(CR) Iwa Kakeru! Climbing Girls

[magnumcyclonex]

The mental aspect of any competitive sport can be very hard on players. Just think, these girls have been climbing much longer than Konomi - a literal newbie, and not only does she squeak into the semi finals, she completes 3 out of 4 walls in just one attempt. And she did them before most of the other girls. So of course everyone is going to question how good she is and how hard the wall actually is.

Only the mentally strong will brush themselves off after each fall and continue making progress (like that zombie girl). And this is anime, so it's for entertainment. Everything is dramatized (the visuals, the emotions, the commentary etc.) to illicit a reaction from viewers like us.

[HandofFate]

Is the commentary said out loud so that the competitors can hear it all? Cause that sounds like it can be very demoralizing.

Surprised that Ooba didn't get penalized for suddenly yelling and messing up the other girls climbing.

[Tenzen12]

Well, that's something girls have to live with it. If they get demoralized that easily they can do climbing purely as pastime and avoid competetive scene. There will be plenty replacement.

[Liddo-kun]

it seems like the voice of the commentators can be heard by everyone... so yeah, demoralizing..

to be fair to the commentators.. it's their job to let the audience know what's happening, make the atmosphere more exciting. They also say it out loud when something positive happens, like Konomi sending three problems in one try.

[Liddo-kun]

episode 8:

not really liking this "almost everyone in the main cast must have drama" approach.

drop if nothing good happens on the next episode.

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by Liddo-kun

not really liking this "almost everyone in the main cast must have drama" approach.

Oh, I dunno. It's a sports anime. This amount of drama seems pretty normal to me. Konomi just plain ran out of gas, which is what you'd expect for someone in their first competition. One of the team members getting hurt is a typical development, too. That even happened in Chihayafuru, which is about Karuta. The only one who's a bit more of a head case is Jun, but she's been that way from the very first episode.

[Anh_Minh]

Bitchy girls doing bitchy stuff. Though at least two of them got better by the end of the ep.

[Tenzen12]

Helping overcoming psychic block doesn't sound "bitchy", even if she is "bitch girl" by nature.

[HandofFate]

the Cool Kurusu gimmick is so annoying, can't believe how often it got repeated in the first 10 minutes

[Cloudedmind]

Originally Posted by HandofFate

the Cool Kurusu gimmick is so annoying, can't believe how often it got repeated in the first 10 minutes

Doesn't help that the act made it pretty obvious she was going to be a bitch.

[SeijiSensei]

I expect Konomi will break fifteen seconds next week. Whether she'll get anywhere near twelve is an open question. Wish we saw some results for Jun.

[BBOvenGuy]

I like to go hiking in the mountains around me, but I don't consider myself a climber. Today, though, I picked a trail that was considerably steeper than it looked from the bottom, and I found "Let's climb! Climb! Climb!" ringing in my head through much of it.

I'd like to say I looked like the cool rock-climber coach dude, but I was probably more like the positive-thinking girl who fell on her butt fifty times.

Meanwhile, where does Jun put her hair when she's climbing? This week was the first time I noticed - it's long when she's not climbing, but then she puts on her climbing outfit and poof! There it goes...

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I expect Konomi will break fifteen seconds next week. Whether she'll get anywhere near twelve is an open question. Wish we saw some results for Jun.

Her first day 1 result was 15:20. In day 2, assuming they haven't shuffled the scoreboard around, she did 13:56.

You'd think the skills they showed (memorizing the holds and having good posture) would suit her, since she uses her head a lot and is also a former ballerina. I wonder why it didn't work out? And why, I assume, copying the new girl will?

[SeijiSensei]

Fine ending for this cour.

Spoiler:

Teams usually don't win Nationals in their first year in anime. The kids build to being a top-ranked competitor over a couple of seasons. Hibike! Euphonium and Chihayafuru are good examples. I expected Hanamiya to place second. Suggests there may not be a second season of wall-climbing.

[serenade_beta]

Spoiler for final thoughts:

Overall, at best, an average cute girls doing some kind of sport anime.
To be honest, I don't really feel the main characters were really developed well.
There were a lot of characters for a 1-cour anime.
And 90% of them were cringey and were assholes. Or didn't really have enough screentime for a personality. When Yukari's character started singing some song, it was so... like, WTF? That's not even annoying. That's just weird and funny.

Also, the protagonist's game gimmick was cringey too.

Also, they clearly rushed the last episode. Way rushed.

So, meh. Very, very meh. 6/10

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Fine ending for this cour.

Spoiler:

Teams usually don't win Nationals in their first year in anime. The kids build to being a top-ranked competitor over a couple of seasons. Hibike! Euphonium and Chihayafuru are good examples. I expected Hanamiya to place second. Suggests there may not be a second season of wall-climbing.

Spoiler for Ending:

I wasn't really expecting a second season. Plus Anne-chan was such an obnoxious opponent that she needed to be taken down (although she did still win the individual title).