Ending Thoughts: Cleanliness Boy! Aoyama Kun

Synopsis

This the story of a high school boy named Aoyama. His genius skills in soccer has gained him much recognition that it is most likely he would be able to make it as a champion soccer athlete with no issue. There is one problem however, Aoyama is obsessed with cleanliness. To the point that he won’t even do slides nor throw the ball unless touching gloves. This is the comedic tale of a soccer player obsessed with cleanliness.

General Thoughts

The series had a rather interesting premise with art to match it. When looking at the progress of the series it can be commended that they were able to keep the art and animation consistent though there are some points where it seems they are using the same animation with a different background. But for the most part there is little to complain about it and they way they utilize chibi forms and background tones make for some good quality comedy.

The story itself though, while having a single concept, seems all over the place, exploring different characters, genres and stories in each episode. Though they all focus on the same center point which is Aoyama, it makes the series come off as having no directions though each episode may bring an interesting tale. The main problem is that one moment you have a series moment mixed in with comedy when talking about Aoyama’s past then the next episode we take focus on a completely different character and their story.

There are moments when glimpses of an interesting story pops up such as Aoyama’s struggles and the perception of people on it. Or the struggles of a character being on a team with just one star. For the most part though, the series comes off as a mixed bag that holds both promising and not so promising points.

Ending Thoughts

At the way the series was going, it was vastly unclear where the ending would head to. Surprisingly enough though, the series gave the finale a rather well-handle yet still comedic type of story that didn’t take focus onto Aoyama’s story but instead Zaizen’s, a character who was not completely explored for nearly the entirety of the series other than as a side character for comedy skits. Yet surprisingly the series managed to slip in some tiny moments of development for this character before going the whole nine yards with him in the end, giving him a rather interesting though cliche spotlight.

Frankly though, the series still had no solid direction even at the end and when given a chance to do further exploration on Aoyama’s character and his background yet instead they continued on with his comedy route of being a clean obsessed male character. In all honesty, this writer finds that rather disappointing. There were so many opportunities given to explore the more serious side of Aoyama’s issues where other episodes simple gave a glimpse and yet in the end we only know what we have known since the beginning, he loves cleanliness above everything.

What’s more they didn’t even give a proper conclusion to the story set-ups they placed such as the romance, the drama, those little slips of genre exploration hinting at an actual plot could have helped in becoming a segway in the finale to a more concise story. On the other hand though, there shouldn’t have been much expected from a comedy series such as this. Even with the exploration of genres and characters, it can’t be argued that the series kept its essence.

That said, the art and animation were still consistent enough and the music helped create the tone of things. Overall, it’s a pretty entertaining series even if the story is all over the place and the focus is more on the comedy aspects rather than the development and story of the characters. If you’re looking for a series with some good laughs and interesting characters mixed in with a sport, then this is it.

Rating: 6.5/10