, i will come back to this later on.

About the plot, its about our protagonist becoming the junior high waterpolo champion of Japan after which he gets into an car accident and loses the last 3 ... years of his memory.
When he regains consciousness (about 2/3ths of a year later) he is faced with friends who he does not know and is also burdend with the image of him being a waterpolo champion which he just isnt after his accident.
This premise was good but the execution was meh. It feeld a bit like Minato is manipulated back into waterpolo by Chinu for about 22000 Yen (2000 or so euro) this just makes it feel cheap it would be better if Minato was trying to build a normal school life and then regain his passion after watching waterpolo. Plot wise ill give it a 5.

Characters, I dont know what to say here the characters dont realy leave a deep impression on you even tough every episode in the begining of the serie was basicly im quiting for reason xyz and the rest of the team trying to make him stay with every ep being another character trying to get out. Ill give the characters a 7.

Sound some people might like it but is wasn't anything particularly notecing for me, which tbh is not bad the sound is average not bad not good, its just there. Ill give the sound a 6.

The art, im a bit split on it some parts where solidly done amazing animation and or clearly drawn what they where trying to express. Some parts however where not great to be frank. The 3d parts where also quite painfull especialy the field shots where it everyone was just 3d animated. I get why they might have done it but it just looks off. All in all ill give it a 7.

Now last part my enjoyment, why do i still rate this show highly? Well i used to play waterpolo and this show had a ton of moments which where way to relatable because i have actualy experienced those moments it just hits diffrent for me. At some points i was screaming hoping the players would move as i wanted or swim faster. It felt like i was actualy spectating a match and honestly the feeling of wanting to jump into the pool and play the game was so nostalgic for me. And i will give the show a lot of bonus points for giving me this feeling of wanting to play again.

But saying that there were plenty of moments that just felt off. I want to go ep by ep and just point out weird things(and also good things). That I noticed when watching so the next section will be SPOILER-extravaganza, in this section ill just point out specific things i liked or think are wrong. Ill put a disclaimer here this show is Japanese and im not so it can be that in Japan they just play under diffrent rules and or im misremembering stuff. Ill try to be specific and thus ill ad in the ep and time of what im trying to point out. The timings might not be acurate if the version you watched war crammed down or had something extra so take the timings as indicators.

======Spoilers======
Ep1--
at 18:30 Oki commes up to Minato asking about waterpolo. I find this to be a bit weird since doesnt Oki understand that Minato just lost 3 years of memories thats a ton of school work he has to re do also Minato has to get his life back up and runnign so it would be quite understandable that Minato just does not have the time to spend on playing waterpolo.
this bacticly contunues around 21:30 it just werids me out, let Minato rebuild his life and see if he still wants to play dont chase him for it.

The sequence at 22:30 (which continues into ep 2 till 6:05) is just dumb. In this sequence Minato is basicly manipulated into playing again what would have been better is if he had seen his old teammates play or something other that would reignite his passion to play. Also why does he even trust her for all he knows she is just making up an amount of money to scam you. He should have just walked away from Chinu.

Ep2--
7:10 The fact that Joe put out those flyers, like that just would not fly. Joe should know that Minato had an accident or wasnt playing, since Minatos teammates are plastered on basicly every wall but mysteriously Minato isnt on those flyers like Joe you should know Minato might not be that good anymore.

14:10 Joe says that keeper is the only thing you can train when your alone which is weird since how are you supposed to become a good keeper if there is no one to throw balls at you? like sure you could do the stamina and jumps ect. but keeping is about keeping balls out of the goal if there is no one to throw them then well.. It would be better if he said that he trained to be a regular player since you can train that on your own.

15:00 its weid that Oki throws Minato under the bus here, like he clearly knows that Minato just spend 2/3ths of a year in bed no matter how amazing where your muscles are they will not survive a bedstay that long.

16:40 The water apparantly is dangerous? Like at 11:48 they made it clear that they use wetsuits when the water is too cold. Allright so if the water is dangerously cold then why not use the wetsuits? (they will not be using wetsuits and will not even mention them in the rest of the show, so its just a bit weird that they got mentioned in the first place. Also there are 6 dudes still on solid ground atleast one of you can fish up Minato if he actualy gets into trouble.

17:03 Yes a waterpolo ball is surprisingly big, lightweight, slippery and hard.

17:16 Im going to nitpick, the fact that Minatos shoulders are out of the water is unrealistic. It takes quite a bit of effort in getting anything below your neck out of the water on a consistend basis, and Minato who doesnt even remember waterpolo should not be this much out of the water. This also aplies to Eijiri, since this is probably Eijiris first time playing in water.

17:39 Got to give credit here, since Minato knows nothing of waterpolo his first instinct in keepign himself afloat would be this peddling. You can also see him peddle in shots at 17:23 and 17:37 its such a trivial point but its done beautifully. Why should you not peddle like that? well its because peddling does not keep you stable Minato should be going up and down like a bouy. This is in part why i hate the shot at 17:16 because Minato should either barely be keeping his head above the water or be going up and down quite some bit.

at 18:00 Minato is going to use both his hands, he should be sinking like a brick when he does this since you use your hands to create additional upward thrust so taking both your hands and trying to throw a ball should sink him. But instead he remains steady and even rises a bit out of the water.

18:15 beautiful jump, but then a bit later why is Oki impressed? did he think that lowly of Joe?

19:23 just me nitpicking Minato without using his armes going that far out of the water is just so unrealistic lol.

19:27 Yes cramp hurts like hell got to give credit here XD

19:37 beautiful, just beautiful. I love this shot. In waterpolo you can push off from the sides so this technique lets you push off without a wall. this technique is also used when jumping out of the water in 18:15 altough they didnt bother to explain it. Also Eijiri does not know how to do this since this is his first time playing, i like that tiny detail.

Ep3--
Basicly this entire ep is just to convince Amihama to join and well he has his own reasons to not join and they probably should net be as persistend and just look elsewhere lol

17:08 That should hurt lol, it should be pretty obvious how to dive right? Or is it just me thinking that everyone inately knows how to get into the water without hurting themselfs?

