Stride a competitive relay race/parkour team sport is popular across Japan and freshman Nana Sakurai chose her high school specifically because of its teams great reputation. One problem: she finds the team a shell of its former self Can Nana and fellow obsessive freshman Takeru help reestablish the team recruit new members and get the team to the top competition? Sports anime We love a good sports anime right? Stride is fictional a parkour relay race where runners must relation or highfive within a certain distance of the next sections beginning instead of passing a baton. This means each team requires a relationer someone who coordinates and communicates with the team using very accurate GPS and earpieces about when to start whether to adjust their speed and so forth. The idea is intriguing honestly. I dont know if the GPS technology is there yet but otherwise I could see this being a viable reallife sport. Being a short 12 episode sports anime it follows the typical outline: getting the team together teamwork problems competitions Big Tension That the Team Must Address To Move Forward more competitions more teamwork problems personal doubts all interspersed with goodhumored group gatherings and an ending that leaves you feeling happy. I wavered occasionally while watching though because the drama of other teams and most of the other teams themselves are the series weak spot. The main exception is the Designated ArchRival Team who are nice. Trashtalking obsessive caricatures who raised my hackles not in a good way. It was just like Oh I see the writers cant find any other way to characterize other teams so were dealing with this again. It took away from the fun of watching Parkour Tag Racing. Plus one of the main characters is of course the Guy Who Is Way Too Serious and hardly gets called out because being an asshole is okay if its In the Name of Sport. True to tradition he learns how to be less of a jerk to people by the end but still. I will admit that others may not dislike him as much as I did he could be quite charming and a funny character when the writers were having a good day. When handled well his inflexibility and onetrack mind were hilarious. The drama feels uneven. There would be entire parts of episodes where I thought meh why should I continue? and then they would be immediately followed by narratives of teammates goofing around puns the perfect sports show. Like I know its going for drama but theres a bit where relationer Nana discovers her father is playing a pivotal role because its announced at an event shes at. And as the viewer Im supposed to be surprised about this but mostly I was pissed because dude seriously you couldnt tell your daughter whose phone you called like 10 minutes ago? Couldnt text? Couldnt send an email to say Hey lets get lunch? Its a small part of the show but its a lazy way to write in shock. Okay so why am I complaining so much about something I said I enjoyed? Because I did enjoy it. Who doesnt love a team of generally nice quirky people who get humorously enthusiastic about things? When the series focuses on the team together its really good. The first few episodes were rougher but when the show hits its stride haha it was really fun and I genuinely enjoyed watching it overall. I ended the finale with a big smile on my face. Verdict English dub? Yes Visuals: Fine with bright colors. Worth watching? Yes. Look there are plot points I take issue with because it felt like the writers put little thought into most things they inserted beyond this will add tension for this episode. I long to march back in time to take this as a first draft and oversee a revision where people rearrange and repace some things so that its more even. Because: I liked it. It was genuinely fun. Its a 12episode sports anime and the nice thing about sports anime is that you can usually predict the overall way the story is going to go and end and thats not a bad thing. A very interesting fact I found out after I had finished the series: the Alternative part of the title is because this is based on an otome game basically the player would be Nana and there would be routes to romance various boys. While that answered my question which was WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE ANIME? TELL ME its interesting because theres no way I wouldve guessed by just watching. Theres no romance in the show whatsoever. Nana has a definite personality and is part of the team but the core of her relationships and all the other boys with each other is pure friendship. Additionally shes not set apart more than any than fellow firstyears and fellow mainish characters Riku or Takeru as far as story focus goes.