MMA Anime Review: Welcome to the Ballroom

Welcome to the Ballroom - Episode 24

I don't watch sports anime. They've never held any interest to me, as sports themselves don't. I wouldn't watch or play tennis, so I never felt the desire to watch to watch Baby Steps. It just isn't my taste, so I dismissed Welcome to the Ballroom when I first came across it. After all, it wasn't only a sports anime; it was about ballroom dancing, something I'd never thought of before. But a friend encouraged me to watch it and I was hooked. It ended up being my favorite anime of 2017.

Welcome to the Ballroom (Ballroom e Youkoso) is about Tatara Fujita, a third-year middle school student drifting through life. Even on the cusp of graduation he doesn't know where he's going to high school, let alone what comes after. One day a group of bullies corner Tatara outside of a building and attempt to steal his wallet, but he's saved by the appearance of  a strange man on a motorcycle saves him. This man - Sengoku - ushers Tatara into the building, his dance studio, and introduces the young man to the world of competitive ballroom dancing.

Tatara makes a great protagonist because he is relatable. We've all been at a point in our lives where time drifts by and the days collapse into a blur, a time where we didn't know where we were going. This is where Tarata started, but we've also been where he ended up. Finding a passion that burns us up, something that we can't help but hold on to as it sweeps us away. Tatara is not special. While he's good at copying somebody's moves when he watches them dance, his timid personality tends to make his lead weaker than other dancers. Watching this timid personality grow into one of confidence over the course of the show is a true delight.

Tatara is not alone in his exploration of dance, however. He's surrounded by a cast of vibrant characters, from the minor cast of employees at the dance studio to his dance partners Mako and Chinatsu, to the antagonists. Out of all these characters Chinatsu and Sengoku stand out the most,  however.

Welcome to the Ballroom - Episode 1

Sengoku owns the dance studio and he teaches Tatara how to stand before showing him how to dance. He's a massive man with a personality to match the length of his neck. Because everybody in this show has a long neck. He fills the room with a personality similar to that of Gurren Lagann's Kamina except Sengoku makes it past episode 8.

Chinatsu is the other stand-out character. She's Tatara second dance partner, pictured dancing with him above. She has a fiery personality that sharply contrasts with Tatara's quieter one and also has a relationship with Akagi, one of the antagonists, that adds a nice touch to that conflict. Tons of conflict can be drawn from their relationship as they differ in many ways, including their dance styles.

But the greatest source of conflict is, of course, the antagonists. And the three antagonists are one of the show's best aspects because they feel utterly real. Each is handled with care and precision; after we're introduced to them, they butt heads multiple times with Tatara and our dislike of them is grown thoroughly. Then everybody hits the dance floor and flashbacks allow us to delve into the minds of the antagonists, and we come to understand who they are on a deeper level and learn why they acted the way they did. And they shine because of it.

I was wrong about Welcome to the Ballroom. It ended up being so much more than I thought, and it's partially because it wasn't about what I thought it was. While dance and competition was at the heart of the show, it was about something else. Something more that I never considered. In dance, the anime explains, there is a concept of flower and frame. The leader makes the frame, holding the flower, or partner, presenting its beauty, and never allowing it to wilt. Dance is the frame to the flower of the fierce passion displayed by Tatara, and the connections he forges through that passion. I have to utterly recommend this beautiful anime, for both the flower and frame.

You can watch Welcome to the Ballroom on Amazon Prime.