Also side note for this ep since they arnt telling you it. But a standard swimmingpool is 25 meters by 12,5 meters so yes they can do 25 meters in one lap on the long side of the pool.

19:57 nice technique. (they dont teach you this in waterpolo) Also i want to note that Amihama is probably used to an olympic sized swimmingpool which is atleast 50 meters long. So hes doing a lot more turns and push offs which should improve his speed compared to his personal record.

at 20:03 you can see how much a good puch off can do basicly a dive or push off should be able to carry you 8 a 12 meters in a couple seconds, which is a lot faster then when you try and swim it instead.

at 20:51 you can see Ushi trying to claw at the water, keep your fingers together so you can peddle with them and get more thrust out of them. Its weird that no one metnioned it to him since it can help your speed.

21:09 those last 2 centimeters to the edge of the pool are allways the hardest love that small detail.

Ep4--
8:05 decent explaination ofcourse there is a whole lot more, but this is the case with every sport. Minor nitpick but the goal does not have to float there are goals you can plugg into the sides of the pool, maybe this is just a Japan thing? But floating goals take up like 2ish meters so this limits the play area to about 20 meters instead of the standard 25.

8:11 i havent actualy seen a player formation like that the generic setup is 3:3 3 players somewhere inbetween 2 a 5 meters from the goal and the other 3 anywhere between de middle and 7 meters from the goal (i dont know the exact location since there are not that many distance markations on the field lol), again might be a Japan thing. Also that magnetic bord brings back memories lol.

8:40 i never did the eggbeater on pavements lol but it gets the point across.

8:49 is a good shot of the eggbeater in action. And right after see how everyone has dificulty in keeping their shoulders above water? Thats how it looks when your not doing it properly but practice makes perfect.

9:20 i never practiced with weights like that and i would not recomend doing it especialy for beginers like Ushi, Baba, Eijiri and Amihama. What might be better is just holding a ball above your head it sounds easy but keep it up for a minute or 2 you will start to feel your legs lol.

9:35 might be me but why was the swimmingpool build on like the 5th floor? a pool is heavy as hell so the unerlying structure better be beefy.

10:15 i know the feeling XD

11:25 Ill just make a note here about why you would want to be out of the water with your shoulders in the first place. When throwing the ball you will use your entire upper body or atleast that is how you are supposed to do it. Since water give a lot more resistance then air you want to get your arm, shoulder and upper body out of the water (as best as you can) so you are free to put all your energy into the ball so it will go faster, instead of putting your enery into moving your arm through water.

16:10 it looks as if they have a toothache lol.

16:36 His statement of dont barf actualy makes sense since if you eat too much before a match you will feel bloated, combine this with the fact that you will drink a sip or 2 of chlorinated water so make sure not to stuff yourself before a match.

18:00 i googled this one lol, Hokuriko is a subregion in japan and contains the prefects of Toyama, Ichikawa and Fukui.

Side note before they start the match, its customary to check if everyone cut their nails since people will be clawing away at eachother it is important for every player to have short nails its weird that they didnt show this maybe in Japan you can play with long nails? (Same goes for later eps btw)

19:10 the traffic cones mark the 2 meter 5 meter (weirdly enough they use 3 cones i dont know the meaing behind the middle one in this situation), also the cone marking the middle is missing.

20:50 amihama grabs the ball and then casualy lifts it up to throw, if you do this in a real match the opponent who was gunning for the ball will quite literly be on you, so what you should do it just shove the ball to the second or third player who sould be a meter or 4 behind you.

20:56 This is a bit weird as there seems to be no contact between Oki and the kid when Oki drops the ball. So its weird that a foul was called.

21:16 Ushi letting his guy go it a rookie mistake and someone should have told him to chase after your guy. And well why you should chase your guy is explained not in words a couple sec after the fact.

21:30 we use goals with a rubber wall at the back so if someone throws a ball into our goal is will make a boom sound, it would have sounded a lot more dramatic if they had done that.

Ep5--
15 sec it says you cant punch the ball, i didnt think there would be a rule like this. As far as i know you can youch or throw the ball with your entire body and its does not matter weather you hold the ball with a flat hand or punch it. But do mind that if you start swinging your legs or fists around the arbiter might mistake that for you trying to punch or kick someone and there is a severe penalty on that kind of behaviour.

Also side note but since they are playing against grade schoolers the rule where your team can only hold the ball for 30 seconds is probably not used since you cant expect children to switch from defence to offence (and actualy setting up a proper attack) in under 30 seconds.

45 sec it says you are allowed to grab onto swimwear, i was under the impression that was not allowed but well the arbitter cant see everything lol. So people will hold you down there. It does happen that your swimwear gets pulled of so this is the reason most waterpolo men wear 2 speedo's just in case one gets lost. Also an additional point this is also why waterpoloers dont wear jammer's (the swimmingpants Amihama wears) and swimshort's beacuse this provides extra fabric for your opponent to grab onto. Also women dont wear bikinis in waterpolo since such a flimsy thing will quite literly be ripped off, women instead wear a bathingsuit (the one chinu wore when looking at our team) which you cant rip off.

1:05 Yes 12 yearolds can be ferocious lol, also Minato is holding the ball the opponent should be drowning him atm not pushing him, also about this opponent he is holding both hands out of the water you cant do that as a player.

1:43 The kid is defending with the wrong arm. And Minato is just twidling his thumbs lol

1:55 idk whos responsibility it was for defending player 8 but that guy is nowhere to be seen lol.

2:32 Eijiri catching with one hand and throwing with another is probably a nod to his baseball past which i appreciate. but he should have learned by now that you catch and throw with the same hand. Also long distance shots usualy dont work since the keeper has plenty of time to anticipate the ball so throwing the ball at that range is just wasting it.

5:10 yes a loss can sour the mood quite a bit but i guess its the same in every team sport.

5:20 looking at the distance between defender en attackers, there was plenty of space to pass the ball also it seemed like a 3v1 so you should have easaly outplayed that one defender, and lastly why is the defender holding up his arm? is he blocking the way to Jupiter?

6:37 "we just lost to gradeschoolers" i googled it again and they should be 15 a 16 years old the grade schoolers are probably 11 or 12 years old so there isnt that much of an age gab tbh.

