This is an entertaining anime series for those who love sports anime that deal with teamwork, dealing with problems among the teammates and other situations that they must take on. Sure, it’s a bit banal but for the most part, it’s an anime series with cool characters and wonderful animation from Madhouse that makes the series worth watching.
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TITLE: Prince of Stride Alternative – The Complete Series
ANIME TV AIR DATE: 2016
DURATION: Episodes 1-12 (300 minutes)
BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (16:9 HD Widescreen), English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, Japanese 2.0 Dolby TrueHD, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: FUNimation
RATED: TV 14
Release Date: April 25, 2017
Directed by Atsuko Ishikzuka
Series Composition by Taku Kishimoto
Episode Director: Taku Kishimoto
Music by Shiro Sagisu
Character Design by Toshifumi Akai
Art Director by Ayu Kawamoto, Taichi Maezuka
Anime Production: Madhouse
Featuring the following voice talent:
Ryouhei Kimura/Austin Tindle as Riku
Nobuhiko Okamoto/Ricco Fajardo as Takeru
Kana Hanazawa/Natalie Hoover as Nana
Kensho Ono/Clifford Chapin as Hozumi
Daisuke Ono/Jason Liebrecht as Heath
Hiro Shimono/Micah Solusod as Ayumu
Junichi Suwabe/Ivan Jasso as Kyosuke
J. Michal Tatum as Yujiro Dan
Daiki Yamashita/Todd Haberkorn as Tomoe
Greg Ayres as Amatsu
From studio Madhouse comes a new sport, a new experience, and a heart-racing series. Racers on your mark, get set—go!
Stride—where running and parkour reach new heights in a fast-paced sport that puts five runners and one Relationer’strust and speed to the test. At Honan Academy, Stride is a source of pride! Or at least it was until an incident broke the team apart. But with a new year, it’s time for the winds of change to blow in! New students Nana Sakurai and Takeru Fujiwara are ready to join, and after much persistence, pull in Riku Yagami. With their enthusiasm and abilities, this threesome is just what Honan needs to succeed. Except for one thing—their teamwork needs work. Talent is one thing, but this group of runners won’t be getting anywhere if they can’t learn to trust each other.
Together, Honan Stride may finally have what they need to compete with the best. But can this once broken team work together to overcome the many challenges that lie ahead? Just trust, connect, and find your stride.
Back in 2015, Kadokawa Games and Vridge created the otome game “Prince of Stride” for the Playstation Vita. Based upon an extreme sport known as “Stride” in which teams compete in a race, the race includes extreme sports elements of parkour.
The following year, the game received an anime adaptation titled “Prince of Stride: Alternative”, a 12-episode anime series from Madhouse and was directed by Atsuko Ishizuka (“Sakura-so no Pet na Kanojo”) and a script by Taku Kishimoto.
The series is now available on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of FUNimation.
“Prince of Stride: Alternative” revolves around high school students who race for the “Stride” club for Honan Academy. The first half features Takeru Fujiwara and Nana Sakurai needing to recruit six people for the club.
They try to recruit freshman Riku Yagami, who wants to play all sports and has no interest in Stride but Takeru and Nana drag Riku to their club office and are able to get him to join.
The club is going through restructuring and need six people after a scandal that rocked the team last year.
But training for “Stride” is challenging, vigorous and will take everything one has in order to win eastern Japan’s top stride competition, “End of Summer”.
But when a major injury happens to one of their teammates, will Honan Academy find a replacement in time for the next major competition?
Will Riku find a way to make himself faster? And what is Nana’s connection to “Stride” competition outside of her duties at Honan Academy? But most of all, can these team members work together?
VIDEO:
“Prince of Stride Alternative – The Complete Series†is presented in 1080p High Definition. The series is well-animated, well-shaded and tends to feature hilarious character designs during the more comedy scenes, while showcasing emotion and drama during the most serious situations. Action scenes are well-animated, background art is well-detailed and painted beautifully. Madhouse did a wonderful job with this series.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Prince of Stride Alternative – The Complete Series†is presented in Japanese 2.0 Dolby TrueHD and English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD. Dialogue and music on the Blu-ray are both crystal clear and voice acting is well-done for both Japanese and English soundtracks.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Prince of Stride Alternative – The Complete Series†comes with the opening and ending credits.
EXTRAS:
“Prince of Stride Alternative – The Complete Series†comes with a slipcase.
We are starting to see a number of anime adaptations based on otome video games (dating games typically a character trying to get close with one of the many male characters in a game).
“Prince of Stride: Alternative” is an anime series that some may find resembles series such as “Prince of Tennis” and “Yowamushi Pedal”, but the setting is “Stride” competitions (running/parkour), but with many male characters not just from the main Honan Academy but also guys from other competing teams.
But this anime series is crafted for guys and women to enjoy because the main story is about competition, teamwork and one pushing themselves to be better and in the end, hoping to win the primary tournament.
There is a lot of dramatic situations, as Takeru Fujiwara and Riku Yagami have their personal differences with each other.
A main arc shows how the team is hurting after a major injury to Stride racer, Ayumi Kadowaki. The team is in need of a racer and there is one guy, Kyousuke Kuga, a former team member who quit the team after a few members ganged up on fellow team member, Heath Hasekura. Kuga protected Heath by beating up the teammates who caused the trouble but took the blame for everything and was forced to quit the club.
This has affected the team, especially for teammates who didn’t know the truth but the breakup of the Honan Academy Stride club is well-known to other clubs around the area and many feel Honan Academy are unable to compete because they no longer have the same teammates for this year and have beginners.
But each character is featured to have some difficulty or mental block that prevents them from being better, but with teammate support, they manage to overcome their problems and move on.
As for the Blu-ray release, Madhouse is always known for quality and the anime production is well-done. Colors are vibrant, characters are well-shaded and voice acting for both English and Japanese soundtracks are well-done. Unfortunately, there are no major special features. No audio commentary, just the opening and ending themes. So, it’s a barebones anime Blu-ray release.
Needless to say, this is an entertaining anime series for those who love sports anime that deal with teamwork, dealing with problems among the teammates and other situations that they must take on. Sure, it’s a bit banal but for the most part, it’s an anime series with cool characters and wonderful animation from Madhouse that makes the series worth watching.
