Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well March is here and spring is just around the corner but more importantly March Madness will be starting soon. Basketball is my favorite sport in the world, I’ve been playing ever since I was in kindergarten (I’m 24 right now) and I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. Even during the winter I coach a little league team at my church for fun. My philosophy for basketball has always been the team with the best chemistry and teamwork will always win over the team with the best players. Japan also has that kind of mindset in their sports. Unlike here in America where we tend to focus on star players (i.e James, Bryant, Howard, Jordan, etc.) Japan has a tendency to focus on the team as a whole never giving one player more credit than the other players and pushing teamwork, harmony, and pulling together to win. These ideas and beliefs show up greatly in all sport theme animes and I think one of the sports anime that got my attention and confirms my philosophy of basketball is Ro-kyu-bu. Ro-kyu-bu is a sports comedy light novel series written by Sagu Aoyama, the story follows a high school boy becoming the coach of an elementary school girls basketball team who have never played baskeball before but want to learn how to play it. There are two manga adaptions out there but I’ve only been able to find one titled Ro-kyu-bu which came out sometime in June 2011 and another one which came in October 2010. In 2011 an anime adaption came out in the summertime by Studio Blanc, the same studio that worked on Bakemonogatari and Baka and Test. A second season has been announced; but when it will premiere has yet to be announced. So let’s see how the Japanese insert their philosophy of sports into anime, this is Ro-kyu-bu.
Opening and Ending
Are opening song is SHOOT! sung by Ro-kyu-bu which is the band name of the five voice actors who voice the main characters in the show. At first I didn’t like it but after a few episodes it started to grow on me. It’s a very upbeat song talking about how they will protect the place they care about so much no matter how painful or hard it is. The ending song Party Love is also sung by Ro-kyu-bu which is also an upbeat song. While I don’t really care for it I have to admit it is a rather cute song.
Episode 1-4
So the story begins appropriately enough with a basketball game where our main characters are taking on the boys’ team. Everyone is out of breath, the girls are down one point with only 5 seconds on the clock, and the point guard is being triple teamed (Takei: Oh my!). No, not that kind of triple team, I mean as in three people are guarding her. Which now that I think is quite strange, I’ve never seen a team actually triple team one player before, usually it’s a double team at best. But I digress; the point guard takes a step forward and shoots the ball. I don’t like the way it looks, it looks short to me. But it looks like we’ll have to wait and see if it went in on account of that scene takes place later. We cut to the present time where one of our main characters Subaru Hasegawa voiced by Yuuki Kaji (Issei from Highschool DxD) is about to enter the school of the team he will be coaching. He enters the gym to his surprise are 5 cute maid girls welcoming him and calling him master (call the cops!). These are our 5 main characters, we have the team ace Tomoka, Kana Hanazawa (Shiori from The World Only God Knows); the energetic one Maho, Yuka Iguchi (Kaede Mizuno from Nyan Koi); the smart one Saki, Yōko Hikasa (Rias from Highschool DxD); the shy big-breasted girl Airi (what the hell Sagu-sensei), Rina Hidaka (Silica from Sword Art Online); and the kawaii oh my god this girl is too cute little sister Hinata, Yui Ogura. After formal greetings and telling the girls to go change Subaru has a flashback into how he became their coach. It turns out that at his high school the captain of the basketball team that he was on was involved in a relationship with an underage girl that just so happened to be the coach’s daughter. Okay, first off, that’s sick; I hope he rots in hell. Second, what kind of dumbass hits on the daughter of their coach that’s just stupid and inconsiderate? So because of this the club is suspended for one year and Subaru decides to give up everything associated with basketball and everyone starts calling him a lolicon. I really don’t get the idea of why he decided to quit basketball because of this. I know it’s shocking and all but still that’s no reason stop playing basketball. Basketball players are always getting into trouble and suspended from games but that doesn’t stop me from going outside and schooling my friends on the court. Also, another nitpick I don’t understand is why everyone calls him a lolicon, he wasn’t involved in the incident it was the team captain, if you wanna call someone a lolicon then that’s your man. Or a sick son of bitch as I call him. A few days later his aunt Mihoshi, Shizuka Itou (Again!? My god she’s like Tails from the old Sonic games, you think he’s gone but he just keeps coming back out of nowhere and when you least expect it. To be fair she is a very good voice actor and a top tier at best so I can understand why she keeps popping up in anime) shows up and coerces him into coaching the girls’ basketball team at the school she teaches at for 3 days. Cutting back from the exposition flashback the team gets ready to practice but when