Summary:

The news of Eclipse’s break-up along with everything else that’s happened has Dan feeling unsettled and fuzzy-headed, and that frustrates him. Over in Skybloom, Yang reassures Flora’s father that his Ultinium ore would activate with Eclipse’s song, and he claims that the king will be able to save the moon and Earthdash from colliding. As part of the plan, Citron and Violette spend their rehearsals playing basketball. Back in the desert, Flora wakes up one night to find Dan gone, and Miyuki directs her to a moped and indicates that the rest of them will come once the maintenance on the Bigfoots is done. Flora thus takes the moped and chases after Dan who had left for Skybloom earlier, and she soon catches up with him. Dan is going out of concern for Rouge, and while he’s not sure what he’ll do when he sees her, he’s sure that it’ll clear his hazy feelings.

To get into Skybloom though, Dan and Flora have to put on disguises, however an argument with Spanky gets their cover blown, and the two are forced to escape from the checkpoint. The only other way in is through the underground waterway, and although they’re ultimately successful in navigating it, they lose Spanky during the journey after he gets knocked off Dan’s head. Dan and Flora thus end up in the city, and as they’re evading the security patrols, Dan suddenly hears Rouge singing. He realizes that it’s coming from a blimp flying over the city, and he responds by bouncing his basketball around the city to match the tune. He’s unable to get through to her though, and his basketball alerts the patrols to his location.

As they’re trying to get away, Flora again asks Dan what he’ll do if he sees Rouge, and his only answer is that he’ll Basquat so that he can clear those hazy feelings since Basquash doesn’t lie. Watching as Dan uses his Basquash skills to try to fight the guards, Flora reflects on these words and on what Basquash means. She finally decides that her journey as Alan is at its end and that a new journey as Flora Skybloom will start from here, so she reveals herself as the princess and gets all the guards to bow down. She urges Dan to go after Rouge, but he expects her to come with him and doesn’t care about her background since she’s a Basquasher like him. This makes her quite happy and she ends up being the one dragging him along.

Preview

For an episode titled Total Eclipse, I was expecting a lot more Eclipse. They were certainly in the episode, especially with the return of Rouge, but their scenes were more of just setup for the concert and for whatever big thing Yang is planning. Instead, Flora ended up being the main focus. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining though because it was a fairly amusing episode that had some decent character development for Flora (including her almost admitting that she likes Dan) which culminated in a nice scene with Running On playing in the background; it was just not what quite I was expecting.

As for Rouge, not surprisingly, her eyes looked dead all episode to signify that she’s not all there, and Dan probably won’t be able to get through to her until he sees her face to face. What confuses me a little is how she looks normal again in the preview for next week, and it appears that she and Dan will play Basquash. It’s all part of Yang’s plan I’m sure – as much as I hate that an obvious character like him is the villain, I’m glad that there is at least a villain. It’s probably also important to note that we learned this episode that they’re apparently trying to prevent the planets from colliding with all of this legend stuff, and I assume that’s what the final episode or two will be about.

15 Comments

  1. A lot of funny screen shots this weekend. And by the looks of it, if there is only 26 episodes then it seems there will be a second season. Not too sure if i am happy or concerned about this : /

    Alive
  2. @Alive Yeah, I have a feeling that the rest of the show will be on Earthdash and then the 26th episode they’ll have probably have a nice cliffhanger ending for season two by heading to the moon, so they have a nice big opening for season two.

    Kosh
  3. tsundere loli = typical kugimiya character 😀
    and Rouge T_T With only 4-5 episodes left, I hope the show goes out with a bang and solid conclusion with Dan x Rouge unlike Macross Frontier. My only worry is really the director. Same guy who did Black Cat and Kissdum and I’m sure we remember how all of those went <_<

    Kit-Tsukasa
  4. Kinta: I never considered Basquash to be a basketball or sports series. It’s a lot of different things – mecha, romance, sci-fi – with some basketball themes. Having said that, I would bet that Basquash and Dan are going to be vital in saving the world.

  5. Hopping for a Dan x Rouge ending as well, but I’m hopping the people that actually eraced her memories wind up with a super painfull death. Can’t tell you how miffed I get with characters when animes crawl down the path of brain manipulating some inocent person… just wants me to hack and slash them to peices, their are some roads that just shouldn’t be crossed no mater how evil / vile you are.

    Neko
  6. I knew Flora will end up liking Dan (no matter how stupid he is).
    And yea…Kugimiya-san surely always end up as the tsun-loli.
    Even though I don’t really like loli’s…I came to like Flora. ♥ (or maybe its because I have a thing for gender-benders? lawl xD)
    Same with Citron. x’3
    I looove Citron♥
    (and I love the Flora x Dan / Citron x Iceman pics shown halfway in the episode xD I guess I have a soft spot for Flora x Dan. From the beginning…I always have.)

    I hope it’s a Rouge x Dan ending too :'{

    Wija-chan
  7. Zomg cant believe Ive still kept watching this amine, i like it esp the drama between the characters but still the main plot or focus is basketball. I just still cant into the idea that basketball could be something so serious or have this theme to it (legends and what not),hope there is a second season but.

    zz

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