Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story

I came for the sports genre (cute girls playing golf, what could go wrong), and left by a watered-down gangster story with spectacular fight scenes played out as golf matches, serious drama, tangible and likeable characters, great visuals and music.

I was surprised and man, I like these kind of surprises! (If you are really looking for the accurate presentation of the sport and some serious competition and struggle going on between the players, then this show is not what you are looking for. It does entertain, but in a different way.)

Our MC is Eve, a self-taught, orphan, golf prodigy who lives with her family of girls in a maffia run metropolis with corrupt officals and smaller and bigger crime lords who are into golfing to the level that they organize "golf-showdowns" to decide on matters of life and death. And one day, under very unlikely circumstainces, she just meets Aoi who is a professional U15 golf superstar and they just get attracted to each other. There are some yuri vibes here, I just need to finish Season 1 to tell how much... and Season 2 is already airing! (It's a good girl-bad girl setup we get here. There is a great turn in the story in the middle of Season 1, but the first half makes a good foundation for the rest to better understand who Eve is and where she is coming from. She becomes the thug among a bunch of schoolgirls, which in itself, is a good source of humor.)

So why does it work? (At least for me...) Because, this show is the shining example of what good writing is. It doesn't matter if golf is portrayed unrealistically just as a substitute for fighting scenes, or if it is just a lightweight maffia story, or a highschoolers-playing-golf story, at the end it still interesting, fun, well paced, with likeable characters who you can root for, with well measured doses of drama, romance, saddness, thrill and action. (Fan service, stupid jokes, idiotic characters, awkward dialogs, filler episodes, you can forget about those... It's a good show, doesn't take on too much, not too complex, but it delivers its promise.)

UPDATE: Season 2... nope, nothing to update, it's still a masterpiece, the script won't get you bored even for a single episode.

This headline from Kotaku piqued my interest enough to check out this show. Sure, it has the typical anime tropes where the more power you give the better you are and the mental strain of golf depletes your stamina, which I thought were a little silly, but the characters and storylines was interesting enough to keep me invested. Also, even though most of it is just golfing, which I thought would be boring, it stays interesting because of the conflict brought up from those cliches. I watched both seasons (technically, the second is more of a continuation of the first) and I say I liked the first season better because there was more Mafia in it, and in the second season they split up the two main characters which was kind of sad. Thanks to this show, I want to try golf with all their power moves if I weren't so broke (golf is expensive!). I probably won't watch the 3rd season.

Birdie Wing Golf Girls' Story makes the impossible possible. It made me enjoy my least favorite sport, and it has everything I could ever want from an excellent sports-romance hybrid anime.

High-stakes tournaments? Check.

Lesbian romance? Check.

Badass heroine? Check!

Hilariously campy tone? Check.

Catchy soundtrack? Check.

Mafia conflict? Check?

Clever writing? Check!

Golf sakuga? BLUE BULLET!

I've never seen anyone take golf as seriously as these girls, which makes it so amusing. Eve, also known as "Rainbow Bullet," is a teenage golfing prodigy who plays in high-stakes competitions against the best-of-the-best. She becomes entangled in the underground world of bidding on golf to provide for her found family. In these over-the-top competitions, losing is not an option. The story has no elegance or assumptions of intellectualism, but it is hilarious, adrenaline-inducing, and refreshingly new. I laughed through most of each episode, and when I didn't, I had a smile on my face. I'm sure that's how they intended viewers to consume it. Though the characters take themselves seriously, the show definitely does not. Birdie Wing's premise and presentation scream rule-of-cool rather than pretentiousness commonly associated with golf. When has there ever been a sci-fi anime about lesbians golfing to save their family from corrupt cops and the mafia?

Most surprisingly, Birdie Wing is quite class-conscious for an anime about teenagers playing golf. A willingness to embrace absurdity is required to tackle classism and gentrification through the lens of an adrenaline-fueled sport. And I mean it. These golfing tournaments are filled with shouting, catch-phrases, ridiculous twists, fierce competitiveness, and golfballs flying at the speed of a bullet. Despite juggling an over-the-top plot with an appropriately serious tone, it miraculously manages to be far better than expected. Golf is a costly sport, and it draws in snobbery. The idea of a working-class teenage girl supporting her single mom and family of five kids through one of the most exclusive sports is so ridiculous it just barely works. Golf was undoubtedly the best sport to tell this story because the juxtaposition of the heroine's home life, class status, and even her three worn-out golf clubs, with her wealthy opponents and luxurious golf courses, encourages analysis from a socioeconomic perspective. The anime as a whole has a consciousness of class and race, so rarely seen in this medium.

Eve's rival-turned-love interest Aoi is a foil to her class status. Aoi is introduced in a plane sitting in first-class, monitoring golf competitors, whereas Eve is making ends meet fraudulently disguised as the professional golfer she's reading about. Note: The anime never frames Eve as a villain for crimes she commits because it is for the sake of her family; she's a person with practical issues despite the bizarre premise, not some morally grey anti-hero. The further into the anime, the closer they become, and the second season will doubtlessly focus on their relationship as a power couple. Eve's irreverent attitude reflects Aoi's playful approach to the sport, their charming relationship is loaded with chemistry.

Only in Golf Girls' Story would it be possible for a villainous Snake Woman working for the golf mafia to have a redemption arc, become part of the team, and assist Eve's family in finding a new home and getting her siblings their citizenship. I was pleasantly surprised by this part of the show because it was great to see ethnic representation in anime. It is very uncommon for anime to cast people of color who aren't subjected to racism by the writers. I wouldn't go so far as to say it is an explicitly progressive text, but it comes close, especially by portraying the cops and bourgeois as caricatured villains and indefensible trash.

Even the upper-class golfers it does make us sympathize with are based on their personalities rather than defending their class status, suggesting their flaws and inconsiderateness are caused by it. For instance, Eve is late to a golf match with Aoi because she is caught up in a high-stakes match that could decide her family's fate. Rather than waiting longer, Aoi leaves and is seen on a plane in first class as Eve hilariously fires a golf ball so fast that Aoi can see it from her window seat. Once you abandon all sense of logic, you can see how it is an unsubtle metaphor for Eve matching Aoi's pace despite their wealth inequality. Challenging the status quo of snobbery inherent to the sport is the meaning underlying every conflict. The on-the-nose metaphor even extends to their caddies: Eve's uses a pen and paper, and Aoi's has a tablet that calculates everything necessary to succeed, yet they are equally matched.

Even the so-so art quality is bolstered by dynamic direction, imaginative storyboards, and visual storytelling. The artists, without a doubt, use the low budget to the best of their abilities. The outdated CGI environments are well utilized as establishing shots. A few highly detailed freeze frames convey a laughably campy tone to mask a lack of animation during dramatic dialogue. Right down to the exaggerated transitions effects show how much consideration went into every category. Everything Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story aims to accomplish is achieved with flying colors.

This anime series is centred on Eve, a girl who makes money playing golf. She eschews regular competitions, instead playing in underground matches set up by shady individuals. Aoi Amawashi a skilful player who attends a prestigious private school. They come from very different backgrounds but become respected rivals.

If you are after a serous sports anime which shows the game in a realistic way this won't be the series for you. These girls play golf at a standard that would leave Tiger Woods, at his best, struggling in their wake! Once you get over the silliness it is rather fun; not the sort of series that one is likely to watch again but it provides a few chuckles and mild excitement. I think it got better as the series progressed. The characters are solid enough as is the animation. Overall I'd say this was far from a must see but neither is watching a waste of one's time; I will almost certainly watch when it returns later in the year.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.