I wanted to see a Japanese baseball cheering squad movie for a long time, so I was quite excited when I found about this movie last year. The need to use a girl in this male-dominated position and casting of Aragaki Yui foreshadowed the bad scriptwriting, but I decided to give it a try anyway.
The result was far worse than what I expected. First of all, Aragaki Yui was a horrible miscasting. Her voice was definitely not a 'cheer captain' material, and shaky at times. Even in the end, she was not a convincing cheering squad member. She simply did not have the mental toughness required for the role. I believe other 'idols' like Toda Erika or Horikita Maki would've fared far better as a cheer captain. Other members of the squad were also pretty weak. I understand they tried to gather the most unlikely members for this team, but in the end, their cheer routine was not even comparable to the opposing team, which probably consisted of real high school cheering squad or simply had more time to practice.
The second major problem was the script. I like movies with unlikely settings because that's what movies are all about: fantasy. But whatever crazing settings things start off with, the story development MUST make sense. There were way too many events that were too good to be true, and I don't see how she managed to convince other members when they were about to give up. It's like they went to a camp, had a little fight, then magically united as a team. I just don't buy that. There were so many clichés in this script that I can't possibly take this movie seriously.
The third major problem is like an extension of the 2nd: over-glorifying the cheering of Japanese high school baseball and general stupidity. Having played for a high school soccer team, I understand the importance of fans and the home advantage, but "Cheering determines the victor" was way overboard. They also over-used the whole 'honor and guts' thing, like the cheer squad meeting, which was just plain silly. The final battle against the rival school was a joke. She even used the term "Genkidama" (Spirit ball) and did Kamehameha moves... I don't know what they were trying to do with that since Dragon Ball series isn't even TV Asahi or Shouchiku Films (Dragon Ball series is produced by Fuji TV and Touei Films), so there's no point promoting the new live-action movie. Also, the whole "Earth, Heaven, Heart" cheer was dumb as hell.
There were funny scenes here and there, but this movie completely failed as a drama. This movie's sole selling point is the idol Aragaki Yui, who's still displaying idol-level acting after so many leading roles. I guess her performance in "Koisuru Madori" was just a fluke. It's still watchable film for her fans though, she had a considerable screen time and of course, very cute. It was the only reason I was able to watch the whole movie.
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