First Episode Impression: "Anima Yell!"

Synopsis

Kohane Hatoya is a cheerful girl who loves helping others. During her move from middle school to high school, she one day comes across a cheerleading squad and becomes inspired by it. Now upon entering high school, Kohane makes the decision to start a cheerleading club. Joining Kohane in her cheerleading activities is the experienced Hizume and Kohane’s childhood friend Uki.

The Good

As a series that is meant to feature aspects of cheerleading, it was expected that the biggest thing to shine in the episode was the cheerleading scene shown in the first few minutes. It was cute, it had solid animation and overall gave a charming visual play for the viewer. On a side note, it was a pleasant surprise that the scene used an English song but worked rather well. It was certainly catchy, that was for sure.

Another pleasant surprise from the episode was the amount of character development and dynamic formation that it managed to slip in. From Hizume’s past reveal to Kohane forming a friendship with Hizume, there is quite the solid framework built for a first episode. Other than this, the comedy that was presented wasn’t half bad either.

The Bad

The most prominent flaw presented by the episode is while the characters have certain quirks to them, for the most part, they are highly generic. What’s more, there are the old tropes of the earnest protagonist just learning the sport and the talented character who ended up being burned by their teammates. It was rather obvious what route the episode was taken once the characters and their personalities were established.

Conclusion

As a cheerleading anime, it does well in presenting its main aspect and a set of cute characters that would clearly work as cheerleaders. It was nice that the episode established the characters and their development in such a short time. However, it doesn’t change the fact that they are largely generic types with obvious story development points. Still, there is a potential to the series and the friendship established by the characters has a good amount of heart to draw the viewer in. It’s cute, has its flaws, but is definitely worth at least checking out.

Rating: 7/10