6:45 Yes you should seriously be looking for an 8th player, since its exhausting to play an match so getting a reserve who you can switch out in times of need is supper handy. Also its bound to happen that one of you is sick or late or injured or removed by the arbitter (it happends when you do 3 severe fouls or if you punched someone) if you dont have an 8th player when that happens you will be playing a permanent 6v7 until the end of the match, so getting an 8th player is a pretty big deal.

7:33 see my point in ep4 16:36 ^^

7:39 if you had let go of the ball he would be making a foul also letting go of the ball isnt the same as giving it to the enemy. Place the ball infront of you away from the opponent.

The sequence at 9:40 is a bit creepy, you can judge this yourself lol. Also im under the impression that the team had so many reserve players that Oki never got the chance to play. but if a team has that many reserve players its better to just establish a new team and place them in a lower league. This way more people can play so no one is an eternal bench warmer. also reserve players are utilised in waterpolo since the sport is quite tiring it is common for everyone to play atleast a minute or 2 per match even if the team brings 7 reserve players (the maximum number of players a team may bring is 14 so 7 players 7 reserve). If Oki was an eternal benchwarmer i think he would be like the 8th reserve player(?) so it would be better to establish another team but i guess Japan just works diffrently.

12:34 Yes this is basicly how far you want to get out of the water when shooting at the goal.

14:35 getting the weight above your head is nice and all but you will need to strech your arms not have them be bendy, this is just so it increases the difficulty of holding the weight.

18:50 This is just me but i hate Mikasa balls, because they are quite smooth and have little to no grip so they would always slip out of my hand XD, it might just be that every mikasa ball i ever handles was just old and worn.

19:30 This, putting in more effort allways gives better results. I like this sequence since it just highlights why Minato was so good he put in a ton of effort to get there ofcourse it would seem like it was genetic or something since a lot of practice took place at home.

20:05 This is kind of a plot hole, since i have pointed out a lot of simple mistakes that should have been vetted out by either Oki (who was on a top team and did train with the top team) or by Joe (who played this game alone for a couple years)

Ep6--
48 sec Baba is blocking with the wrong hand. Also im going to say it now but they keep wearing blue throughout this series, in waterpolo you switch between white caps and coloured caps (colour does not matter aslong as it isnt white or red the generic colour is blue) Home team plays in white and the away team plays in a coloured cap. Maybe this practice is diffrent in Japan?

1:13 Minato should be cosplaying a submarine atm since hes just casualy holding the ball.

4:25 The shampoo prank lol, its these small details that this show brings that realy make me want to keep watching, i will not be mentioning most of them since this "review" is allready getting way to long and i stil have 6 more eps to go.

6:47 is this a real worry? I havnt watched many amnesia stories so i would not know.

9:20 swimming 8 Km in 3 hours sure you can do it but i would expect that Ushi, Baba, Eijiri and Minato to be basicly dead after those 3 hours.

9:54 Just stopping the ball straight up will make it bounce away fro myour hand to catch it you need to make your arm give way, this way your arm is allready in position to throw the ball once your one with catching it. (also this point might be unnesasary since it might have just been the angle at which we are looking at Oki)

10:09 It happens and it will sting a bit but its not that big of a deal to take a shot from the ball atleast its better then getting a soccerball in your face.

11:40 Ushi wanting to keep up with his teammates is relatable, please keep it up Ushi you can do it!

As for the rest of the episode they just try to build Ushi's confidence and this is one of the shows highlights for me atleast.

Ep7--
20 sec i think he means concrete? asphalt is the blackstuff they use op highways and roads.

1:04 here Baba is blocking with the correct arm.

7:35 that backshot is beautiful

21:20 Yeah its possible this can happen after a loss especially when its a game that you should not have lost. Still doesnt excuse you for being an ass.

Ep8--
Is just a solid episode it fits in with the logic that was built uit in other episodes.

Ep9--
The first 11:50 minutes are just an continuation of Ep 8 you get to know why Minato is the way he is and also why he doesnt want to play anymore its solid and it works in the story.

17:35 Minato getting his memories back is probably the best thing that happend to this team since he can actualy guide them (something that Oki should have done tbh), its also good to see Minato failing, and not just having a power up because he got his memories back.

18:35 they are allready keeping their shoulders dry on a consistent basis before Minatos feedback lol this might have been a better point if they werent allready doing it.

22:00 i count 20 players, since the maximum number of players on one team is 14 it must mean that shoukakugan has 2 teams so its weird that Oki didnt get to play even on the weaker team.

Ep10--
3:50 finaly a bit of structure in their training scedule, it is good to have everyone focus on points where there is still room for improvement, alltough Amihama and Oki on swimming? i would put them on passing or shooting since they should allready have the stamina to go for a couple rounds.

4:10 its better to have them learn how to defend, just keeping your hand up is very passive and passive wont give you the ball.

6:35 blocking with the wrong arm.

the training sequence is solid altough they only focus on stamina and strenght they dont seem to be doing any game practice.

Ep11--

4:55 i allready made a remark about Amihama's jammer in Ep 5, they dont restrict your movement at all tbh.

Again the side note its weird that no one checked if everyone cut their nails, additional note in official matches there are allways 2 arbiters you will see them a bit later in this ep.

5:30 The periods being 8 min long is a bit weird for me personaly since i only played 5 min and 6 min long periods, i allways thought 8 minutes was only for the olympics. Also im guessing here but they should be able to call for atleast one Time out, to change strats and or take a small breather during the game. You usualy cant call for a time out in a 5 min game but you are able to do so in a 6 min game so im guessing that you should also be able to call for a timeout in an 8 min game.

6:00 the game potentialy being a hour long might sound odd but it realy depends on the arbitter if there are a lot of fouls the game will be stopped a lot, also if the arbitters disagree on a penalty they will start discussing it ammong themselfs the game will be stopped for this ofcourse but it can realy add to the match lenght, so a match that should only last 32 minutes could take an hour or maybe 2 if your realy unlucky, ofcourse the opposite is also true some games there are barely any fouls so the game will be done a lot faster.

