I’ll admit I am not really a sports-guy, but once in a while I like to dip my proverbial toe into sports cinema, or anime. At the very least it’s usually good for a story that watches a group of underdogs taking on the world, and usually succeeding against great odds. Ahiru no Sora is one of those types of animes. This one falls in the realm of high school basketball.

The current collection by Sentai Filmworks collects the first 24 episodes of the series which is roughly half the series. In doing my research before the review I found this was based off a manga that was going on for 17 years before this anime was created so I wondered is this would feel at all rushed (fortunately, it didn’t).

The series follows Sora, a young boy with a passion for basketball, but not a lot of skill. On his first day at Kuzuryu High School he attempts to join the basketball team only to find it’s populated by the local high school low-life’s. This doesn’t dissuade him, and he begins working to bring the team together so they can become more than a group of locker room peeping Tom’s and become a real competitive basketball team.

I’ll start by saying the show isn’t very original, but really what is? Watching it I felt compelled at least by Sora’s drive to bring everything together and positive encourage those around them. Not only that, but it doesn’t fully drag on the sports elements. We get a nice balance of sports action (and the games are fun to watch), with the character’s personal and school lives. The animation is solid, nothing to write home about it, but it gets the job done.

The Blu-ray from Sentai presents Ahiru No Sora in the standard 1:78:1 AR with a 1080p transfer. Everything look solid and without issue. Audio is 2 HD audio tracks Japanese and English, and come through crisp and clear. No extras. RECOMMENDED.