On the planet Earthdash, its inhabitants gaze on its moon and the technologically advanced lunar city of Mooneyes with awe. Dan JD, a boy living in Rollingtown on Earthdash's surface, gets caught up in Bigfoot Basketball—a fast-paced sport played with giant Bigfoot robots. (Source: AniDB)
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It usually takes me 1-2 days to finish a 24 episode anime. It took me 1 week to finish this anime. Ima give my opinion on what I thought of this anime. I always like to begin with art first for my reviews since that is usually what I judge it on when I watch a series. Art: It was GREAT until..........episode 10 and up. I don't know if it was just me or what, but the "basquash" and the ball bouncing got much slower and boring, the graphics got worse as it went on, and there were inconsistency in the drawings. I don't know if theygot lazy or fed up with this anime and just threw a crap job at the end, but the art was painfully bad. It was painfully slow, their movements, and there were less ball bouncing. The character art was ok, but it got worse later on. The art was what caught my attention in the beginning with the mecha and the choreography of the mecha, but it got into such a slow paced choreography that it made no difference than watching the first BFB match that was played. All they did towards the end was add some shiny trails, and apparently was supposed to make the matches more exciting, but it wasn't really. (The fatty was still fat, and then all of a sudden skinny.........I laughed). Sound: It was GREAT until................episode 15 or below, I forgot. The opening and ending was very catchy. I listened to both the opening and ending everytime I watched the anime. The background songs in the anime was also excellent, especially during some of the matches. It made my heart tingle and made me want more. Then it got worse...the sound, like the art, was getting pretty bad. I guess the 2nd opening was good, but the 2nd ending was only mediocre. The background music played later was horrible and at most times, very random. The timing was bad, and it doesn't seem as interesting. They even didn't bother to change the voice actor of Slasher when he turned young. Character: Dan JD, lawlz. I laugh at him. I didn't like him in the beginning, and I still didn't like him til the very end. All the characters are very shallow, and there are no interesting characters (except for Iceman, gotta love him). They're art was the only good thing. I mean, if they just kept the "dunk mask" on Dan instead of the overly retarded looking blue helmet, I might of liked him a little bit more than I do now. The character relations are horrible too. We see "romance" (LOL) develop at the most random times. Also, I really didn't like Miyuki and Alan. They were pretty useless in this whole mess. The appearance of Navi was at most random. He didn't contribute much at all to the whole anime. If they wanted Sela to like someone, make her like Iceman Hotty. Story: Lol. I actually would of preferred if this was just a regular sports anime where a boy just wants to go to the moon to heal his sister's legs so she can walk again and play basketball. The whole, Nike saving the world and earth and moon crashing and destroying the moon and playing basketball when the earth is being destroyed is as bit excessive. There were many cliche moments. I laughed at the RougexDan kiss scene. The storyline started going all over the place. I don't know how to explain this anime. I can't even write a review on this without being frustrated. There's so many things to talk about without spoiling a whole bunch of stuff. It was just bad, and I didn't like it. The relationship between Dan and Coco SHOULD have been the main focus of the storyline, but then they shifted to Dan and made him the legend. Starting at like episode 15, they kept saying legend, legend. It was repetitive and not to mention that I have no freaking idea what they were talking about. When I first heard it, I thought, was he gonna play basketball to save the world? I was right, unfortunately. Enjoyment factor: I liked it until episode 9. Everything went downhill til then. The forced storylines and the forced relationships and the forced dialogues and actions all made this anime very unbearable to watch. When I first watched this, I was like, oh yea, this anime is getting a 8. But no, it's not. Alan was just annoying and a waste of screentime. They made us see her practice basketball, and she gets to use it maybe once in this whole anime. Her "hearings" are also annoying. Then towards the end. We see characters teleporting to different places. One second they're at the camp, the other they're at the gate. The fatty turns skinny, then fat again, then skinny in like 15 minutes of the anime. The ending didn't answer MANY QUESTIONS. I had a lot. WHY DID THEY NOT MAKE COCO AND DAN TALK TO EACH OTHER OR HAVE A MEETING. Instead, they showed Iceman and Dan playing basketball. Gotta be kidding me. And not to mention who Dan ends up with is unclear (although most people say it's Rouge). TL;DR - THE FIRST 9 EPISODES WERE EXCELLENT. THE REST WERE HORRIBAD.
