The sport itself does not even take the least amount of effort to make any sense. It is a race based on speed, but people waste time doing flashy parkour moves. Would it not have made sense to give credit for style points if it is an integral part of the sport? They could have added in a number of explanations for the sport to make it a little more plausible, but there was none.
Speaking of implausibility, there is the plot. It's full of melodrama with the characters over reacting to everything like their life depends on it in stand anime fare. The backstory of the stride club and the reasons surrounding people's reluctance to join is completely laughable. It is the standard annoying anime logic sort of thing where the good guys get bad press in the eyes of the public, but really they didn't do anything wrong. Such bad press could be avoided by reasonably explaining the situation, but common sense does not exist here. All this serves as set up for the scenes with cheesy inspirational music, inspiring speeches and some nonsense about "connecting emotions" as the stride club works to redeem itself.
The characters are all one note which makes the dramatic plot points even more lame. It is fine when all they are doing is racing and having fun, but they do not go together with a plot that asks me to sympathize with them. They are also all pretty boys making some of them look downright goofy because of how out of place they are on the stride courses instead of posing for magazines. There is some of that as well; a boy band concert, photo shoots and such show up to appease the fujoshits.
Visuals: The reason I started watching this in the first place. Unfortunately, you do not get to see as much running as bobbing torso. Not that much of the running gets animated. It was most apparent to me when a big, surprising parkour move was performed, and we don't get to see any of it. It is all conveyed by implication.
One aspect I did enjoy was the soundtrack. It got me pumped up for the races and fit well with the artstyle. I'll be looking forward to the ost release.
