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Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story (stylized as BIRDIE WING -Golf Girls' Story-) is a Japanese original anime television series about golf produced by Bandai Namco Pictures and directed by Takayuki Inagaki. The first season aired from April to June 2022, while a second season aired from April to June 2023. A sports video game developed by Viverse and WOWWOW Technology was released in June 2023.
In the European state of Nafrece, a girl named Eve uses her crude yet effective golfing style to act as a ringer and take money from various challengers in unsanctioned golf games, hoping to earn enough to secure a future for her adopted family and their bar. However, one day after beating another challenger, Eve meets with Japanese golfing prodigy Aoi Amawashi, who manages to defeat her in a 1-hole match. After suffering that defeat, Eve becomes obsessed with her newfound purpose of challenging Aoi to a full 18-hole match and beating her, while Aoi finds herself infatuated with Eve's attitude and determination. However, Eve is forced to battle through various challenges thrown in front of her by the Nafrece mafia, while Aoi's mother and her personal assistant try to get her to focus on her budding golf career.
The original anime series was announced on October 28, 2021. It was produced by Bandai Namco Pictures and directed by Takayuki Inagaki, with scripts written by Yōsuke Kuroda, and music composed by Kōtarō Nakagawa and Hironori Anazawa. The series aired from April 6 to June 29, 2022, on TV Tokyo and other networks. Crunchyroll has licensed the series. Medialink licensed it in Southeast Asia and Oceania minus Australia and New Zealand; they streamed it on their Ani-One YouTube channel and Bilibili. On May 24, 2022, Bandai Namco teamed up with Jack Bunny!! to recreate and market the golf clothes used by Eve and Aoi in the ED sequence.
Following the conclusion of the series, a second season was announced to be in production. It was initially set to premiere in January 2023, but was later delayed. The second season aired from April 8 to June 24, 2023. The opening theme song for both seasons is "Venus Line" by Kohmi Hirose. For the first season, the ending theme song is "Yodaka" (ヨダカ) by Tsukuyomi. For the second season, the ending theme song is "Kimi ga Iru kara" (君がいるから, "Since You're Here") by Sarasa Kadowaki.
An eponymously-titled sports video game developed by Viverse and WOWWOW Technology was announced in April 2023. It was released on June 15 of the same year for the Nintendo Switch. A mobile game and virtual reality experiences based on the series are also planned to be released in the future.
The series was received positively. Briana Lawrence of The Mary Sue called the series "delightfully bonkers" and predicted future episodes would expand its "wacky, sapphic vibe". She later described the series as a "fantastically campy golf (love) story". Yuricon founder Erica Friedman argued that the series is similar to isekai like I'm in Love with the Villainess and argued it flouts the rules of the sports anime genre. She also called it a "delightful romp" with openly yuri themes and said it is close to becoming the "greatest Yuri sports anime of all time".
Alex Henderson of Anime Feminist, reviewing the first episode, criticized the series for its "questionable tropes" and tackling "touchy subjects with [fairly] wild abandon" but still argued it is entertaining and the most fun they "ever had watching golf". Vrai Kaiser of the same publication, reviewing the first four episodes, argued that the show's "extreme sports angle" wasn't as strong as it could be, and described the show as "flashy" and "weird" but said that the rivalry between Eve and Aoi gave the series "an unexpectedly solid core".
Reviewers for Anime News Network were more positive. They stated that they either loved the series, said it was cool with an "utterly ridiculous premise", were invested in seeing where the Aoi/Eve relationship went, described it as the best sports anime of the season, or otherwise praised the series. Nicholas Dupree and Steve Jones, writing for the same publication, said, in the This Week in Anime chatlog, that the series had a compelling angle when it came to the "rivalry/romance between Eve and Aoi" and praised the opening sequence.
In March 2024, reviewers Christopher Farris and Steve Jones, of Anime News Network, discussed whether the premiere of anime such as Sorairo Utility, Rising Impact, Oi! Tonbo, later in 2024 is the result of Birdie Wing causing a "golf anime renaissance" while comparing the series to Haikyu!!, Robot × LaserBeam, Chihayafuru, and Nobuyuki Fukumoto's Nikaido Hell Golf, and PuraOre! Pride of Orange.
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