PuraOre! Pride of Orange: The Hockey Anime, Explained

Anime has covered volleyball, basketball, cycling, rowing and competitive karuta. Ice hockey waited until late 2021, and when it finally arrived it came wrapped in an idol project.

PuraOre! Pride of Orange is the first anime built around girls’ ice hockey.

Whether it is a good hockey anime is a separate question, and one worth settling before you commit twelve episodes to it.

The basics: twelve episodes, aired 6 October to 22 December 2021. Animation by C2C, production by CAAnimation, directed by Takebumi Anzai. Part of a mixed-media project from CyberAgent and DMM Games.

What PuraOre! Pride of Orange Is

So a junior high student tries ice hockey once, then drags her friends into a sport none of them have played. From there it follows the standard sports template.

Manaka Mizusawa attends a taster session run by her city’s team, the Dream Monkeys.
She brings along her younger sister Ayaka and her friends from the embroidery club.
Coach Yoko invites the group to join properly once she sees them play.
The season builds toward tournament play against far more experienced teams.

The detail that sells it: the girls are recruited out of an embroidery club. That is a lovely, specific choice, and it tells you immediately that this show is more interested in the friendships than the face-offs.

The Real Nikko Connection

Meanwhile, this is the most interesting thing about the production, and the show barely advertises it.

The series is set in Nikko City, in Tochigi Prefecture, rather than a fictional town.
Nikko is a real hub for Japanese ice hockey.
The production consulted the Nikko Ice Bucks, a real professional team.
The fictional Dream Monkeys are a loose reworking of that club.

Why it matters: the project exists partly to promote a sport with a small footprint in Japan. Grounding it in a real hockey town with a real club advising is a serious commitment, even where the show itself stays light.

Manaka, Ayaka and the Rest

Notably, the core group is small enough that everyone gets something to do. That is not always true of team sports anime.

Manaka plays left wing, and her family runs a local inn.
Ayaka is her younger sister, and she joins largely because Manaka insists.
Kaoruko Yanagida and Mami Ono are childhood friends from the same club.
Riko Saginuma and Naomi Takagi round out the starting group.

Worth flagging: plenty of write-ups online garble these names and pair the wrong voice actor with the wrong character. The seven names above are the confirmed main cast, and Ayaka is definitely the younger sibling.

Yu Kiyose, the One With a Story

Meanwhile, every rookie team needs somebody who already knows the game. Yu is the closest thing the show has to a dramatic engine.

She was the ace of Kushiro Snow White, a Division A team.
A falling-out with her teammates pushed her to quit the sport entirely.
She moves to Nikko to live with her grandmother and swears off the rink.
Manaka and Coach Yoko talk her back into playing, and she becomes captain.

The weakness: Yu’s retirement lasts about as long as it takes to introduce it. The show sets up a real crisis of confidence, then resolves it quickly so everyone can get back to being friends.

Who Made It

Now, the staff list is worth knowing, since most summaries skip it entirely.

C2C handled the animation, with CAAnimation producing.
Takebumi Anzai directed, and Touko Machida wrote the series.
MONACA composed the music alongside Yohei Kisara.
Character designs come from Craft Egg, the studio behind BanG Dream.

That last credit explains a lot: Craft Egg’s involvement tells you which audience this was built for. The character art is bright and merchandise-ready, and the visual language belongs to idol shows rather than sports ones.

The Music and the Idol Half

Notably, PuraOre! is not only a sports anime, and the soundtrack is where that shows.

The seven lead voice actresses formed a unit called SMILE PRINCESS.
They perform the opening theme, “Fight Oh, Fight!”, released in November 2021.
May’n sings the ending theme, “Orange”.
The project also produced a victory dance number for the team.

Context: mixed-media projects like this fund themselves through music and merchandise as much as broadcast. If you have enjoyed other music-driven anime, the idol layer will feel familiar rather than intrusive.

How Much Hockey Is In It

Here is the honest answer, because this is where the show divides people sharply.

The girls do not properly commit to the sport until several episodes in.
Match sequences are short, and the series rarely explains hockey’s rules or tactics.
Training, friendship and downtime take up most of the running time.
Critical reception was poor, particularly from viewers who follow the sport.

Who it suits: if you want the drilled-down sports craft of a Kuroko or a Haikyuu, this will frustrate you. If you enjoy gentle shows about a group of girls finding something together, the hockey is a pleasant backdrop and the show works fine.

The Voice Cast

Here are the seven principal roles, confirmed, since online lists frequently mismatch them.

Riku Masuda as Manaka Mizusawa, with Bryn Apprill in the English dub.
Satomi Hongo as Yu Kiyose, and Mayu Sagara as Ayaka Mizusawa.
Saika Kitamori as Riko Saginuma, and Asuka Shiori as Naomi Takagi.
Yurika Moriyama as Kaoruko Yanagida, and Yoshino Aoyama as Mami Ono.

Note on the dub: Crunchyroll licensed the series, and an English cast was produced. That makes it far easier to sample than most niche sports titles from the same season.

What Happened to the Mobile Game

Meanwhile, the anime was one half of the project, and the other half no longer runs.

PuraOre! Smile Princess launched in Japan on 15 March 2022.
EXNOA developed it, with DMM Games publishing.
Service ended on 30 November 2022, roughly eight months later.
An offline version preserving the story stayed available until March 2023.

Worth knowing before you search for it: the game is gone, so the anime is now the only part of the project you can still watch. Any guide telling you to download it is out of date.

Frequently Asked Questions About PuraOre! Pride of Orange

A few of the questions that come up most about this series.

Is PuraOre! Pride of Orange the first ice hockey anime? It is promoted as the first anime dedicated to girls’ ice hockey, and it remains the best-known anime built around the sport.

What studio animated it? C2C handled animation, with CAAnimation producing and Takebumi Anzai directing.

How many episodes are there? Twelve, broadcast between 6 October and 22 December 2021.

Is Ayaka Manaka’s sister? Yes, Ayaka Mizusawa is Manaka’s younger sister, and she joins the team largely at Manaka’s urging.

Is the Dream Monkeys a real team? No, though it draws on one. The production consulted the Nikko Ice Bucks, a real professional club, and the series is set in Nikko City.

Can I still play the mobile game? No. PuraOre! Smile Princess shut down at the end of November 2022, and the offline archive closed in March 2023.

Is it worth watching for hockey fans? Probably not on its own terms. The sport is a setting rather than a subject, so treat it as a slice-of-life show that happens to own a rink.

Ultimately, PuraOre! Pride of Orange is easier to enjoy once you stop expecting a hockey anime.

Taken as a gentle show about a group of girls finding a sport together, it does the job. So did you make it past the first three episodes?

Let me know in the comments.