Okay, so while this episode itself wasn’t that special, and just another basketball match, it did pique my interest again. This series was really into a bit of a mid-season lull for the past few episodes, with the plot really at a standstill because of that tournament, but this episode showed hints that this series is going to pick itself back up again.
Looking back, the only thing that the tournament arc was good for was the character-development: the actual matches themselves weren’t that interesting, but if you can see this as a way of character-building, then it did accomplish its task. In this episode, Dan matured up, he finally passed a ball to Sera so that he wouldn’t be the one to score and take the credit. Sera herself wanted to take revenge on her father, but in this episode some random dude comes up and kills the guy, and with this episode Iceman’s worries about his past have also been solved and we know that he has a fake arm. So yeah, while this episode itself wasn’t that interesting, it did create a lot of potential for the future. I’m glad that this arc is over, though. Aside from episode 12, it was a bit tiring to have to sit through it.
What this show needs to do now is make this second half interesting. This is also where the new director comes in when he’s going to take over: he needs to understand what this series is good at, and needs to make a storyline that brings out the best of this, instead of simply degenerating the series into “Dan’s quest to save his beloved Rouge”. It’s going to be really boring if that turns into the main focus for the rest of the series.
On a side-note: this episode showed a new OP and ED. To be honest though, they weren’t as good as the first ones. The OP is a cheesy j-rock song, and especially the new ED isn’t as catchy as the old ED, and simply became a generic j-pop song. Reeeaaaally not my taste.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Rather dull basketball match, but lots of character-development
This episode wasn’t interesting? The OP/ED aren’t as good as the first ones? Wow…you have really bad taste.
…why? Because I don’t like j-pop or j-rock?
No, because you are an indy.
Forgive me for not knowing what “indy” means. I tried looking it up but the definitions I got didn’t make much sense (urban dictionary talked about being controlled by a girlfriend, while the only thing I got from wikipedia is “I’m not dead yet”; or am I just someone who refuses to die?)
It means that I think you are the type of person who prides himself in liking things that are unpopular, and considers himself better because of it. Also, if something becomes popular, you stop liking it as much, or completely. Case in point, Kiba: that show was very little liked, but most of those who liked it considered the ones who didn’t uncultured idiots that could not understand the “greatness” of that anime.
loooooool…explain us the Law of ueki review then…
@Essedus
Aw come on, you don’t expect everyone to go with everything most people like; we won’t have this thing called “vvariety of human personalities” then.
Take Naruto and Bleach, for example. We know tat these two series is currently the top 3 Series right now. Well, not for me. Bleach has turned into a complete trash after Rescue Rukia Arc and Naruto… the fillers totally destroy everything and the plot is beginning to go no where. That’s how I think about them but what about those who still their fans? They’ll probably kill me off the spot.
And say that you’re a metal fan, you don’t expect a classic lover to like metal songs too. Andf see Code Geass, people say it’s awesome but not few people criticize it as “badly-written” and “trainwreck”.
I’m a fervent PH lover but my brother completely hates it no matter how I try to convince him.
Though my own tastes only line up with psgels’ some of the time, and I can see, Essedus, why you might think that he has an ‘indy’ attitude just by looking at his sidebar list of shows, my impression has always been that psgels simply has a divergent set of tastes. This is fine, since thanks to his blogging about so many less popular series I’ve been exposed to many great shows I wouldn’t have thought to try, like Dennou Coil or Saimono. Besides, he was also pretty positive about Eden of the East for most of its run, and that was about as popular as it got last season, and he loves Higurashi, which I’d say is pretty popular as well (if offbeat). He may not usually touch moe or more ‘otaku’ shows (though he gave Clannad After Story an excellent review, and how much more otaku does it get than a KyoAni adaption of a Key visual novel?), and I would never call his taste mainstream, but saying that he likes things for not being popular I would disagree with, and I don’t see any sort of superiority complex toward ‘uncultured idiots’ in his attitude. Though I have to admit I’m mystified sometimes by things he likes and doesn’t like, it would in turn be pretty snotty of me to think less of him for it (though I admit his love for Beetrain series is beyond me.) Personally I see his focus on less followed show as an attempt to bring in more much needed fans to the fold, and it’s appreciated.
tl;dr leave psgels alone!! ;~;
@Schmetterling agreed on everthing!
What your reffering to, Essedus, is called refined taste…
Essedus: first of all, I really hope that you meant “kaiba” instead of “kiba”, because I really agree with the popular opinion that Kiba wasn’t that good. And still, I don’t really see Kaiba as an underappreciated series. I’ve seen lots of people who liked it as well.
I agree that I was pretty much an indy a few years ago, but to be honest I really stopped caring about that for the past years. Case in point: I loved Air, Clannad’s After Story, Hajime no Ippo and Full Metal Panic. The thing is just that if I don’t like a series, I’m not going to try and convince myself that I liked them. Gundam 00’s second season and Zeta Gundam for example are well liked, when I started watching them I really wanted to like them, but I just couldn’t.
