Puraore! Pride of Orange (First Impression)

Posted on October 10, 2021 by KiritoNarukami One comment

Source Material: Original
Studio: C2C
Genre: Sports
Synopsis: “The story takes place in Nikko city, Tochigi Prefecture, where girls aim for the top of the world through ice hockey. Local junior high school student Manaka and her younger sister Ayaka, whom she forcibly invited, hit the gate of first-hand experience with ice hockey, held by the Nikko-based team Dream Monkeys. The two are joined by their childhood friends Kaoruko and Mami. As the girls practice, they become fascinated with ice hockey and eventually join the team.” -MAL News

First Impression:

Never did I think that I’d see a bishoujo ice hockey anime but well here we are and I’m gonna be honest…this is pretty exciting! PuraOre! will also be a mix media project with a mobile game to be released, which I’m curious about! Let’s dive in!

PuraOre! Starting off strong with the a heated competition between Japanese and Canadian team, the Japanese team being the main characters of the story. The animations feel really good throughout the match and there are a lot of good moments especially the close ups! They really nailed the anatomy and movements of hockey players in the animation. I also like the use of blur to blend the CGI mob characters in the distance, helps create that stadium atmosphere!

And just when you thought this anime was about cute girls playing ice hockey…BOOM it’s actually an idol anime! This actually threw me for a loop and I had to do a double take! I couldn’t help but chuckle and ask myself…what is happening right now?! The pyro at the end after the final pose really sent me over the moon lol. In all honesty, it’s an interesting concept though I hope that the focus will be more towards ice hockey and the idol portion is a fun little after party (kinda like Uma Musume!). Time will tell how they make the two genres work together.

Ah so now we know who’s the mastermind behind the idol aesthetic! I get the feeling that the idol stuff will end up being a gag throughout the show as the coach secretly pushing her agenda on the oblivious girls. Though now that we’re seeing this in the anime, I wonder how the game with handle the idol portion? Will we get to see fully animation CGI victory dances after winning a game? Customizable costumes? Someone stop me, I’m starting to get excited about the game but I shouldn’t be playing ANOTHER gatcha game lol.

The biggest thing that hooked me about this show was the character designs and the first episode gave us a good idea of the personality of the seven main girls. There’s a lot of character development waiting to happen as most of them are playing ice hockey for the first time! What kind of training and tribulation will the team go through? How will their first few matches play out? There’s a lot to look forward to!

Recommendation:

YES

This is one of those wildcard shows where the story could go either way. If you’re interested in the ice hockey portion then definitely give this one a try! The animation and character designs are pretty enticing already and I’m intrigued as to how the story will continue from here!

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