Final Rating: 2.5/5
It’s a tale as old as time: a transfer student shows up in the main character’s class and turns their life upside down. While not quite as prominent of a trope in western media, dozens of anime introduce this trope in the first few episodes every year. What better way to shake up the status quo of a teenager than by introducing a new student into their classroom? That’s the main catalyst in director Yuhei Sakuragi’s Give It All (Ganbatte Ikimasshoi)—a story about an inexperienced and outclassed rowing club.
Mitsu Higashi High School’s “final” rowing match opens the film with the team’s anchor, Etsuko (Sora Amamiya), recognizing how far behind their boat is from all the others. She promptly gives up. The rest of her team continues to row, but Etsuko sees the writing on the wall and knows they can’t win. And she’s right. As the boat drifts offscreen, the film’s title appears. It’s a humorous juxtaposition that mostly gives away what’s about to unfold.
As a younger kid, Etsuko grew up faster than the other kids in her year. She was bigger than them and stood out as the star runner of her class because of it. A couple of years later and everyone not only caught up, but mostly surpassed her in size and speed. It’s easy to empathize with her situation. Something that was once exceedingly easy became frustratingly difficult through no fault of her own. And once it became challenging, she lost interest. There’s a pattern of Etsuko giving up when she realizes that to succeed requires putting in work and effort. She loses all interest in continuing to try.
Of course, that all changes with the arrival of transfer student Riina (Rie Takahashi). She transferred from the city, watched that final rowing match, and is excited to join the “boat club”, as she puts it. Naturally, she gets the desk next to Etsuko’s and instantly recognizes her. Riina’s excitement is short-lived because the boat club is no more. It was shut down after that last match. When the previous year’s seniors graduated, there weren’t enough students to keep it running.
From here, the film is quite straightforward. It hits a lot of expected beats that anyone familiar with anime or with sports movies will likely see coming. Etsuko is dragged back into the boat club by her friends and Riina. The team struggles on and off the water. They face hardships. Etsuko confronts her own shortcomings.
As formulaic as the film is, Give It All draws strength from its voice cast and character dynamics. The whole cast sounds great. Hime (Miku Itō) is Etsuko’s best friend who also becomes part of the new rowing team. Taeko (Akari Kitō) and Miyumi (Ikumi Hasegawa) are rivals who initially join the team to show each other up. The relationships between the five girls are the best part of the film’s story. While Etsuko’s journey from someone who gives up to someone who could give it all is somewhat shallow, the connections between the entire team grow and blossom more naturally.
The animation is another uneven element of the film. The medium seems to outdo itself every year. Western audiences have gone from the hand-drawn days of the Disney Renaissance to the computer-animation standard of Pixar. Anime hasn’t followed the same trajectory as western animation. Studio Ghibli is the most well-known studio and still utilizes hand-drawn animation like in 2023’s Academy Award-winning The Boy and the Heron. Give It All blends hand-drawn and computer-animation together. During action sequences—when the team is rowing—it looks quite nice; the movements are fluid and the wide shots capture every oar. However, in the quieter slice-of-life moments of the film, the characters clash with the background. It can be a little off-putting. Furthermore, everytime members of the rowing team share the screen together, it’s easy to feel like each character was copied and pasted and simply given a different hair style.
The formula at the center of Give It All works well enough thanks to the voice acting. It’s hard not to be drawn in by Etsuko’s journey with her team, even if the writing never dives beneath the surface. This may have been more effective as a series, allowing more time for the characters to develop and conflicts to mature. However, it’s a fairly short, well-paced watch that never drags.
Give It All was seen during the 2025 Toronto Japanese Film Festival.
