But because of an unexpected incident, Sakuma has to take a long vacation from the school, which will leave the team without any supervision. With the Tadano High's festival coming very soon, every club from the school is preparing a special event of their own. Suzuki and his friends, inspired by their darling coach's dream, decide to organize a special swimming sync show. But when they publicly announce their intention, nobody is taking them seriously, except the local drag queens. With no coach and no pool to practice, they have a long road to go before pulling off a decent show. But luckily for them, they will meet a dolphin trainer who is willing to help them prepare their show. But with all the trouble and unexpected events that they will have to face, will they be able to pull off their show in time for the school festival?

Review: WaterBoys was apparently loosely based on a true story but it doesn't seem so when you watch it, because maybe the premise seems real but the approach is definitely not. Director Shinobu Yaguchi, who also directed Adrenaline Drive, turned a simple story into a completely non-serious movie. I could even say that the movie really looks and feels like a live manga comedy. Because all the comical anime tricks were there, the slow motion or fast-forward, the facial expressions, the unbelievable situations, the only thing missing was the oversized tears under the eyes of the actors. But the real surprise is that the effects really worked. I'm usually the one who complains about slapstick humor but Waterboys has something different, I don't know maybe it was the quality of the movie or the great performance of the actors but the movie is a really fun ride all along.

Maybe not very original, the story again uses the concept of a sport team composed of complete losers who by hard work and practice will finally achieve their dream of being recognized. I really think that this premise has been over used and I never thought that it would keep my attention all along, but it turned out that I was wrong. It was really interesting to see the development of the characters and them trying everything they can to get passed the unexpected problems they encounter. In my opinion it was probably one of the most unusual and creative approaches to that unoriginal setting.

But what really helped to story was the acting and also the character design that only the Japanese really know how to create. Maybe that the character design was not too original, from the nerdy guy to the big stupid jock, but they were at least very funny and colorful, like only the Japanese can make. The performance of the actors was really good in general. Even if the story concentrates a little more on the character of Suzuki, who was played by Satoshi Tsumabuki, every other character of the team has their true unforgivable moment of glory. As for their personal trainer, played by the popular actor Naoto Takenaka, his acting and comical expressions were as good as usual. But the one thing that I really enjoyed was all the cameos during the movie. Its true that if you don't know that much about Japanese cinema you might not recognize them but for someone who knows the popular faces this is a great treat. Wait until you see who plays the high school director or the drag queen boss, which were probably my favorites ones.

Usually, slapstick comedies are not a favorite of mine, I really prefer Japanese subtle humor to slapstick. But to my surprise the jokes and the funny moments were really well thought and always right on time unlike in other movies of it's kind where you see the jokes coming from a mile away. I still cant get out of my head the scene where for the first time the team tries to pull out a nice presentation to impress the others high school boys. The situation itself was pretty funny but thanks to the great director's vision, that scene and most of the other comical situations that are presented are even funnier. Like I said before the humor was really similar to what you usually find in manga or anime, it was really strange and surprising to see how good the same comedy techniques work well in a live movie.