Another sports girls anime G-View coming at you all. This time we will take a look at the ice hockey idol anime, PuraOre! Pride of Orange.
Alternate Title: PuraOre! Pride of Orange
Genres: Slice of Life, Sports, Tournament
Theme: Ice Hockey
Number of Episodes: 12
G-Rating: 7/10
Plot Summary: Group of girls see a pamphlet about ice hockey training hosted by the Dream Monkeys and apply. They end up enjoying it and begin their journey into the world of girls’ ice hockey. Oh, and there’s some idol stuff on the side.
To be honest this is one of the simpler sports girls anime I came across as in it does nothing wrong but nothing amazing either. It is solid. The girls all fill an archetype from main girl Manaka being a solid genki to Yu being a solid ice princess. The girls each have their own personal obstacles to overcome and they support each other all the way as they learn how important the power of teamwork is in a group sport like hockey. Besides the main six there are also players on the bench to consider so there is little room for “one person armies”. Sometimes the drama gets a little more serious but nothing heart wrenching. Even the sexiness is balanced paying homage to another sports anime. I say none of this as a bad thing. The show is straightforward and enjoyable.
Though simple that does not mean the main draw is not treated with respect. It most certainly is as our heroines along with the audience learn the basics of the sport (on screen) and along with the presentation enter the ice rink in increasingly greater challenges as they slowly improve and play hard hitting games. No bloody battles but the girls definitely do not come out of later games unscathed. The animation excels on the rink with some nice plays, smashes and puck slapping goodness. Not much to say about the soundtrack. It gets the job done. Same goes for the OP, ED and idol performances.
Speaking of the idol stuff viewers worried it takes away from the hockey action can rest easy as the show follows the example of the Uma Musume series where the singing and dancing is tertiary to the point of almost being forgotten, only remembered during performances. They are admittedly neat.
Not much yuri to talk about other than the OTP of Riko X Naomi. Their relationship is a highlight for sure. Maybe super shippers can look for other pairings but personally besides these two the other girls did not go far enough to get me pumped. Nothing wrong with that. Just do not go into this one expecting strong yuri vibes beyond this couple.
Overall Pride of Orange is a solid sports girls anime that does a good job presenting a cute cast with increasingly cooler (pun intended) and intense ice hockey games. While the multimedia project is part idol it does not stray away from what viewers came to see. I suppose depending who one asks they would see “playing it safe” as a negative. I consider media like that easy to consume and enjoyable. Even the fact that it ended with a blunt “Go play the mobile game to experience the rest of the story” lure had me laughing more than feeling upset. At least it was honest with its intent. A solid viewing experience for sports girls fans.
PS: Coach Yoko is best woman.
The Yuri Empire 
Being that hockey means so much to me, I’ve played it for a time and now I’ve been watching it for many years, so coming into it with that perspective, I was let down by the overall lack of hockey being played on screen.
Sure it could easily be chalked up to not being able to animate all the movements and such or not wanting to get overly technical on a sport not many people know much about in the Japanese market, but still I was hoping for more on screen hockey than what we got. Even the final ep didn’t really have extended sequences of the game being played as they kept cutting back to previous briefings from Coach Yoko. Most of the on screen hockey moments were pretty in tight and you only really saw maybe 3 or 4 players on screen at once, so you couldn’t get a real sense of all the whole game. The animation during the hockey moments was good though, I’ll give them that.
I guess I just wanted more overall out of this show. Yes being a multimedia project with games and other media being involved, time has to be split between them all, so realistically resources probably couldn’t be spent on making the anime look at authentic as possible, but I guess we’ll have to take what we’re given.
By the end the idol parts just felt so far out of place that they probably should’ve have even been a part of the show. I mean yes I like my idol anime, but for the first ever hockey anime I’d like toe main focus to be on the sport itself and not idols.
I’ll save the rest for my own review as I’ve already started it here in your comment section.
So yeah, that’s how this show left me feeling. Good but could’ve been way better.
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For all your needs to be fulfilled the show would honestly have to be more than 12 episodes as teams are more than 5 players.
What I’m saying is to get close to your dream anime it needed to be a lot more than 12 episodes. Games have to be multi-parters or episodes devoted entirely to them with little distractions. Something similar to the 50+ ones like Captain Tsubasa or Haikyuu. There’s a reason why they’re legendary beyond the magnificent machismo.
I will say the pacing could have been better. Maybe if it was similarly paced to the Uma Musume series as alluded to in the review. I know it didn’t grab your attention but I have a feeling you’d have loved this show more if it had similar pacing and was longer.
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“Coach Yoko is best woman.” Agreed. 😀
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Yush.
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It started well with plenty of strong emotions between the girls, and then kind of diluted and lost its pace… which unfortunately does happen to a lot of series. Personally I don’t have anything against either the hockey or the idol segments, but somehow both ended up being kind of superficial and thin. I wonder where all the time went in the end? Perhaps too much of the coaches and the other team talking – I found their drama an unnecessary detour ^^
To me, an example of a series that managed to fit an unbelievable amount of action and fun into every episode is Dropout Idol Fruit Tart, and it had exactly as much time as this series. A matter of pacing (of course comedy series can be faster, so it’s not a completely fair comparison).
Nevertheless, Naomi was one of my favourite girls of the season. A perfect goddess! We need a spinoff of Riko (with long hair) and Naomi dating. (I know I keep saying this for lots of series ^^)
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Basically you didn’t care for the side-characters.
A spinoff with Naomi and Riko as the leads would be nice.
Don’t worry. It’s what you do, go crazy with pairings you adore. Nothing wrong with that.
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I have to admit that the show is enjoyable.I felt that the idol aspect is, well feels out of place. Sure, Uma Musume have them, but I feel that this is is just tacked on just because, but it makes more sense since there is a mobile game in the works. Still, they aren’t bad looking and the music is good. Manaka does look kind of like Chika and Honoka.
But I agree that Naomi and Riko is the best pairing from this show.
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Pretty much.
Manaka has parts of Chika and Honoka’s charm but does not excel at what made either girl great. Still a nice genki in her own right.
Naomi X Riko’s relationship was one of the best parts of the show.
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Man I’m just a sucker for stories like this it seems, i enjoyed the matches and think the girls are cool.
Especially Yu. She’s a leftie which automatic makes her cool in my book since I’m one too haha
Also the end card which straight up says to play the mobage is so blunt I ended up laughing. Hey, points for being honest!
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It’s cool. The story and characters were good. There have just been better in other girls’ sports anime.
Same here. Hence why I commended them for their honesty.
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Hm, looks like I was too hasty in thinking that KSW had to lose to learn their lesson. It was thankfully resolved before that.
PuraOre was an alright sports anime, even if it wasn’t revolutionary. I enjoyed watching Manaka and co.’s development into bonafied Monkeys.
Admittedly, I would have liked to see more about their senpais but the anime was about the juniors so no dice.
I liked Coach Yoko personality, always upbeat and positive and she kept her eyes on the prize. Seeing the Victory Dance performed must have made her extremely happy, I bet.
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Solid show with a solid cast.
We most likely learn more about the senpai in the mobile game.
Bless the coach.
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Very cute anime, especially for a sport like hockey which is normally quite “not cute”, as in manly brawls on ice 😀 Coach Yoko is indeed best girl, and the other coach at Snow White is gorgeous too, wish she had more screen time — maybe with Yoko together haha.
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Yup. An OVA about the coaches’ past together.
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