| Re-Main | |
 Key visual | |
| Genre | Sports (water polo)[1] |
|---|---|
| Created by |
|
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by |
|
| Written by | Masafumi Nishida |
| Music by | Kana Utatane |
| Studio | MAPPA |
| Licensed by | Crunchyroll |
| Original network | TV Asahi |
| Original run | July 4, 2021 – October 3, 2021 |
| Episodes | 12 |
Re-Main (stylized in all caps) is an original Japanese anime television series animated by MAPPA directed by Kiyoshi Matsuda, and written by Masafumi Nishida. The series aired from July to October 2021 on TV Asahi's NUMAnimation block.
During Winter of his third middle school year, water polo star Minato Kiyomizu got caught in an accident and has been in coma ever since. Exactly 203 days later, Minato regained his consciousness, but lost three years of his memories. Due to a certain reason, he decided to go back to water polo, but has no memories of his skill, let alone the sports' rules. Thus, Minato's efforts to catch up on what he has lost begins.
The series was announced on March 4, 2021. It was directed by Kiyoshi Matsuda, written by Masafumi Nishida, who also served as the chief director and sound director, with Kaori Futō providing the original character designs, Shiho Tanaka adapting the designs for animation, and music composed by Kana Utatane.[1] It aired from July 4 to October 3, 2021 on TV Asahi's NUMAnimation block.[4] Enhypen performed the series' opening theme song "Forget Me Not", while Shugo Nakamura performed the series' ending theme song "Kowareta Sekai no Byōshin wa".[5] Funimation licensed the series.[6] Medialink has licensed the series in Southeast Asia and South Asia, and is streaming it on their Ani-One YouTube channel, iQIYI, and Bilibili.[7][8][9]
On September 24, 2021, Funimation announced that the series would receive an English dub, which premiered the following day.[2] Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll.[10]
| No. | Title [11][b] | Directed by [11] | Written by [11] | Storyboarded by [11] | Original air date [13] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Sorry, Who Are You?" Transliteration: "Gomennasai, Dare Desu ka" (Japanese: ごめんなさい、誰ですか) | Kiyoshi Matsuda Kōki Aoshima | Masafumi Nishida | Kiyoshi Matsuda | July 4, 2021[c] | |
| After being hospitalized for 203 days following a car accident, Minato Kiyomizu awakens from a coma, having lost his memories of the past three years—including his time playing water polo in middle school, a period during which his team won the nationally renowned Momotaro Cup. After four months of rehabilitation, Minato is discharged from the hospital and learns that his three teammates from middle school (Keita Kakihana, Koki Toguchi, and Riku Momosaki) matriculated to Shogakukan High School and managed to win Inter-Highs in their first year. While reading about Shogakukan, Minato is approached by Eitarō Oka, an old friend whom Minato does not remember. Eitarō declares his plan to enroll in the same high school in which Minato enrolls so that they can play water polo together. After eight months of intense study, Minato is admitted to Yamanami High School. On the first day, water polo captain Jō Jōjima recognizes Minato and chases him in hopes of recruiting him for the team. As Minato hides, he is spotted by an attractive girl named Chinu Kawakubo, who kisses him on the cheek. | ||||||
| 2 | "I'm No Prodigy" Transliteration: "Boku wa Tensai Ja nai" (Japanese: 僕は天才じゃない) | Kōki Aoshima | Masafumi Nishida | Shigeyuki Miya | July 11, 2021[c] | |
| Chinu explains that she kissed Minato because of a deal they’d made before Minato won the Momotaro Cup; she had agreed to kiss him if he could become Japan’s best middle-school water polo player. However, Chinu reveals that there was a second half of the deal: she'd promised to start dating Minato if he became Japan’s best high-school player, though he agreed to pay her 220,000 yen if he was unable to fulfill this goal. Hearing this, Minato decides to get back into the sport and work toward being the best. Jō uses the story of Minato’s previous successes in water polo to attract new members to the club, but all but two boys in the crowd of interested students disperse after learning Minato has lost his memories of how to play. The two remaining boys, Yutaka Inomata and Yoshiharu Ushimado, agree to join the water polo team. Additionally, a student named Takekazu Ejiri expresses interest in joining, though he asks to be assigned the position of keeper, which Jō says he has already assigned to himself. To decide who gets the position, Takekazu and Jō compete in a penalty shootout with Minato as the shooter. While Minato seems initially unskilled, he demonstrates slight potential during the contest but pulls a muscle before the shootout can conclude. After witnessing Jō's remarkable skill, Takekazu becomes discouraged and prepares to resign from the team, though Jō ultimately convinces him to stay. As the episode concludes, Jō announces plans to recruit ace swimmer Shugo Amihama right before the team subsequently discovers that Amihama has already signed up for the track team. | ||||||
| 3 | "But, Give Us a Hendy" Transliteration: "Demo Hende Kudese" (Japanese: でもへんでくでせ) | Yasunori Gotō | Masafumi Nishida | Masayuki☆Miyaji | July 25, 2021[d] | |