6:03 you can actualy touch the bottom this is ofcourse only possible if the pool isnt too deep. You can stand on the bottom of the pool when you dont have the ball, altough pushing off from the floor is forbidden. And yes you can play waterpolo in pools that are only 1 meter deep, even during the game you can stand on the bottom alsong as you dont have the ball and dont push off, about the pushing off you can actualy do this aslong as the arbitters doesnt see you doing it :p

6:10 yes the game wont start until both sides have 7 players in the water.

6:44 here are the 2 arbitters (one on each side) you can also see the 2 meter and 5 meter marks as the coloured zones. I am however missing a middle marker.

7:00 That is an dumb strat tbh, if all 6 of you are around Minato then that just means the 5 of you are free to do whatever you please, so Amihama and Eijiri should just be swimming to the goals and take potshots at it lol. Also with 6 players around Minato it also means he can kick and just be very annoying to the 6 of you. Its a shame that this anime does not show the underwater gameplay as much as it should, i recomend you search on youtube for "Waterpolo ladies underwater" those vids will show you the true meat and bones of this sport the underwater gameplay. (Also for if you are wondering why look up the ladies? Its because ladies are a lot more ferocious underwater then men are.)

7:10 you can see Minato being pushed around a bit but honestly he should be pushing and pulling all 6 of them. Dont just stand there Minato do something lol.

7:35 this is just where experiance shows the opponent knows the clock is about to run out and our noob team isnt paying attention to it.

The following sequnce is just our team getting outplayed, our team just isnt reacint fast enough and isnt following their target. This is more about not ever having actualy practised offence and defence. Also the crowd is awfully quiet in real life the crowd will loudly inform you that you should be chasing your opponent XD, same goes for the coach but then again the coach doesnt relay understand the game.

9:10 Ushi should not realy be so sad, the opponent is clearly outplaying him, if you are getting outplayed make sure someone will take up that slack.

9:20 this i want more of this, also this is very tame underwater gameplay lol

9:38 our pro Minato is blocking with the wrong arm XD

9:45 Baba should be all over this dude giving him that much space to work with is just asking for trouble

9:54 love this strat altough in the areal view there seems to be way too much space between the one Amihama is chasing and nr12, when screening you want to physicly block your opponent from following and yes expect your opponent to try and keep on swimming.

9:58 Ushi just looking at a passing enemy is such a rookie mistake Amihama should be shouting out to him that he should follow nr9.

10:00 Baba should be all over this dude the fact that he can leasurly hold the ball without him cosplaying a submarine is just beyond me, then again they did not practise defending so :/

10:13 here you can see the point i wanted to make at 7:00 Amihama and Eijiri can just go around and get a 1v1 with the keeper, we know they can throw a decent shot so why arnt they trying atleast?

10:18 yesits not legal to punch someone thats why you kick its far less conspicuous ;)

10:30 someone should be on nr7's ass the fact that he can pick up the ball and throw means someone isnt following him close enough

11:00 its unconventional that you try to break a strat like this by just going higher but fine it works i guess

11:32 what is nr 12 blocking the way to Pluto?

12:00 amazing shot, and it failing damn thats just way too relatable XD

12:54 an 8th player would come in handy Ushi and Baba are beat and it would do wonders if you could bench them for like a minute or 2

13:10 thats the spirit! in the moment you will always think about how poorly your doing but honestly it could be a whole lot worse

13:35 finaly changing the strat, minor point tho but you guys could have changed the strat between the first and second period.

15:35 pulling away your opponent like that is a nice move, when you are in nr2's shoues well there is no right awnser for you in this situation since if he swam towards Amihama then that would leave Minato open and if he followed Minato that would leave Amihama open. In this instance i think its the right call for him to follow Minato since their team knows that Minato would be the bigger threat, since if he gets a free shot its bound to be a goal.

15:55 This strat is a lot better then surrounding Minato with all 6 of your players lol, it still is a bit much at most you want to use 2 players to block the heavy hitter of the opposing team. one in between the keeper and minato and another infront of him so Minato cant be given the ball by his teammates and even if he got the ball he would still have to face the opponent behind him. One nitpick the guys sandwiching Minato are giving him too much space. as you can see in 15:59 Minato has been given enough room to manoeuvre this is unacceptable when sandwiching someone.

16:03 blocking with the wrong hand

16:30 what is Amihama blocking the way to Mercury? Also no one is on nr 7 hes completely open and can either do a backshot or just a normal throw if he was given the ball. You seriously need to be ON that guy if you want to neutralise his threat.

16:44 pushing the ball under water is a foul.

17:58 Minato and nr 7 should be cosplaying a submarine, also Baba is blocking with the wrong hand

18:37 nice block but Baba should have been on this dude.

18:48 if Minato turned around for a sec with a backstroke then he could have recieved the ball and just pushed onwards to the goal. Since as you can see later his opponent isnt able to catch up to him, then again they did not practis this so :/

19:05 nice push, if you can do the eggbeater faster then your opponent you will just be able to body him away like you see here.

19:17 as you can see Oki is left handed, being left handed is actualy quite an advantage since its decently rare and people usualy focus on defending against the right arm of an opponent, being left handed can throw off a lot of defenders.

20:05 Joe's dad being the coach for next season (?)

At the end of the match its customary to shake your opponents hand and say well played, or atleast thats what we where i played waterpolo.

It might seem like im hating on this ep a lot but actualy most of what i said can all be choked up to rookie mistakes since they have been playing waterpolo for only 3 months and this is their first match, and hell all those rookie mistakes are very familiar to me since i know that i made them when i started playing.

Ep12--
2:39 This might be a Japanese thing, i never did this.

3:45 ususaly the coaches of the teams are the ball handler, there will be a couple balls under the benches of the reserve players, ready to be thrown in whenever the ball leaved the bounds of the pool.

4:30 usualy you have 1 hand on the line or wall of the pool so show that your ready, its also to prevent you from wandering too far forward and giving yourself a false start.

5:00 finaly some solid pushing, but since Minato has the ball in his hand he should actualy be cosplaying a submarine XD. About pushing you can push someone with your body aslong as you arnt using your hand, also the point in pushing for a defender is so that the distance between the attacker and your goal is increased this should give your keeper a couple miliseconds so he can better react to an incomming shot, also an increased distance will mean that it is harder to accuratly land a shot for the attacker. So as an defender it is a priority to push the heavy hitter away from your goal. The inverse is true for the attacker, the closer you get to the goal the better your chances are at landing a goal, thats why you want to push the defender back.