This is my first review, and as much as I will try to stay biased for the reader, I can only write with the mood I am feeling at the time I was watching the episodes. Basquash: Well what can I say? What started as a brilliant roller-coaster formula to an inventive sports recipe of basketball, ended up collapsing midway and failing to meet the viewers expectation to what could have been a great shonén series. Story: 5/10 I've given the story side of Basquash a 5 due to that, there is none. It's your typical shonén anime with sports and mecha(called Big Foots) combined to give youan unorthodox game of what's called Big Foot Basketball(BFB for short). Like all sports anime, there is a hint of romance but not enough for a follow through, and like every mecha, there's upgrades although in this show the upgrades are just the shoes(which NIKE have blatantly smeared all over the series as they pretend to sponsor the team). Well I'd be lying to say there is no story as there is one, but due to the lack of pacing and the inconsistencies the series provides, it can easily confuse the viewer to what they're really watching....and Dan's character is no help either. Art: 8/10 The art in itself is spectacular, if not at times, over the top. From the anime studio(Satelight) who gave us Macross Frontier, Heat Guy J, Noein and Guin Saga, be expected to be breath taken by the variety of the background colors to the combination of CG. There has not been a moment I have been disappointed and although the character designs aren't very realistic, you learn to grow with it as you may have if you've seen anime like TTGL or Soul Eater. Sound: 10/10 This is the part I may start to be a little biased, but all with good reason. The OST of Basquash is amazing! From the OP to the ED, to the BGM in between, the music of Basquash is what sets it apart from all the mecha/sports genre out there. Since the release of Eclipse's(who happened to be idols in the series) album, my partner has not failed to play their song once a day on her ipod! Whether it be an opening for the main character(with 'No Limit' by Eclipse) or a tear jerking scene of 2 would be lovers saying their goodbyes('Running On' also by Eclipse), each and every song, will draw and captivate the crowd! For the most part, I'm guessing this department is what really draws a crowd in as Basquash is like one long drawn out AMV for me. Characters: 5/10 The reason why I've given its characters a 5 is due to its lack of. You are first introduced to a motley crew of kids lead by Dan(main character a.k.a Dunk Mask). Now at first episode I had liked Dan for being wild and out of control, and his actions is what lead me to ask for more(specially at the end). Pretty much like Kamina of TTGL or Black Starr of Soul Eater, all brawn and no brain. But as the show carries on, you start to at times, loathe his ignorance and stupidity. The supporting cast, is Dan's saving grace. You have Dan's sister who gives us the back story, Dan's team mates Sela and Iceman(who are a mix of cool and sexy), Dan's childhood friends(Bel & Ganz) and childhood sweetheart(Miyuki), and Dan's manager Haruka Gracia(who is the also the main fan-service with her Lunar Busts). Add in idols Eclipse and you pretty much get a cast that's watchable. Oh, and I almost forgot Spanky, who is Dan's sidekick and mascot. A little pet(if you could call it that), who talks crudely and provides the humor for the show. Enjoyment: 7/10 Basqash's saving grace is its chemistry. As I had mentioned earlier, Basquash is a roller-coaster of an anime with its ups and down, but due to the chemistry of its music, art and characters, it does make you want to keep your eyes glued for the next episode. Overall: 6/10 Overall I have given this show a 6 out of 10 for its inventiveness. If your looking to watch an anime where you need to use your head like a mystery series, then this is not for you, but if your looking for something fresh with good music and eye-candy, I can guarantee Basquash will deliver.