Subaru makes a comment about Airi’s size she begans to breakdown and they decided to try again tomorrow. Yeah, Airi is a very tall girl for her age and she hates it, so whenever someone talks about her size she cries about it. You can probably guess that Airi is my least favorite out of the girls for this reason and a few more which I’ll get into later on. As the group cleans up Tomoka takes a shot which catches the eye of Subaru. I’m not gonna lie, it’s actually a very good shot she took; the form is nice and the rotation of the ball is good. This is the kind of shot you would expect to see in a high school player. After they clean up we get a shower scene with all of the girls. This is where we see our first major problem with the anime, the pointless fanservice. Now don’t get me wrong I love fanservice, I’m all for it, but in an anime like this which focuses on 12-year old girls it just seems out of place and is rather uncomfortable. I know the consensual age for marriage is 16 for girls in Japan and sex sells but this is almost like announcing pedophilia is alright come and enjoy. So the next day comes and Subaru teaches them the basics of basketball. Wait, you forgot to teach them how to use balance breaker mode (boasto!). After practice he receives a letter in his locker telling him to quit coaching (it’s just spam throw it away.). The next day Subaru prepares for his last day of coaching when he is confronted by a group of boys shortly after he enters the school (oh no he’s being attacked by 1D).
At the beginning of episode 2 the boys led by the team captain Natsuhi Takenaka, Minako Kotobuki (Tsumugi Kotobuki from K-ON) warn Subaru to stop coaching (come on kid you’re about as intimidating as Justin Bieber is a great singer). Subaru informs them that this is his last day of coaching and the boys tell him that there’s going to be a game between them and the girls. If the girls win they’ll be recognized as a school club and if the boys win the girls’ basketball team will be disbanded (geez, when did elementary become so competitive?). So Subaru goes to the gym informing the girls that he knows about the game and the girls beg him to continue coaching them but he refuses because of what happened in the past (would you stop being a pussy and help them out already!? A little girl is crying out for help get over it already! I’m sorry, but he acts as if he’s the one who did it.).The next day Subaru goes out with his childhood friend Aoi Ogiyama, Kanae Ito (Elsie from The World God Only Knows) who has a secret crush on Subaru and another one of his friends named Hatsunari who constantly calls him a lolicon (again with this shit, he didn’t commit the act so why is he being called that?) to a batting center where Subaru gets talked into a foul shot shooting competition. He wins naturally and decides to go back home only to run into Tomoka who’s looking for a place to practice. Subaru invites her back to his place and Tomoka challenges Subaru to a match to get him to come back. Tomoka loses but Subaru is still impressed with the skills she displayed in the match that Subaru tells her to try out for different teams. Tomoka says no and takes us on a walk down Exposition Street where she explains how she was obsessed with winning so much that it forced everyone to stay away from her. When she transferred schools she vowed never to play basketball again but as Rurouni Kenshin shows us old habits die hard and during a pick-up game in P.E she showed off which got the attention of Maho and the two formed a basketball team. After the story she says that if the team is disbanded she’ll quit basketball forever because she doesn’t want to become too obsessed with winning and losing and leaves. Subaru chases after her saying that she can’t give up basketball because it’s something she loves and vows to help the team win.
Episode 3 comes around where Subaru apologizes for being an insensitive asshole and says he’ll help them win. Throughout ¾ of the episode they train and start developing strategies and Subaru discovers that Natsuhi has a crush on Hinata (well of course he does, anybody would fall in love with that long purple haired beauty who’s shyness drives man wild but I think she’s a little out of his league. Oh wait, you’re talking about the pinked haired one in this anime. Yeah, go for it man.).We also get to meet the school nurse who likes to give her students nicknames that match their personality (okay, you a little crazy.). The day of the game arrives and the girls take the early lead by taking advantage of Airi’s height that Subaru has fooled into believing she’s playing the small forward position when really she’s playing the center position. Once the boys start guarding her they switch the game up by having Maho and Saki shoot jump shots which catches the boys totally off guard. Man, talk about underestimating your opponent, I mean, did the kid version of 1D really think that after 1 week of practice and a coach, the girls weren’t gonna learn how to play basketball? I taught my 6 year-old nephew and 4 year-old niece how to play Super Mario Bros. Wii in one day and they beat the game in like 3-4 days. Next week I’m teaching them how to play Skyword Sword. They do a good job for the first half but as the second half begins fatigue starts to set in and the girls become sluggish (this is where experience and stamina becomes important) and the 1D boys tie the game to end the episode.