5:12 thats some good underwater work, altough that ball is way too deep underwater that will be a foul, also Minato holding the ball should lead to him being pulled down under water by the defender.

5:15 nice back shot

5:28 the fact that all of the blue team can keep ahead of the white team just means the pros arnt giving it their all lol, someone who is supposed to be the best will be faster basicly 100% of the time.

5:32 Baba doing the waterpolo breststroke is nice, but his head isnt above the water so he cant actualy see the game around him. If he wanted to get to his home turf as fast as possible he should be using the regular breststroke, if he wanted an overview of what was going on he should be using the waterpolo breststroke and get his head out of the water. It might also just be the angle at which we are looking so i might be nitpicking too much.

5:45 nice that Amihama contested that, but nr9 should not be sitting this out and go straight after him

6:03 Minato attemting to get the ball back is such a smal detail i love it.

6:12 Amihama is out of position he should be in between those 2 white players, baba should be going to the guy that is fast approaching him. The rest of the team needs to pick up speed but against the pro's thats going to be difficult.

6:20 everyone just swimming away is weird atleast one white player should be contesting Ushi and Amihama

6:24 this is one reason why you dont throw hand to hand but instead you throw it a bit in fron of Eijiri so the ball inst instantly grabbed away.

6:32 luring out a foul finaly we get to see it, those arbitters have been way too passive lol.

6:59 getting your hand out of the water is nice and all but if you do that you are pretty much stationary, the opponent will just go around you and find an open spot.

Also they dont show it but the ususal attack formation in a man more situation is 4 players on the 2 meter line 2 on the 5m line with the defenders in between constantly switching between who they are defending.

7:07 nr8 just letting Baba have the ball is quite nice of him.

7:34 so close yet so far away :(

8:00 this is a good example on what Baba should have done at 5:32, with this Minato can look around him and see where the opponent is and where the ball is, both are crucial.

8:06 good sandwich, alltough you are giving him too much space Baba needs to be ON that guy, also 2 hands out of the water is a foul.

8:27 Yes goign 0-0 is good but it cost them a ton of stamina, keeping up with pros just eats away at your stamina you might be teir equal in the first period but you sure as hell wont be in the last period.

8:52 you have a full bench of reserve players dont even think of sending out the injured guy, also a stern talking will make the gloves come off.

9:04 its weid seeing only Eijiri drinking usualy everyone brings a drink, you get thirsty from chlorinated water lol.

10:37 Amihama is trying to grab the ball with the wrong hand, what you want to do is use the hand closest to the edge of the pool and shove the ball with that hand towards your second player.

10:40 Riku just holding the ball menacingly, in reality Amihama should be goign full speed ahead and crash into him trying to pry away the ball lol

10:50 Another instance of Baba not being agressive enough, hes just letting that guy walk all over him.

11:25 look this is what should be happening to the heavy hitter, and what follows dont get too invested in pushing as you opponent can just use it against you like what happens in 11:30

12:45 Baba get on him!

12:56 hes using his hands on Minato which is a foul.

13:50 as if the other team isnt using teamwork XD

15:25 Yes the arbitter can penalize you when you use abrasive language. But making an entire team forfeit the match is a bit weird.

15:42 a reminder to A, pay attention and B, only pass the ball to people who are currently looking or asking for the ball.

16:22 Yes you can defend like that, its unconvensional but it stops Minatos team from passing the ball to him, it comes with risk however since Minato is not within your line of sight he can just silently swim away and also if he does manage to get the ball then there is nothing in between him and the keeper.

Again no shaking hands. :/ but then again this is Japan

======END OF SPOILER ZONE======

Anyway i might seem annoyed at this show with all of these mistakes but i can chalk most of them up to rookie mistakes and or differing culture.
Honestly during the last 2 episodes of this series i was shouting and creaming and rooting for Minato's team, for every play and every mistake brought back memories of when i was in that situation. Honestly at some points i wanted to jump through my screen and hop into the pool to do it myself, this is the first anime that tries to depict the sport i used to play and i fucking love it. I can see a lot of effort went into making this show and i hope there will be an second season ^^

Yes i know most of this review isnt a review but i needed to get it off my chest lol, If you managed to get this far i hope you now understand waterpolo a bit better and i do hope you will atleast watch it a bit in real life (for example by watching the olympic livestreams or your local club they can be real fun)

Im sorry for my crappy grammar and spelling, to create the spoiler part of this review i rewatched Re-Main and went over it bit by bit this ate up like 8 hours and MAL is starting to lagg because of the size of this review so im not going to do an extensive spelling check i hope you can understand.

Story:
I really like the combination of melancholy and funny moment in this anime. We learn their backstory, foreshadowing what kind of problem they have. They explain the rules of water polo in easy to understand manner ( for example child draw). In the first episode, we also see how people suffer because of the accident like you can see when Minato eat with his family (His family sad that Minato not interested to do something he loves before) or when her sister cry in the middle of the night because of trauma. It seems this happen from time to time. Well, of course the anime ... won't show this all the time since their focus is water polo and they also have other character to explore.

Character:
Since first episode, we already know that Minato suffering because of expectation by people around him and how he is not the same anymore (his body for example). Maybe many people who watch this don't realize but you can tell from his facial expression.

The other character who is already explored a bit is Eitarou. In episode 5, we know that he is haraguro, selfish and rude. We already see foreshadow of it since first episode. We also see his character development in episode 5.

The other character is most likely will be explored too since we already see foreshadow of Joujima with his father.
Why I explain all of this? It seems many people think these character is really shallow when it's not. Minato is not only easy to adapt but he is also a really positive person. I am similar with Minato in which I easily adapt to situation and I can easily change my emotion and my face, it makes many people think I am okay when I am actually not. So it really bothered me to see some people say, "Minato seems okay even if he lose his memory" when this anime obviously show us in every episode that he is actually troubled by the fact that he lose his memory.
I think the characters can be classified to certain stereotype but I don't think there is something wrong with that as long as they have depth. Even we, as human being, often being classified by our personality, for example: MBTI, Enneagram. Big Five Personality, etc. And I see potential of this anime explore them more since I already see foreshadow of it.

