Iwa Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls

Okay, people. We need another sport that will have hot female chicks stretch out their strategic body parts naturally in full display without having to look all so sleazy like as though it was all for the obvious fanservice. Beach volleyball is out and jet skiing certainly didn’t do the trick. So what sport can hide that seedy fanservice reason without looking so obvious as one? Why, rock climbing! Uh huh. In nobody’s mind that rock climbing is considered a sport where perverts watch the sport just because of sexy hot babes. I mean, rock climbing. What is so sexy about it?! And that is why, Iwa Kakeru! Sport Climbing Girls is going to be this season’s fanservice but not fanservice sports genre. I mean, we are here just to see strong and flexible muscle girls climb up the obstacles, right? RIGHT???!!!

Episode 1
Konomi Kasahara feels that no clubs suit her in Hanamiya High School. Until she sees this rock climbing wall. She touches it but Jun Uehara gets disgusted to see a non-club member touching. Because Konomi watches her clean, Jun thinks she is interested and lets her try out. Konomi feels pretty good climbing and even tries an advanced lunging move the first time. She fails of course. As Jun lectures about how people try this out of curiosity and that this is more than just a game, Konomi wants to have another go. This time her vision turns into that of a puzzle as she ‘solves’ it with the route she takes. Club president, Sayo Yotsuba and Nonoka Sugiura are lamenting no other newbies besides Jun will be joining this year when they see Konomi’s climb. Konomi is looking like a climbing expert just after a few tips from Jun. Another lunge move… Failed. Konomi expresses interest in joining but Jun won’t allow it. Huh?! So she thinks she isn’t serious, huh? Hence a challenge if Konomi wins, she gets to join. Otherwise Jun quits. Uhm, isn’t this a lose-lose situation?! Of course Jun being the veteran, she’ll be given a handicap like Konomi will have a 2 minute head start and Jun will have no time to study the layout. So as we see both girls climb, Konomi of course being the beginner is slow but she is pretty flexible. We also hear their thoughts like how Jun loves nothing but climbing since you can’t win with beginner’s luck. As for Konomi, her whole life is just playing puzzle games. She realized her grades were failing and needed to do something. So she changed by studying had and getting into this school. And now she’s obsessed with sport climbing! Konomi impresses everyone with her laybacking move to solve a very complex problem that only veterans with years of experience can do. In the end, while it seems that both reach the top at the same time, it is Jun who won by a whisker. Aww… Can Konomi not join? Jun isn’t convinced by her marginal win and wants another challenge. So this is an indirect acceptance to allow her to join the team until their next battle? Okay. Whatever. Sayo asks Konomi a few questions if she has rock climbing experience. Nil. Her body is flexible because she once took ballet classes. Ah… But can it be this flexible assuming she didn’t do any more practice and just played video games?! But thanks to her being a puzzle game veteran, she can create solutions from that perspective. Sayo considers her a valuable fourth member for the upcoming tournament. When? Tomorrow!

Episode 2
The girls watch a video of Anne Kurusu climbing. Damn, the way she climbs like a cat, is she a cat woman in disguise? But first, their spring tournament. Konomi gets to know that Sayo was last year’s champion. But they intend to take the team’s title this year as well. Konomi’s first brush with a rival girl, the rabbit-spider hybrid of Chinari Iwamine. Damn, is every rival going to be some sort of monster girl? Anyway, don’t be intimidated by her. Just go climb. We see Sayo and Nonoka doing well in their respective climbs. Konomi then makes friends with Akane Uchimura (another cat girl?) who then gives some tips on how to climb. So when Konomi is up next, it seems she is climbing different than usual and this makes Jun worried because at this rate she’ll tire herself out. And true enough, this causes her to slip and fall. Oh my, sure she failed but now she is depressed?! This is just the second episode! Anyway, Jun doesn’t blame her after realizing she met a certain cat girl and proceeds to give some tips to climb some Egyptian style. If she still wants to be depressed, blame herself for not having enough faith on herself. We see Akane climb and she too fails. Then Jun talks to her but of course she pretends she doesn’t know anything. Of course the flashback will tell her she is a b*tch we love to hate because her goal is to ruin newbies in the sport. She was one too but Jun usurp her and took all the honours. Yeah… With Konomi getting her second chance, she does better this time going at her own pace and using Jun’s wisdom. Akane panics when she climbs higher than her although eventually Konomi falls due to lack of strength. As Akane rues and plans her next target, she accidentally bumps into Iwamine. Showdown between the beasts but Akane with her smaller stature loses out and gets ‘eaten’ by the spider… Just desserts. In the end, Hanamiya team takes both the individual and team honours! Thanks to Sayo, Nonoka and Jun occupying the podium spots! Before Konomi could start thinking she didn’t help much, Sayo talks about her dreams to head to the national championships and then conquer the tournaments of the world to spread to awareness of how awesome rock climbing is. So is Konomi in? You bet. But of course they have to contend with other prodigies like Anne, Iwamine, Chigusa Kumagai (bear?), Masumi Fujita (black panther?), Kurea Ooba (ballerina – I’m assuming it’s a swan then) and Rina Samura (delinquent – but WTF an animal is a Stormtrooper?!). And what’s this chicken dinner gamers’ lingo about being a winner? Okay. Whatever. Just climb towards the future!