The idea of the whole anime may sound ridiculous, but it is exactly the fact that they managed to recreate it in an interesting way that makes the series really intriguing. How many people would watch this after a describtion such as this one: "Guys playing basketball in giant robots; sometimes in THE SPACE." I doubt there would be many anticipating to watch something like that. But what never ceased to amaze me throughout the whole series was that I didn't even once feel like I was watching something dumb and not well-thought. An idea that seems stupid, stereotypical and clichè may actually surprise youby representing an overall satisfying story. The whole plot was in general really nicely planned, I noticed they managed to squeeze in something like a mini-culmination in every single episode. There was no episode with just talk and no action and vice versa. So these two things were somewhat in balance all the time. On a sad note, I was left unsatisfied by the way things concluded. Towards the end the anime became too messed up with all sorts of fanatsy elements. A little bit too much, in my opinion, considering that the main thing in this anime is basketball. The art was good in its own way. I suppose it would be simply out of place if it was too beautiful and graceful. I am content with the looks of the characters, despite the fact that from time to time I found them drawn too childish. The sound effects, the acting skills of the voice actors and the songs were absolutely and undoubtetly perfectly selected for this anime. I have absolutely nothing negative to say. The characters were fun, colourful and nicely developed. Some of them were however simply not deep enough. Too superficial and stereotypical at times, but just a few of them and only rarely. I also liked the fact that there were plenty of female characters, unlike in other sports and action anime. I didn't feel any lack of female presence, which somehow gave a certain sense of colourfulness and completion to the whole story. The enjoyment I got from watching this anime, unlike most people would predict from its describtion, was great. I had mostly fun and laughed like crazy at some ridiculous scenes. I liked the way basketball matches were recreated and it was a real joy to observe such a fine animation. Overall, this anime is worth watching, regardless of if you are into basketball or sports as a whole or not. I had a great time watching it, but I do not think I shall ever re-watch it. It is exciting and makes you wait with anticipation for the next episode, but missing the element of surprise, it's just not the same. Whoever hasn't watched this anime yet, I recommend it from the bottom of my heart.
the enjoyment of watching Basquash depends on your taste for animes, some people get really disappointed and others enjoyed this series very much. i'm not really a fan of sports animes but this anime sure has some uniqueness to it. as we know, most sports anime will start off in school and later compete with other school then to the nationals and so on... but this anime combines the theme of adventure together with sports, and the characters travel around the world and even to outer space. there's also a pinch of romance and haremwhich makes it even more interesting. when i first read the synopsis, i was thinking, ''why did they need to make a story about robots playing basketballs?'' but later when i watch it, i understand that they were trying to make a story where there are obstacles in the court of a basketball game and that the story is not just about sports but about sports that could save humans from the end of the world, the funny thing is that this anime is when it is promoting the Nike brand and could get really funny, because every now and then the robots need to change their shoes and sometimes, during climax, you could see the logo. SOUND: the second op and background music during fights were great but the ending songs is below everage. CHARACTER: Some of the characters have a cliche feeling to them except for the princess which is a quite interesting to watch at, very cute and modest at the same time. ART: the art when the robots play basketball was great in the beginning but starts to get worse because later on, you'll get boring as the ball bounce from building to building and suddenly scores. it's like watching a pinball game. OVERALL: a great sports anime with adventures, love and action all the way through
Basquash is like that first date you have with an interesting person. You are not to sure what to expect and approach it with an open mind. A few minutes into the date and you hit things of and you tell yourself this could be the start of something special. Sadly, as the night progresses you realize you had the wrong impression all along as the date gets worse and worse till you feel like pretending to be sick so you can leave early. Art: Pretty amazing for the first 10 episodes or so. Very nice blend using computer generated graphics for the bigfoot and regular2d art for the characters. The backgrounds and environment all looks lively and the action scenes are very fluid. Sadly the quality starts to deteriorate past episode 10. Action scenes start having pieces of slideshows in them, computer graphics look less outstanding. Character art looks lacking. In the final episodes it did pick back up but not to the quality it had from from the first few episodes. Story: You don't expect much from an anime about playing basketball in giant robots. I wish they had just stick to that instead of it turning into something way too serious half way through the series that came out of no where Sound: First opening and ending are pretty damn good. During the first half there will also be