Art:
It's MAPPA so the animation is really good.

Enjoyment:
I enjoy this anime and I don't have major complain. I hope they explore the character more and also we will learn more about waterpolo in later episode.

Absolutely wonderful. Haven’t seen a sports/club show this enjoyable since “Free!” was airing. If you like “Free!” and want more of that, but not a knock-off, despite the fact that these are both for sports that take place in water, try this. It’s tropey in an absolutely wonderful way (honestly it gets really cliche at one point but it’s used quite well, or at least worth sticking through for the painful but good character moments), with beautiful animation, beautiful music, a wonderful cast who are lovely and also mostly ikemen in speedos, and honestly a lot of great messages.

I haven’t seen a series that ... handles major injuries and deconstructing stereotypes the way this one does, particularly the former. Yes, it’s cliche, but it treats Minato’s injury and recovery in a way you don’t really see that often. At least not since “Yuri on Ice!” or “Fullmetal Alchemist”. It also really focuses on how self-centered most everyone is around Minato’s injury, and how hard it is for junior high and high school athletes to excel, and the many pressures they have. There is a time crunch at that age, and people can break at the smallest losses, because the pressure is that bad. The show doesn’t present a solution for the problem (not that it has to), but it does point out that it’s not just one factor in the whole area of sports that creates the problem overall. It’s everything, whether it’s unsympathetic coaches, toxic masculinity, distant family members, the issues of growing up as a child of separated or divorced parents, particularly with a sibling involved, class status, simply time and effort… It’s just a lot. And the story also focuses on the fact that it is effort, not talent, that gets people ahead. That’s typical of sports shows, of course, but it’s emphasized in really unique ways.

The show also deals with little oddities you might write off as bad research or narrative shortcuts via anime cliches, but later brings it up “oh yeah, no, this is something that is a sign of inexperience/lack of knowledge on the characters part” and it’s really brilliant world-building that you just discount until you’re like “ohhhh”, though if you’ve been paying attention, you already took in the details and could have figured it out on your own. For instance, when they eat before a match (I used to be a competitive swimmer, this one bugged me). The pay-off isn’t typically immediate, but when it shows up, it makes perfect sense. Not as I guess a plot hole filler, but in a way you realize why it hasn’t been addressed prior to this. There’s a brief moment in episode 11 that was honestly perfect for this, and that’s littered throughout the story.

In a way there’s narrative frustration between “I want a story with a typical anime underdog” and also “I want to see the characters do well at the sport”, and the show favors the injury and character relationship plotlines more than the sport itself, which leads for an odd ending pair of episodes that at once feels a bit overwhelming but also puts you in the mindset of a bunch of players who have been practicing water polo for what sounds like around three months, versus players who have been practicing for literal years. Also, the latter has been practicing matches, not individual skillsets. And it’s kind of frustrating that the message is “friendship and having fun is what matters”, when a lot of the messaging is “we want to do well at this team sport in competitions”. “Free!” worked because they only had one underdog, and the guys mostly all knew each other, and a central message was about how rivalry is toxic. “Re-Main” tries to convince you that bonding with your teammates will make up for years of discipline and varied practice… but also that it literally won’t, and if you expected it to um… What is wrong with you? And then tries to sell you on the idea that it’s a satisfying story.

And that CAN work, in a way. If you’re happy with the parts that aren’t necessarily water polo. I personally enjoy most of the rest of the stuff, and even a lot of the water polo specific stuff is still enjoyable, even if it’s honestly painful to watch how predictably bad these newbie and untrained players are. And the fact that honestly, reminding us that your life shouldn’t be about medals but about enjoying what little time you have on this earth, particularly if you have good friends and something fun to do (a la “Sk8 the Infinity”), isn’t a bad message either, which is probably why so very many of these shows have that as a message. It just gets a bit muddled here. This gets closer to managing it better than other shows do, though.

If you want a story about a neat group of guys with interesting backstories and characters who don’t abandon their personalities for cliches (well… except in two cases, but it’s fun angst, anyway), and follows through on those things, and has a lot of really sweet heart-to-hearts between characters and supportive friendships, and episodes that just make you smile (and also hot guys), this is for you. It also honestly made me start tearing up around episode 7 on the regular, so there’s that for it. It’s not the easiest watch, but it’s enjoyable. And it honestly has an amazing set-up for season 2 if there is one, unlike a lot of other series that just continue to continue.

Why is my rating so high you ask? Well I believe this sports anime is interesting and provides a fresh new take on amnesia and sports in anime. If you have seen Golden Time, you might appreciate how Re:Main handles it in a different way. All the people who dont like to watch sports anime or straight up wholesome shows shouldnt be writing bad reviews for this show. I dont care if its "generic characters" or whatever you guys are saying. Its genuienly very enjoyable with the comedy, wholesome moments, and forming a complete new team. For fans of Haikyuu! I have to say that ... it gives off similar vibes and I love it. And honestly i read the reviews then binged 6 episodes and had to come back to leave a review bc it quickly became a show that I love and will definitley rewatch.

Quick Plot (no spoils): MC gets in car accident and goes in coma for 203 days. Loses 3 years of memories from his time playing water polo before. He wakes up and he has to focus on trying to get into highschool and getting better. Long story short he obviously does it again (duh) and has to retrace his steps to become the prodigy to everyone else he once was.
The side characters do get involved pretty well in my opinion. And doesnt feel like they leave any character out. Great sports team anime and defintiely got me to laugh and even gasp at one scene.

Anyway just try it yourself and if you dont like sports anime then dont watch and complain about it. Or shut up and watch it anyway.

Here's an odd take but probably not a unique one. I think quite a few will be feeling the same way. Re-Main is a sports anime that would have benefitted greatly by not being a sports anime. An anime torn between being a character driven type drama and a sports anime, failing to deliver on both and ending up to be average in all areas. I can't give it a low score as the anime was not bad. But there was a lot of potential left unfulfilled. It's middle of the road 5/10, there is better out there, and I would only recommend if you ... are really bored. Continue reading for some light spoilers and more in detail explanation.