Episode 3
In order to prepare Konomi for the next bouldering championships, hence Sayo will help train to shape up her body. Shape it up enough so she will have strength and not be burden by all the bulging muscles. With the training in session, Konomi finds it very hard to keep up. Don’t blame her. She’s just a beginner. It’s no surprise her body is aching all over. In school, she tries to eat with loner Jun but she might regret it since Jun notices her unhealthy diet and is going to watch what she eats! Poor girl can’t even get a break. To help with the training, the Hanamiya girls will head to the mountains to climb an anti-monkey rock. Yeah, a rock so hard that monkeys can’t even climb. Because Konomi arrives too early, she stumbles into a girl, Kikuko “Kiku” Goto playing a puzzle game. Claiming she is undefeated, Konomi plays with her and beats her with 10 consecutive victories! How about that! Kiku now wants to call her master! Too bad her dad calls so see you next time. Konomi realizes she is now late as the others have arrived. They meet up with their trainer, Juzo who is no surprise, Kiku’s father. Konomi is impressed seeing him climb a very dangerous cliff with ease. Konomi surprises everyone when she can analyse the rocks and tell the number of routes to take! All of them are hard so she chooses the one she thinks she can climb. Unfortunately she gets scared and couldn’t make it all the way to the top. Don’t feel disheartened now. It’s okay to know your limits and it’ll be bad if she actually falls and hurts herself. Then they see Kiku traversing the rock with ease. In the end, when Konomi goes to praise her, Kiku praises her analytical skills to be better. Because rock climbing has identifiable rocks, bouldering doesn’t so her skill is very valuable. Kiku’s goal is to become the best free climber like her dad. Yeah, she admires him a lot and doesn’t mind Konomi becomes her mom?! WTF???!!! Anyway, Kiku suggests Konomi come with her to do free climbing. Don’t have to give an answer now but think about it. Konomi returns to training and once more she feels afraid. Of course the key here is confidence and with that, you can even trust your pinkie with your life. The girls return home. More training but this time Konomi is fired up and improves in her form. Now she feels ready to take on the anti-monkey rock?

Episode 4
Konomi returns to climb the anti-monkey rock. After some dramatic moments, she finally conquers it. She is ready to give Kiku her answer and sorry, she can’t follow Kiku because she has her own dreams to pursue. Damn, Kiku looks so disappointed. Now she’s sulking! No choice, Konomi has to use her position as master to have Kiku come cheer for her at the bouldering championships. Before that happens, the Hanamiya girls take Konomi to have her feet measured. Pro climber, Asuka Fujimura runs a shop that has all your needs. She measures her feet to give her the perfect climbing shoes. Konomi tests it out and she has never felt so comfortable and wants to climb more! Now we see all the potential teams and characters at the bouldering championships. Akane being the usual b*tch again but she is shooed away because it’s time for a mini showdown between this generation’s greatest climbing dames! WTF?! We have Hanamiya’s Sayo, Kurikawa’s Iwamine and St Caterno’s Fujita. May the best climber win. Jun advises Konomi to follow her own brand of climbing and not listen to others. Of course Konomi needs to have her own b*tch rival and she is Ooba from St Caterno. They were in the same ballet school and Ooba once wanted to become like Konomi. So she claims she is a better climber than ballet than Konomi? How can you do ballet in rock climbing, b*tch???!!!