some enjoyable instances where they tie the opening song to the idols performing it live before a big game which i thought was a creative concept. Second opening was also good, though not as good as the first. I did not care for the second ending song much. The singing in the second half was also poor compared to the first. Characters: This is one of the stronger points of this anime in my opinion. The cast for the most part is pretty likable. Dan and his pet Spanky have some of the most humorous moments I can remember and i always enjoyed the banter between the two throughout the story. I always get excited when Iceman was on the screen shouting out "Destroy!" Each of the 3 main characters all get a mini arc that focuses on them and gives a bit of back story. I do however feel like there were certain characters in the show that really didn't serve much purpose in regards to the progression of the story. Enjoyment: The first half was one of the most enjoyable moments I've had watching anime recently. Sadly, it pains me to say it gets pretty boring half way through to the point where I was forcing myself to continue hoping things would pick back up. The last couple episodes were decent enough but no where close to how amazing the first part of the series was. Overall I'd give Basquash a 5/10. The first half itself scores a 8/10 in my book but things really went downhill. The ending though decent didn't have the fireworks I was expecting when I first started watching the series.
U GOTTA WATCH İT really it'S a mecha,sport,ecchi,romance,action(kinda in a way)comedy anime but i really liked it and it was some of the best animes in 2009. its story is uniqe never saw anything like it.it's a cool anime if u like basketball. it got funny moments romance moments.but i really liked it's song and music that they play in episodes. sooo art:10 cool drawings what to say :D story : 10 uniqe one indeed characters: 10 godd planned characterssound: 10 loved it enjoyment: 10 overall: 10 :P
I find it difficult to explain why I loved Basquash!, but the point still stands that I enjoyed it from beginning to end. The only way I can describe Basquash! is by comparing it to other popular anime. So... Basquash! is pretty much a mix of those kids anime like: Bakugan, Bayblade, Pokemon, Digimon... Those ecchi anime like: Highschool DxD, Highschool of the Dead, the ecchi parts of No Game No Life... Those bat shit insane anime like: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Fooly Cooly, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ... Those regular shounen like: One Piece, Bleach, Fairy Tail... Those mecha anime that focusmore on the story and character aspects rather then the mechas like: Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion, the aforementioned Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, And those sports anime like: Kuroko no Basket, Haikyuu!!, Hajime no Ippo... Now you might be wondering how I made all these connections and unfortunately it's because I turned off my brain for the entirety of Basquash!. I forgave all the minor flaws by just not caring, but some flaws stuck though. I was expecting an above average sports anime with well choreographed scenes and since mecha and sports aren't my favourite genres I wasn't expecting much more than just a fun little show that keeps me busy for the weekend. And from the first few episodes it did just that, until it started veering over to the bizarre side. From the fact that boobs growing bigger on the moon, the fact that someone yelling destroy and throwing the ball as hard as he could was the way he attacked opponents and passed the ball to teammates, the fact that a princess pretended to be a boy to join the group, the fact that they never bothered explaining what the animals people have or their bodies do and why they stick to them. The fact that the main villain has glasses the size of his head's height... To put it it bluntly, Basquash! was a thrilling experience and one I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did. It has a hell of a lot of flaws, but they didn't devalue the experience, if anything they improved it. Story: 10 The story was not what I was expecting, it turned on it's head so many times it even makes Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann jealous. I enjoyed that the only force strong enough to stop a practiced and skillful army was a boy and a basketball. Also the characters hop in and out of the story so much it might as well been a sitcom. Art: 8 When it comes to the first few episodes the anime looks gorgeous, but after a while the animation loses it charm and the direction it had in the first few episodes was spectacular. If it kept it's quality animation this anime might have been close to a perfect 10 Sound: 9 The only problem I had with the music was the fact that they used the OP's theme song a couple of times and most of them have been still shots of characters talking over and some shots of the match. Characters: 10 Every character is loveable in their own way. They were able to pull of quite the show in terms of comedy, depth, romance and I enjoyed them a lot. Enjoyment: 10 My rating system revolves mostly on my enjoyment of the show, which isn't to say that the other categories were boosted because of my enjoyment, but my enjoyment decides whether or not an anime deserves to be a certain score. And if it's comedy and randomness wasn't present Basquash! would have been a 7 or an 8 at best. Overall: 10 If you're going to watch Basquash! you need not take it seriously. It is a show that thrives on being random and making you enjoy every second of the ride, even though you will need to turn your brain off to enjoy it to it's fullest.
