DESCRIPTION

CAST

REVIEWS

• 

  annahoj

  24/100
  Another rugby anime, another disappointment.

  I was sharing my seasonal watchlist when a friend of mine asked about this particular anime, looking at the small thumbnail he had thought it was about prisoners.. Oh, how I wish it was the case…

  Starting with the positives since there really is not much to say. What I enjoy most about the anime and what honestly saves the show for me is Natsusa (pictured on the below image), the sadistic manager of the rugby team. It is refreshing to see a sports anime - though this part is questionable - where the main character is not a player but someone supporting the team in other ways. In that regard it reminds me a lot of Giant Killing where the main character is in the role of a coach. Natsusa’s tragic backstory from a player to a manager gives the show a nice premise, showcasing the difficulties of having to withdraw from something you love, rehabilitation and trying to connect once more with your old teammates. Those are themes that I certainly enjoy in anime, provided that everything else besides it is being well-written. Unfortunately, as I quickly realised this was not the case with number24.

  

  What really drags it down are the characters, something that I rather expected to be its selling point. The anime introduces a huge cast of characters quite soon, there is not enough time to remember them all, though it is not even necessary in fact. Only a few characters have any sort of importance on the story, most of them are just paper cutouts to make the game of rugby a possibility. What doesn't really help their cause is the character designs, which are atrocious to put it simply. Their only defining features are their hair and uhh… yeah, that’s it. It looks like they literally copy-pasted the same person over and over again, switched the hairstyle a little and used a different shade of colour for each. And of course, can't forget about the obligatory fat character, the one who everyone can "lightly tease" about the fact.

  
  
  

  Find the main characters!

  There are perhaps only a handful of characters I can recognise from the show. There is Natsusa, the other manager, the fat guy, the cringey foreign character, uhh... and probably someone else. From their appearances alone it honestly resembles more of an idol show than that of a sports one. They already have the large cast and the foreign character. All they're missing are the microphones!

  Oh, wait... did I mention that this was an anime about rugby? I kind of forgot about the fact myself. It's almost like a bad joke by now how all rugby anime cough ALL OUT!! cough Try Knights cough turn out the same - horrible. And this one's no different. The anime focuses more on the drama between the characters than the sport itself, not that there's anything wrong with the approach if done right, but needless to say number24 fails on that front. They don't really introduce the sport or its rules either, it's just a device to let the story unfold. Rugby could literally be switched with any other contact sports and it wouldn't make a difference. If you want an actually good story centred around rugby then Madonna is definitely worth your time!

  I have only scratched the surface with what I’ve said so far since what this anime lacks is any kind of substance. It is in essence a fujobait, meaning that it tries way too hard to appeal to its female viewers. There's a lot of unnecessary naked upper torsos and touching to the extent that it becomes unbearably uncomfortable to watch. Now, I'm somebody who also enjoys some good ol' boys' love, but what number24 tries to accomplish is an extremely poor attempt at that. I would definitely not recommend this anime, for sure not for the rugby, but perhaps for the questionably cute boys, but that's just me trying to remain somewhat positive.

  To somehow wrap this up I caught myself thinking about my own take on the title of number24 and came to the realisation that it stands for its worth - a 24/100. What a perfect way to end this.

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• 

  guavagudetama

  7/100
  Number24 is genuinely the worst show I've watched ever.

  My summary might seem a little overdramatic, but trust me when I say you do not want to watch this show. It actually is as bad as it sounds. If I could have dropped it, I would, but I was doing the anime challenge thing (unofficially) so I had to finish it. I cannot talk about why I dislike this show without spoilers, so if for some god forsaken reason you want to watch this show but want to know what score I gave it, I gave it a 7/100, one point for each character I think I could tolerate being around.

  Before I really go in on the show, let me say the few things I like about the show. I like the music, especially the ending song Every Fight performed by Kengo Kawanishi & Shōhei Komatsu. And, I'm not a big sports fan, but the scenes where they're actually playing the game (except in the last episode) are very entertaining. Which like, good job, you made the entertainment entertaining. Yuh get it I guess. Also, I liked the one scene where it was just Ibuki, Yasunari and Yuu as they are my three favourite characters. Unfortunately, a bunch other characters show up and quickly ruin that scene.

  So, basically all of my problems with the show center around Natsusa Yuzuki, the protagonist. More specifically, the fact that Natsusa manipulates everyone around him and karma never comes back to bite him. It is utterly unsatisfying to see him Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss his way through the series. I'm going to go through all the characters he manipulates chronologically to help me illustrate why this show is so infuriating to me.

  Victim One: Ibuki Ueoka. Ibuki is my favourite character. For a good bit of the series, him and Yuu (we'll talk about him later) were the only characters I actually liked. So, plot spoilers that basically aren't spoilers but Ibuki crashes his bike with Natsusa on it and injures him (I think he has a hernia? I honestly couldn't care less). Ibuki goes to visit him in the hospital, and hears him talking to his best friend, Sei. Natsusa says something along the lines of "You don't understand, Sei! You can still play Rugby!" And then Ibuki quits the team so he can understand how Natsusa feels (I think, anyway. It wasn't explained great).

  Natsusa harasses Ibuki, begging him to come back to the rugby team. Ibuki, obviously, says no. Ibuki has his own plans in life. Then, later in the episode, Natsusa says something along the lines of "Play rugby again. Play until I say you can stop. It's the only way I'll ever forgive you" WHICH IS SO GROSS!!