Episode 5
Nonoka claims she might fail this and hopes Konomi can cover for them. WTF?! Planning to fail her?! You trying to push your responsibility to Konomi?! Is this some death flag?! So we see all the girls have their go at climbing. Juzo explains to us the format of this preliminary. Apparently you can try and climb as many routes you want. The top 20 who complete the most within the time limit will move on to the semi-finals. If you fail and fall, you have to queue up for your turn again so plan your climb wisely. Now we see Konomi using her dexterity and resourcefulness to complete a very difficult route that no one wants to tackle and she becomes the first to clear it. A few more other girls in action before it is Nonoka’s turn. But as we know, because of her small stature, she fails to reach the top and falls. Girl so sad. After her is Iwamine and spider woman makes her climb look so easy. To rub salt into wounds, because I believe she is one the tallest among all the competitors, she uses her stature to stretch and grab the top, making it look like she’s defying the odds. And you bet Nonoka watching this just feels so insulted in certain ways. In the end, here are the ranks of those who matter: #1) Iwamine; #2) Fujita; #3) Kumagai; #4) Sayo; #7: Samura; #10) Jun; #20) Konomi. Where’s Nonoka? #23. Oh… Time for some drama. Because little girl runs away crying. Didn’t she ‘expect’ this???!!! So Sayo goes talk to her. This and that. You know the drill. But at the end of the day, what Nonoka is most saddened with is her small stature. Why can’t she grow bigger?! I don’t know?! Why didn’t your creator draw you bigger, HUH???!!! Lots of emotional Nonoka tears coupled with some big sisterly Sayo hug. Okay, Jun. Okay, Konomi. Time to get serious and do it for Nonoka’s part.

Episode 6
Time to give some drama for Fujita. Apparently she is nervous for the semi-finals. She can’t fail or else it will invoke some failure trauma during her stint at the tracks. Of course she can’t show this side to her comrades. Imagine how demoralize they’ll be if they see her cower like that… Nonoka dresses up as a delinquent to support her teammates? Are there no decent cheerleading outfits?! Also, Ooba trying to show her b*tch supremacy again to Konomi but the latter is just freaking cool that her teammates are all one! Asuka joins Nonoka in the stands to watch the semi-finals. Yeah, your much needed commentator as she also helped set the obstacles for the semi-finals. From the rundown of how it works, basically participants are placed in an isolated room. Going by the ascending order of how they finished, once they come out to the field, they will have to visualize and analyse how to climb the wall on sight. Yup, this is an obstacle crafted best for Konomi’s abilities. Top 6 goes on to the finals. Konomi goes first and she wows the crowd by clearing the first difficult path in a single try! The crowd cheers so loud with this stunning impossibility that Ooba is getting worried… We need to see our first failure and that is Maruno Satou who falls too many times and couldn’t complete her first path within the time limit. Next is Kaoru Niijima. She slips and falls very often but gets up quickly and each try she climbs higher. I don’t, each time she rinse and repeat this, it feels like a joke! At this point, Konomi has cleared the second, again in her first try! The crowd cheers louder! You getting worried, Ooba? Of course now it’s her turn to try and surprisingly not surprisingly, she slips. Try again. Konomi is already using her superhuman analytical skills on the third wall to once again climb it at first go! The crowd goes wild! Ooba now panics. Must climb faster! Oops! She falls! She keeps slipping and the ultimate f*ckery is how she sees Konomi as the wall! Time’s up, b*tch! Out you go!