| After discovering that Amihama hasn’t actually signed up for the track team and is only sampling a variety of clubs, Minato suggests that he try the water polo club since they still need a seventh member; but Amihama vehemently refuses before walking off. The team attempts various antics to convince Amihama to join, only for their persistence to anger him even more. To get them to stop asking him to join, Amihama challenges the team to a race with the stipulation that they must leave him alone if he wins. Though Amihama allows the team a 20-second head start, he still manages to outpace them and claim victory. | ||||||
| 4 | "This Ain't Looking Good..." Transliteration: "Nanka Yabai ka mo......" (Japanese: なんかヤバいかも……) | Kōnosuke Uda | Masafumi Nishida | Shigeyuki Miya | August 1, 2021[e] | |
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At the team’s insistence, Amihama reveals his reason for disliking water polo is that he always wanted to beat his brother at a sport; but after his brother quit swimming, the only sport at which Amihama’s skill rivaled his, Amihama quit swimming as well and has refused to get back in the water. After an incensed exit by Amihama, Minato’s former teammates Keita, Koki, and Riku visit Yamanami High and meet Minato’s new team. Just as the team laments having failed to secure a seventh member, Amihama reappears and says he’s now interested in joining the team—revealing that Riku is actually his brother and that he now wants to be a part of Yamanami’s water polo team so that he can have a chance of defeating Riku at a sport. The Yamanami team begins practicing, even as the captain of the neighboring Rikka Gakuen Academy’s team dismisses them as non-threatening. When the Yamanami team enjoys a moment of bonding, Jō reveals that he has arranged a practice match against another team for the upcoming weekend (a feat accomplished in part due to Chinu’s requesting it of Rikka Gakuen’s captain). At the last minute, however, the Rikka Gakuen High School team withdraws; and the Junior High team plays in their stead, a strategy by the High School team to prevent Yamanami from seeing their ability before an official match. Despite a seeming advantage in size, Yamanami’s members find it difficult to keep up with the Rikka Gakuen juniors. | ||||||
| 5 | "Dude, That's Scary!!!" Transliteration: "Iya Kowai wa!!!" (Japanese: いや怖いわ！！！) | Tomoko Hiramuki | Masafumi Nishida | Kiyoshi Matsuda | August 8, 2021[f] | |
| Rikka Gakuen’s juniors emerge victorious in the match against Yamanami, leading Minato to lament his perceived uselessness to the team. Eitarō begins contemplating whether he should quit the team, and he later reveals to Minato that he lied about having been Minato’s friend in middle school. In truth, Eitarō always looked up to Minato but was too nervous to talk to him; and he thought that with Minato’s memories gone, if he could convince Minato that the two were friends, he would finally have a chance at being friends with—and playing alongside—a gifted water polo player, so long as they no longer played at Shogakukan, where Eitarō reasoned he would never be taken off the bench since there were so many other talented players. Minato visits Akimitsu Bizen, coach of the Shogakukan team, to ask what it was that made him such a good player in middle school. Coach Bizen reveals that contrary to popular belief, what really made Minato exceptional was his perseverance and determination to get better, showcased by his habit of recording and rewatching his practices on DVDs, all of which are still in his room. Relieved at the prospect that sheer willpower and determination—not natural talent—was what made him good before, Minato reasons he can accomplish such a feat again. After revealing this to Eitarō, Minato convinces him not to quit the team. | ||||||
| 6 | "Hey! Look This Way!" Transliteration: "Hai, Kotchi Muite" (Japanese: はい、こっち向いて) | Nao Miyoshi | Masafumi Nishida | Shigeyuki Miya | August 15, 2021[d] | |
| One month into the formation of their group, the Yamanami water polo team holds a lock-in training camp during which the members bond with each other. Amihama reveals that his parents are divorced, and Minato reveals that he is somewhat apprehensive about the possibility that getting back his old memories might cause him to forget the new memories that he’s made. As the training camp continues, Ushimado begins to grow disheartened, feeling that he’s dragging down the rest of the team due to his seeming lack of athletic ability. However, after seeing the way the rest of the team tries to find ways to encourage him, Ushimado resolves to try to improve, as well as to not to be so hard on himself. As the camp ends, Jō reveals that Yamanami’s team is slated to face off against both Rikka Gakuen and Shogakukan in July prefectural tournament. Two days later, Minato catches up with Chinu and thanks her for pushing him to continue pursuing water polo, declaring that he loves the sport. After Minato pedals off on his bicycle, Chinu smiles after him until, once he can no longer see her, she suddenly begins to scowl instead. | ||||||
| 7 | "Auspicious Day" Transliteration: "Taian Kichijitsu" (Japanese: 大安吉日) | Mitsue Yamasaki | Masafumi Nishida | Mitsue Yamasaki | August 29, 2021[g] | |