This won't be an extensive review but I'll just make some points that I want to mention. The art and sound I had no real issues with. In fact, the last opening theme was my favorite and I could not stop singing along! Very wonderful and enjoyable. The story and Dan's character is where critiques come in. SPOILER WARNING!! At first, Dan starts off as this rowdy and loud character that is worried about his sister's future in an adorable way that makes him sorta cliche, but not entirely. He has moments where he is vulnerable and you see his true colors. One thing that kind of upsetsme is that there was absolutely no talk of his sister's legs at all in the later episodes. He made no mention of it once he started playing Basquash and only said he had to "get to the moon". That's it? Of course, healing his sister is implied but it shouldn't be. His overall goal throughout the series should be towards healing his sister. Instead, it turned into a save-the-world plot? A bit odd for a sports anime. Like I mentioned, Dan wants to get to the moon in the beginning in order to take his sister with him. Emphasis on TAKE HIS SISTER WITH. Yet she goes there on her own with Slash and isn't even treated right away. Meanwhile, Dan is decreasingly concerned about her well-being. As the show goes along, he focuses more on Basquashing, which is fine, but it seems like there can only be one thing to focus on at a time with him. As for the "saving the world" bit: it may have a place in this anime, but the whole idea of the Gods playing basketball is over-doing it. If instead, he had to save the world for a different reason other than "he's the legend it has to be him" and "It's what I am now". I would have liked for him to stick to his roots/original focus more, which is being rowdy and doing what he pleases, without having this thing about Gods/Legends influence him. However, I do like the fact that he is dedicated to Basquash throughout the show. He plays for his love of the sport, yet later on it adds this sense of necessity to be what the people expect of him. Overall, the story and Dan's character were both fun to watch but need improvements. This does not mean that I did not thoroughly enjoy this anime, even if I am a bit late in watching it! 10/10 would recommend!
Sports are a boring genre for me and mechas that don’t blow things up look out of place. Surprisingly this series is not really just about sports or mechas. It is more about wacky characters, boob ecchi and awesome ShoesTM advertisement. The setting: An Earth-like planet where the poor live in ghetto-like cities while the rich are on the ultra luxurious, full of neon glow and fireworks moon. The backgrounds look marvelous. The show is full of explosions, semi-transparent advertisements and fireworks. It’s like the circus came to town. A huge amount of detail is given to everything and the artwork style has a slight westernfeel to it. For a series that is supposed to be about sports and mechas, the animators gave a lot of detail to city buildings, visual aesthetics and perky movements that make this one a wonderful thing to watch. Character Figures look perky and lively and their body language is wonderful. Males are drawn to look like weird punks full of angst who want to take on the world, and females as ultra busty babes that go all fuzzy and lovey dovey over the punks. Yes, sounds corny and silly but fits the elements of the show. There is not much fluid animation though. The 3D mechas in specific care little about physics. The story is nothing much. A spunky teenager is out to get rich and famous by being a rebellious sabotaging punk while trying to help his sister heal her feet by playing Basquash (basketball with mechas) and heading for the moon. Sounds corny? Well, it really is. He is a misfit punk, siding with a lot of other misfit punks, cause havoc, train to get better and is accompanied by a bunch of brainless super busty chicks who fall in love with him because they promised to get married as children or find sexy his dribbling or have a foot fetish. Beyond all that, the story is NOT just about sports and the show in general was not made just to advertise shoes.Despite the mechas wearing those type of shoes, it’s never rubbed on your face. Also they are not even deifying basketball in general. It more of a wacky comedy with a rather high amount of boob fan service rather than some run of the mill boring sports story about a boy with high dreams training and playing sports as he steadily gets towards the championship… Actually it is all that but not just that. It is also about social problems, personal dramas and boob jokes. And none of that are presented too seriously, so nobody can overthink the show as some sort of deep