Episode 7
It seems for Konomi’s final climb, she is taking too long to analyse. Is something wrong? Yeah, for the first time she can’t seem to find the right combo. She starts climbing and falls for the first time! Wow. The crowd sounds so disappointed. I guess this proves she isn’t perfect? However time is up so I guess 3 out of 4 climbs is not bad. Even her turn is over, Konomi continues to analyse in her head. This unsolvable puzzle must be solved! But for the rest of the few climbers, none has cleared one ever since. Ooba getting more panicky by the moment. Can she overcome this ‘wall’ known as Konomi?! Don’t get jealous now. Just f*cking climb! It’s Jun’s turn and surprise! She too falls! How the f*ck did Konomi succeed this on her first try?! Ooba’s last ditch attempt by letting out a blood curling scream… I have a feeling it caused a few climbers to drop like flies… But still, didn’t do her any good. Out she goes! Focusing on Jun, the more she climbs, the more she fails. Cue for her flashback, I suppose. As a loner in school because nobody else shares the same climbing passion, a girl tries to support her hobby and even has a go at it. She found it quite fun. However Jun thinks she is just doing this to please her (like how Jun ‘tried’ pleasing others with those trendy girly stuffs but didn’t last long). So she lashed out at her to just go do your own thing. And with that, Jun is back to climbing all alone again. So she thinks climbing is all she has? Wait till she fails to clear the final wall. She just couldn’t climb after her umpteenth drop. Her body is fine but her mind is frozen. Damn, it sounds like the end of the world when Jun couldn’t clear a single wall. Konomi tries to cheer her up but I guess she needs some time alone. And just like that she considers herself a failure of a climber and starts crying… :’(. Oh my, I guess it really is end of the world. Okay, more like end of the road.

Episode 8
Sayo manages to clear 2 walls but on the third, she feels the pain in her middle finger. Most likely muscle tear. She is unable to complete that wall in time. On her final climb, that pain once again immobilizes her. She is about to give up but seeing Nonoka’s worried face, time to change pace. Now she rallies to her to cheer on her. With that, Nonoka and friends start a cacophony of cheers and in turn lead the crowd to start spurring on Sayo. That was weird. In the end, she manages to clear it. So the top 6 for the finals are: 1) Iwamine; 2) Kumagai; 3) Sayo; 4) Konomi; 5) Fujita; 6) Niijima. Wait a minute. Niijima snuck in and beat Samura for the final place?! This girl keeps slipping, but how?! Anyway, Sayo is forced to withdraw because Nonoka won’t stop b*tching about injuring her finger even further. Oh well, Konomi has to shoulder it all for Hanamiya. Now we see Fujita in her usual depression. But then her teammates come to cheer her up and this blows away her blues. We see joker Niijima falling her climb for the 10th time! So we skip her to see Fujita climbing hers successful. Yeah, she overcame whatever her fear was. The fear of living up to expectations of others. Screw that. See, now she climbs way better. Now it is Konomi’s turn. And then… SHE SLIPS AND FALLS!!! OMFG!!! No wonder everybody look so dumbfounded! Damn, this episode skips a lot of climbing action because now we see the prize presentation ceremony! The winner of the individual climb is Fujita! Iwamine takes second place while Niijima takes third. Wait a minute. THIS SLIPPING JOKER MANAGED TO GET A PODIUM FINISH???!!! She even somehow best Kumagai?! I don’t even… Anyway, Kurikawa takes the team championship. Now we see Konomi trying to analyse what went wrong. Why couldn’t she climb? No use moping about it because she’s just going to have to climb more! That’s the spirit. Now that her problem is solved, here’s another one: Looks like Jun has requested to take time off from the club! Gasp. Looks like somebody couldn’t move on… Before Konomi could start feeling guilty of not talking to Jun, Sayo talks about the upcoming Combined Japan High School Cup. She believes Jun will come back by that time because it is their goal. So see you in 6 months, everybody! More training and improvement in the meantime.

