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''Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story'' (stylized as ''BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls' Story-'') is an original Japanese
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
television series about
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
produced by
Bandai Namco Pictures also known as BN Pictures and BNP, is a Japanese animation studio. It is a spinoff of Sunrise, a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Filmworks which is owned by Bandai Namco Holdings. The company was formed as a part of the medium-term management pla ...
and directed by Takayuki Inagaki. The first season aired from April to June 2022, while a second season aired from April to June 2023. A
sports video game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport (such ...
developed by Viverse and WOWWOW Technology was released in June 2023.


Plot

In the European state of Nafrece, a girl named Eve uses her crude yet effective golfing style to act as a ringer and take money from various challengers in unsanctioned golf games, hoping to earn enough to secure a future for her adopted family and their bar. However, one day after beating another challenger, Eve meets with Japanese golfing prodigy Aoi Amawashi, who manages to defeat her in a 1-hole match. After suffering that defeat, Eve becomes obsessed with her newfound purpose of challenging Aoi to a full 18-hole match and beating her, while Aoi finds herself infatuated with Eve's attitude and determination. However, Eve is forced to battle through various challenges thrown in front of her by the Nafrece mafia, while Aoi's mother and her personal assistant try to get her to focus on her budding golf career.


Characters

; : : A girl with a bullish golf style who makes money from underground golf games. Using her "Rainbow Bullet" and other golf styles, she easily defeats her opponents. Later on in the series, she enrolls in an all-girls school with a strong golf program, where Aoi and the others also attend. In Season 2, it is revealed that her full name is Evangeline Burton. ; : : Daughter of the Amawashi Group's CEO, she is a skilled golf player who is part of the golf club at Raiho Girls' Academy. It is said that her smile can grind her opponents to defeat. However, she has a rare disease that threatens her life. Her admiration and inspiration for Eve quickly escalated into a blatant crush on her partner, which often becomes the subject of comedic and intimate scenes in the story. ; : : She is Aoi's best friend and her caddie. She has extensive knowledge, whether of psychology, statistics, or meteorology, along with detailed information on rivals and courses that Aoi will be participating in, so as to give her a significant edge. ; : : She is the friend of Eve, living in the Nafrece slums with her and her sister, Klein. She is energetic, cheerful, and good-hearted. She is often Eve's caddie during her underground golf games. ; : : He is the golf club adviser at Raiho Girls' Academy. There are questions about who he really is until in Season 2, when it is revealed that he is Aoi's father. ; : : He is Eve's golf trainer who left her after he had finished teaching her the golf skills she "needed". ; : : The go-between for Eve and Klein to the mafia underworld. She is also a skilled golfer. ; : : A first-year student at Raiho Academy, with ambitions to become a professional caddie. She is Eve's caddie who can observe all about golf courses. ; : : Team President of the Raiho Golf Team. She is currently on the injured list with an elbow injury. ; : : A second-year student at Nadanan Sports Academy and the defending Japanese Amateur Champion. ; : : A second-year student at Nadanan Sports Academy and Mizuho Himekawa's doubles partner. ; : : A third-year student at Shizuoka Girls' High School and their golf team's captain. She uses "In the Zone" to play her golf. ; : : A second-year student at Shizuoka High School and Kaoruko's Doubles Partner. She is known as a golfer by the nickname "Ball Path Tracker". ; : : A famous golfer in the underground world who faces off against Eve when hired by Mafia boss Nicholas. She later becomes Eve's friend. ; : : A first-year student at Raiho Academy who aspires to make the first team. She wants Ichina to caddie for her. ; : : CEO of the Amawashi Group and Athena Golf Brands. She is also Aoi's mother. ; : : The sister of Lily and owner of the illegal shop where she, Eve, and Lily are living along with her three orphan immigrant children. Thanks to Eve and Vipere, she could set up a cafe called The White Hart with Lily and send her children to school.


Production and release

The original anime series was announced on October 28, 2021. It was produced by
Bandai Namco Pictures also known as BN Pictures and BNP, is a Japanese animation studio. It is a spinoff of Sunrise, a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Filmworks which is owned by Bandai Namco Holdings. The company was formed as a part of the medium-term management pla ...
and directed by Takayuki Inagaki, with scripts written by
Yōsuke Kuroda is a Japanese anime screenwriter from Mie Prefecture, Japan. He has his own studio, Studio Orphee. Kuroda is noted for his work on authoring the scenario, screenplay, and story composition of the anime series ''Excel Saga'', '' Please Teacher!'' ...
, and music composed by
Kōtarō Nakagawa is a Japanese composer and arranger. He is noted for composing the soundtracks for several anime series, including the Gorō Taniguchi-directed productions '' s-CRY-ed'', '' Planetes'', '' Gun Sword'', and ''Code Geass''. He provided the music f ...
and Hironori Anazawa. The series aired from April 6 to June 29, 2022, on
TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.
Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...
streamed the series.
Medialink Medialink Group Limited is a content distributor and licensor based in Kowloon, Hong Kong specializing in the distribution of Japanese anime and brand licensing. Its offices are located at Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. Registered from Hong Ko ...
licensed it in Southeast Asia and Oceania minus Australia and New Zealand; they streamed it on their Ani-One YouTube channel and
Bilibili Bilibili (stylized in all lowercase), nicknamed B Site, is a Chinese online video sharing website based in Shanghai where users can submit, view, and add overlaid commentary on videos. Bilibili hosts videos on various themes, including ...
. On May 24, 2022, Bandai Namco teamed up with Jack Bunny!! to recreate and market the golf clothes used by Eve and Aoi in the ED sequence. Following the conclusion of the series, a second season was announced to be in production. It was initially set to premiere in January 2023, but was later delayed. The second season aired from April 8 to June 24, 2023. The opening theme song for both seasons is "Venus Line" by
Kohmi Hirose is a Japanese pop singer and songwriter. Since the release of her million-selling single " Romance no Kamisama" in 1993, Hirose has recorded music for winter-sporting goods company Alpen's advertising campaigns. This has prompted the Japanese p ...
. For the first season, the ending theme song is by Tsukuyomi. For the second season, the ending theme song is by Sarasa Kadowaki.