The game continues in episode 4 where Tomoka unleashes the beast within her and starts going Lebron James on them. There’s also this one funny scene where Hinata guards Natsuhi (dah, too kawaii she’s blinding him!) and he accidently fouls her subconsciously, not really important but it got a good chuckle out of me. In the final seconds the girls are down 1 point and the 1D boys up by one, Tomoka goes up for a shot and she misses it, the game is over the girls lose all is lost. Nah, just kidding, we still got 8 episodes to get through. She shoots the ball which is caught by Maho who takes the shot and wins the game (Yatta!). So they have a big celebration and the group wants Subaru to continue coaching them and he rejects (If you accept the position we’ll let you touch Saki’s boobs.) but Miho proposes a challenge that if Tomoka makes 50 shots in a roll he’ll coach them. So throughout the second half of the episode Tomoka keeps coming over to Subaru’s house trying to make the 50 shots until at the very end she does it and Subaru becomes their coach.
Episode 5-8
Episode 5 is where we see the second major problem with this season; it wastes time on pointless events. For the next few episodes the plot and story come to a complete halt and we’re stuck with boring episodes which could have been used for character development or them playing against another team. To be fair, episode 5 does serve a little importance, the team has a training camp at the school for the upcoming basketball tournament at their school in which the girls will be representing their class and Natshui joins them. It’s here that we see that Natshui and Maho don’t get along very well with each other even though he, Saki, and Maho are childhood friends and doesn’t want Maho to continue playing basketball. So the gang tries to get these two to get along with each other but everything keeps backfiring on them. Natshui finally opens up to Subaru and tells him that Maho is a natural athlete and is able to learn things instantly but loses interest in them quickly as well. He’s afraid that Maho is gonna give up basketball soon enough because she’ll lose interest and before she loses interest he’ll make her quit. However, after seeing Maho practicing outside late at night by herself Subaru confirms that she won’t quit because she finally found something to take seriously. In episode 6 nothing happens, skip it. Panty misunderstanding, kinda stupid and underplayed, Natshui coaches the girls in the basketball tournament and Hinata makes the winning shot next episode.
Episode 7 is a special one because not only is it another pointless series of events but we also get more shameless fanservice with the girls. Okay so what’s the story? The school is having swim classes and Airi can’t swim (Geez, why am I not surprise?) and the group decides to meet at Maho’s mansion (that’s right, she’s rich) and have swimming lessons for Airi (this is over stepping your boundaries as a coach and it’s becoming harder to defend you, Subaru). See, this is why Airi is my least favorite character in the show. She has so little self-confidence and is constantly afraid of so many little things that it becomes really annoying. Okay, to be fair there is a traumatizing event that makes her afraid of swimming but still the way she acts when they’re teaching her is just ridiculous and something you would expect to see from a 3-year old; and the fact that she swore to herself that she wouldn’t be afraid, try her hardest, and wouldn’t run away anymore and yet she still acts cowardly is so frustrating.Seriously, when have you ever seen a character this low in self-confidence and make promises to get stronger and not run away act the way Airi does? *Picture of Shinji Ikari pops up*. . . he’s a teenager, a dumbass, a boy, and a dumbass so but yeah I agree. Did I mention he’s a dumbass?
