is a mixed-media project produced by
CyberAgent
is a Japanese digital advertising company, which was founded in 1998 by Susumu Fujita and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is owned by Susumu Fujita with 20.50% interest; Fujita is representative director, while Yusuke Hidaka is executive vice ...
and
DMM Games
is a Japan-based electronic commerce and Internet company with a diversified group of businesses that includes online shopping, eikaiwa, and video on demand service. The company manages DMM.com, an online entertainment site that allows users to ...
about girls playing
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
. An
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
television series produced by CAAnimation and
aired from October to December 2021, while a
mobile game
A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...
developed by EXNOA was released in March 2022.
Characters
Nikkō Dream Monkeys
"Newcomer Set"
;
:
:Left wing forward for the Dream Monkeys. Her family runs an inn, and she is a member of her school's embroidery club. She becomes inspired to take up ice hockey after coming across a poster advertising it in her school.
;
:
:Center for the Dream Monkeys;
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of the team. She initially wanted to quit playing ice hockey, but was convinced to pick up the sport again by the Dream Monkeys.
;
:
:Right wing forward for the Dream Monkeys. She transfers to Manaka's school initially to avoid playing ice hockey at her former school, only to be lured into returning to the sport.
;
:
:Manaka's younger sister; left defenceman for the Dream Monkeys. She also serves as the team's mascot.
;
:
:Right defenceman for the Dream Monkeys.
;
:
:Goaltender for the Dream Monkeys.
"Senior Set"
;
:
:Left wing forward for the Dream Monkeys.
;
:
:Center for the Dream Monkeys.
;
:
:Right wing forward for the Dream Monkeys.
;
:
:Left defenceman for the Dream Monkeys.
;
:
:Right defenceman for the Dream Monkeys.
;
:
:Goaltender for the Dream Monkeys.
"Staff"
;
:
:Coach for the Dream Monkeys. She aims to combine ice hockey and idols in order to increase the sport's popularity.
;
:
:Assistant for Yōko Matsunaga.
Kushiro Snow White
;
:
:Left wing forward for the Snow White.
;
:
:Center for the Snow White.
;
:
:Right wing for the Snow White.
;
:
:Left defenceman for the Snow White.
;
:
:Right defenceman for the Snow White.
;
:
:Goaltender for the Snow White.
;
:
:A Canadian girl who plays center for the Snow White.
West Tokyo Ice Rabbits
;
:
:Left wing forward for the Ice Rabbits. She was a schoolmate of Manaka and the others, but transferred.
Media
Anime
In December 2020, an
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
television series produced by CAAnimation and animated by
was announced. The series was directed by Takebumi Anzai, with
Touko Machida
is a Japanese anime screenwriter. She debuted as a screenwriter in 2001, and in 2006 got to become the lead screenwriter for the first time with '' Ramen Fighter Miki''. Since ''Ramen Fighter Miki'', she has done screenwriting for many works, su ...
in charge of series composition, Kii Tanaka designing characters based on Craft Egg's original designs, Takashi Murakami and Hiroshi Takita served as producers, and MONACA and Yōhei Kisara composing the series' music.
Funimation
Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...
licensed the series outside of Asia.
Medialink
Medialink Group Limited is a content distributor and licensor based in Kowloon, Hong Kong specializing in the distribution of Japanese anime and brand licensing. Its offices are located at Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui.
Registered from Hong Kong ...
licensed the series in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. It aired from October 6 to December 22, 2021 on
Tokyo MX
JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...
and other networks.
The seven main cast members, under the name "Smile Princess", performed the series' opening theme song "Fire Fight!", while
May'n
, better known by her stage name , is a Japanese singer from Nagoya. Aspiring to become a musician since childhood, she began her music activities in 2003 upon passing an audition held by talent agency Horipro International. She made her major d ...
performed the series' ending theme song "Orange."
The English dub was released on December 30, 2022.
Episode list
Game
A smartphone application game, titled , was developed by EXNOA. It was released on March 15, 2022 for
Android,
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
, and
PC via DMM Game Player. The game ended service on November 30, 2022.
Reception
The anime series' first episode garnered poor reviews from
Anime News Network
Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...
's staff during the Fall 2021 season previews. Richard Eisenbeis felt "utterly shattered" by the premiere's mixture of idol and sports anime elements through "real world logic", saying that all-girl slice-of-life fans will enjoy it more than him. Caitlin Moore was also baffled by the series' opening and found the idol angle insulting for infringing on the ice hockey segments. Nicholas Dupree commended the production values of the hockey and idol parts in the beginning, but felt the premiere stretched itself too thin by trying to appease to both genres and lacked characters for viewers to care about, saying "the overall show feels stitched together by a marketing department trying to build a money printer out of spare parts." Rebecca Silverman criticized the episode for not showcasing enough ice hockey scenes for its intended audience and found framing issues when utilizing idol elements throughout the sports segments.
Fellow ANN editor Christopher Farris reviewed the complete anime series in 2022 and gave it a B– grade.
While praising the engaging story for developing its cast and showcasing ice hockey with appealing presentation, he felt the technical aspects of the sport were "incidental" and "surface-level" because of "languid pacing" and both the slice-of-life and idol elements being prioritized more than the overall narrative, concluding that: "It definitely still isn't the hockey anime a lot of people were hoping for, but it is ''more'' of a hockey anime than those initial visions of girls breaking out into dance numbers indicated, and ends up decidedly working better as a sports show than a lot of the other let-downs out there."
Notes
References
External links
Official website
*
{{C2C (studio)
2021 anime television series debuts
2022 video games
Android (operating system) games
C2C (studio)
Crunchyroll anime
Ice hockey television series
Ice hockey video games
IOS games
Japan-exclusive video games
Mobile games
School life in anime and manga
Sports anime and manga
Tokyo MX original programming
Video games developed in Japan
Windows games