First Impressions, Spring 2010: Tumbling

Plot: Azuma Wataru (Yamamoto Yusuke) is a hot-headed punk. But when he is forced to join a club he ends up on the men's rhythmic gymnastic team because the cute new girl he likes is part of the girl's team. But the boy's team is small and struggling and gets no respect, always competing for gym space with the larger and more competitive girl's team.

You can tell they're hardcore because they're wearing their school uniforms unbuttoned.

Episode 1 Recap: Azuma Wataru and his two best friends are punks who get into a lot of fights. The new teacher tells Azuma that he must join a club or take extra classes or he'll have to call his mother. Azuma doesn't want that, so he tries out for a variety of clubs but his impatience and hot-temper make him quickly quit each one. The beautiful new girl that Azuma has fallen head over heels for joins the girl's gymnastics team, so he joins the boy's team. That doesn't work out so well, either. Azuma has no patience for things like stretching and he doesn't get along well with the other team members, The boy's team has other things to worry about, as the girl's team barely gives them any gym time and their newest member (other than Azuma, who barely counts as a member) is injured, destroying their dream of competing as a group for the first time. But then Azuma decides that he is serious about the club and sets out to prove his dedication to the other members. They begin to accept him, but then their competition performance is such a disaster that the team members are horribly dispirited. The episode ends with Azuma rededicating himself to rhythmic gymnastics and the watchword for the series seems to be teamwork, because it looks like the team has no chance of winning until they bond more and start to work together like a real team.

Azuma Wataru (Yamamoto Yusuke). His red hair shows his hot-headed nature.

Thoughts: The first episode was an hour and a half long, which I wasn't expecting. That's double the length of a normal episode, and this isn't something big like Bloody Monday 2, which also had a double-length first ep, so I don't know why this one was extra long. I thought overall this was a decent high school drama. Not something great like Nobuta o Produce, but not a trainwreck, either. It's fairly mediocre--some heart, some humor, but not enough to get me excited about the next episode. It also suffers because I'm not really into any of the actors. The sad truth is that if it had any of the actors I really liked--Sato Takeru, Kame, Yamapi, etc.--than I would tune in every week just for the pretty. Yamamoto Yusuke is serviceable as the lead, but doesn't really do anything for me.

Rhythmic gymnastic members. Too bad none of them are as pretty as Kame.

The Good: Not as boring as a show about rhythmic gymnastics could be. Yanagishita Tomo as Mizusawa Taku, the hardcore rhythmic gymnastic member who is better than his teammates and isn't much of a team player. Otsuka Nene from Tokyo Dogs as Azuma's tough-as-nails mother. Mostly because anything that reminds me of Tokyo Dogs gets my undying love.

Azuma was way too badass to stretch. Luckily, he got over it.

The Bad: Formulaic sports drama about friendship and team spirit--but how many jdramas aren't formulaic? No actors that I particularly like. No matter how many fancy camera angles and slow motion they use, still can't make rhythmic gymnastics look cool. Fairly mediocre plot/script.

Trying to work the leotards.

The Verdict: I'll give it a few more episodes but it's not a show I'll be waiting for each week. Still, if you like high school dramas and especially if you like high school sports dramas, it's worth checking out to see if you'll like it more than I do.