As a sports anime, Re-Main leaves a lot to be desired. I came away from watching feeling I know very little about Water polo. The anime itself featured very little as most episodes focused more on the characters. Even episodes that did feature water polo still focused on the characters and how they were feeling during the game. It's worrying when you're watching the final episode and there are still people narrating the rules of the game to themselves to keep the audience up to date with info. Meaning the first 11 episodes have not done enough to educate the audience on exactly on what's happening. This detracts from enjoyment in a sense, as when you do not know what is happening, you do not know what to feel.

The character front, the main focus on this anime, it's also surprisingly weak. The only character given any real depth is the MC, Minato. After having a date with Truck-kun, he loses a span of time and years worth of memory. The anime follows his growth of learning about who he was as a person, people's perception of the "new" Minato, as well as when his memories return and how he copes with this and his "new" life. I actually really like this idea. There's a lot that can be done with this, interactions with characters can change quickly given knowledge of characters, previous experiences etc and this did happen to small extent. If the anime focused more on this, and was not tied down to a sports setting, I feel it could be a very interesting watch. Re-main is not that show. It could have been used a lot more and to greater effect.

The supporting characters are weak. Even after just finishing, I barely remember any names. They fall into their stereotype, and that's how I remember them by. They have maybe 1 story element (although I'd go as far as to say, some have almost none), each that gets semi resolved by the final episode but none of them are noteworthy and any investment was not rewarded.

Re-Main is a long drink of water. It's certainly not bad. It ticks enough boxes. But it falls into mediocre valley. It's not good, and not bad enough to be entertaining (though the latter I find is rare in anime). Regarding art and sound, again both are serviceable but forgettable. There was nothing much to standout so this review will feel rather bare bones because of it. I will not remember Re-main or look to rewatch this further down the line. As for Sports anime, there are lot better out there. For a recent example, Bakuten! a sports anime for gymnastics is one I would recommend. It's also not perfect but I'd rather watch that over Re-main. Please feel free to read my Bakuten review for further thoughts recommendations.

Thanks for reading :)

I don't know much about water polo, but this anime-original has given us an accurate portrayal of that sport in anime. Re-Main was hyped by Mappa so it was an obvious must-watch for fans of Mappa's previous works, such as Jujutsu Kaisen and Attack on Titan season four. Despite it not changing the sports genre in anime, it still showed us that even something as simple as water polo has the potential to be properly animated. Although the pacing for Re-Main is a bit problematic, combined with its character growth, the anime itself is well done, along with these points that make Re-Main good.

The plot ... of Re-Main focused more on character development than actual water polo, much to its irony. If given more episodes, there would've been more scenes where the main cast starts playing against more rivals, but the pacing goes too slow. It features the main character getting nerfed at the beginning of the anime, but his motivation to join water polo again was honestly wasn't well-written. To cover up for it, it featured the water polo team from Yamninami high starting to improve their status as a great water polo team. However, there were barely any water polo matches, not to mention the anime kept on disrespecting the main cast, which I felt was going too far, even for the creators of Re-Main. A positive note is the amount of character development each member of the team receives. Not only does it emphasize the concept of teamwork, but it gives them their resolve for the future of the series. That said, the pacing for both of those combinations could've been better, but I'm hoping that the anime receives a second season to fix those flaws.

The story itself was somewhat interesting. Because it focused on the main character recovering from a critical accident, it gave him the chance to catch up to what he's missed. Soon, he tries to avoid water polo, but his past as a famous water polo player catches up to him. However, once he meets a girl and learns of a stupid bet he made, it motivates him to continue water polo again, but from there, it drops that reason and focuses on water polo itself. The water polo matches themselves were too short, and they certain parts of the action, which I was disappointed they did. However, I did enjoy the buildup Yamnanami high school had towards their match with Shogakukan, and the way it was delivered was worth it. The growth between the individual characters was executed well, but I wished their resolve was continued beyond the twelve episodes. Overall, the actual combination of character development and water polo was implemented neatly.

The characters and their growth were the central part of this anime that was prioritized over the actual water polo during most of the episodes. A shocking plot twist was the main character, Minato himself. He started weakened from his previous memories. If not, he would've been the most overpowered throughout the entire series. While I liked that choice made to his character, the second half of the anime took a one-eighty when they got rid of his personality we knew and love. While arrogance and rudeness weren't the best parts, they gave him a chance for character development, and I commend that option despite having to endure such a recent change in Minato's personality. The other Yamnanami team had good character growth throughout the twelve episodes. Also, I have massive respect for its racial representation by making one of the characters a Nigerian. I liked everyone's character designs as it matched who they are and how they expressive they were despite the struggle they've been through before the anime began. Though at times, their growth took over playing water polo, which would've been better with the proper pacing, it's hard to do so for an anime original.

The animation for Re-Main was somewhat overhyped. Even though Mappa had amazing quality animation for their other productions, it was almost average. In specific frames, it's visually stunning and had fluid movements, which could've been hard to animate since the characters are constantly moving, but it was well done. The CGI in the faraway views of the characters was a little distracting, but I had no problem. I also liked how they showed the CGI for a short amount of time before switching to the 2D models for the characters. The amount of quality for the animation had given its justice, but despite the use of CGI, Mappa still managed to fix that overly hated aspect and worked around it to satisfy the viewers.

The music for this anime wasn't anything special, but at the same time, I found both the opening and the ending songs to be good. The beginning song itself gives us the impression combined with the visuals makes it look like the next Haikyuu, but it gave that false impression since it mainly focused on character development instead. I liked the ending as well. For some reason, it gave me the impression that if foreshadowed the future teamwork the Yamnanami team developed, and they'll continue to improve. They both sound beautiful, and I appreciate the artists behind both of those songs. They both weren't too exciting, but it was relaxing to hear them thorough the anime.

Overall, this was a decent anime original, not as exciting as the previous season's originals, but at the same time, it wasn't as bad as people make them sound. The character development was incredible, the water polo scenes were visually stunning, and the plot twist with the character's personality change was completely unexpected. Although, I wish Mappa spent more time focusing on playing water polo and letting Yamnanami high have a chance of winning, which they only did once. I'm hoping that this original gets a second season since it sets up for another season, which would be a great idea to accomplish when Mappa completes their upcoming projects for the future of their anime and as they improve on the studio's working quality.

