A while ago I watched through the 1973-74 shoujo anime series about girls' tennis, Aim for the Ace!
I can't remember how I came across it, but something about the visual style really struck me. The long, angled faces sometimes warped to a sort of dream-like alien degree. The beautiful, blurred backgrounds in purple tones. The colourful airbrushing and paint stippling. It's a gorgeous, odd-looking show.
It centres on a vaguely tomboyish tennis player, Hiromi. She has a fluffy Donny Osmond cut, a reserved personality, and a dream - to play some tennis. We start out with her about to move up to the senior team, and follow her as she takes part in more high stakes matches and gets into more intense training.
She has a little black cat, by the way. This creature isn't particularly important, but rest assured: that cat is there.
What I love about the series is its claustrophobic intensity. At the beginning, it seems that Hiromi and her friend don't care all that much about their tennis prowess, but it quickly becomes the beautiful, sparkling jewel at the centre of Hiromi's life. An intoxicating, visceral passion expressed so vividly by the textured backgrounds and often conspicuously empty, slightly abstract locations.
A figure of great inspiration to Hiromi is Todo, the sparkling and gentle boy tennis player she admires. He is an iconic 1970s boy. He has the most luscious eyelashes in the world, thick, flowing sideburns, and bewitching, geode-like eyes. He is quiet and unassuming, statesmanlike, and a very good tennis player.
The distant intensity with which she views him is so deliciously communicated. She is always gazing at him, and he is always leaping in slow motion, a graceful gazelle of a man on the court. And so, there is an impeccable, tentative sensuality to their relationship. Nothing feels quite real, but every detail is magnified, made huge and shiny.
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| Balls. |
I also love the way the show explores the fraught position of women's tennis, and women in tennis. There's a powerful scene in which Hiromi talks about the extreme challenge she faces in making up for her relative weaknesses in strength and size.
It's so great. You're punching the air at this point. Our girl needs to win. She deserves it.
Another moment has a coach observing Hiromi's training, and he says this:
It's such an interesting and sad look at some of the stark realities of women's sports and their dismissal, but it's also inspiring and invigorating. Here is a girl who is truly in it for the love of the game, giving it her all, pushing her body to the limit - and carving out a space for women of pure, dogged athleticism.
I just love her so much.
p.s. here's a dog:
