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Alright so I'm the first to write a review and this is my first review so I hope it isn't that bad but this anime was pretty great. I thought the story was great and so anyone who wants a soccer anime will love it. There was even some romance thrown into it which was really nice. I have to admit kazumi kinda pissed me off in the beginning but in the end I became a fan of hers. But overall great anime its old so bare with the art because the story is great.

I felt the need to review this since I saw only one other had the courage or made brain enough to. By stretches of sports anime goes it's in the same class and sometimes possibly personal preference almost better than 'Slam Dunk'.
Which if you didn't know is probably the greatest sports anime ever. That aside, if you're into friendship, teamwork, dramatic love for both a person and sports this is one roller coaster ride you wouldn't want to sit back and watch other people ride.
Onto the actual review: Story possibly 9 gonna say 8 though some parts are very cliche and predictable, but that's what makes it normal, but it has it's moments where it absolutely shines and just tugs on your heartstrings.
Sound: 10 I love every single song from the anime *spoiler* the best being the Kazumi Endo Ending, my god it still gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.
Character: 10 Toshi who is the main character not only as a futbol/soccer player does he level up, but as a man and person but he helps everyone around him to grow aswell. read more

So, I typically don't review anime that I haven't finished or ones that I dropped because there is a chance that I missed something that happened later or that the anime just wasn't for me, but something about this anime really irked me to the point where I stopped watching it months ago, and when I thought about trying to continue watching recently, I couldn't. For starters, I'll try to avoid spoilers, but I have to spoiler one small part to explain why this anime was bothersome.
The art, and sound are typical of anime of this generation, neither being spectacular nor terrible in my opinion. I'm someone who isn't bothered by old anime, and rather enjoy watching them so I'm pretty bias there, but for the purposes of this review, I'd say they were fair at best. The characters overall are fine too. They all have their archetypes that they stick to, and they fit their mold well. They aren't anything out of this world good, but they do a good enough job of driving the story forward in a pretty reasonable direction. I don't think I had a problem with any characters. Kazumi joking around was fun to watch, and how everyone meshed together by utilizing their advantages during a game.
Before I go further, spoilers are up ahead. You have been warned!
Now, the story starts out typical with the team forming, and old friends reuniting in their bid to advance far and become champions. You get the characters practicing together, helping each other out, all the camaraderie that comes with it as well as just episodes where they are relaxing. All usual for the course, and of course, you have Kubo who personally made me drop this anime. He's a talented player who's going to be great, and we are led to believe that he will aside from little indications that say otherwise. That would've been all fine and dandy, but what happened when they faced Kakekita in the semifinals was a bit too much.
As the story goes, Kubo ended up burning himself out passing 11 players and scoring a fantastic goal that helped the team. He was a good team member who was a beacon of hope and admiration, but this idea of him dying on the field after he's been avoiding treatment for leukemia to play soccer was just too unrealistic and hard to swallow. No one seems to have known if I recall properly, and he's been ignoring the advice from his doctors if I again recall properly. In essence, he sacrificed his whole life for the purpose of scoring a single goal to help the team won, but then they lost badly in the finals.
You may say that's passion, sure, but there's a limit to that and this was far from it. Anyways, he died, everyone's sad, and for sure, it's quite a sad time. But this was a bit too much for me to swallow considering that he should've realized the value of living to continue playing and helping advance the sport. He could've still been there to provide advice and support for the team during tough times, but he made his decision. I didn't watch much past this point because the anime felt like it started going downhill story wise, and this death was a bit much.
Now, did I enjoy the anime otherwise? Sure, I didn't mind much else, so if you're someone who's able to overlook this, you'll probably enjoy this anime too. If you're someone who just wouldn't be able to, it's best you just move along and forget about this anime.
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