Rifle Is Beautiful

I have no doubt that shooting a rifle could possibly be quite a wonderful experience, however, no matter how hard the girls in this show tried, they still somehow failed to convince and reel me in. This is a show that features a hybrid of "cute girls doing cute things" with classic sports anime series. Well, in the end it actually balances those two elements so equally that neither stands out at all, and at the same time both are so tenuous and ineffective that it is quite likely that after some time I am not even going to remember this show at all. Perhaps this is a real shame because as far as cuteness is concerned, this show features the two classic formulas for characters which are my personal favorites - the private and peculiar Yukio (= enigmatic and taciturn with a certain detached aura and reserved, haughty personality), and then the awkward, slightly goofy, albeit hard-working Hikari who is not too bright (= classic cute and clumsy anime girl). I like these types of anime characters and they work well together in this show. However, despite all the training and competitions, I felt like I did not have much of an opportunity to really get to know both of these girls and enjoy the way they interacted with others that much. There are some quite charming moments, however, still not enough to maintain a pleasant mood and keep me satisfied. In all honesty, they do not manage to even pull off the sporting element of the show very well either. First of all, with everyone going on and on about how great shooting is, and perhaps every supporting character immediately having something to contribute, whether it is an internal monologue or some backstory, I felt no real obligation to get behind and be a big fan of the main four protagonists. All of them have motivation and are more or less quite physically and mentally strong, so there is really nowhere for them to go concerning character development… Secondly, the show sorely lacked some kind of rivalry between the girls, something that would create some tension - some kind of strong competitiveness between them because they all simply try to become friends, and then support and motivate each other so there’s no drama. Also, because one of them is so good at what she does, she ends up motivating others and spurring them on, so there is no real rivalry, as they are just congratulating each other instead... Thirdly, the main protagonists do not have to do anything special in order to succeed. Sure it is a typical sports anime cliché (and especially a shonen trope) that if you want to achieve something you need to train harder than all the others, however, that underdog element certainly does end up giving the audience more of a sense of gratification when they get there in the end. When you see someone working like a dog, you are more likely (logically) to wish them well, and want them to succeed. For example, there is Hikari, well she loves to shoot, however, the fact she goes shooting all the time is only implied, and not much is shown on screen, especially during regular training and so we are just supposed to believe that she is good at competitions because she gets so pumped up - really very good in fact! OK, so say I buy that, however, once again - why should I be rooting for her if it is so automatic? You can see her incredible enthusiasm, yet no one sees her "blood, sweat, and tears". Enthusiasm and talent can sometimes be enough to win, however, in reality, from the perspective of someone who has always had to work hard for most things, that is not enough in itself to admire (and cheer for) someone... Anyway, that is not the end of it! Another one of this anime series’ shortcomings is there is no really interesting information for viewers about shooting besides some basic facts and rules. I mean, I can safely say that this is not the type of sports anime that is supposed to get us excited about a particular sport by telling and showing us as much as possible so that we could know what we might need to get, how to stand properly when shooting, if there is any special way of choosing the right rifle, etc. The educational cross over here is simply negligible - superficial... If you add to that the rather mediocre animation, then it is no wonder that this anime series is way down in terms of ratings on most anime databases... Despite all that, I for one just cannot bring myself to award this show any extra low ratings. Sometimes it caused me to smile, and I cannot say that I found any of the episodes boring.  As I said before, I like some of the characters, plus the soundtrack is pretty good too. There are a boat-load of shortcomings, and this anime series fails on both of the main aspects it tries to work towards, however, it was not actually such a terrible experience for me personally... Well, I have been going on for ages, what more is there to say? For me, this is an average show. 5/10. (29/12/2019) (moins) (plus)