Episode 9
Konomi has entered lots of competitions, win them and built her stamina. You bet she is raring to go for the next one. Nearby, Anne is meeting her fans. She recognizes Sayo and goes talk to her. She also recognizes Konomi and then makes a surprise announcement that they will hold an exhibition match. In this match, they have a minute to observe the wall and the fastest to reach the top wins. Konomi doesn’t have enough time to analyse it all but makes a good start. It is only at the final stretch where she is struggling to reach, Anne has already reached the top and even cheering her on to complete it. Konomi finishes and it is a fantastic match of sportsmanship. Later as the duo take it to the shower, Konomi expresses her wish to win it for Hanamiya. But that is when Anne shows her true colours. She laughs and mocks at her dream and that Hanamiya may be over since one of them didn’t show up and probably quitted after that bouldering competition. Shower confrontation continues as Anne is adamant she’ll beat everyone and win the Combined Japan High School Cup. After all, Kokureikan High is another climbing powerhouse. Both girls are fired up to defeat each other. Later Konomi tells this to the rest and they also know that Konomi has realized her speed is her greatest weakness. This brings to mind they have their own speedster specialist. Speaking of her… Jun working part time in a climbing gym? And she’s conducting lessons for young kids? Well, Akane is there too so when b*tch fight starting? Jun tries to keep it simple but the kids don’t understand. Akane makes it easier for kid to understand and they’re all excited. When the kids ask to solve a seemingly hard problem, Akane shifts it to Jun. She’ll climb it for you! Unfortunately Jun can’t climb! She’s frozen at the starting point! You mean she still has trauma?! Oh sh*t. She runs away. Teacher ditching her own class?! Great timing for Konomi to come in to talk to her but since that didn’t work, Akane heard it all and challenges Jun to a contest. If Jun loses, she must quit this job. Not moved? Just say the downfall of Hanamiya and that will get her moving. Akane fails to climb so can Jun do it? Still scared? Time for Akane to make some scathing remarks if Jun is really Jun. Now she could start climbing and realizes her love for climbing in the first place. She finally does it and everybody so happy. Akane must be conflicted her rival is now back up to speed. Oh well, if you want to take down the best, it’s always better when they’re at their top form.

Episode 10
Konomi misses Jun. Don’t look now because she’s back! On to serious business, Konomi tries her hand at speed climbing and does it under 24 seconds. That’s good, right? Only, the average competitors range between 16-17 seconds, pros do it in 12 and the minimum to qualify is 15 seconds. Holy sh*t! Wanna have another go? Not so fast. This isn’t the case of the more you practise, the better you become. So some more stamina and other related training. Despite improving her times, she is still nowhere near qualifying range. But don’t despair, there is a speed climbing training camp organized by Nakata (one of the flamboyant commentators from the tournaments). Oh damn, is this going to be a b*tch camp too because Akane and Ooba are also here. Is Maruno trying to be the third b*tch or is this her way in cultivating rivalry? With the training starts, Konomi finds herself at the bottom. Cue for those b*tches to get back at her. So she’s already depressed? Unexpected motivation from Nakata blabbing his move to get her going. When Konomi tries to analyse and do things her own way, does her time improve? In fact, she gets slower! Damn, she’s truly depressed now?! So when Ooba teases her about being a turtle, Konomi cries! Oh sh*t! Now you’ve done it! You happy now?! Feeling bad, Ooba stops and tries to talk to her but with Konomi still being a pessimistic, some tough love of Ooba slapping her! Gee, I hope she didn’t break her hand… Essentially, Ooba is right that she doesn’t want to lose to this pathetic version of Konomi. The Konomi whom she has worked so hard to defeat. Later, more talk from Jun who relates her own experience of losing out to Konomi. Eventually, the key is to not lose sight of yourself and have more faith in yourself. Next day, Konomi gets back to her usual groove to climb. But then she notices a girl who is climbing so fast just under 13 seconds! Woah. Who this babe?

Episode 11
Konomi goes talk to Mimu Takahashi. She’s quite the lively and friendly girl. They click fast because she too is a gamer and her forte is rhythmic games. So that explains her speed. Tempo is key. Giving her that ta-ta-tan advice (?!) as motivation, Konomi continues her climb with bettering results. Her face off with Ooba is a close one. Despite losing to her by a whisker, it is Konomi’s personal best as she clocks underneath 15 seconds. Watch out you b*tches! Wow. Feeling confident Hanamiya can actually win this, huh? Okay. Better be positive. As Konomi goes to thank Mimu, she realizes her school’s emblem: Kokureikan. Oh yeah. The team to beat… With the training camp over, back to more training at Hanamiya and Kiku volunteers to help them. When Sayo practises and clocks and amazing under 14 seconds, the other girls are amazed but not Nonoka. A private talk has Nonoka lashing out her climb was weird. She knows her finger isn’t fully healed and this could lead to problems in the future if she risks it now. I guess we need some drama as Sayo yells back that she knows it. But she can’t sit back while watching the others improve. It gets so intense that Nonoka starts crying-cum-screaming inaudible baby language words?! WTF???!!! Long story short, she promises to lead the team to victory. With that, Sayo announces she won’t be taking part. Thank goodness this is a team sport, right? The Combined Japan High School Cup is here. Wow. So many participants. 140 of them. It’s going to be a mammoth task to whittle down to just 20. Before the usual b*tches can do their usual b*tching to Konomi and Hanamiya, here comes the biggest b*tch powerhouse of them all: Kokureikan. The number 1 favourites to win it all. With the overwhelming participants, they are divided into 2 blocks as we see Hanamiya slaying the game with the bouldering section, taking top spot. Next up is speed. Not to rain on your parade but on the other block, the top 6 speedy participants are from Kokureikan with Anne on the summit. Yeah… Good to have reality check sometimes. Then we see Konomi just decimating Maruno and leaving her in the dust. Did she even start when Konomi just finished???!!! No time for small fries. Anne’s the big fish to catch!