  In a later episode, Ibuki meets up with his mom (after Natsusa tells him not to, which is weird and manipulative) and Ibuki's mom is like "Ibuki don't play rugby come join the family business" and Ibuki says he doesn't want to which is like, ten kajillion percent Natsusa's influence. Natsusa comes up and yells at Ibuki's mom and tries to pull Ibuki away. So Ibuki's mom is on the floor crying because of Natsusa and Ibuki is like "No let me talk to her" and Natsusa is like "Ugh fine" and I thought maybe he was going to comfort his mom? No! Of course not! So Ibuki goes up to his mom and PRAISES NATSUSA and then is like "oop gotta go play rugby bye mom" LIKE WHAT IS GOING ON?? This isn't the only person Natsusa manipulates though.

  Victim Two: Yuu Mashiro (and Yasunari I guess). Episode Eight (I think). Natsusa and Sei are fighting over some petty shit. And by fighting, I mean Natsusa is angry and Sei is just kinda taking it. Those two, Ibuki, Yasunari and Yuu are on a train and Yuu is like "hey do you guys want this food I made?" and Natsusa is like "Yeah, but don't give any to Ibuki and Sei" because Natsusa hates Ibuki and Sei right now. So Yuu, like the sane person he is for the time being, tells Natsusa to shut up. So Natsusa ends up sharing a room with Yuu and Yasunari and he's crying like a little baby because he wants attention and he's like "WAAAAA EVERYONE HATES ME" and I'm just like. Shut the fuck up <3. and Yuu immediately falls right back into where Natsusa wants him.

  (Sidenote since I mentioned Yasunari: in Episode 4 he gets manipulated and Natsusa is like "oh but it's not like I'm forcing you or anything" which literally made me want to vomit I was so uncomfortable during so many scenes in this shit)

  Now, if you've seen the show before, which you haven't because who would willingly watch this far, you might be like "hey, what about the part where Natsusa's injury acts up and he can't move and then the team basically tortures himself? Isn't that karma?" And to that I have to say... I guess? But still, no one other than Yuu stands up to Natsusa, and he barely does anything about Natsusa's behaviour after that. Which sucks because Yuu like almost had character development. Then again, I guess I shouldn't expect character development from this type of anime anymore if it only has one season and no source material.

  Writers Hate Him! Watch How He Fixed This Show With One Simple Trick! So basically, this show actually could have been good if they repurposed literally any character in their giant cast into someone who would put Natsusa in his place whenever he was an asshole. I still wouldn't like the show, but it would make it better.

  In Conclusion, Number24 is a show that's like 30% about Rugby and 70% about everyone making Ibuki Ueoka's life a living hell, which on paper sounds interesting but unfortunately the show is just. So so gross to me. The only emotions this show makes me feel is "ew" on a spiritual level or "aww that person got hurt." Again, this show is a 7/100, one point for each character I think I could at least tolerate in real life.

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• 

  Sabo4life

  60/100
  Generic sports anime that is definitely watchable

  Number 24 really doesn't stand out from the crowd. It follows a lot of classic sports anime tropes and most characters are pretty 1 dimensional have very cliche personalities (i.e the silent stoic friend of the extrovert MC). But overall not a complete waste of time to watch.

  Summary

  Our protagonist, Natsusa, has suffered a spinal injury from a motor cycle accident which means he is no longer able to play rugby. Instead, he becomes the manager of the rugby team he used to play for. We follow him as he guides the team to victory by helping others overcome their own struggles and as he grapples with his own situation of no longer being able to play rugby.

  

  Main review

  I feel as though if your just looking for something simple, that you don't really have to think about too much whilst watching or just want a break from overly drawn out sports anime then this show can give you that. The characters are pretty likeable overall and the show can be pretty funny at times, and when they play rugby matches, (which isn't as often as you'd expect, considering this anime is meant to be all about rugby) the are quite gripping and i was pretty invested each time.

  

  The problem

  When I say this anime is nothing special, I mean it. Honestly i think the best way to describe it is that nothing stands out as particularly good, and nothing stands out as particularly bad either. The art style is generic at best and the animation is standard level for everything else coming out these days. Some character personalities feel copy pasted from other characters and remembering names is honestly difficult. Overall, the thing it's really lacking is depth. The anime is only 12 episodes long, but honestly this is no excuse, as there have been many great 12 episode animes that have really fleshed out their characters such as Yuri on ice. There is an attempt to give one character more dimensions by giving them one scene where there mother begs them to quit rugby and join the family company. This is in one of the later episodes however, so it is never revisited. This anime also has ZERO female cast, so if that is a deal breaker for you, then don't watch it.

  Would this anime benefit from a second season?

  Maybe. I feel as though they could have a chance to play more actual matches of rugby, introduce more rival teams, and start a tournament that can actually be followed by the audience. Maybe they could even give their characters backstories and more intense and explored dynamics. Will it get a second season? I highly doubt it too be honest. There is little to no interest from what I've seen online and most of the episodes on crunchyroll only got about 50-60 likes.

  One more thing...

  This anime has it's fair share of fanservice. With an all male cast, I'm sure you can guess what type some of it is. The characters are very touchy with each other, some of being borderline romantic. I'll include some example images and scenes down below so you know what I mean.

  

  This scene where one character pins another to the headboard of their bed whilst arguing

  A whole compilation of scenes

  BONUS: a scene where a male character is mistaken for another male characters GIRLfriend by his family
  whilst nothing ever actually happens between any of the characters, just know this anime is clearly made too appeal to a certain demographic of people.

  Conclusion

  Should you watch this anime? No. Is this anime watchable? Definitely. So if you want to watch likeable characters live their lives and occasionally play rugby, this show may hit the spot.

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