Review: DIVE!!

 Swimming events are always some of the most popular events at the summer Olympics.  If only this series understood anything about its appeal.

DIVE!!, based on the light novel series by Eto Mori and character designs by Suzuhito Yasuda and the Animation DIVE!! Committee, with art by Ruzuru Akashiba.  First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2019.

PLOT:

Ever since he was a child, Tomoki has been obsessed with competitive diving, ever since he saw the flawless dives of an older boy named Youichi.  That's why he and his friends Ryou and Reiji joined the Mizuki Diving Club to get better.  Things change drastically when they get a new coach, an aggressive young woman who makes drastic changes to the boys' training regime and brings in a surly but aggresive new diver, but will those changes bring the boys Olympic glory or break their friendships before they can get there?

STORY:

Dive!! wants nothing more than to be Free!.  The choice of a water-based sport, the character types featured, some of the story beats, all of them are meant to evoke that series.  Even the title tries to ape its style, right down to the exclamation points.  Yet like virtually every other imitator that has tried to do the same, it has no idea what actually made Free! work.

Yes, Free! benefited from both KyoAni's high-quality animation and the director's well-documented fascination with well-muscled torsos.  Something else it had was personality.  The main quartet were not perhaps the most original character in anime, but the show gave them plenty of space to grow and interact over the course of its original two seasons.  This in turn allowed viewers to get invested in them (be it for shipping or other purposes).  

Mito seems to have missed this point entirely, as Tomoki and the rest of the boys around him couldn't be more generic.  Tomoki's brain is basically 90% diving and 10% breathing.  Even when he's on a date, all he can think of is diving.  This leaves no room for anything resembling a personality, which makes it impossible for the reader to sincerely invest in anything he's doing.  His friends are no better, and the plot quickly shoves them aside to introduce a bevy of newer, more broad character types.

It also seems to be speed-running through its own plot.  In the course of a single volume, they gain a new coach, do a lot of training, endure a traumatic accident, Tomoki and his besties break up, and they enter their first major tournament, all while dealing with the pressure to qualify for the Olympics and keep their club's sponsor happy so they don't get shut down.  There's simply no time or space to build up tension or give the characters the chance to do anything beyond moving the plot along.

A good sports series should make its sport seem appealing and approachable, no matter what sport is featured or how realistically it's portrayed.  Dive!! manages to fail even on that front.  There's a lot of discussion about technique, posture, and style, but there's no sense of thrill, passion, or artistry about any of it.  No matter how fine the boys' form may be, this series is merely going through the motions of a sports series because that's what every other Free! wannabe does.  Its only passion is for cashing in on a trend started by a far better show.

ART:

Dive!! can't even compete with Free! when it comes to fanservice.  These boys might parade around in Speedos, but aside from some half-hearted attempts at drawing washboard abs these boys mostly come off as too scrawny to be appealing.  They also come off as younger than they are, since most of them are drawn with big, wide-set eyes that make them look childish.  The diving is handled no better, as the artist has no passion for the subject either.  At most they try to incorporate some low, dynamic angles for the dives, but otherwise it's a purely workmanlike effort.  But then, this was never meant to be anything more than an advertisement for the anime, so why bother with effort?

RATING:

Dive!! was always too dull and derivative to make a splash with readers, regardless of whether they were looking for sports action or cute anime boys.  The show has already faded into obscurity and the manga deserves to follow it there.

This series is published by Yen Press.  This series is complete in Japan with 3 volumes available.  All 3 were published and are currently in print.