Mou Ippon!

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.