Pierce through your opponents towards victory! note
"Get ready, ‘cause the Rainbow Bullet’s about to blow your head off."
— Lily Lipman
Birdie Wing (or Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story) is a 2022 anime produced by Bandai Namco Pictures. It's directed by Takayuki Inagaki. Tōru Inoue, Professional golf coach and Junior World Golf Championship Japan team coach, is responsible for overseeing the anime to make sure aspects of golf are as realistic as possible.
Birdie Wing is aired in Japan via TV Tokyo and various prefectural TV stations. Crunchyroll streams the series outside of Japan except for Southeast Asia, which is under Medialink. In some other countries in Oceania, South and Central Asia, Ani-One Asia streams it with regional subtitles.
The anime takes place in the country of Nafrece where two female golfers try to shake up the world of golf. One is a woman named Eve, who takes up golf-related jobs to provide support for orphaned kids. The other, Aoi Amawashi, is a Japanese professional who heads to Nafrece in order to attend an upcoming tournament.
A second season was announced and was originally due to air in January 2023, but was later delayed to April 2023.
The anime provides examples of:
- Artistic License – Sports: The show takes several liberties with golf
- Eve's midriff-exposing outfit would probably get her banned from even entering most golf courses: khakis and a golf shirt are practically a required dress code.
- Because the process of swinging a golf club is so heavily tied to a player's physique and preferences, it'd be impossible for someone to lie about their identity and impersonate another golfer.
- Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game: Less of the 'play it where it lies', more in the improbable capabilities of Catherine's underground Golf Course, and in Eve's ability to plow a golf ball through most obstacles.
- Chekhov's Skill: Eve's slice shot, which she names "Purple Bullet". She learned it while playing against Aoi in VR, but never used it in a match until she played against Rose.
- Costume-Test Montage: Eve goes through one of these during a Shopping Montage in Episode 10, which includes a maid costume and the 4chan-infamous Sneed farmer outfit.
- Defeat Means Friendship: After Eve beats Vipère, they strike up a friendship, and Vipère even caddies for Eve during her duel with Rose.
- Dirty Cop: Eve and Klein have to pay off Nafrecian police officers trying to shut down the latter's bar or else the orphans are going to uncertain places that may or may not have decent foster parents.
- Duel to the Death: Eve and Rose's golf match in "Purple Bullet" and "Final Bullet" is framed as such with the two constantly boasting about how they'll kill the other with their swings. Taken literally when Catherine orders hits on both Rose and Eve (with it implied that Vipère and Anri also got orders taken out on them) when she loses her bet.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Catherine has one...for playing golf. By entering a few commands into a computer, complex machines can quickly replicate any type of hole desired (length, terrain, angles, etc.).
- Face Death with Dignity: In The Stinger for "Final Bullet", after a final meeting with Leo, she accepts her fate when a Mafia hitman comes to assassinate her as punishment for her loss against Eve.
- Foreign Exchange Student: Eve travels to Japan to see (and play against) Aoi. But when they finally meet, Aoi convinces Eve to enroll in Raiou Girls' Academy.
- Handicapped Badass: Even without her right hand, Rose is good enough to finish the hole and come within one shot of tying Eve.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Eve secures a solid victory for Catherine in "Vipère". However, in "Purple Bullet" she learns that her actions may leave her and her adopted family homeless.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In a Flashback at the beginning of "Final Bullet", Leo gives a brief one to Rose when he tells her he won't coach her anymore. It's especially brutal, because this is just after she's been stitched up after losing her right hand.
- Running Gag: Whenever Eve calls Vipère "Snake Woman", Vipère always corrects her, rather indignantly.
- Serious Business: The anime shows golf as serious, albeit exaggerated at times. At the start, Eve is recruited to take over an injured female golfer named Chris Christina as a stand-in by wearing a latex-type mask. Rose mentions that she and Eve are underground golf hustlers who take up jobs from time to time to make money on the side.
- The anime does imply that most of the criminal underworld make bets by allowing their golf hustlers to play at underground contests on their behalf.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: While Eve is a true Unkempt Beauty in her daily outfit, she looks prettier and less wild once dressed with the golf outfit of Rose Aleon and having her hair properly combed when she joins the U15 tournament.
- Shown Their Work: Inoue's presence in the production enabled the anime to show how one plays golf.
- The design of the Euro used in Nafrece is correct, although that would depend on how the country that has adopted the Euro has it printed.
- Shout-Out: As an anime by Bandai Namco it peppers the series with various references to its creations and affiliate projects.
- Reiya Amuro is a reference to Amuro Ray, one of Tōru Furuya's breakout roles. It also references Pegasus Seiya, the protagonist of the Saint Seiya franchise.
- Aoi uses golf balls that have Pac-Man designs on them.
- Eve assumed Lily bet her chastity, but Lily the reveals that she bet a Gunpla, specifically one of the RX-78 Gundam.
- Birdie Wing's writer Yousuke Kuroda has worked in many references to other series he's written:
- Nafrece is also a country in Madlax and Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid.
- Eve's special moves ("[Adjective] [Color] Bullet!") is a reference to Kazuma's special moves ("[Adjective] [Number] Bullet!") in s-CRY-ed
- The fake name that Eve uses starting in Episode 8 is Evangeline F. Kimishima, a reference to Mobile Suit Gundam 00's Setsuna F. Seiei and s-CRY-ed's Kunihiko Kimishima.
- Snooty Sports: Golf is generally perceived as being an elitist sport, because of the time, energy, and especially money (for equipment, tee times, possibly even enrollment at a private school known for its' focus on golf) that is required to play it well.
- Spell My Name with an S: In some translations, Nafrece is known as Nafres.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Shortly after Eve was rescued by Klein & co., Leo showed up out of nowhere and started teaching her to play golf, which she learned very quickly. He was always vague about why, only saying that someone asked him to, perhaps because he owed them a favor. He left just as suddenly as he appeared, without explanation.
- In "Purple Bullet", Leo shows up unexpectedly, buys a drink at Klein's bar and chats with her for a while. He doesn't stick around to see Eve again, but tells Klein that everything will be fine. He's right.
- In The Stinger, Leo tells Rose that he left Eve because he wasn't good enough to bring out her full potential.
- Title Drop: The episode "Rainbow Bullet" is where Eve uses the technique for the first time.
- "Vipère" has the character of the same name compete with her.
- "VR" has Eve play golf in a VR game. Aoi does so too and it's implied Rose made the arrangement for her to join Eve online.
- Train-Station Goodbye: The end of "Final Bullet" has Lily and Klein doing this for Eve as she departs for Japan and handing her her belongings.
- Translator Microbes: Eve is shocked to discover she can speak fluent Japanese.
- Wham Episode:
- "Purple Bullet" has Eve competing against Rose in order to save Klein, Lily and the other kids from being thrown out onto the streets. During The Stinger, it is shown that Rose has a prosthetic right arm...which breaks down spectacularly under the strain of her powerful tee shots.
- In "Final Bullet", Rose is killed by a mafia hitman, Eve wins enough eurus to move her friends into an expensive home and get them into schools, and Eve heads to Japan to join Aoi in more golf tournaments/games in the hopes to flee from a potential hit order placed on her by Catherine due to winning the match.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Nafrece's precise location is unknown. But it's known to use the Euro as as a currency. Possibly, its an anagram of France.
- Yuri Genre: Leans very heavily into this with Eve and Aoi being partners in golf and probably other things.
