In rugby, there's no ace striker, there's no number four batter… so who's the star of the team?
The story begins at school entrance ceremony of Kanagawa High School where Kenji Gion, a small but gutsy go-getter joins the rugby club. He joins with his classmate, Sumiaki Iwashimizu, who has a complicated past, and sub-captain Mutsumi Hachiouji, who always takes good care of his Club members. Lastly, there is Captain Takuya Sekizan, who has overwhelming powers but keeps his cards close to his chest. With such differences in both personality and physical performance, the team must learn to work and grow together so they can become the best.
The series adaptation is produced by Madhouse and TMS Entertainment, with Telecom Animation Film assisting with the production. The anime is directed by Kenichi Shimizu, and is available for streaming on Crunchyroll here
. The series is also available on Italian VVVVID. The manga is being released in digital format on Comixology here.
This series contains examples of:
- The Ace: Etsugo Oharano is shown to be an exceptional player, joining the main team immediately upon joining the rugby club despite being a freshman. When he plays his first game, against Keijo, it's shown that he's so good that most of the team has trouble keeping up with his skills… which actually causes a problem as the game goes on.
- Adaptation Expansion: Episode 13, focusing on Hachiouji convincing Sekizan to join the team as first-years, was added to the anime.
- The first half of episode 16 expanded on a single line in the title panel of the manga chapter corresponding to the second half of the episode to explain how Gion convinced the entire team to show up at Coach Komori's house for lunch.
- A Day in the Limelight: Several episodes take the focus away from the main characters Gion and Iwashimizu to focus on other members of the Ensemble Cast:
- Sekizan and Hachiouji get a flashback episode showing their time a first-years on the team.
- Hachiouji, Ise, and Ebumi have a dedicated episode focusing on Ise's abusive older brother preventing him from going to summer training camp
- Coach Komori gets half an episode where he goes drinking with one of his old teammates, and another half an episode where he goes drinking with other coaches.
- Anime Hair: Most of the cast has naturally brown, black, or blond hair, but there are some exceptions to this, such as Sekizan's ruby red hair, Kibi and Soga having pure white/silver hair despite being just sixteen, and Wajima's natural green, which is never explained even though he actively dyes his hair black.
- There are a few examples of Improbable Hairstyles, such as Sekizan maintaining perfectly styled drills or Ebumi's extensions staying in place, even during rugby games.
- Some characters have hair that curls in an odd anime way. Examples include Ooharano's Hair Antennae and Ise's faux-horns.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Ebumi and Gion are always arguing and insulting each other… however, when Ebumi notices that Gion has difficulties learning how to pass the ball, he actually leaves his own practice to teach him and help him learn to pass.
- Beach Episode: Shingo proposes that he take the team to one... but it's really because it's more training. They don't have a lot of the equipment they need, so he makes them do exercises with the beach terrain that would actually help them in the long run. Case in point— he makes the boys run there.
- Benched Hero: Matsun, a third-year, is benched as fly-half for the first half of the series, and then gets back onto the field for later games. When he gets benched again at Sugadaira for slacking off, the rest of the third-years are visibly shaken and confront him.
- Berserk Button:
- Gion's short height is subject to a lot of jokes in the series, and due to his Hair-Trigger Temper it's easy to get him angry about it. He's starting to find more pride in his short stature and he's learning not to fly into a violent rage anymore, but sometimes it still bothers him.
- Iwashimizu is normally a timid and quiet person. However, mentioning the incident where he broke Miyuki's shoulder will get him pissed.
- During the practice game against Sagami, a player from Sagami starts to pick on Oharano, mocking him by talking about his brother. The normally calm Oharano immediately gets so angry that he cannot actually concentrate on the game, missing a few kicks and yelling at his teammates despite it being his own fault, to the extreme that the coach has to get him off the field because he can't play in this condition.
- Big Brother Mentor: While Gion refers to his rugby mates as "having multiple big brothers", he seems to share this particular kind of bond with Captain Sekizan, who treats him like a little brother and at the same time mentors him in playing rugby.
- Big Eater: All of the forwards, but especially Hirota. Even after eating triple servings of ramen and an extra helping of fried rice, they still have enough room for the party at Komori's house.
- Bland-Name Product: The rugby balls quite obviously.
- Boring, but Practical: The sumo drill taught to Shinshi and Hirota during the Beach Episode turns out to be useful against Tenjiku Tech.
- Bridal Carry: Part of the training on the beach, but some of the boys get flustered by it. Sekizan in particular subconsciously got a little too into it, and started positioning himself like a princess as well.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Not a big surprise, really, given that it's a Sports Anime after all. However, they're not all conventionally good-looking; their faces are more chiseled than the average sports anime character, but they still are very attractive.