Episode list


Season 1


Season 2


Video game

An eponymously-titled
sports video game A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with video games, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport (such ...
developed by
Viverse Viverse is an open platform for virtual worlds and environments developed by HTC and encompassing multiple devices and applications. Conceived as a metaverse, the platform is intended to create an interconnected series of virtual worlds, and inclu ...
and WOWWOW Technology was announced in April 2023. It was released on June 15 of the same year for the
Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...
. A mobile game and
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...
experiences based on the series are also planned to be released in the future.


Reception


Critical response

The series received generally positive reviews. Briana Lawrence of
The Mary Sue Daniel Abrams (born May 20, 1966) is an American media entrepreneur, television host, and author. He is currently the host of '' On Patrol: Live'' on Reelz, and ''The Dan Abrams Show: Where Politics Meets The Law'' on SiriusXM's P.O.T.U.S. cha ...
called the series "delightfully bonkers" and predicted future episodes would expand its "wacky, sapphic vibe". She later described the series as a "fantastically
campy Camp is an aesthetic and sensibility that regards something as appealing or amusing because of its heightened level of artifice, affectation and exaggeration, especially when there is also a playful or ironic element. ''Camp'' is historically ...
golf (love) story".
Yuricon Yuricon was an anime convention geared toward fans of yuri anime and manga. The first Yuricon event was held in 2003 in Newark, New Jersey with about 200 attending, although Yuricon has existed as an online entity since 2000. The event was or ...
founder Erica Friedman argued that the series is similar to
isekai is a sub-genre of fiction. It includes novels, light novels, films, manga, webtoons, anime, and video games that revolve around a person or people who are transported to and have to survive in another world such as a fantasy world, virtual wor ...
like '' I'm in Love with the Villainess'' and argued it flouts the rules of the sports anime genre. She also called it a "delightful romp" with openly yuri themes and said it is close to becoming the "greatest Yuri sports anime of all time". Alex Henderson of ''Anime Feminist'', reviewing the first episode, criticized the series for its "questionable tropes" and tackling "touchy subjects with airlywild abandon" but still argued it is entertaining and the most fun they "ever had watching golf". Vrai Kaiser of the same publication, reviewing the first four episodes, argued that the show's "extreme sports angle" wasn't as strong as it could be, and described the show as "flashy" and "weird" but said that the rivalry between Eve and Aoi gave the series "an unexpectedly solid core". Reviewers for
Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...
were more positive. They stated that they either loved the series, said it was cool with an "utterly ridiculous premise", were invested in seeing where the Aoi/Eve relationship went, described it as the best sports anime of the season, or otherwise praised the series. Nicholas Dupree and Steve Jones, writing for the same publication, said, in the ''This Week in Anime'' chatlog, that the series had a compelling angle when it came to the "rivalry/romance between Eve and Aoi" and praised the opening sequence. ANN reviewer Farris also noted the " memeable" nature of the series, while reviewer Jairus Taylor, of the same site, said this series compensated for golf not being exciting to watch by being "as flashy and over the top as possible with their presentation," in contrast to '' Oi! Tonbo'' season 1, which was said to "overly technical." ANN reviewer Richard Eisenbeis described the series as a "sapphic-charged golf anime" which turned golf "into an extreme sport with high-stakes mob gambling" while James Beckett said it made golf "absolutely batshit insane...and...incredibly gay" and Caitlin Moore said that the series mix of mafia and stunt shots were "approximately equivalent to KISS-theming and black lights." All three contrasted it to '' Sorairo Utility'', which they said was based more in "the real world" but is still "pretty darned charming...and...incredibly gay" and is a "straightforward anime about girls playing golf."


Influence and legacy

In March 2024, reviewers Christopher Farris and Steve Jones, of
Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ot ...
, discussed whether the premiere of anime such as '' Sorairo Utility'', '' Rising Impact'', '' Oi! Tonbo'', later in 2024, is the result of ''Birdie Wing'' causing a "golf anime renaissance" while comparing the series to ''
Haikyu!! is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Haruichi Furudate. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from February 2012 to July 2020, with its chapters collected in 45 volumes. The story f ...
'', '' Robot × LaserBeam'', ''
Chihayafuru is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Suetsugu. It was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine '' Be Love'' from December 2007 to August 2022, with its chapters collected in 50 volumes. It is about a school g ...
'', and
Nobuyuki Fukumoto is a Japanese manga artist, well known for his work including unique and original gambling ideas, deep psychological analyses of characters, and his distinct art style. Gambling and yakuza are recurring themes in his manga. In English-speaking c ...
's ''Nikaido Hell Golf'', and '' PuraOre! Pride of Orange''. The characters from ''Birdie Wing'' later had a crossover mini-anime with those from ''Sorairo Utility'', which began in February 2025. Producer Masakazu Kubo of ''Tonbo'' later compared ''Tonbo'' to ''Birdie Wing'', saying that the former series has "name-brand golf gear is pulled from reality as often as possible."


Notes


References


External links


Official website
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Birdie Wing Metaverse
{{Bandai Namco Pictures 2022 anime television series debuts Anime and manga about organized crime Anime and manga set in schools Anime with original screenplays Bandai Namco Pictures Crunchyroll anime Golf in anime and manga Television shows written by Yōsuke Kuroda TV Tokyo original programming LGBTQ-related anime and manga