| After an exhausting practice, Jõ announces that Yamanami is getting official team tracksuits, a decision that disinterests Amihama, who says that he already has a tracksuit and has no desire to match with the other members of the team. Minato catches up with Amihama later, at which point the latter reveals that he’s so adamant about using his own tracksuit because it was handed down to him by Riku. To Amihama, his tracksuit represents the possibility that he might one day beat Riku—and that Riku might finally view him as a rival and an equal again, a status Amihama lost when Riku was on Minato’s team in middle school and began to view Minato as his rival instead. Later that day at practice, as the team is brainstorming slogans, Jõ tells the team that his father used to be the captain of Yamanami’s water polo club and that he and his father used to be very close; but after the death of his mother, the two have grown distant due to lack of communication. Jō also tells the team that he restarted the water polo club because he hoped it would give him and his father something to talk about again. After hearing Jõ’s motivation and learning that the idea behind matching tracksuits was to bring the team together, Amihama relents from his original position and agrees to wear the team tracksuit. When Minato returns home and reviews more DVDs of his middle-school practices, he happens across a recording of his being severely cruel to a teammate, leading him to question the kind of person he used to be. | ||||||
| 8 | "Who Are These Guys?" Transliteration: "Dare Nanda yo, Koitsura" (Japanese: 誰なんだよ、こいつら) | Kōki Aoshima | Masafumi Nishida | Shigeyuki Miya | September 5, 2021[e] | |
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Afraid to ask Eitarō about a sudden memory of having made vituperative comments at his teammate, Minato instead seeks the truth from Chinu, who confirms his suspicions and reveals that he was an arrogant braggart. Chinu also reveals that Minato’s bullying of teammate Hiroshi Ichinose, whom Chinu thought of as an older brother, led to the boy’s transferring to a different school and quitting water polo entirely. Chinu informs Minato that she lied about the second part of bet that she and he made; she completely fabricated it because she didn’t think that Minato deserved the option to quit water polo after having crushed someone else’s spirit to play the sport. As Chinu angrily walks away, the rest of Minato’s memories suddenly return. Riding his bike to return home, Minato gets lost and collapses, hitting his head against the pavement, which leads to his being hospitalized. The doctor reveals to his family that the trauma to Minato’s head has caused him to again experience amnesia, this time losing all of his memories from the previous year while retaining his memories—and personality—from middle school. Minato seeks out Coach Bizen and asks to rejoin Shogakukan, but the coach informs Minato that re-enrolling him will be impossible due to the gap in physical development between Minato and Shogakukan’s current members. An enraged Minato returns home after rebuffing his teammates from Yamanami, deriding them as beneath him, and ransacks his own room out of anger. As the episode ends, Minato breaks down crying. | ||||||
| 9 | "I've Always Been Me" Transliteration: "Ore wa Zutto Ore Nanda yo" (Japanese: 俺はずっと俺なんだよ) | Sekino Sekiju | Masafumi Nishida | Sekino Sekiju | September 12, 2021 | |
| Eitarō tries to convince Minato to return to practicing with Yamanami’s team, but Minato refuses and leaves the conversation convinced that the Yamanami team is beneath him. Minato visits Riku, who reveals that Coach Bizen often compares him to Minato and that he wants to defeat Minato at the prefectural tournament to prove that he is better than Minato. It is also implied that the reason Minato became so arrogant was because Coach Bizen instructed him that an ace “has to be selfish.” Discontent with Riku’s statement of determination to be victorious, Minato announces that he’s quit water polo and leaves Riku grimacing with anger. After overhearing his family’s discussion of his regaining his memories, Minato angrily screams at them before running to his room, where he discovers a video that he recorded for himself in case he regained his old memories but lost his new ones. In the video, Minato’s previous self introduces him to the Yamanami water polo team and explains the meaningful friendship that he shares with them. Moved by the team’s seriousness about winning, Minato decides not to quit. Though he is condescending toward the other members at the start of practice, they still support him when he discovers that his loss of muscle has stopped his body from moving with the same strength that he used to possess. Despite this display of camaraderie, however, Minato remains determined to prove that he alone can win against any team. After Chinu discovers that Minato has regained his middle-school memories and become much the same person he was back then, she says she wants nothing more to do with him. | ||||||
| 10 | "It's the Only Way I Know to Win" Transliteration: "Ore wa Kono Kachikata Shika Shiranai" (Japanese: 俺はこの勝ち方しか知らない) | Kyōko Yamazaki | Masafumi Nishida | Shigeyuki Miya | September 19, 2021 | |
| 11 | "Pass! Pass to Me!" Transliteration: "Dase! Ore ni Dase!" (Japanese: 出せ！ 俺に出せ！) | Yasutomo Okamoto | Masafumi Nishida | Masako Satō | September 26, 2021 | |
| 12 | "C'mon, Let's Get Started" Transliteration: "Sā, Hajimeyō ze" (Japanese: さぁ、始めようぜ) | Kiyoshi Matsuda | Masafumi Nishida | Masako Satō | October 3, 2021 | |
