In Nafrece, a European state, Eve, a fifteen-year-old girl earns money through underground golf games to take care of both her foster family and the bar they live in. On the other hand, she suffers from severe memory loss which makes it impossible for her to recall anything about her biological family or life before she became part of the new one. Nonetheless on one occasion just after winning over another competitor; she comes across Japanese prodigy in golfing Aoi Amawashi who defeats her in a single hole match. She then becomes preoccupied with this new resolve to challenge Aoi into an entire 18-hole game and beat him while he himself is smitten with Eve’s character as well as determination. Consequently, at Rose Aleon’s request (her sort of manager) Eve decides to participate in an official contest; yet it entails many challenges such as encountering Vipere a notorious underground golfer. She eventually wins and wonderful/friendship rivalry begin between her and Aoi.
She goes to an all-girls school with a very strong golf program in the second season, after taking on two rival Mafia families to protect her foster family. Aoi attends the same school, as well as other top teenage golfers like him. Both of them find out many shocking truths about themselves and each other in this place they call home.
Both seasons are quite different in terms of storyline and the way it has been presented. It is more about underground golfing; hence, mafia theme is very prevalent here with Eve trying to survive under such hardships. It also depicts how different she is from Aoi who was born from a wealthy family where golf has its firm roots that narrow her freedom which is unlike Eve’s life. However, they have similarities as well, their common obsession for golf and themselves contribute to shaping their relationship. In addition, the first season comes with some Sapphic (yuri if you prefer) elements; the infatuation of both girls marks the inception while Vipere’s appearance plus the behavior of some other mature female characters illustrates this including the minimal presence of males throughout that defines these choices in contrast to this approach.
In addition, a lot of other things have been added to the second season which is quite interesting and full of Sapphic undertones most of the times. The second season, however, finds itself toning down as far as this fan service thing is concerned hence it’s not really Sapphic like what it was during its first season. Conversely, since several individuals’ injuries and diseases are displayed in addition to their pasts, drama here takes a whole different path. However, even though this approach also diminishes the Sapphic element somewhat by introducing some male characters into the show but at least they tried though this looks somehow forced.
Some aspects of retaining the all-girls school and a bit of fanservice in the way they dress up while occasionally being “posed” that way maintain some sort of PCness about it but certainly more than before.
Also very interesting throughout the entire second season is focusing on caddies and their relationship with golfers where one of these ideas has probably resulted in one of my favorite arcs ever made with coaches falling under that category after all.
Like in other anime, the sport is depicted using exaggerated drawing style that makes it unrealistically attractive to its viewers. The use of huge eyes and blow out proportions has been employed again in this film. This is a good one to watch with Eve’s bullet and others’ moves which are visually engaging. In Austin Powers (1999), golf is presented as an aesthetically intense sport because of its vivid coloring, fast-paced editing and viewer reactions. When it comes to visuals, the different settings with their greenery are also quite effective while there are on-screen info and some brief explanations to help viewers understand the concept better.
As much as possible, this animation by Bandai Namco is interesting especially since it is golf where there is no contact of any kind; it reaches the zenith in several golf duels among which the underground ones during season one are very fun to watch. In terms of character design, and sorry for repeating ourselves but most characters including Eve clearly do not have a 15-year-old look which also makes some sense in terms of fanservice (in a kind of “strange” way). There are Eve, Aoi, Rose and Vipere who stand out when it comes to illustration as well as some Americans you see later on but after a while it becomes clear that that’s too many girls who look similar which doesn’t help with storytelling either. Still though Kei Ajiki does above average job in this specific area.
The story’s quality drops a bit in the second season which contains many soapy clichés in terms of how the drama unfolds, yet as a whole, and given that it is about girl’s golf theme, “Birdie Wing” can be considered as an amazing masterpiece.
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