insight to American ghettos or something. Up until the first half, I was generally pleased with how every episode introducined more characters, more goals, more Bigfoots and more bigboobs… I mean girls. It was not letting you get bored. The second half was way less fun despite becoming more epic. It is the kind of series where little kids level entire buildings, nobody minds it much, and sends them to prison for a few days. You can only tolerate THIS much boob jokes and improbable basketball matches before you get fed up. Yes, the Basquash matches are not really exciting and the jokes kinda repeat. The whole thing also ends in a cheesy, lukewarm, forgettable way which did not match with what the initial premise of the show was promising. It eventually became the deification of a game which can save the world, like YuGiOh and its children’s card game. Although I half liked this series it ends up being just another mediocre anime that doesn’t even advertise amazing ShoesTM very well. It is definitely memorable though, for its animation style, the wonderful visuals, and the really weird blend of sports and ecchi. Beyond that it doesn’t really delve into its themes and ends up becoming a run of the mill wacky action show in its second half.
Skip to the end if you want the bottom line. I initially passed over Basquash because “random sports anime? Bleh.” But going over my dropped anime looking for potential in anything I might’ve written off years ago, I came back to it and said, well, it actually doesn’t look so bad. For the first third of the show, I wasn’t wrong. It definitely had some rough edges that I’ll get into, but for the most part, it was enjoyable. The world was amazing. It reminded me of Pokemon Colosseum or Final Fantasy XII. The locations were all inspired andbeautiful, interesting places that I’d want to explore, to see explored. The moon was gorgeous, the cities all looked like places people actually inhabited, and they all served the action of the show well, too, by being a great playground for the Basquash games to happen in; arenas with character. The show had a charming sense of humor and was working well to endear characters that were otherwise shallow and had great potential to be annoying (well, I have some bad news but let’s save that for later.) There were also parts of the Bigfoot (the robots of the show) movement that looked really good and some of the action I was genuinely getting into. The great thing is that these strengths remained throughout the entire show, save for the last one which fluctuates between great and dreadful. Unfortunately, though, this is where my praise ends. Right off the bat, I’ll talk about the visuals because I have too much to say about the story right now. There was something very amateurish in the editing and shot composition, and it never really went away. Shots were too often framed such that your focus is on one area of the screen, then it cuts to an entirely new shot with the important visuals in an entirely different portion of the screen, then cuts away again with the subject AGAIN shifted, all in fractions of a second, often times with lighting entirely different between shots, cycling between bright sunlight and dark alleyways in a moment, causing a considerable amount of the viewing to be confusing flashes of light. Furthermore, the action scenes themselves are quite often unintelligible messes closer to Michael Bay Transformers clankfests. There ARE times where you can keep up with the ankle-breaking action and it looks good, when the camera is steady, the subject is clear and focused, and the scene isn't cluttered with similar-toned and shaped moving parts or backgrounds. But there are a great deal more scenes of incoherent gray and brown eyesores that make it clear when and where the studio put its effort. They CAN make it look good, but more often than not, they don’t. I’m also going to just put on record that the character designs are all over the place. Some of them you will like, some of them will look QUALITY af. Don’t look too closely or you’ll start to notice the “How to Draw Anime” look of it. Now, onto the story, and where the show really let me down. If you’ve read the synopsis, or looked at the series information for more than a few seconds, you probably already guessed that this isn’t exactly going to be a narrative titan. But what is here will still leave you cringing, rolling on the floor, or, eventually, like me, entirely disinterested. I knew going in to lower the bar and be a lot more lenient here, enjoy it for what it was. Aside from some obnoxious contrivances here and there, for the first third of the show, I was absolutely fine with it, enjoying it. The story was moving and interesting