Stars Align

Anime television series
title	Stars Align
Original title	星 合 の 空
transcription	Hoshiai no Sora
Anime Japanese logo
Country of production	Japan
original language	Japanese
year	2019
Studio	Eight bit
length	25 minutes
Episodes	12
genre	Sports , drama
Director	Kazuki Akane
music	Jizue
First broadcast	October 10, 2019 on TBS , BS-TBS
synchronization

Stars Align ( Japanese 星 合 の 空 Hoshiai no Sora ) is a 2019 anime television series produced by Studio Eight Bit under the direction of Kazuki Akane . The story tells of a high school soft tennis club that has to fight for its existence and the family problems of its members.

action

With his mother's move, Maki Katsuragi ( 桂 木 眞 己 ) is going to a new high school. There he meets Tōma Shinjō ( 新城 柊 真 ), a friend from elementary school, who immediately tries to persuade him to join the boys' soft tennis club. Because this is threatened with closure by the student council because, unlike the soft tennis girls, it has been unsuccessful for many years. With the very sporty Maki, Tōma hopes to finally win a tournament. Maki finally agrees when the desperate Tōma even offers him payment for his time at the club. Maki doesn't really have time because he helps his single mother a lot with the house. But he also wants to be able to contribute money to the household. On the same evening Maki's father, from whom the mother had separated, surprisingly gains access to the apartment, beats Maki and steals the money he has saved.

The other members of the club are cautious about the new member, in whom their club boss Tōma has high hopes. So far you haven't taken sport seriously. Maki, on the other hand, wants to achieve the set goals - this is the only way to get his payment. The first thing he does is bring a manager to the club to organize the training: Yuta Asuka ( 飛鳥 悠 汰 ) , who is secretly in love with Tōma . In the test matches, Maki, who had never played soft tennis before, can defeat everyone from the club together with Tōma, which makes the others angry at Maki. Tōma is thinking of giving up the club entirely, as he feels responsible as captain for the team's previous failures. But the others get up and train together with Maki. He learns how the club is bullied by other students because of its failure and what problems his clubmates have in their families. During training, Maki realizes that the others are not playing so badly, but are only put together in bad pairs. When they try the pairings he suggested, they all perform significantly better. You are more motivated and will soon have a practice tournament against the renowned Misaki High School. They can't win, but they are much better than expected and are motivated for the upcoming tournaments and want to continue training.

But family difficulties keep the students from training. Not only does Maki's father want to extort money from him again until he finally tells Tōma about it, who interferes and wants to protect Maki, but also the mother of Nao Tsukinose ( 月 ノ 瀬 直 央 ) interferes. From her point of view, the club keeps her son, whom she patronizes in all respects, only from studying, which is why she enforces an interruption of training. The team, which has grown into friends, wants to use the time to get to know their next opponent. Her manager Yuta suggests that he and Maki secretly scout her out as girls. While preparing for the ultimately successful undertaking, Yuta reveals to Maki that she is unsure of her own gender and that she repeatedly wears girls' clothes. Since Yū, as Yuta prefers to be called, doesn't feel really feminine either, Maki reassures him that it is okay not to have to fit into drawers. But Yū's mother is desperate to have a boy as a child when she learns of the disguise. Tsubasa Soga ( 曽 我 翅翼 ) has problems with his father because of the sport, who does not recognize soft tennis and instead insists on football until he beats his son in an argument, he falls down a flight of stairs and injures his hand.

The club now has to compete in the tournament without Tsubasa and his partner Shingo. Especially the two had hoped for a victory. Even before the tournament, Maki and Tōma meet the Itsuki twins, who are considered the best soft tennis pair in the region and play on a national level. They also play in the regional tournament, but don't take their competition there seriously. At the tournament, the club's pairs can do better than expected, which gives the boys new motivation, but at first it is not enough for a win. Only Maki and Tōma manage to win in the first game so that they advance in the tournament. After winning one game after the other, they eventually face the Itsuki twins in the final. At first they cannot oppose the twins, but then they catch up and force the favorites of the tournament into a fifth game, the decisive final. Maki and Tōma lose this, but win many fans and the respect of the twins. After the tournament, Tōma phoned his mother in the hope of finally stepping out of his brother's shadow and being recognized by her. But she reveals to him to get a divorce and then live alone with his brother because she hates Tōma. In the evening Maki comes home and notices that his mother has disappeared. He also finds a message from his father on the dining table. Maki buys a large kitchen knife and seeks out his father to put an end to his afflictions.

Production and publication

The anime was based on an idea and script from Kazuki Akane , who also directed the production of Studio Eight Bit . The character design was done by Itsuka. Yūichi Takahashi adapted the designs for the anime implementation and directed the animation work. Shiori Shiwa was the artistic director . Originally not only 12, but a total of 24 episodes were planned, which is why the series ends openly. The second part was canceled by the production committee, but Kazuki Akane wants to finish the story in a form that has yet to be found.

From October 10 to December 26, 2019, the series was broadcast in Japan by TV stations TBS and BS-TBS . The Wakanim platform is also publishing the anime internationally via streaming, including with German subtitles in German-speaking countries. For the English area it was licensed by Funimation Entertainment and published online.

synchronization

role	Japanese speaker ( seiyū )
Maki Katsuragi	Natsuki Hanae
Tōma Shinjō	Tasuku Hatanaka
Rintaro Futsu	Gen Sato
Shingo Takenouchi	Keisuke Sato
Taiyō Ishigami	Kōhei Amasaki
Kanako Mitsue	Mayu Mineda
Tsubasa Soga	Toshiyuki Toyonaga
Yūta Asuka	Yoshitaka Yamaya
Itsuki Ameno	Yoshitsugu Matsuoka
Nao tsukinose	Yūsuke Kobayashi

music

The music for the series was composed by Jizue . The opening credits are underlaid with the song Suisō ( 水槽 ) by Megumi Nakajima and Kago no Naka no Bokura wa by Aiki from the group Bless4 was used for the credits .

Web links

• Anime Official Website (Japanese)
• Entry at Anime News Network (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stars Align Director Kazuki Akane Promises Sequel In Some Form. In: Anime News Network. December 26, 2019, accessed January 3, 2020 .