In this episode Kuroda felt much more sympathetic to me (Sugie always seemed like a decent guy), not so much because they get on the right path and mesh better with the team, but more so because their predicament is so familiar in competitive sports: That of the once-great (or merely good) athlete whose age [...]
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The most recent episode of Giant Killing really doesn’t revolve around the characters or the game of football.  Well, it focuses on Kuro, but that’s not the point.  Rather, it tries to convey an important life lesson.  I love it when an anime can reach past its own universe to cause an impact on the [...]
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For an anime named Giant Killing, we've seen nary a scratch on those referenced giants thus far from East Tokyo United, sitting as we have been through their disastrous start to the season while aspects of the team threaten to implode entirely. Indeed, come the end of the last episode we saw Kuroda walking away from training - Could this be his last act for the club?Thankfully not, as it happens
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I guess it’s true that Giant Killing has a lot of shounen elements, although as a genre, I’d probably classify it as somewhere in between Shounen and Seinen: there’s not one genre that this series completely fits into (other than ’sports’, perhaps). It’s of course a matter of tastes, but to me that in itself [...]
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During the 2008/09 season in the English Premier League, West Bromwich Albion were probably the most patronized team in the league in many circles. Many heralded the way Tony Mowbray’s team played football the “right way”1 even as they were heading to yet another relegation finishing bottom of the league table. Mowbray’s reputation was somehow [...]
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Crunchyroll has just announced its forthcoming simulcast of the 26 episode slice of life sports series Giant Killing, animated by Studio Deen. The series centers on the East Tokyo United soccer club which has lost almost all of its stars, fans and self-respect save for one veteran player. The team’s board of directors brings in [...] Related posts:Crunchyroll Announces SoRaNoWoTo Simulcast Crunchyroll Announces April 2010 Simulcast Extensions for Select Series Crunchyroll Announces Onamori Himari Simulcast on Thursday Crunchyroll Announces Simulcast of Uraboku (Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru) Crunchyroll Announces Own Simulcast of Ichiban Ushiro Daimao
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Ready to have your Friday thrown into the middle of a sports riot? Crunchyroll has announced their big new score of the season to be Giant Killing. Animated by Studio Deen (Fate/Stay Night, Higurashi – When They Cry, Hell Girl), the 26 episode series centers on the East Tokyo United soccer (football to everyone else [...]
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There were definitely plenty of angry message board posts after this game! Sports are funny because so many fans are hyper-passionate about them, and thus the pressure is pushed that much higher, especially when a team has been in a rut for so long that even someone — player or coach — who is any [...]
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ETU runs headlong into a new season, but by the end of the episode, they have racked up an unimpressive record of zero wins and three losses.  They even manage to score only one goal between the games.  Obviously, the team needs to practice more vigorously to improve, right?  Tatsumi goes the opposite direction, instead [...]
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When Alex Ferguson took charge of Manchester United in November of 1986, he inherited a team that sat 19th out of the 22 teams in the First Division table. His first match in charge was a 2-0 defeat to Oxford United. They would only win once away from Old Trafford that season in finishing 11th. [...]
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After all the positive vibes of their pre-season game and Tatsumi's "interesting" speech at the media event, East Tokyo United's first league game seemed to have started well enough despite a freak goal from the opposition putting them behind. Surely a single lucky goal would never put the skates under a top division side, right?Wrong. By the time one of ETU's hapless fans makes it to the
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Alright look, I’ve played football many times before; I’ve played on a lot of teams and also played almost every position. The best team I ever played for was one that lost 70% of the time, I’ve also played on a team that won a regional tournament in the biggest city in Canada. If your [...] Related posts:Giant Killing 6 Giant Killing 4 Giant Killing 1-3
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In my experience, you can really divide sports series into three categories. The first is the typical shounen, and usually the most boring: a band of underdog kids trains hard and wins in an over the top fashion against all odds. Then there’s the realistic type, like what Ookiku Furikabutte is currently doing: really analyzing [...]
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Sports anime are often dogged with the stigma of, “I don’t like this sport, so I wouldn’t like watching this series.” But speaking as someone who isn’t really into soccer (at least not at anywhere near the levels of my absolute favorite sports), Giant Killing is a pretty great advertisement for soccer. After watching the [...]
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In the latest episode of Giant Killing, Tatsumi goes to the big pre-season press conference to shoot his mouth off just a bit more.  In the interim, he stops by to watch some kids play soccer with a fellow manager.  Additionally, the fans have decided to come out full force in support of their beloved [...]
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Well, this episode had me rolling on the floor laughing. I’ve always found the 80’s techno music that is the Giant Killing background music to be funny, but this episode was so much more. There was so much bad English in this episode so they threw some bad French in as well. But it doesn’t [...] Related posts:Giant Killing 1-3 Giant Killing 4 Giant Killing 5
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Balls.  Lots of balls. On the more serious note, the tone of the episode changes from after the draw against Tokyo Victory to the season pre-conference, where all the teams get together with the captains and the managers with each team releasing a statement for their goals of the upcoming season.  As expected, Tatsumi releases [...]
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After all of the excitement of the friendly against Tokyo Victory and the final choice of captain for East Tokyo United done and dusted, episode six of Giant Killing largely concerns itself with more mundane matters, namely media events to keep the sponsors happy.Needless to say, Tatsumi isn't exactly excited at the thought of taking part in such an event, but nonetheless he finds himself dragged
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At the beginning of the Premier League season which finished yesterday, Liverpool were expected by many to challenge for the title. They had finished 2nd the year before, added Glen Johnson and Alberto Aquilani to add more to an attack that had struggled to break down weaker teams, and the other contenders were supposedly weaker. [...]
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This is probably the best anime, animation wise, that I have ever seen from Studio Deen. That being said the CG that can be seen from the players to the audience is really irritating, thankfully it doesn’t happen too often though. I think the reason that Deen is tricking me with the animation is that the [...] Related posts:Giant Killing 4 Giant Killing 1-3 K-On!! Episode 03
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