Episode 12
We see Anne’s climbs. A reminder she’s the one to beat! No wonder she is running away with top spot. Oh Konomi, don’t let all the fans cheering for Anne intimidate you. Just focus! So eventually the top 20 who progress are among those favourites we anticipate. But I guess one of them isn’t Akane since she is saying to our Hanamiya climbers that they have to postpone their challenge next time. Aww… Sad cat face… Now we see Anne’s dark side, the reason she goes all out here is so that she could break everyone’s spirits that they’ll never climb again! Mean… During the speed climb, it is Anne facing off with Konomi. Oh damn, Anne singing a cursed lullaby to her?! Anyway, it ends with Anne beating her by 2 seconds! More fuel for Anne to sing her cursed lullaby to her. Don’t fall for her b*tch trap… Stay focused… The rankings so far: 1) Anne; 2) Mimu; 3) Fujita; 4) Iwamine; 5) Jun… Konomi is down in 10th place. Not bad but again, don’t let Anne’s intimidation ruin your climb! The final climb is lead climbing in which participants have 1 chance to scale as high as they can. Many of our favourites fail along the way. Time for Anne to strut her stuff. Just before the final rock, she slips! Oh well. Nobody is perfect. Even so, because of her distance, she currently sits in provisional top spot. Time for a little Hanamiya team building spirit before we see their climb. First up is Jun. Not bad but she still falls short. Next is Nonoka. Looking at this shorty climb is hilarious! Stretch STRECTH!!! But I guess all those lessons from Sayo paid off. She climbed slightly higher than Jun before falling. Finally it’s Konomi. She thinks back all her friends and rivals. Long story short, she finally makes it! The only one who finishes the climb! Who’s not impressed now, Anne?! Thanks to this Hanamiya usurps Kokureikan in the team category!!! Though, individually it is Anne who wins followed by Konomi, Iwamine, Jun, Fujita, Mimu, Nonoka, etc…

Top Wo Nerae! Up, Up & Away!
Wow. That’s it?! It suddenly just ends like that?! Oh well. I can see why. Don’t want to dedicate 1 lousy episode or even half an episode or heck, just 5 minutes to say all the ending and closing statements from the characters. The fight is now on! We will continue to fight to be the best in Japan! And the world! You know, the usual drill. That would be so predictable and boring. So I guess by preventing Kokureikan having a clean sweep, they have made Anne swallow her own words and that’s all to it at least for this season. So yeah, never look down at others! Because karma sure loves to come bite you back in some ways. Now Hanamiya can go conquer the rest of the world! Yeah, it does feel like that when you’re on top.

The story seems pretty cliché and generic. After all, this is a sports themed anime so how different can they go? Either you have an underdog team that participates in a tournament that gives the more established powerhouse a run for their money. Or in this case you also have a powerhouse team (but to a lesser degree) but a new member of the sport showing some prodigal skills because why not, shows a lot of potential at first attempts, gives stronger teams a run for their money, but still has some weaknesses so as to give room for improvement and more sports related drama, till the next time the big guns meet and challenge each other in the next tournament. Yeah, that’s as exciting it can get.

Now you’re wondering about the fanservice level, right? Yes there are but it is not as blatantly obvious as stereotypically fanservice-y sports. The camera angles do show the buttocks and breast areas of the females but this is seemingly not very noticeable especially during the heat of the climb. Unless you specifically wait for that moment then you might notice. Pervert. Otherwise, the shots will be fast enough to move on to the next scene. With many of the female characters having strong biceps, triceps, abdominal abs, all those muscles will overpower and overshadow those boobs (fat muscles?!). I mean, come to think of it, now that I realized, I don’t think I know which of the girls has the biggest bust size! It never occurred to me! So seeing the girls climb, all I saw was just strong arm and thigh muscles and didn’t notice about the boobs or ass. Is this anime good or what in hiding its fanservice factor?! Or I am not such a big pervert as I think I am!!! Haha. Is it no wonder they don’t showcase the male section of the sport? Is there any in the first place?!

