Futsal Boys!!!! is built around three broken players learning to want the ball in each other's hands instead of hoarding it. The animation stumbles badly in execution, turning some crucial moments into stillframe marathons when they should explode. But the character art carries the weight that movement can't, every face holds the specific kind of exhaustion that comes from playing alone in a team sport, and watching them crack open for each other is quietly devastating in ways big-budget action anime never reach.

Haru Yamato never cared about futsal, even as the sport swept the world over the past decade. Then he watches Tokinari Tennoji play for Japan at the U-18 World Cup and decides he wants to become a player like him. As a complete beginner, he signs up for the futsal club at Koyo Gakuen. His new teammates include Seiichiro Sakaki, a loner who will not pass to anyone, and captain Toi Tsukioka, who once played on the same U-18 team as Tennoji and carries a past that almost made him give up the sport. The club has talent, but it still has far to go before it can face the strongest opponents.