Anime original by Yostar Pictures
Streaming on HIDIVE
Premise
Minami’s favorite gacha game has reached end of service and she needs a new hobby. After failing at every possible after school activity, she has a chance encounter at a driving range that sparks her interest in golf.
Jel’s verdict: This Is Not Birdie Wing and That’s OK
At it’s core, Sorairo Utility is another low stakes “Cute Girls Do (Activity)” show, but I appreciate they try really hard to do it well. The characters are brimming with charm and personality, with the really smooth and detailed animation doing a lot of heavy lifting. Minami isn’t instantly good at golf and probably won’t be, and the prospect of learning from her cool senpai and some old men at the driving range is a fun twist on the setup. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, but when you watch you can feel the care and attention to detail that went into it.
It’s funny that Yostar (best known for the Arknights and Blue Archive games) of all people are telling people to stop playing gacha and go touch grass. Sorairo Utility was originally a fifteen minute OVA made back in 2021, their first foray into non-game related animation. It’s interesting to see the progress they’ve made a few years later, with the OVA looking like a really high quality fan animation to the TV series looking good enough to be produced by Dogakobo or A-1 Pictures. I’ll be curious to see what they make in the future.
Getting back to this episode, I don’t really have much more to say. You can figure out the plot from reading the description, so your enjoyment is really going to hinge on how much you like the vibes when you watch it. The ceiling is low, but I think Sorairo Utility is on track to be a solid, charming comedy that might be worth watching more of. It does make me miss the chaos of Birdie Wing though…
The Glorio Blog 
What I’m wondering about is, what IS up with all these golf shows lately? I mean yes, it’s relatively popular in Japan… but only relatively. It’s not like, baseball or football, it’s regarded as a sort of “elite” sport for M to C level execs and above, and other very rich people… because well, in Japan as well as everywhere else it’s very expensive and requires a lot of free time. It’s so weird seeing these shows promoting golf and golf equipment brands and whatnot, and yet presenting it as something easily available for average highschoolers and the like. 😀
I remember reading somewhere that golf is becoming a popular pastime for young women in Japan lately, likely as the result of a recent abundance of talented young players representing the country on the international circuit, causing the sport to get a lot of media attention.
A cursory Google search seems to confirm this, and also tells me that driving ranges (similar to the batting centres occasionally seen in anime) in urban areas are becoming popular hangout spots, which seems to be lowering the barrier of entry significantly, since you don’t need an expensive golf club membership to practice your skills.
Yeah driving range is one thing, but when they hit the actual golf course, not sure who’s paying for that.