So as you would imagine they partake in hilarious and indecent shenanigans that you would probably call the cops if you saw this from your bathroom window if you didn’t know who the hell this guy was. They continue training, *blah blah blah* and Airi is finally able to conquer her fear of water thanks to the power of friendship (blow me!). Things finally get interesting near the end of the episode (Oh thank God!) when Aoi follows Subaru to the academy and finally finds out what he’s been doing all this time (oh shit!). In the next episode Aoi learns why Subaru is doing what he’s doing and is totally okay with as long as he studies and concentrates on the upcoming test. Subaru says he will but Aoi is not convinced because when it comes to basketball he has an obsession (he also has obsession with boobs but that’s another anime). And for the most part she’s right, he ditches on the study session with her and goes to Maho’s house to help Airi learn how to swim (okay, that’s it, I’m getting the cops on standby). Aoi quickly finds out about this and confronts Subaru on this issue and uses force to make him leave to study but the girls stop her and they decide to have a game with Subaru on the line. Aoi gets 2 of her friends to join the game and they play in their bikinis (Dear Lord I don’t know whether find this shameless or pointless). The girls score the first two baskets but Aoi and her friends start to get serious and overwhelm the girls (What were you expecting it’s high school vs elementary school. It’s like foreign countries going up against America in the Olympics.). Aoi gives the girls a hint and tells them that only way to stop her is to have someone as tall as her guard her. So Airi man’s up (or whatever the female equivalent of man up is. Woman up?) and starts to guard Aoi even though she’s still afraid of her but Aoi in her own little way helps Airi get over her fears by playing the bad guy and gets Airi to block her shot. After seeing Airi’s resolve in wanting to protect Subaru and play basketball she forfeits the match and the girls win. At the end of the episode we see that Airi is finally able to swim because the anime is under the silly delusion that we give a damn about it.
Episodes 9-12
Once again we have a pointless episode in which we focus on Hinata and her younger sister. Wait, she has a sister? She’s a big sister? Impossible! No matter how you look at her she totally looks like the little sister character, even her personality, character, and speech points to her being a little sister. Anyway, in this episode summer vacation has started and the gang is going to hang out at Maho’s beach house but Hinata’s little sister Kagetsu doesn’t want her to go because Hinata is frail and is acting overprotective of her. We find out in a flashback that 3 years ago during the winter, Hinata was returning home from school but was locked out of her house without a key while her parents were at work (you never gave your daughter a spare key? What the hell? I had a spare key for my house at her age even though I was picked up from school by my parents each day). Kagetsu was at the house but fell asleep and when she finally awoke to answer the door Hinata had collapsed outside from the cold air and caught a cold. Even though Hinata has moved on Kagetsu still blames herself for what happen and continues to be overprotective of Hinata. So Hinata and Kagetsu have a marathon run at the beach to settle their issues. Nothing really happens here except running, nothing to do but wait it out. *Goes into the next room to play Ni No Kuni* Oh I caught a familiar, now what should I name you? *Time passes and goes to make a snack* rice sounds good right about now. *After cooking and eating rice goes to play blackjack with Isis* Ha! 20, beat that! (Isis): Blackjack! (Nitsuj): Son of a bitch! *Returns to watch the anime* did I miss anything? In the end Hinata wins and Kagetsu is finally able to see that Hinata can take care herself and stops being overprotective of her. In episode 10 the girls want to have another game but can’t have an official game because they only have 5 players and need 10 players in order to participate in official games which Subaru keeps a secret from them. But Subaru’s friends tell him of a school in the mountains that’s heard of their team and would be happy to play a practice game with them and Aoi comes along to be an assistant. On their way their Mihoshi becomes sick and the group calls an ambulance to pick her up and they have no choice but to walk to the school from there (give them a ride assholes). They arrive at the school where the instructor is upset that they’re late and calls Mihoshi an irresponsible teacher for letting them walk here (Wow, she’s a bitch. I’ve only known her for about 15 seconds and she’s a bitch). Oh, and to add insult to injury she has them camp outside because proper arrangements haven’t been made (who’s the irresponsible one here again? Well, to be fair it could be worst; they could be staying at a Motel 6). Later on, the coach of the girls comes to meet them who is another female basketball player from another school that Subaru and Aoi know about who puts together that Aoi likes Subaru and offers to help her out. That night the girls get in a bath where they talk about how to get big breast (because this is what elementary girls are concerned about). Meanwhile, Subaru baths outside since the school is an all-female school and one of the students crosses his paths and runs away screaming calling him an Andrias Japonicus (What? *Goes back to re-watch the scene* what? *Re-watches it again* what’s a Andrias Japonicus? https://youtu.be/_oRiWJWXVPM, no! We’re not going down that road). The next day comes and they go to meet the other team where the instructor forbids them from practicing with the regulars (did I mention she’s a bitch) and the star player reveals to them that in order to enter an official youth basketball game you need 10 players. Maho takes this as a shock and storms out of the gym crying to end the episode.
