Summary:

The three-way game between Dan, Iceman, and Sela ends prematurely when the police arrive. Haruka forces Dan to leave, and she later decides to have the three of them team up for street basketball games. For that, she takes their Bigfoots for some upgrades, and she sets up a match against a team called the Worst. Meanwhile, Flora runs away from home and goes back to Rollingtown. Without her entourage, Flora has to fend for herself, but she runs into Coco and is given a piece of bread. Coco then runs into Dan, and he tries to talk with her, but she largely ignores him and advises that he should worry about a bigger future.

Afterward, Spanky leads Dan to the warehouse where the upgrades are being done, and Dan gets to try out the new controls of his Bigfoot. The Worst are there too, as are Sela and Iceman, so they decide to start their three-on-three match right then and there. Word quickly spreads across town of the street basketball game going on, and Dan, Sela, and Iceman outplay the Worst. Dan ultimately uses the statue on the top of city hall as a hoop, and as he makes the shot, he dubs it Basquash. He also declares that the next goal is the moon, and unbeknownst to him, his actions are being watched by two people on the moon.

Preview

I really want to like this series, but something about it just keeps bothering me. I know I mentioned how the blatant shoe advertising was distracting last week, and while there was a little more of that in this week’s episode, that wasn’t it. I think my problem with the overall show is that they’re not satisfactorily resolving what they portray to be important parts of the plot and are pushing forward a bit too quickly. We began the series with Dan obsessed about his little sister’s injury and against Bigfoot Basketball, but somehow that went away and it’s all about the game now. Then we had all this stuff about the three-way match, but somehow Haruka magically ropes everyone into playing on the same team. And it’s not that there aren’t reasons for these things happening (for example, Dan playing in order to reach the moon so that Coco’s legs can be healed), it’s that they’re being marginalized in favor of other stuff, like the basketball/basquash aspects, so instead of everything flowing, it feels like they’re jumping from plot point to plot point or action situation to action situation. I’m still not quite sure how Iceman ended up on the same side as Dan.

On the other hand, I remain curious about what direction they take with all this moon stuff, particularly in regard to the mysterious characters shown at the end of this episode. Flora’s involvement is finally making for an interesting subplot as well, and the production quality of course remains a strong point. In short, I’m still planning on continuing watching and am hoping that things will improve and I’ll feel better about this series in the long run.

22 Comments

  1. iceman hottie is on the team cos he is a massochist just like platinum slurpie and he was so impressed by that mathematic super ball dan shoot at him previous episode.
    One joke was the highlight of this show for me, where a can rolls from his sisters wheelchair , and how he interprets that.
    Besides that meh, don’t really care about the worst.

    outcast
  2. I understand what you meant, i had this same feeling when i watched the episode. One more thing that i found annoying is Dan’s behaviour, he is a total moron and not the kind you can laugh at, he’s just yelling all the time and ruins the show. Since he’s the main character that’s a major problem…

    Makoto
  3. As for me, I’m not really in with basketball. So when I watched the first episode, I had an impression that although the theme may not be compatible with my interest, I had assumed that the storyline would be catching since the series was well animated.

    I hope that it would be more entertaining in the future lmao.

    Kabayongtao
  4. I’m starting to lose my interest in this show too, because story-wise they don’t seem very interesting anymore. I hope it gets better, because like you, production-wise it has been very enjoyable to watch. And I ♥ basketball! 😀

    Forwho
  5. I actually really like this show. I think the key is to turn off your brain and just let what happens happen. It’s a pretty stupid show if you wanna get technical, but I think its fun and high energy 😀

    Besides, I’m sort of impressed by Dan’s character. It’s not often you see a boneheaded hero who’s not just lacking in common sense, but is actually illiterate. Atleast you can say that his stupidity is consistant so far.

    Namu-chan
  6. one thing about this show is just watch it without thinking at all and i promise you will like it
    every character is getting character development as the series goes along especially the princess i found her interesting i also want to know why she and dan share so much similarities even though they grew up differently also there are alot of questions to why the moon so important to everyone as well as streetbasket also the main guys at the end who are they this series is a series that is slowly building it self into a nice plot yes dan screams his ass off but he is that type of charcter he is not your typical nice boy and he as a lot of flaws. so just stop thinkin too much and allow your self to enjoy Basquash.

    John Revolver
  7. Omni, just get over the whole advertisement thing. Yes, ads are evil, annoying, blah blah, but this show really isn’t shoving it down peoples’ throats the way Pizza Hut in Code Geass did.

    Either way, if the sponsorship is supporting anime, all the better. Roll with the punches and learn to ignore it instead of letting it getting under your skin.

    Shippoyasha
  8. I’d just like to add that Iceman is on Dan’s side because Haruka’s acts have brought the organisation he so desired to streetball, which before he despised because there was not any organisation and professionalism to it. In spite of his crazy destructive personality, Iceman seems to be obsessed with things being organised and given rules and guidelines.

    Tokkan
  9. I think princess girl will become very important to the overall plot – if you count her appearances in her ‘boy’ disguise with Dan’s team she is heavily featured in the finalised op sequence. The mystic premonition bollocks blows tho.

    anonomnomnomnom

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