I’ll begin by saying I know absolutely nothing about cheer leading. My niece used to do it when she was in middle school, before she got seriously injured (not as a result of cheer leading, I might add). I had gathered that there would be more to it than just what appears; these cheerleaders would have to remain physically fit, be able to keep in total synchronization, and would have to learn a variety of stunts, among some other things. So I began watching Anima Yell! with all of these things in mind…and then I remembered that Dogakobo was making it. I won’t trash-talk Dogakobo completely, but they have made a lot of not-serious shows. Dogakobo’s back catalog is mostly comedy (New Game!, Yuru Yuri, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun), and so hardcore drama is something that I wouldn’t expect from them at all. Heck, they were the ones responsible for the ecchi dumbbell show that made me cringe so much (Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru?). So I was prepared for comedy to be the main focus here in Anima Yell!, but I was kind of relieved to see this cheer club taken mildly seriously.
Our main protagonist is Kohane Hatoya, an extremely outgoing first-year who likes to help those who are in trouble or who are in need, sometimes injuring herself in the process. I’ll add that she is also afraid of heights, so the question remains: why does cheer leading interest her as she starts high school? Well, it is the rather typical pattern of watching someone else do it exceptionally…in this case, it is Hizume Arima, another first-year who was a veteran cheerleader, but was forced out of her old Cheer Club for being too good. Wanting to move on to other things, Hizume begins high school in a new direction, until Kohane ‘encourages’ her to take it up again, but this rejection from her old Cheer Club has left her with the constant fear of being left alone. Well that’s something a new Cheer Club can work on, I suppose…
Kohane’s childhood friend, Uki Sawatari, tags along as well, as she ends up getting concerned that Kohane will injure herself even more in Cheer Club, and only finds herself enjoying it, despite knowing next to nothing about cheer leading either. Later on, two more girls join, in different circumstances. First, Kotetsu Tatejima, who joins when she is awe-struck by the girls’ performance at a basketball match (she needs to work on her self-confidence anyway), and Kana Ushiku, who already has a history with Hizume. Well, I shouldn’t call this a Cheer Club since, as I’m sure you’ll know in any and every school anime, you need to have 5 club members and an advisor before you are classified as a club…and so they are just called an Association.
Kohane has what she calls ‘Cheer Power’, and it’s certainly infectious. We, as the viewers, are eager to cheer her on, and see her succeed in this cheer activity. Uki acts as the responsible childhood friend who doesn’t want her hurt in any way, while Hizume acts as the responsible veteran who teaches them all how it (and by it I mean cheer leading) is meant to be done. I found it curious though how, by the end of the show, we are not given a 100% perfect happy ending…as in the 100% perfect happy ending that we might expect. Sure, they end up with 5 members, and a room to practice in, and get other sports clubs to cheer them on. Still, sometimes, instead of that perfect ending we might expect, things don’t always go the way we thought. Uki ends up with a sprained ankle meaning she can’t take part in club activities anymore, and not every sports club members has a favorable impression of cheerleaders either. By the end of the show, the Cheer Association-that-later-becomes-a-Club doesn’t win big, but none of that matters, because better than that, the five of them (Kohane, Hizume, Uki, Kotetsu and Kana) find out what it is to be a cheerleader cheering on a sports club who are eager to win whatever match they take part in.
…and it was this that kept me watching this show and wanting more. Will there be another season of Anima Yell! in the future? Well, by the way they ended this in episode 12, it could mean that Dogakobo are interested in more, but at the same time, I wouldn’t be disappointed if there wasn’t a second season, because this was fine enough. The character designs of all of these 5 girls was pretty good, considering I wasn’t expecting that much from this show, to be perfectly honest. As I said from the start, I know nothing about cheer leading aside from that it is taken more seriously than one might think.
Anima Yell! is a franchise I don’t think I’ll be returning to if it does indeed get a second season though, but nonetheless, I found this show to be quite entertaining. I already mentioned the character design, but the main plot was something that stayed on one course, and didn’t stray off on any silly sub-plots like a Christmas episode or a Valentines’ Day episode or anything like that; episodes like that in slice-of-life/school/comedy shows can sometimes get a little tedious/boring/unexciting. Anima Yell! certainly had an interesting story and it kept to that for the entire time, and that is what I admire the most here.
Would you want a second season of this, though? I don’t care if it doesn’t get one, but even if it doesn’t, that’s okay…because this show was still a fun watch.