I was sharing my seasonal watchlist when a friend of mine asked about this particular anime looking at the small thumbnail he had thought it was about prisoners.. Oh how I wish it was the case Starting with the positives since there really is not much to say. What I enjoy most about the anime and what honestly saves the show for me is Natsusahttps://anilist.co/character/148993/NatsusaYuzuki pictured on the below image the sadistic manager of the rugby team. It is refreshing to see a sports anime though this part is questionable where the main character is not a player but someone supporting the team in other ways. In that regard it reminds me a lot of Giant Killinghttps://anilist.co/anime/7661/GiantKilling/ where the main character is in the role of a coach. Natsusas tragic backstory from a player to a manager gives the show a nice premise showcasing the difficulties of having to withdraw from something you love rehabilitation and trying to connect once more with your old teammates. Those are themes that I certainly enjoy in anime provided that everything else besides it is being wellwritten. Unfortunately as I quickly realised this was not the case with number24. https://i.ur.com/eC4oRii.png What really drags it down are the characters something that I rather expected to be its selling point. The anime introduces a huge cast of characters quite soon there is not enough time to remember them all though it is not even necessary in fact. Only a few characters have any sort of importance on the story most of them are just paper cutouts to make the game of rugby a possibility. What doesnt really help their cause is the character designs which are atrocious to put it simply. Their only defining features are their hair and uhh yeah thats it. It looks like they literally copypasted the same person over and over again switched the hairstyle a little and used a different shade of colour for each. And of course cant forget about the obligatory fat character the one who everyone can lightly tease about the fact. https://i.ur.com/RJHiPQm.pngFind the main characters There are perhaps only a handful of characters I can recognise from the show. There is Natsusa the other manager the fat guy the cringey foreign character uhh... and probably someone else. From their appearances alone it honestly resembles more of an idol show than that of a sports one. They already have the large cast and the foreign character. All theyre missing are the microphones Oh wait... did I mention that this was an anime about rugby? I kind of forgot about the fact myself. Its almost like a bad joke by now how all rugby anime cough ALL OUT cough Try Knights cough turn out the same horrible. And this ones no different. The anime focuses more on the drama between the characters than the sport itself not that theres anything wrong with the approach if done right but needless to say number24 fails on that front. They dont really introduce the sport or its rules either its just a device to let the story unfold. Rugby could literally be switched with any other contact sports and it wouldnt make a difference. If you want an actually good story centred around rugby then Madonnahttps://anilist.co/anime/3482/Madonna/ is definitely worth your time I have only scratched the surface with what Ive said so far since what this anime lacks is any kind of substance. It is in essence a fujobait meaning that it tries way too hard to appeal to its female viewers. Theres a lot of unnecessary naked upper torsos and touching to the extent that it becomes unbearably uncomfortable to watch. Now Im somebody who also enjoys some good ol boys love but what number24 tries to accomplish is an extremely poor attempt at that. I would definitely not recommend this anime for sure not for the rugby but perhaps for the questionably cute boys but thats just me trying to remain somewhat positive. To somehow wrap this up I caught myself thinking about my own take on the title of number24 and came to the realisation that it stands for its worth a 24/100. What a perfect way to end this.