As for the sport itself, I believe that everything that has been said here is just introductory. If you are hooked and feel more interested to take up this sport, feel free to do more self-research once you are done with the anime. There will be more technical terms and jargons that may blow your mind but as far as this anime is concerned, it is just touching the surface. I mean, they don’t want to bore us with all the lexicons, right? We’re here to see muscular girls climbing! Oh yeah. I think most of us will be pretty much gone after finishing the series rather than go into the climbing sport itself. So don’t worry if you don’t understand any ‘complicated’ terms here, I assure you there are enough basic explanations that are itself simple enough to get you through. Now can we get back to ogling at the girls?!

Character wise, pretty cliché and generic. Konomi as the main character is your typical main character genius. As one who has no goals or anything specific in life, she chances upon something that gives her that much needed adrenaline rush. Oddly, rock climbing. Now that she has the passion in this sport, you see her exerting her talent and surpassing those who have been in the industry for donkey years. The only weird thing I find about her is her transition as a puzzle gamer otaku to one that is now into a physically demanding sport. I know it is not impossible but the way she transitions into one in such a short time, so unbelievable. I mean, puzzle gamer -> rock climber. I don’t see the freaking obvious connection here! I suppose it is for variety and amusement so that we can see her expend her puzzle expertise into rock climbing. Which is pretty weird and I don’t see the freaking obvious connection either! It is as good as saying I love playing racing video games and now I can become a pro racer in real life. Not impossible but still… And then I use the visuals and analysis of me driving through the virtual track and employ it in the real race. Weird…

Then you have Jun who is another newbie on the rise. She is more serious but like Konomi also has her own issues to deal with. But the way I see Konomi and Jun have as their biggest issue is their personal self-confidence and motivation. I know it is good to think like a champion but one small little failure and setback and they’re acting like it’s the end of the world. Feeling down is okay but the way they go into depression is like a very serious case. Thankfully, just a few simple words or actions to remind them what their main goal is, they’re back in action. There. There’s your much needed character drama for dramatization effect since we can’t have 100% climbing all the way.

Nonoka feels like the weakest link among the Hanamiya quartet and I claim her short stature is part of the reason. The same reason why tall players have more advantage in basketball. As the obstacle course gets tougher and the one who sets it might be setting it on devilishly nightmare mode just to get some kicks, being unable to stretch and reach out further might be the deciding factor if she could make it or not. Otherwise if she can’t proceed further into the tournament, she’s always the backup supporter and cheerleader that you can count on. Sayo as the team leader, she’s pretty cool but due to the recent injury, we don’t see much of her in action. So I guess now it’s her turn to play the supporting role. It would be too suspicious if everybody from Hanamiya starts doing too well. Why do I have this feeling Kiku is their backup, like as though when the time is right, she’ll join Hanamiya since her master is on that team.

As for the other characters, well, pretty cliché themselves too. First and foremost, we need to have b*tch rivals so as to ramp up the drama. Because it wouldn’t be exciting if everybody was just nice and friendly or at the level of friendliness like Mimu. Yeah, that wouldn’t be fun at all. So with a handful of b*tches like Ooba, Akane, Maruno and even Anne herself, this ramps up the much needed rivalry in this sport because how otherwise are you going to grow? The best way is to prove your enemies wrong and make them eat their words by beating them in their own game. That’s the best revenge. And who knows? They might just be playing the villain for all you know. But as far as we can see for now, playing the b*tch may be so that we can support Hanamiya further because they’re the only team with very nice people. Not that we even know the other lesser members of other teams at all. Like as though they’re just there for the numbers. Get what I’m saying?

