Mou Ippon!

The happy-go-lucky Michi Sonoda announces to her teammate, Sanae Takigawa, that she will quit judo for good after her final middle school tournament. This leaves Sanae in disbelief; after all, it was Michi's passion toward the sport that reeled Sanae into judo in the first place. Michi claims that a well-spent youth should be associated with things such as getting a boyfriend rather than sweaty tatami mats.

However, Michi's plan to end her fledgling judo career with a bang is spoiled after experiencing an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the talented Towa Hiura. Later, her plan is further derailed when she finds out that Towa has enrolled in the same high school as herself and Sanae. With the sudden appearance of her past foe, Michi may soon realize that she still has lingering feelings for the sport of judo.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sonoda, Michi Main

Itou, Ayasa Japanese

Nagumo, Anna Main

Hieda, Nene Japanese

Hiura, Towa Main

Miura, Chiyuki Japanese

Himeno, Tsumugi Main

Nagase, Anna Japanese

Takigawa, Sanae Main

Anzai, Yukari Japanese

Amane, Erika Supporting

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Sano, Chigusa Supporting

Tachibana, Hina Japanese

Minato, Sachi Supporting

Yomichi, Yuki Japanese

Majima, Hikaru Supporting

Ishigami, Shizuka Japanese

Ayase, Suzu Supporting

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Ueda, Tomoki Producer

Saitou, Yuzuru Producer

Oomatsu, Yutaka Producer

Kashimura, Emi Producer

Reviews

Nov 12, 2024

Teramol

Recommended

I consider myself somewhat of a sports anime enjoyer however I don't have a particular interest in the martial art of judo. Yet I found myself binging all of Mou Ippon! in a single day, so that should be a testament in and of itself.

Don't get me wrong. The sport, judo, was definitely portrayed well and some matches could definitely be put up there next to some more well respected sports anime battles. But in my opinion where the show really shines the best is not that. It's the characters. And more specifically, the interactions between the characters.

I wouldn't say a single girl of our ... main cast from Aoba West high school stand out on their own but together, it makes all the difference. I had a very fun time just watching them get to know each other better, coming from different background and levels of age, judo and friendships. And most importantly, it felt organic. The show is believable and that's why I really enjoyed it.

You don't need a masterclass in writing or a plot that is deep if the story you are telling feels good to experience. Even the matches felt real and they weren't throwing around deus ex machina for the sake of making stakes higher. The show is mostly comfy and a feel good experience but it's not afraid to get serious too and it manages to handle the tones for both well.

The animation also pleasantly surprised me. It was mostly very fluid with great uses of camera angles to add that extra oomph. But while I enjoyed the judo matches after getting used to it more, I still wish they would have expanded more on the actual workings of it. Lots of terms such as points and technique names are dropped constantly but never do we actually get proper explanations for anything.

Drama in the series was pretty elementary and some of it felt a little forced but it wasn't bothering me too much overall. And the ending of the show feels almost like only a prologue finishing so I definitely was left wanting more. Hopefully it gets another season some day but as is, it's still a fairly self-contained fun show that just works.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jul 2, 2023

mushi_Jyou

Recommended

Starting off with personal opinion:
Mou Ippon! has too little attention, but can't say is unexpected. I love watching sports anime, typical shounen plot, typical suspense etc. And I have been looking for a decent group sport anime with female cast (female category sport), but is so hard to find one as the ones out there usually are ecchi/hentai domain, or just not shounen enough (No excitement, no suspense). Mou Ippon! is different. I went in apprehensively, but came out hoping for a season 2 in making. It has the typical elements for a good shounen sports anime: Determined MC (typically positive) who has mysterious ... charismas to attract supportive teammates, Friendly rival School/Teams, Going for tournaments, Well executed "fight" scenes, and the failure/losing plot. Is all there.
BUT, a big BUT, Mou Ippon! definitely falls short of a good sports anime. It has the key elements to being good, but just did not use them well enough.
Even if the formulas for most sports anime are the same, I enjoyed them as they are portrayed differently (Different struggles, different mindset, different sports lol)

TL;DR of the review below: First half of the show almost made me dropped it, sloppy work with flimsy storylines(Boring, uneventful, so maybe watch at 1.5 speed). Second half was decent, infact good enough for me to want a second season that hopefully do justice for the second half, excitement and suspense are there, pace is also more stable here.
**There are TL;DRs under long review segments below.