*SPOILERS*
This is my first time writing a review and for this show because what this show did was special. The fist 7 episodes were great I was ready to put it in my top 3 for sports anime but then episode 8 came along and ruined the whole series for me. Everything was fine until they decided to make the mc a jerk and mean to everyone. This dosent make sense seeing as how everyone was treating him after the accident. They were not scared of him or anything. I have to drop this anime because the only two ways I see this anime going. ... He keeps his jerk ways and gains his new memories back and changes for the better, or he dosent regain his new memories and just becomes nice which I dont see happening. So i cant keep watching because none of these seem good to me.

or a third option where to hits his head and goes back to how he was after the accident

I really like this show. It was my favorite out of the season. I really like the mc and his story. It just happens to appeal to me. The op and Ed are good, the art is good, the plot is good, the characters are good, and the development is good. I may be biased, but the show got me to like it a lot so that’s a good job for them too. Im writing my first ever review too, as the time of writing this it has a 7.25 score which I think is a bit low. But on a practical stand point, even ... if I didn’t fall in love with the show, it’s still a pretty good show. Watch it!

this is not your typical sports anime. the main focus is more on the characters and the memory loss. It's been a rollercoaster ride, and I love how they portray the memory loss journey in a pretty convincing and emotional way. Each episode gets better and better, I am so glad I did not drop it in the initial few eps (can get a bit slow at times). If you are expecting a legit water polo anime, then this might not be your cup of tea. but if you are looking for a character-oriented anime, then yes, do give this anime a try!

Came for the cute boys, stayed for the plot twists. When I was watching the first three episodes I didn't expect myself to like this anime that much. In fact I once remarked, after the first episodes, that this anime would be forgotten in no time after airing - well, it is for the majority of the anime watchers, but not for me.

The art and music are above average. They certainly are not the best, but good enough to get the job done. I especially love the ending theme; the lyrics and tone fit the plot so well. The structure of the story seems to ... be a bit messy at first glance, but after rewatching the whole thing, I notice that all the lines and plot points are being referenced later, so there certainly are some careful plannings.

This is not your typical sports anime, so don't expect a lot of actions here. One may even say the first half fits better in the CBDCT (cool bois doing cool things) genre. The plot twists used in the first half gave me the feeling that they are trying to go into the exact opposite of the common sports anime tropes, hence part of the humor. Water polo is cool and the characters did play it seriously, but it really can be any competitive team sport without altering the light-hearted humor and moods. Don't get me wrong - it's still cool to see the less popular sport getting featured, but you may get yourself disappointed if you are expecting to learn the rules and whatnot about water polo through this anime.

Then the second half decided to take an abrupt dark turn and I can totally see why some of the viewers hate this twist, but I like it this way. The true intention of the director was revealed and is the meat of this anime - to illustrate how one could stand strong and control his fate again after falling from the peak of his life. (At this point, it's not about the sport anymore.) It is about accepting the status quo, understanding yourself and making compromises with your past self, and I think the message was delivered beautifully.

If not for the similar personal experience I had, I probably wouldn't be so strongly sympathetic toward the MC, so I get that this is not the tea for everyone. For me, the solution they provided in such a situation deeply resonates with me, and for this sole reason I give this a 10/10, a score that I reserve for animes that have a special place in my heart.

Honestly, I'm not sure how to review Re-Main, so I'm gonna base this review off of the most common critique I've seen of it, which is that it isn't a successful sports anime or a successful drama anime. Basically, the critique is that Re-Main tries to be two different anime and falls short in both areas. I can definitely see why this comment is made so much, but I don't always agree with it. For instance, there aren't a lot of matches (or games? I'm not sure) in this anime. Considering the eventual focus these characters have on winning, the lack of time they actually ... play is a bit dissatisfying. That being said, I don't really feel like the point of this anime was the same as a typical sports anime. Yes, the characters had the same goals of winning tournaments and beating their rivals, but the plot of the anime itself didn't scream "national championship" to me.

Which is another gripe people have about this anime: too much time was spent on Minto's amnesia. Now, the amnesia plotline is a beast in and of itself, and I can't talk about it without spoilers, but I'll say this: the plot tried to do too much. There was a rather forced twist in the middle that I think would have been better had the anime started after it happened. The stuff that's shown in the first few episodes would have still been the history that could have been addressed through flashbacks and stuff, but I really think this anime could have shone if the twist had just been the entire anime. That being said, I do think that the last half of the season was better than the first, despite not liking the twist that brought the plot there. Why is that? Because the entire tone of the anime changed. It went from a rather relaxed anime that didn't feel like it was going anywhere to an anime where the building of a solid team felt like a really important factor. Like I said, this anime isn't like other sports anime. And I really like that the purpose of it seemed to be creating a team from scratch, not improving an existing one to make it to nationals.

If Re-Main were to have a second season, this first season would be the perfect lead up to making Re-Main into an anime closer to Haikyuu!! or Ace of Diamond. In fact, if this season had been 25 episodes instead of 12, there was a lot of potential for it to successfully be a drama and a sports anime. Unfortunately, it did ultimately fall flat because it tried to do both in a short amount of time, but I don't think the product was bad at all. Certain characters do weaken it a bit because they're very inconsistent, which is also due to a lack of time to build them up. Some of them are very unlikable at certain points because there's an attempt being made to give them complex character traits, but those are never fleshed out. Instead, the unlikability goes away in favor of them being an agreeable character once again. So that's annoying because I couldn't get attached to a handful of the characters.

But, genuinely, this anime is enjoyable to watch. It does actually do drama well, at least, in terms of tone. The plot is, as I said, unrealistic and forced. But Re-Main can feel very intense and tragic when it's trying to be. The characters that aren't inconsistent have great color--even when they aren't always nice. Essentially, Re-Main has a decent setup and passable execution that could have really excelled had it been given the proper time. As is, if you're looking for something that will keep your interest, I think this will do it. It's no Haikyuu!! but it's fun, and sometimes, that's all that counts.