enough, the characters were mostly likeable and even Dan, a shouting, screaming, stereotypical shounen lead was tolerable because there were other characters that helped carry the weight and in small doses, his rash, headstrong, buffoonish charging ahead was enjoyable. I was invested in Dan, Sela, and Iceman’s characters, even if they weren’t exactly breaking the mold, because they had just enough going for them that I still wanted to see how they’d work together, overcome their struggles, and grow by the end. But how naive I was. Around a third of the way in, after everything is established and the fun has been had, we are introduced to a trio of robo-basketball playing idols, only one of which, Rouge, is important, the other two are so barely there they may as well not even be in the show at all. Rouge is jammed straight into the story with all the delicacy of a basketball-playing mech trying to clip your nails, immediately becoming a love interest for Dan and ramming through every single contrived meetcute trope in a matter of minutes. Not only does this detract from the story that was taking place, but in these moments Dan is an entirely different character with hardly anything resembling what you came to knew him to be. Whatever, it’s a kids show, I thought to myself, it’ll get better once they get back to the rest of the story and characters. But it drags on so long and takes so much narrative focus that all the other characters get shafted. We haven’t even really established the trio as a team yet, they still have all the problems you know of teambuilding in these kinds of shows: not really working together, bickering, etc. The character arcs that the show had been building for Sela and Iceman are given negligible screen time now so they can focus on Dan and Rouge having cringy tropey kissy kissy time, and by the time the main plot moves on, Sela, Iceman, and basically all the other side characters have been entirely isolated in their own arcs, dealing with their own problems by themselves, without any overlap at all. None of the different plot threads are intersecting and none of the characters are developing in any meaningful way, and the entire concept of being teammates is more or less ignored. The story moves on and has a big event that basically hard draws the SECOND ACT line in the sand, and things start to pick up again. I was mildly optimistic that now the real development could start, but after a few episodes of it still not starting in the new act, then the introduction of a few characters that completely negate what little character development and interpersonal relationships that had previously been established there were. At this point, the only thing I was looking forward to was the OP. I was no longer interested in the characters, the story, the world, the action, or anything, and just wanted it to be over with. All of the good will I gave the show in the first eight or so eps was thrown in the trash. The worst part is that in this second act, or really, final third, of the show, it actually did all start coming together. Plot lines started to meet, characters finally went through their development arcs that had been established at the start, and the main plot was coming to a head with the smallest of subversions that could have made it interesting. The problem is that it took so long to get here and the way everything was actually unfolding, the entire first two thirds were more or less a waste of your time and nothing set up then pays off at the end, or what does is so unsatisfying because of how detached you are that it doesn’t have any impact. There are a couple of did-you-catch-that lines that wink to the audience, showing that at least to some degree the writers are aware of how contrived and unoriginal the show is being, but just letting us know that you know you suck doesn’t make me like you any more. If you know, then use that knowledge to not fall into those easy cliches and skirt past the harder storytelling routes in favor of the easy “it’s for kids, who cares” road. To boil it all down, there is charm in this and there ARE audiences who will enjoy this, but that will not be most people. Young kids might not be the right audience because of how horny the series is (there is a good bit of innuendo and skin) but I think middle school boys into robots and basketball, and adults trying to relive the feeling of saturday morning cartoons that can set their standards unbelievably low would walk away from Basquash with a positive opinion. For anyone else, do not bother. You WILL leave unsatisfied. Also check out the OPs and EDs, particularly the second one, Boku ga Boku no Mama by THE SPIN. It’s probably the only thing I will take out of this experience.
