Who could have possibly imagined that I’d be writing about yet another golf anime. And yet, here we are.

After the breakaway Gundam AU, gay and breathtakingly outlandish Birdie Wing, after which most of fandom understood that what we wanted was more gay and outlandish women’s sports drama, what the old men who run entertainment conglomerates decided was that we needed more anime about golf.  Not the Dinah Shore kind of golf, either. I’d be down for that.

So instead of gay and outlandish rugby anime (I imagine an anime version of Ilona Maher and start praying for  women’s rugby anime immediately) or gay and outlandish guts and tears softball anime, we get more golf. Okay, we work with what we get. I wrote a review of the second season of Tonbo! for Anime News Network and here we are today, talking about Sorairo Utility, streaming on HIDIVE. This is not the same as the Sorairo Utility movie on Crunchyroll.

For once, we begin with a true newbie. Minami is a girl who likes gaming and truly does want to be good at something, anything, but just does not have the skills needed to find a club or sport that she takes to. When she helps an elderly gentleman in town, she finds herself introduced the world of golf… and to the cool onee-san whacking the balls at the driving range. Taken by this older girls’ form and skill, Minami is introduced to the world of amateur golf, with a foursome that is helpful, encouraging and doesn’t mind that she sucks.  Did I mention that the older girl is cool? Haruka lends Minami equipment and advice and encouragement and is very, very cool when she golfs.

This…is very refreshing.The two old dudes have old-man humor, but are very chill as far as their playing goes. And Haruka genuinely seems to want Minami to *enjoy* golf, more than be good at it. It is this last that imbued Tonbo! with its watchability and here, it continues to be the driving force of an anime that is otherwise about learning golf.

Since golf courses in Japan are probably watching their clientele of old dudes in the corporate world aging out and young people skipping things like over-spending in order to get into niche circles of access to power, the recent flight of golf anime probably isn’t that surprising. Anything to get young folks to keep up the old traditions, like shogi, go, and bankrupting one’s self to golf with the boss’s boss.

And fanservice. Because clearly if you’re making an anime about a wholesome sport for “ladies and gentlemen,” that doesn’t have to be for old dudes only, you definitely want to make sure there is a long conversation between the two young females in the shower as that is the only place young women have heart-to-heart discussions. So, yeah, that kinds of sucks the sincerity right out of the series, which is otherwise really kind of nice.

Tiresome service aside, Sora-iro Utility is a shockingly nice anime. About golf.

Ratings:

Art- 7
Characters – 9
Story – 8
Service – 5
Yuri -1

Overall – 7