ukassulke - 2014-10-06 13:01:13

Sumo is not often a subject for stories so I was very interested when I first saw this anime. I generally know about how the life of a sumo goes in terms of training and am somewhat familiar on how they advance in their profession. However, with an anime you can show parts that perhaps the layman would not be able to understand much easier because of the ability to show them certain aspects and not just explaining with words.

Story:Matsutarou is a man who has extraordinary strength, however up to this point he has only used it to make himself known in the classroom. The only person able to keep him in line is a teacher he has a crush on and wants to become the best sumo wrestler in order to impress her.

All things considered the overall plot of the anime is normal. Boy likes girl, wants to impress girl, wants to become the best at "X" to achieve this. It's a common character building story when the character reaches the endpoint. While the story is gotten across, there is zero enjoyment as you follow the journey of the main character. I use the word journey very loosely as really the main character does nothing aside from insult sumo traditions and pine for his former teacher.

Animation & Sound:
Note: I am simplifying scoring on these sections.  

1 - if I noticed it was bad
2.5 - if I thought it was fine
5 - if I noticed it was good 

As I am not an expert on animation as a whole I can only give you my overall feelings which is not conducive for a 1-5 scale. I will be scoring the sound in the same way because I am more focused on the story and overall enjoyment in my scoring. 

Characters:
Honestly the characters of this show are non existent, the supporting characters exist but really most of it is to complain about Matsutarou, which is not to say they shouldn't but they don't really do much outside of that effect. The only "friend" Matsutarou has in the sumo stable is the only person in the series that has character development and a little for one of his opponents in the ring.

For the main character himself, he is the opposite of every likable attribute I can think of in an anime series. He doesn't work at anything at all, respects no one, has no dream aside from getting with his teacher, somehow is the strongest person in all of sumo without doing anything, and basically is just an infuriating character all around. There isn't anything at all you can like about this character. I stuck with the show because I figured that hey he'll come around in the end realize that he has been a jerk this whole time and even though he'll make a horrible apology it would be sincere and all would be forgiven. Well that doesn't happen and basically continues to baffle how this even was given the green light to produce.

I apologize, I even waited a while after finishing this thing because I wanted to maybe come up with some redeemable quality but all I ended up doing was ranting.

You should stay away from this, whatever it is, if you are interested in sumo wrestling in any form just look up random videos on the internet and you'll probably get a more enjoyable experience. The only reason this isn't the lowest score is because the subject matter is actually unique and gives an interesting look at sumo life which is probably the only positive thing to come from this. 

melody22 - 2014-09-16 17:07:46

This anime certainly wasn't made for typical anime audience. But then the more I've watched it, I've realized that there's actually something fresh to it. The development of the main characters, especially Matsutaro being a complete piece of sh-t at first and then grow thru the way of sumo is definitely the signature style of the story writer Tetsuya Chiba. I really think the color and "showa" scenic shots are beautiful. The side stories are like eh... it's a bit distracting from the main story, but this whole series was never meant to be that serious, so whatever.  Oh, and the voice actors of the shows are real actors from Japan.

streich.camila - 2014-06-10 15:24:38

Rowdy Sumo Wrestler Matsutaro is one of those shows that just catches you off guard. Usually when I see sports anime in the upcoming anime season I just shrug them off as being generic, cookie cutter shows with no flavor to them, and usually that is true, just look at Haikyuu and baby Steps from this season. So at first I just asumed matsutaro would just be another forgettable show. Now, i wasn't wrong, this show is indeed forgettable, but not because it was cliche, but because it did nothing with the potential it had. This show for all intents and purposes was the antithesis of most sports anime today. Beautiful, Modern Animation? Nope, here you have some rugged, sharp, retro animation that looks like its from the 90s. Sexy Bishonens? Hell no, these are big ass Sumo Wrestlers. Likable main character who has to work hard to win? Lol, Matsutaro is literally a Piece of human trash who doesn't have to train a day in his life to beat half the people in the show. This show doesn't give a shit about the norm, about what the majority want to see (just read those angry posts over at Anime news network about how bad it is), and for being different, I really want to like this show. Sadly, I couldn't. This show just did nothing with itself. Absolutely nothing. I liked the animation and character designs, but lets face it, that's pretty superficial. Our main character might be a piece of shit (and that might be a good thing), but I actually want to see him change a bit. They had an interesting dynamic of having a disrespectful and unconventional guy like matsutaro become a sumo wrestler, changing up the very traditional and respectful sport of sumo. But like everything else in this show, 9 episodes in and nothing has changed. He is still a piece of shit, the few times they show him changing are negated by the start of the next episode. Add on top of that the abundance of tasteless fart jokes and the fact that the fights felt extremely uninspired and what we have here is the classic case of wasted potential. Not even wasted potential, it's just the novelty of the show (how different it was) wore off since it did nothing with it. It hooked you in, but didn't reel basically. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone, even those that want to see something new and different. Maybe I'm being too early to judge it, but if a show can't establish anything in 9 episodes I think that's a pretty clear indicator that this show isn't serious about telling its story. We don't need all that episodic fluff that adds nothing to the show. But even the episodes that progress the story, add little to the characters and ultimately fail to get you pumped or hype or excited, because the fights are so fast and dull. Once the novelty of seeing something different wears off, there is little reason to watch this.