I also don’t see what this all has to do with Basquash, by the way. I had absolutely no idea how popular the new OP and ED were when I wrote that down. I simply didn’t like this episode as much as some of the episodes at the beginning of his show, but if you liked it I’m pretty much fine with it.
I dunno about all that but the OP/ED felt a lot more generic. The OP used lots of episode material (and even a bit from the first OP) instead of the first OP, which only had original material. Especially the animation where Dan uses his screwball… thing to throw the ball – which was in this episode – felt random and didn’t fit. The ED is uninspired with a crappy dance, seriously no good choreography at all. The first ED again was way better, even though it wasn’t flashy it had a nice feel and the animation meshed very well with the music. In fact I’d say this new ED doesn’t feel like a ED at all, more like an OP that’s been misplaced. The OP song is okay and would’ve worked with a well-crafted animation (though a bit on the generic side and not as good as the first OP imo), the ED song… Man I can’t even remember what it sounded like, all I remember is ‘this is bad’.
Kinda disappointing.
Also I think this arc has been good. A bit on the slow side at times but good. The matches have been enjoyable, Dan became a manly man, Sera turned into something much more than a DNA-hunting sexslave, Iceman’s been growing, Haruka is constantly getting fleshed out, James Loane turned out to be so obsessed with Dan’s Basquash he’ll dirty his hands if he needs to. Almost everyone went somewhere without you really noticing until you stop to think about it.
But I have to wonder… How much sponsoring are they getting from Nike for this? Because daaamn those are some fine shoes huh but come on guys you can do so much more – look you’ve got a bunch of people in giant robots doing freestyle basket over a whole city where they can use the environment however they want. THIS IS AWESOME, USE IT. I think I liked the scene where Iceman breaks a pipe just as Falcon is gonna land on it the most, it really stuck out somehow – and made me wish they’d stop using the überflash style to avoid having to actually animate the mechs properly throughout the whole games. I realize it’s already a pretty costly anime but man, it could be so much more awesome. Hey, they should just do that and then use the material to hype up a PS3 Basquash game (which would also be awesome of course), making $$$tons. I’d buy it. And I don’t even have a PS3!
The new OP and ED were certainly more flashy, but…they just didn’t seem memorable, which was kind of disappointing. I don’t think the original OP/ED were amazing incredible, but at least they stood out more. Though, I thought the match itself was one of the more enjoyable matches so far.
It almost seems like the freestyle environment is a blessing and a curse. You can pull off cool tricks like Iceman did with the pipe, but they’re also constantly reminded they’re tearing up places where people live. Maybe there’s some reluctance there to use the environment more fully?
Also, I agree the superflash animation cop-out is kind of detracting, but fortunately there wasn’t too much of that this time.
i’ve got a question, and it’s to critizise or anything it’s mostly something i’m curious about o.o.. is Rouge really in danger? it’s very misleading when you call it “Dan’s quest to save his beloved Rouge” when she only went back sooner to get proper surgery .__. …
Roldan: yeah, sorry. It just really feels like your average damsel in distress plotline and for some reason I keep thinking that she’s going to get kidnapped there or something.
A few comments about Rouge:
–We’ve known she was a “damsel in distress” since her first appearance when the girls’ manager slapped her.
–At first it was about Dan’s quest to get his sister to the moon to fix her legs, but the show has done a good job turning her into a bigger and more complex character than that, making that relationship way more interesting. If anyone had been set-up to be a stereotypical “damsel in distress” it was her, and the writers managed to avoid that, so I doubt Rouge will become so two-dimensional either.
–The bad guys have spent a lot of money turning Eclipse into the anvil against which they plan to hammer Dan into their “legend,” so I think she’ll play a larger role than simply passively awaiting rescue, though, as I mentioned in my first point, she has always needed saved, to some degree.
–Rouge got herself into trouble through the strength of her character, choosing to play without the drugs, to the point of physical exhaustion, so that makes an interesting theme to play with, showing how even strong persons can become subject to forces larger than themselves.
–Finally, the goodbye between Dan and Rouge was poignant, and far from the cliche, where Dan would have made it in time for a heartfelt goodbye, or not have made it and cursed the heavens.
So, I think this plot twist only deepened Dan’s motivation and relationship with Rouge. Also, I don’t think Rouge will become truly central to the storyline anyways, because they’ve made too much of this whole “legend” stuff, and if anything is cliche, that is… As you say, nearly every anime has a main character who can either save or destroy the world. So, I think the storyline will become more and more about various elite mooninites attempting to manipulate Dan for their own purposes, and his struggle to achieve his own goals (which probably will include being with Rouge) against that background.
The new OP and ED sucks.