Ah yes that Eric Cantona kung-fu kick...
A prequel movie in the middle of the anime series by the same name. The story about Nozomi Onda in her middle school year where she struggled to get a position to play in the boy's team.
The story fell into the typical underdog plot, but it was done well. Onda had to fight against the stigma that girls are less physically strong than boys, a popular and controversial topic in many sports. I definitely rooted for Onda as her strong spirit and determination was shown throughout the movie. Of course, it wasn't surprising to see her progression.
It's notable that the direction in the movie and series were quite similar, especially in the beginning. The comedic moments were also in similar circumstances as in the series, where the characters tried to bribe their coaches. Despite this, I still enjoyed the light-hearted comedy.
A big improvement from the series was the animation of the soccer games. The final game was where the animators tried their best. There was a mixture of normal and CGI animation, which were clear to differentiate. The CGI of the faces and hand movements of the characters were weird and bad at times. Also, some special moves got skipped over. However, I still appreciated the animation because there were a lot of wide shots and the angles were great enough to create good thrills.
Overall, a pretty good storyline that made me understand the main character more. 7/10.
