Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudou-bu

"Tsurune"—It's the sound made by the bowstring when an arrow is released, and the sound that inspired Minato Narumiya to learn kyudo, a modern Japanese martial art focusing on archery. However, an incident during his last middle school tournament caused him to quit the sport.

But soon, many factors conspire to make Minato take up the bow once again: the start of a new kyudo club in his high school, a chance encounter with a mysterious archer, and the of his childhood friends, Seiya Takehaya and Ryouhei Yamanouchi. Together with his childhood friends and his new teammates, Kaito Onogi and Nanao Kisaragi, Minato rekindles his love for kyudo and works with his team toward their aim of winning the prefectural tournament.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Takehaya, Seiya Main

Ichikawa, Aoi Japanese

Takigawa, Masaki Main

Asanuma, Shintaro Japanese

Narumiya, Minato Main

Uemura, Yuuto Japanese

Yamanouchi, Ryouhei Main

Suzuki, Ryouta Japanese

Kisaragi, Nanao Main

Yano, Shougo Japanese

Onogi, Kaito Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Fujiwara, Shuu ing

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Shiragiku, Noa ing

Nanase, Ayaka Japanese

Sugawara, Mangi ing

Amasaki, Kouhei Japanese

Motomura, Hiroki ing

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Takemoto, Yasuhiro Producer, Episode Director, Storyboard, Series Composition

Nakamura, Shinichi Producer

Suzuki, Megumi Producer

Usukura, Ryuutarou Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jan 15, 2025

oystr_

Recommended

This show has quality writing. If you want smirking villains, constant intrigue and drama — this show will not do that. The characters here are kind and honest. Their struggles are struggles of self, of growing, and the conflicts are small and intimate. Tender. Each character has someone they love, not in some abstract way but portrayed directly.

All of this happens as they learn archery, which perhaps could be boring for some. The competition is indirect, the drama is again internal. This show portrays archery as meditative and spiritual. It renders the intricacies of kyudo, each measured draw of the bow and arc of the ... flying arrow, with endless attention.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Aug 23, 2022

anonymous_fan

Mixed Feelings

Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudoubu is a good show. Honestly, there is a certain standard one expects from KyoAni and surely this show didn't disappoint in that department.

Simply speaking, the basics of the story are similar to Free!. We are introduced to the main character named Minato (aka Haru), who abandoned his beloved archery, after developing target panic. After a faithful meeting with the coach Masaki, he nevertheless s his school's archery team, where he is ed by his best friend Seiya (aka Tachibana), an archery rookie Ryouhei (aka Rei), cheerful Nanao (aka Nagisa) and tsundere Onogi. We are also very early on introduced to his ... childhood friend Shu (aka Rin), who competes for the rival school's team. The story, therefore, follows an already seen format towards safe waters with mixed success. The themes being touched upon, such as team spirit, not giving up and determination are presented and executed well, especially when the team of the main characters competes with the rival team. The differences in competing philosophies of the main rivals Minato and Shu are also an execution highlight. However, the story would sorely need a few more episodes to really flesh out its characters' motivations and unique personal struggles. The anime also suffers from introducing too many new characters at the same time (exact same issue as with Free!), with a few of them being demoted to basic stand-ins after a while. There should definitely be more character development, so one could really emote and start caring for these characters, however after finishing all 13 eps one was left with a general 'nice but nothing special' feeling.

Obviously, the production aspects of the show are lovely. The animation and the character design are superb and nothing to complain about. The archery scenes are very realistic and they do create tension. The sound is top-notch.

Honestly, this is a decent outing for any fans of sports anime or KyoAni. The anime is genuinely fun to watch but it leaves something to be desired, especially when compared with better sports anime, such as Haikyuu, Kuroko or Run with the Wind, which all managed to score higher in storytelling, animation and characterization departments. Since the second season of Tsurune was recently announced, maybe these shortcomings will be mended into a stronger outing for KyoAni. The sport is exciting and unique enough to deserve another season and a more polished storyline, which would complement already outstanding animation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 28, 2025

CleansedSpace

Not Recommended

Basic and short review here.
The art of this anime is fkn mesmerizing, there are scenes with extremely beautiful settings and the animation is so on point.
The first episodes were fire and everything looked super good but it gets so freaking boring.
The plot made no sense, I felt like I was watching a documentary of gay boys practicing the bow and arrow bc the boys have girly personalities, and the girls masculine personality? Girls had zero emotions! The dog had more emotions than any girl in this anime, also much repetitive and dull arguments between boys drama, plus the SLOW pace of sequence ... of events. The story didn't even give background information for 80% of the characters. Looks like the people who made this just wanted all the boy x boy content, if you know what i mean...
I will have to give a low score because each time the competition gets intense, the story would drive out of the archery and focus on the feminine boys drama.
At the end they wrap things up quickly and somewhat well but it was painful to get there.
You should watch this anime only if you like to fantasize about boys x boys.
For me it was not worth the time, so boring that I won't even the name of any character...
Animes are evolving and there will be archery content more suitable for everyone.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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