- Cast of Snowflakes: Each character has a specific look to them due to the mangaka giving them all unique hair-styles, eye shapes, body shapes, even head shapes (i.e. Matsuo).
- Cool Old Guy: Shingo Komori, the rugby team's coach.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Gion turns out to be a fantastic tackler, but he can't much go for anything else since he lacks the height and brain power to make use of himself. However, that's just the way he likes it, and he wants to be able to get stronger and tackle other players.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Ooharano Etsugo is introduced as distant, condescending, and self-absorbed. He is defrosted as he opens up to Gion and Suwa.
- Elite Four: From the Ryouin team, Tsukinaka, Zanba, and the Kirishima twins are often depicted as such.
- Ensemble Cast: The story does follow Gion and company quite a bit, but it also makes time to show the other members of the Kanagawa High team and the struggles they go through.
- Coach Komori and advisor Yoshida have character arcs and development in a show ostensibly about high schoolers.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Zanba, with his yellow eyes and black sclera, making him come off as a monster.
- Friendly Rivalry: Kanagawa High's rugby team is this with the Keijo team, as they frequently collaborate to have joint practices and the teams, while competitive, seem to get along well. It's especially noticeable because Iwashimizu's old partner is on the Keijo team, yet he holds no ill will for Iwashi dislocating his arm and is frequently glad to see him.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to make Gion extremely angry.
- Height Angst: Part of Gion's character arc revolves around him having to deal with his short stature and finding ways to use it to his advantage, but he still has misgivings about it due to the fact that he's stayed short ever since he was a child. Noticeably, Raita, his senior on the team, is only four centimeters taller than him but worked through the same issues and found a niche for himself, taking some measure of pride in his small size.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Natsuki's older brother wants Natsuki to quit rugby to get a part-time job to help pay the bills, and a shot of the cracked screen on his cell phone subtly shows the sacrifices he has to make to support his little brother. Not that this excuses abusing Natsuki.
- Large Ham: Gion has an exuberant and boisterous personality.
- Taira manages to steal whatever scene he's in, especially if Sekizan is involved.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The rugby team's advisor was originally told to take it easy and not worry too much about the team because most people don't even know how to play the damn game. In Japan, it's an often overlooked sport, which is why the rugby association helped commission All Out!'s anime adaptation.
- Luminescent Blush: Many characters, either out of exhaustion, embarrassment, or anger are seen with a Luminescent Blush, notable examples include Iwashimizu, Sekizan, and Ebumi.
- Manly Tears: In the episode "I'm Not Crying," no less.
- Remember the New Guy?: Downplayed. In the final arc of the series, Oku Yuuri is introduced as a demon from Iwashimizu's and Miyuki's past. He is Miyuki's former best friend from middle school who wasn't very fond of Iwashi, to put it lightly. Oku has a rich history with both characters that is integral to both of their lives, but neither of them mentioned him until his introduction.
- Secret Test of Character: When Gion and Raita run into the Kirishima brothers, Sekito asks Gion to play tag with him. hat he was really doing was testing him to see if he had what it takes to be a wing, and Gion failed.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: How Gion and Iwashimizu's dynamic plays out. Iwashimizu is a bookworm with a gentle personality and is a bit of a pushover, while Gion is headstrong, stubborn, and (used to) react to comments about his short stature with violence.
- Sekizan and Hachiouji, and both move toward each other, with Sekizan showing sensitivity toward the younger players and Hachi manning up when the team needs its hooker to make plays.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Hana from the Sagami team talks a lot of shit for someone his height and standing. He can intimidate Iwashimizu about an old match and how much of a non-threat he was, but when one looks back on what exactly happened during the match he gloats about, Hana himself was benched the whole game.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: You would think that Gion and Iwashimizu would be the primary characters, considering how much focus was on them in the early chapters. While this show does have an Ensemble Cast and Gion does get a lot of development, you would start to think that the show is really about Sekizan and his crew because of the increased focus on his motivations, his flashbacks, and his more focused sense of purpose.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Subverted when Sagami's captain tries to tell Sekizan mid-play that he's sorry for underestimating Jinko, but while he's apologizing, he is sneakingly moving the rugby ball towards his team mate in order to attempt another try.
- Terrible Trio: Horikawa, Adachigahara, and Kurayama are the main perpetrators of Sagami's tactical bullying strategy.
- Took a Level in Badass: The Jinkou team slowly gets this way throughout the series, to the point where they're beating good teams from other regions and Ryouin, the reigning champs of Kanegawa, respect them enough to play hard against them.
