Ahiru no Sora

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Just read the manga, this is the second best Basketball Manga after Slam Dunk in my opinion (without superpower of course), the story starts by the Main Character Sora Kurumatani who went to highschool with no official basketball club. He gathered all the member by himself (some of them are gangster, who can't play & just start to learn, but some others are ex player which is experienced, reliable & cool )

Fyi: The main character height is only 149cm, (Sora The Wingless Duck) . but still play basketball and became heart & soul of the team.

The character is what shine here.

The Story is about how ... they struggle to aim for Interhigh, with some new members, meet other basketball team which all of their ace are cool,

Just Read it till the Interhigh Elimination. Maybe around VOL 10,11 or so., and you will surprised,

Ahiru no Sora might come off to some as a similar series to the likes of Haikyuu, with a very short player competing in a tall man’s sport, but that’s about where the comparisons end. Ahiru no Sora is definitely a different kind of story to Haikyuu, and I think you’ll be disappointed if you jump into this expecting them to to scratch the same itch.

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The thing that draws me in most about this story is its approach to passion and commitment. It’s the rare case of a manga acknowledging that not everyone can have that extreme passion that drives characters like our main protagonist ... Sora, especially when they’re only familiarising themselves with the sport in question. Even more impressively, it doesn’t criticise those characters for not matching the level of commitment that the more passionate characters have. Instead, it’s strangely compassionate and seeks to make the readers understand and empathise with these characters. Now that’s not to say that it’s unable to be critical of its characters—on the contrary, when these characters mess up (and oh boy, do they mess up) the series is more than willing to punish them severely for it—but it definitely prioritises compassion and it never demeans its characters in the process. Its way of criticising the characters tends to have a bit more of a... melancholic undertone. This series is as much a delinquent redemption story as it is a basketball one, and that’s really apparent here.

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I also love that this series takes full advantage of the sport being played. A lot of sports series shy away from characters changing positions, but since basketball is a sport where positions aren’t actually mandatory, this series opts to do something fun and has players’ roles drastically change depending on who’s on the court at any given time. That gives the matches a really fun energy and keeps them from getting stale, which is important as the matches in this series can be a little long.

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Ahiru no Sora is a series that, despite playing around with the format of basketball in a fun and naturalistic way, always places its characters and their growth ahead of the sport itself. For some readers, that will be a flaw, or even a deal-breaker, but for me it really makes the series stand out from the pack, as one of my favourite sports series to date.

This review section is infested with 9s and 10s making you actually want to pick this up. I recommend not doing that because this is more than just a little dreadful.

Story: (3/10)
The story gets good from time to time. Especially when our main character has some growth. But that isn't nearly enough to make up for the bs it pulls.
This manga like many others wants to focus on 'realism' rather than entertainment. You can see how I put realism in quotations there. It's because the only time the author decides to pursue realism is when he should be hyping stuff up. Every interaction at the ... start is unrealistic. Every motivation is unrealistic. Every non-tournament match is unrealistic. The only time he decides to pursue realism is when it gets to the tournament matches.
His realism is him trying to make the work as painful as he can. Which is so incredibly dumb. Are you reading this to be in pain? Are you perhaps a masochist? Or are you someone who looks at the characters struggling and go like, 'wow! that's a deep story! im a critic now!'? If you're any of those, just read this and 'enjoy' yourself. I can't stop you from lying to yourself.
{spoiler: they don't win a match until late into the manga... not 40-50 chapters late... im talking 180-200 chapters out of the 220 something chapters out in English rn.}

Art: (5/10)
Nothing special. Nothing that stands out, Everyone has duck-like lips to match the title I guess.

Characters: (2/10)
Oooh boy! They are disgusting. Utterly disgusting unrealistic messes. The best part about this show's cast is the MC. But even despite being the best part, he has so little backbone and is such a simp for Madoka that he isn't even good. Talking about romance, it's NTR and you can't convince me otherwise. MC like Medoka who was built up to be best girl, Madoka undergoes moral degeneration and even after making it out goes to someone other than the MC. I have a whole blog post about this so I wouldn't go into much detail.
The second female likes the guy, but he's dense and she's bland. Her personality trait is clumsy.
We also have the I'm a delinquent but also a secretly nice guy and an 'I was hiding my true power all along guy.'

Enjoyment: (1/10)
This manga kept me up at night as I kept on wondering why and how I managed to inflict this much damage upon myself. If you're reading this to have a good time... don't. Don't even come near this. It's unholy.