Nov 15, 2023
Good. Bad. Mediocre. The continuation to Days once again asks a complicated question to answer: is it a good anime, or not?
Days: Touin Gakuen-sen! gives us an extra 3 episodes focusing entirely on Seiseki's final match against Touin to win the qualifiers. The characters, the music, the atmosphere and everything else is exactly the same, as this is merely just a direct continuation of where the 24th episode left off. It was only to be expected that they'd take so many episodes to cover an entire match, but one thing probably nobody did expect is for this OVA to be considerably better than the main ... anime, and oddly enough, even if its quality is superior, it inevitably falls into the same issues that plagued Days: a triangle trying to fit in a circle.
These 3 episodes provide us a more entertaining experience, but also a more frustrating one: the match lasts 2 and a half episodes, as the first half of the first episode focuses mostly on Chikako spying and studying Touin, and Tsukushi training. As soon as we get into the match, the first 10 or so minutes are probably among the most enjoyable in the entire series, as we get to see a proper football match without annoying dramatizations or a total ignorance for the rules of the game, but this doesn't last long, as immediately after the 2nd episode starts, Days takes its usual touristic route and decides to totally forget what the fuck the anime is supposed to be about by, once again, bastardizing the most beautiful sport ever conceived, as if to piss off its audience.
The same issues as in Days are present in Days: Touin Gakuen-sen!. The second episode is probably one of the most frustrating things I've ever watched, as it mostly consists of Seiseki failing every single one of its shots on goal, as they all hit on the post, are miraculously saved by the keeper, or are stopped in some EXTREMELY unlikely way by one of Touin's field players. This doesn't happen two or three times, but like seven or eight, to a point in which each time they shoot you'll just be wanting to turn off your screen because you know you'll get annoyed. This leads into predictability, as Touin goes ahead and eventually scores, putting Seiseki against the wall, which then OBVIOUSLY leads to its players doing some more inhumane feats to first draw, then win the match with a goal right at the last second. To be fair, it makes for some decent entertainment, as the OVA certainly keeps you more interested in the match, but the outcome is very clear even before anything happens, so it kills the excitement and much of the catharsis that's supposed to come with Seiseki finally finding glory.
While here we get a decent continuation for a mediocre anime, one which fairly manages to entertain, the very fact that it's just a direct sequel to it leaves one issue abound: the characters are still empty and unrelatable. We don't get more background on them other than a few short conversations in some flashbacks, most of them about winning the tournament or just short conversations before the final match, and the most we get is a few flashbacks of Tsukushi's childhood, focusing on his dad and his death's impact on Tsukushi. These flashbacks are lame, short, and fail to appeal to emotion in any meaningful manner, so they don't serve much of a purpose other than to simply fill in some empty space. Another thing that must be criticized about this OVA is that it ignores many of the other characters in the anime, specially those that show up during the credits of the 24th episode: Nozomi and Sayuri, who got together to watch Tsukushi's match on TV. Junpei, who was watching the match on a tablet in the countryside. Kazama's friend who were the first to play football with Tsukushi. Kazama's mom. These characters are completely forgotten, and we don't even get a few frames of them reacting to the match.
Other than these things, there's really not much difference between these 3 episodes, and the 24 previous ones. The obnoxious aspects of the anime, such as the crowd commenting on everything, or Tsukushi constantly crying, are not really present here, and thank God for that, but as I said, the same issues persist: this hardly resembles actual football at times, but at least not all of the time like in Days. The soundtrack is the exact same: uninspiring and boring. The art style and animations were mildly improved, but they're largely the same as 2 years prior, and the 3D animations are still there, and they're still awkward and just bad, but at least they're not used nearly as much.
Naturally, watching this without having watched the anime wouldn't make much sense, but it's honestly a shame that the anime wasn't more similar to what we get here, because had that been the case, it would have been much better. The triangle that is Days: Touin Gakuen-sen! is certainly smaller, so it almost fits the circle it's trying to be inside, but it still struggles to do so. The OVA closes with a rather inconclusive ending to the series, as we know that they'll play another tournament, and Mizuki sort of makes it sound as if there would be another season to the anime, but this never came true, and at this point, it's unlikely we'll ever get anything else. This will leave more than one person with a sour taste in their mouth, as we'll never get to see things like Mizuki's prediction of Tsukushi becoming the captain later, or the mildly romance-tesque relationship between Tsukushi and Sayuri or Chikako and possibly Kazama, as it's hinted at certain points throughout the series.
If you've watched Days, go ahead and watch this. Otherwise, there's no much point in paying this any attention, since sitting through like 6 hours of a mediocre anime just to understand and experience this OVA would be a headache.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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