[Gallagher]

if they wanted to downplay it, they really shouldn't have made everything so unnecessarily sexual to begin with. that part of it all sent me the most mixed messages. no, the focus wasn't on them, it was the sport... but then there were extremely jarring moments whenever it wasn't focused entirely on the sport.

scenes like all the drunken nonsense could have easily been spent showing how their relationship changes from idol and fan into player and coach, or even the shift into actual friendship, and it would instantly make that subplot far more believable without dipping too far into the romance genre at all.

and again, the sports side of the show — the majority of it, clearly — is perfectly fine in all its technical aspects. it's accurate, sequences are animated beautifully, all of that. but to say their relationship isn't a huge part of the show, whether being seen with a romantic eye or not, would be a big fat dirty lie. love or friendship, it falls flat, and it didn't have to.