Review:
Story
Like I mentioned above, this show has the key elements to make a good group sports anime, but it doesn't have the right formula. MC is the typical sunshine shounen persona, and we have a small group of teammates being drawn in to the team/sport by her charisma. Premise of the show is nothing new, "new' team formed with new teammates, clearly the underdog start up. Then after the team is formed, they go through the "journey" of the various highschool sports tournaments with the clear formula of : "Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn".
There are plenty anime out there with the same elements and characters, so Mou Ippon! actually has various "winning" formula to reference from (Maybe it will execute some good formulas in the coming seasons, but not in here).
The show did well to show the camaraderie of the main team, which is important in group sports, it did well in this aspect, showing how the MC connected with each teammate, and her influence of them that draws out their passion.
The tournament journey of sometimes you win, sometimes you learn starts off well, but there is only 1 season, so that part of the storyplot obviously still has more ways to go, so I won't say much on this. Just hoping for a training arc to fulfill the "sometimes you learn" part of this plot.
Thus, the only key element in the story telling that the show did right: camaraderie.

What didn't go well was everything else. The show did not established what sort of sport Judo is, the principles, the rules, the typical landscape of the Judo sports scene. It also did not established the relationship of the "primary" friendly rival school well. It just somehow came to be. It has the same setup as Haikyuu with one teammate having a rivalry status with a member of the "rival" team (Haikyuu > Karasuno vs AobaJousai : Kageyama vs Oikawa = Mou Ippon! > AobaNishi vs Kasumi : Hiura vs Amane). Honestly, I have to look up the school name and the girl's name of the rival team while typing out this review. That's how little they established the status of the primary rival team. There's so little emphasis on them that they seem so insignificant, yet they somehow are on friendly terms, makes it even more questionable. And they went ahead to show how the primary rival team's support and acknowledgements matters to our main team... That just does not work, there's just so little interaction and relationship portrayed between them. The show also tried inserting some Yuri baits(??). They actually showed some romance level of dedication/sacrifice of one of the characters in an effort for her to join the Judo team and get close to the MC, to "spent more time with her". Girl in question was a national level Kendo sportswoman, Kendo is also her father's love sport so it meant a great deal to the family, and she just uprooted herself to join Judo all for spending more time with the MC. Honestly, if there was an element of romance, and she did it for love, I could at least make sense of this story line, afterall love is irrational and they are highschoolers still. BUT there was no romance-like development in this show ever since that one episode early in the series where Kendo girl makes the switch to Judo. In fact, the most damning things of this show all happened in the first half of the series.
The pace was a mess, the formation of the team was wishy washy, the primary rival team was established half-heartedly, the sport(Judo) was not introduced well with impact.

I am just glad I made it to the second half of the show where the action begins. Like I mentioned, the camaraderie was done right, and really showed in the second half, the sports tournaments plot was also paced well here with a good amount of excitement. would have been more exciting if they allocated some time showing how difficult certain techniques are.

12/20
TL;DR: First half was half-assed. The show had good elements but the execution is too flimsy. second half was on the "actions" during the tournaments, so it was a more focused plot which was executed fairly well. Strong Yuri baits in first half. subtle in second half (Would be good if the baits weren't baits and there's some sort of romance development, if not is just another half assed storyline they included).