Episode 11 opens up with the remaining girls going up against the non-regulars and doing well. After the practice Saki goes to find Maho and after Saki makes the comment that she’s better at basketball then Maho the two of them have a duel where slowly everybody else joins the duel and I honestly have no idea how to describe what happens next into words. It’s nothing indecent or wrong it’s just animation; that is the best word to describe the duel. After the duel Subaru apologizes to the girls for keeping the secret from them and begs the bitch for a match with the regulars in which she agrees. The day of the game comes and in the first quarter the girls get crushed 6 to 0 (Wait a minute, there are 24 minutes in an elementary basketball game that means 6 minutes each quarter. Are you telling me these girls, these 12-year old girls only scored 6 points in 6 minutes? My little league team scored at least 12 points in 6 minutes and those guys were 2nd graders so what’s your excuse?). Things start to get better in the 2nd quarter when Saki takes on the role as point guard and starts making smart and calm choices that opens up opportunity for the others to score. The game continues in the final episode where they close the gap and start frustrating the other team. The game continues to go back and forth right down to the wire where everyone is tired and with only a few seconds left Saki takes a shot and unfortunately misses it and the other team wins. No, I’m serious this time, they do lose this game. I’m cereal, I’m super cereal (Aha! South Park reference ftw). So everyone kinda goes through a short mopey phase but they all get over it quickly, meet up for practice, realize that this is only the beginning for them and the girls try to give him a massage (That’s it! Move in! Arrest him!).
Final Thoughts
So that was Ro-kyu-bu it has shameless fanservice that makes you feel a little uncomfortable and a few episodes where the plot comes to a complete stop where we get pointless episodes that focuses on characters and events we really don’t care about. And I still like it. Despite these two big drawbacks the anime has and the many jokes I make at the anime’s expense it’s still a decent anime. The story is good; Subaru is a good male character that has a troubled past but thanks to the help from the girls has steadily moved on from it. The girls, I have to admit are quite cute and funny and the voice actors really do fit well with the character they voice. You got Tomoka the team ace who’s shy and sweet and could totally see as a little sister in real life, that’s Kana Hanazawa. The energetic hot-head girl Maho who brings everyone together because of her cheerfulness that totally fits Yuka Iguchi. Saki the smart and mature girl who always thinks things through and supports people from the shadows but can be just as childish as the others , hi Yōko Hikasa. Hinata as the youngest and most innocent out of all the girls makes sense and matches Yui Ogura who is the youngest out of the voice actors in real life (currently 17 years old) and even Airi despite the fact that I find her the most annoying out of all the characters in the show has a sweet and innocent voice that only Rina Hidaka can do.
The basketball games are intense and exciting as you would expect to see in any sports anime and the animation is very nice; I love how bright and lively it is. The music is awesome especially the music they use for the games, it gets your heart racing and the music they use for other scenes matches the tone and atmosphere of the scene. The only major side characters are Mihoshi since she’s the teacher and club advisor for the girls and Aoi who acts as a love interest and best friend for Subaru. The school nurse was also an interesting character who I wish the anime would have used more since she’s a little crazy, perverted, and sadistic. There is a character song album of the girls in the anime in which they each have their own character song as well as each of them singing the opening song individually. They’re actually very good; my favorite is Kana’s song “Shoooooter!” I’m not sure if all the songs are on youtube but it couldn’t hurt to check.
Final score
Ro-kyu-bu despite its short-comings earns a 6/10. The fanservice really is just them in the shower and they play the romance between Subaru and the girls’ safe, showing that Subaru only sees them as girls who he’s coaching while the girls might have romantic feelings for him. If you like sports this anime probably isn’t a sports anime I would recommend watching right off the bat on account of there are better sports anime out there then this but if curiosity gets the best of you and you do wanna check this anime go ahead. There are a few shameless scenes that are unnecessary but if you get through them I think you’ll enjoy it. Well, that’ll do it for me. Best of luck to all the basketball teams getting ready for the NCAA tournament and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
*All videos, music, and pictures used in this blog do not belong to me and belong to their respected owners. All rights reserved*
Thanks for reading, as always feel free to leave a comment, feedback, or request in the comment section below or send them to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com