Other rivals like Fujita, to show us they aren’t perfect despite being the top, have their own insecurities as well. Don’t we all. We’re so glad they’re just humans like us. But the rest feels like weirdoes like Iwamine who is just some weird pervert in her own ways. Funnily, many of their nicknames take after animals. So why don’t I see one who is a nicknamed after a monkey?! I mean, one of the first animals that would come to mind that are good in climbing trees are monkeys, right?! What do you mean that feels like a derogatory term?! What about a sloth then?! You mean it gives off that slow and lazy perception?! Okay. Whatever. Yeah, I’m surprised nobody here is a scaling dragon or a flying unicorn!

One thing I find a little annoying about the series is how some of the characters get really fast depressed. Looking especially at you, Konomi. I understand this is done for dramatic effect but come on, I thought you girls were being realistic? I know you girls are better than a hell lot of other nameless climbers who only serve as extras and the numbers but I thought they should know better than to mope and get depressed like as though it is the end of the world. I mean, Konomi plays puzzle games, right? She only gets good after lots of failures. Hence she should know about failing the first few times. So I don’t understand why she’s so depressed after her first failed attempt in so many cases. Oh yeah. Dramatic effect. Got to see them grow… And with just the right words, they’re back to climbing their usual. Gotta thank dramatic effect for all that because otherwise the anime would be so boring without drama and rival b*tches. Yeah…

Art and animation are pretty okay. I mean, what else can you expect? It’s not really a fast paced sports technically (like F1 racing in that sense) so I guess the animation is pretty acceptable. Character designs, I thought some of them look a bit familiar. Like Kumagai. I thought this is what Chun Li from Street Fighter franchise would have been had she not been thunder thighs. Seriously. And why does she always have this pouting mouth?! Is that a permanent feature on her face? Then there is Fujita who reminds me of the titular character of a retro anime, Suzuka. Strangely, Fujita was from the athletics just like Suzuka. Did Evangelion’s Asuka decide to go into competitive climbing? Because that’s what I thought who Anne was. Same case for Kiku. Did Date A Live’s Origami quit her AST for this? Iwamine has a strange mouth that makes me think that she might be some cursed demonic doll waiting to pound on unsuspecting victims. This anime is done by Blade who animated Chinese based series like Cheating Craft and Gin No Guardian II.

Voice acting, it is nice to hear Yukari Tamura as Anne as she is in her very trademark squeaky voice. Cool Kurusu! Others whom I recognized are Takehito Koyasu as Juzo and Ami Koshimizu as Asuka. Other casts are Sumire Uesaka as Konomi (Shalltear in Overlord), Yui Ishikawa as Jun (Mikasa in Shingeki No Kyojin), Aina Suzuki as Sayo (Mari in Love Live! Sunshine), Miyu Tomita as Nonoka (titular character in Gabriel Dropout), Sayaka Harada as Kiku (Porta in Okaa-san Online), Mikako Komatsu as Iwamine (Neko in K), Akane Fujita as Akane (Kaiko in Imouto Sae Ireba Ii), Chihiro Ueda as Fujita (Masaru in Karakuri Circus), Machico as Ooba (Hikari in Rifle Is Beautiful), Sachi Kokuryu as Kumagai (Arthur in Nanatsu No Taizai), Yumiri Hanamori as Maruno (Seth in Radiant), Yuka Terasaki as Kaoru (Hephaestus in DanMachi) and Sachika Misawa as Mimu (Black Snow in Accel World).

Both the opening and ending themes, Motto Takaku by Aina Suzuki and Let’s Climb by the Hanamiya quartet are both lively and befitting the sports genre of this series. So if you ever needed some workout music as motivation, both can be great substitutes for that. Also, there are lots of techno BGMs and other nice and fluid ones that befit a sports genre. Again, giving you the motivated feel and pumping your adrenaline while watching the sport. Quite nice and fitting if I should say.

Overall, I guess this series isn’t that bad despite its very cliché and average storyline and characters. But only if you’re a fan of rock climbing and its competitive variants, you may enjoy watching this anime. But that’s hard to say since you’ll be out there climbing the wall rather than sitting here watching this. Also, the not very obvious fanservice makes watching the anime series more palatable. Now we can give an extra excuse that we were admiring those absolute fantastic muscles of the participants! So girls with muscles are okay for fanservice, huh? Maybe we should try bodybuilding and weight lifting, an anime version of an all-female cast! Ugh. Too much muscles. Okay then. Maybe I’ll go back to beach volleyball and jet skiing for a more ‘softer muscle’ instead ;p.