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「フライング決闘！」 (Furaingu Kettou!)
“Flying Match!”
It’s only the second episode, and they’re already giving me more of what I wanted – more basketball!
Forming the Rival Team
Last week I wondered whether Mimi and the others would be at the same school or even the same team, and this week we found out. I like the path they’ve taken. Starting off as rivals will allow all the girls to grow as players (not to mention, give us a lot more opportunities for fun basketball games!), while opening up the possibility of the teams eventually combining, and then being able to compete in tournaments.
As for how they actually went about forming the team, it’s a touch convenient that most of the main characters had rivals of some sort. Takenaka’s past with Maho was already established, so having his imoutos not like her was fine, and likewise, Hinata’s imouto Hakamada Kagetsu (Seto Asami) getting pulled in for similar reasons was understandable, but suddenly introducing a rival osananajimi for Saki in Fuji Masami (Taneda Risa) – who just happens to have been practicing basketball all summer in order to defeat Saki – was a touch convenient for my tastes. I did enjoy her rivalry with Saki though, especially since it inspired such dismay in Subaru. Beware of the lolicon coach!
What I really enjoyed was that Takenaka – I guess I should start calling him Natsuhi now, since there are multiple Takenakas running around – was the one who helped form the rival team. I don’t think he was scared by Mimi’s dojo challenge to the boy’s basketball club, I think he just saw that all the pieces were there and decided to put them together. The way I see it, he’s basically a younger, more tsundere version of Subaru, so he couldn’t help but give them all the opportunity to improve and enjoy the game he likes so much. He’s just missing one thing…
The “Dojo Challenge”
Whereas Subaru is a bit of a natural as a coach (though he’s also had plenty of practice by now), Natsuhi is not. I think this is mostly because he never intended to be a coach – he put the team together because he realized that all the pieces were there, but he didn’t intend to organize them or anything. Turns out that some direction is what they needed – when they started the game with Kage covering Hinata of all people, I knew they were going to get run over by the 6th years’ teamwork.
Turns out I was right. Partially it was the coach, but the 5th years also just don’t have the experience or the teamwork that their sempai do. Individually they might be good, but they’re just not a team. Fortunately, at least one of their problems has been (temporarily?) solved by the introduction of Hasegawa Ginga (Koyasu Takehito), AKA Subaru’s otou-san.
Looking Ahead – Like Son, Like Father
I would be very surprised if Ginga can forge the rival mini-basket team into, well, a team quickly enough to win this match, but I suspect he’ll stay on as their coach throughout the season, in time for a proper rematch by the end. What I’m looking for is the gap to narrow in this game as Ginga helps the girls work together, and for Subaru’s team to get some proper rivals. Expect more basketball next week, woohoo!
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – More basketball, yes! These rivals need some work, but they have potential. A good start to this season’s plot #rokyubu_ss
Random thoughts:
- A reminder: I tweet my thoughts on every show I watch, including (from now on) the ones I’m blogging. I’ll continue to post the best ones + a few unique ones here, though.
- All the girls fall for Tomoka’s jump shot (& Subaru).
- Those baka parents are so in love. N-Not that I’m jealous or anything!
- Airi is forgotten again. Everyone else has a rival (& Maho has two!), except for her. FOREVER ALONE!
- Hinata continues to be the best girl. Thigh-highs + moves like that? Saikou daze!
- I haven’t decided whether I’m going to pick this up or not (my weekends are pretty busy), but I’m trying it out with less caps to see if I have the time. I’ll decide whether I’m picking it up or not by the next episode.
For more from yours truly, check out my blog on writing, art, and the book I’m working on at stiltsoutloud.com.
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Just you wait for the Ginga magic next week xD.
It’s too bad they toned down the basketball haxx between Tomoka and Mimi, though. The two are close enough in skill they can push each other the their limits, which just makes both of them look even more godly with every exchange. Though with all the timeline jumping, some of their best exchanges wouldn’t make sense right now.
But they did really well in showing the flow of the match and major issues in the loli-loli team without putting it into words. The second season is doing well so far.
With 10 people now, they can join the official tournaments.
Akkio-san!!!???
I’m starting to like Mimi more and more :3 but without experience and proper teamplay, the 5th graders will have a hard time winning this match.
With the same embarrassing lovey-dovey conversations.
Now let’s just hope he doesn’t step on any landmines. ^^
…and 20 minutes of Clannad clips later, I need to get back to writing. Damn you, MasterDragonKnight!! (& thanks :D)
Pedophiles everywhere are rejoicing that they finally have an anime to call their own.
Speaking of someone else who loves animal-type girl?
Please explain how is it pedo? Anyone who is familiar with this show can tell you nothing is pedo about it.
I love the twins!! ni-tan! aho maho!
Lolis, lolis everywhere.
is this show worth to watch?
is is this show more about loli than basket ball or more about basket ball than loli?
~sorry for broken english~
It definitely goes in for the cute angle, but it’s also lighthearted and uplifting and the sports moments are very good. Cute + sports is how I’ve always thought of it, and it’s a good one!
In the first series, I thought the first half had a good balance of sports + fanservice, but the second half was mostly just fanservice, almost no sports. The premiere of this second series was like that too, but this second episode had a better sports balance.
I’m reminded of the Ginyu Force when the girls posed liked that.
They were definitely going for a sentai feel, yup. Personally, I loved embarrassed Kagetsu :3 Why are the tall ones always so bashful? That doesn’t work for me…
Ginga is much cooler than Subaru.
Perhaps, but he has a few years on Subaru. With a father like him and a mother like Mayu Mayu, I think Subaru has the potential to surpass him. *shivers* That will be one very, very gar day.
Considering that Subaru has already shown how much of a lady-killer (or loli-killer? ^_^”) he can be…. The signs are good…. And looking at Tomoka’s mom…. he might even have a future wife who can surpass Mayu Mayu 😛
Hinata is turning out to be the slightly more unorthodox player in the team. The moves she make can be pretty unpredictable~
Nobody expects much from her – to their detriment. Oh~!
The cutest one might also be the most dangerous one….
Oh~~~! XD
There was also that episode in season 1 where people said that Hina was flopping.
well now got 2nd batch of little girls basketball team to watch give they need more to improve well at subaru’s tanned dad is now trying helping them.
indeed must run in subaru family blood.
[BASKETBALL INTENSIFIES].jpg
But seriously, things are getting more interesting. With a new batch of members they can now join official matches and maybe a championship in S3. Unless they have this for 24-25 episodes I don’t think they’ll go beyond training-the-new-members arc.
Rivals are good, but I hope this is only temporary, especially since this rival team goes to the exact same school! I hope they both combined and face other schools in inter-school games like they did at the end of last season. Mimi’s argument is invalid that she can’t face off against Tomoka if they are on the same team – there are always scrimmage and practice times to go head to head against each other (which are often the most fun trying to one-up your team mates).
Here’s to hoping that the 5th graders lose. It would be annoying watching this series if it was the 6th graders that lose, and the 5th graders forces them out of the gym.