Characters
MC is a literal ball of sunshine yet not needlessly loud (like Sawamura from Dia). She's just so lovable. Then we have a reliable but weak side kick who is always pulling everyone in the team in the "right" direction, the captain quality teammate. A talented serious one, and a senior (must have) who has had sad experience with the team (before main protagonists join) as it does not lived up to her potential/expectations, and an earnest advisor. Then we have a childhood friend of the MC who seemingly have a crush on the MC and decided to uproot her life and go into Judo (Yes the Kendo girl that made the show dodgy for me). These main protagonists are all well established with their distinct personalities, that meshed well in the story. Other side characters like the competitors/rivals were also reasonably interesting and distinct. Back stories were also okay. The interactions between each characters in the main cast were also nicely done (except for the yuri bait parts). Interactions with side characters really need more work, is so shallow. So overall characters creations is good. But development not much. there is very little character development, but that's because the story only really solidify in the second half of the show.

7/10
TL;DR: Decent character designs, decent interpersonal relationship established in main cast. Half-assed first half of the show made for some shallow connections with the side characters. also first half of the show was wasted on redundancies that real character development only took place in the second half. So yea, decent development for half the show, but weak development if you divide across 13 episodes worth of screen time.

Art
Well I have nothing to pick a bone with for art and animation style. Of course is not as stella as Haikyuu's first 3 seasons, but is alright. I like the characters' look and realistic designs. Background art is decent. animation quality is decent (some intense fights have pretty good animation to show the moves). Nothing much to be unsatisfied with, only thing that is better than other sports anime is the realistic character designs, and the anatomy definition.

9/10

Music/Sound
Decent OP and End, pretty to look at and listen to. not memorable though. VAs were really good, especially MC's.

9/10

Honestly, show is about a 7.5, I rate 8 to compensate on the low score on MAL

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 31, 2023

PixelB

Not Recommended

Mou Ippon! is a pretty generic sports anime. It doesn't try reinventing the wheel, but nothing is necessarily wrong. It's just that not a single aspect of the show stands out, and thus becomes highly mediocre. By playing it safe, the show suffers.

The problem is that this show has not a single thing that draws the viewer in. Let's first talk about the sport itself, Judo. Usually, when a show regarding a sport shows up, it should at least give a tutorial on the sport; the rules, how to play Judo, and stuff like that. This show doesn't do that. Okay, fine, but will the ... focus of the show be Judo? Well, Yes, and no. Compared to pure sports shows, it clearly has much less focus. There are no training regiments, and no real strategies other than observing the opponent's previous matches. The animation of the judo is a bit stiff and there are freeze frames, but overall, the animation is alright. It's just that there's not too much monologuing, but the matches themselves are long enough. It's not just someone "throwing" them down and that's the match. However, it's also not enough to carry the show. After all, there's no real "training" being done. A lot of the daily life of the schoolgirls is focused on training, but on what? Again, not too much strategy, not much of any focus on the actual sport of Judo. This gets reflected in the opponents themselves. You can see the lack of focus on the characters when you notice that opponents don't get an introduction. The show tries to characterize them mid-match, and it kind of works successfully, too, but again, just not enough to carry the show. Flashback no jutsu isn't going to magically develop a new opponent.

What about the main characters themselves? Again, they're all not bad. You have the shy captain that wants to improve themself while also taking care of the team, the bombastic protagonist, a reclusive expert Judoka that eventually learns to express their feelings, the best friend character that switches from an all-star kendo player to Judo in order to be with the protagonist, the senior that wants to make their last year count and a reliable coach that helps them along the way. There's nothing wrong with them, but when you don't actually see them train, their monologues, they can't carry the show.

Bamboo Blade, a similar show about Kendo instead of Judo, suffers the same flaws. There's a clear focus on Kendo, but it does feel a bit weak still, but there is also an equal amount of focus on slice-of-life interactions and comedy. This slice of life aspect makes up for the sort of whimsical focus on Kendo. So unlike Bamboo Blade, Mou Ippon lacks this slice-of-life interaction that Bamboo Blade does, which made it stand out more.

It's okay for this show to focus entirely on Judo, which it does, but it needs to be perfected. If Ookiku Furikabutte, a similar show that focuses entirely on baseball with a grassroots high school level team that wants to go to nationals shows so much more detail in character development, the training, and the matches themself despite having a 9-player roster, a manager, and a coach, then there's a problem.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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