100 Meters lands squarely in the genre of sports anime. We begin with a familiar setup: a small chapter surrounding a school struggling to recruit members for its Track and Field club. The narrative premise implies that track and field isn’t viewed as particularly fun, but the film aims to disprove that notion. What unfolds is a traditional coming-of-age story about young kids maturing into young men through the lens of competition.
The story focuses on Togashi, a pleasant hero and undisputed school sprinter. We follow his life as he progresses through his career, facing increasing levels of competition and bother until he finally reaches the national sports event. It is a relatively straightforward tale; we jump through moments in a man’s life without much narrative clutter.
Towards the end, the characters begin to ask sensible, existential questions, such as “Why are we doing this?” and “Does this make me happy?” It would be easy to dismiss 100 Meters as a dull sports time, yet there are proper emotional moments scattered throughout. It was reassuring to eventually get a signal that the anime actually had a finishing line. If you are racing 100 metres, you know exactly where you are going, and while I did wonder at times where 100 Meters was going, it eventually finds its lane. There is no giant robot complexity here; it is an easy story to follow.
Animation and Visuals
What I found most engaging about 100 Meters was its subtle manipulation of reality. The film suggests that when the characters race, they control their own reality. This might be code for contracting what matters down to just that single race – perhaps a very male thing to do, thinking that winning this one event will make everything better- but the animators took this comment about reality cleverly and almost literally.
There are moments where the background becomes almost abstract while the foreground remains hyperreal, and interestingly, there are times where this is swapped around. The production features some fantastic landscape shots, but the character animation stood out the most. The racers were drawn so well I found myself wondering if they were rotoscoped; the shadow play over the tracksuits as people limbered up before the race was fantastic.
The visual highlight is undoubtedly the race in the rain. It is an absolutely memorable scene where the production lays it on thick. In that moment, reality gets swept away by a tsunami-like deluge of discovery that the race brings about.
Overall
Overall, 100 Meters earns a passing grade, though it is nothing to sing and dance about. You might like it more if you are already a track and field fan or if you know you generally enjoy sports anime.
If you watched 100 Meters at Scotland Loves Anime, then there may still be time to vote for it in our unofficial fan awards.
