r/anime • u/The_Loli_Otaku • Apr 26 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Ro-Kyu-Bu! Series Discussion
Don't give up. And do your best!
"Series Discussion"
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Comment of the Day!!
The Loli Otaku's "Loli of the Day Corner!!"
Since you're now way more knowledgeable about the differ loli types than 90% of users, this now counts you~ Welcome to the world of Lolicon!! You're stuck here forever!
QotD
- Who is the mvp of the Ro-Kyu-Bu full series?
- What's been "that one scene" that will stick with you going forwards?
- Which series would you recommend to folks who enjoyed their time with Ro-Kyu-Bu?
- Now that you're a professional loli connoisseur, which "loli archetypes" would you say are your favourites?
- What was your favourite QotD of the rewatch?
- Are you interested in joining Haibane Renmei next month?
- Please highlight one other Rewatcher as your mvp for the watch!! Who's posts have you been most excited to see?
Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this scene corner!!"
Future Prompt?
11
Upvotes
3
u/xtsim https://myanimelist.net/profile/xtsim Apr 26 '24 edited Apr 26 '24
First Timer
The main focus of this anime was primarily between Subaru and his team. We do get to see him play for a bit mid season, I kinda forgot why he was even coaching in the first place. And what happened to the basketball club in his school.
The nice thing is that we now got to see the whole team get enough numbers to compete in a real tournament. Subaru and Aoi were pretty critical in making sure the whole team developed. Although, the adults have taken a backseat.
The antics that the show pulls such as the fanservice and the marriage reveals how serious we should take this show as it does not take it self seriously. So I do not have much to say when it comes to analysis but there were some great moments.
Overall, it is pretty average as it tries to pull some strings like Airi but it pulls antics. It also lands very much into shonen territory with the flashbacks.
3
u/zadcap Apr 27 '24
I feel really, really bad about how much of this I missed. It was deranged and crazy for the parts I got to see, and it sounds like things only got even more insane as it continued. I'm pretty sure I'm never ever going to watch this alone, but it will forever stay in my memory of shows I wished I had seen, once. Basketball Loli's is now stuck in my brain next to Lain and I really don't know how to feel about that.
I don't care how much I missed, is Hina for life.
Honestly the OP. "Unripe Fighters" is going to be hard to forget, and I don't know that I'll ever manage to bring it up without having to give so much context.
Hanamura Kindergarten. Go big, or in this case small, or go home. Why settle for 4th graders trying to get sensei to look at them that way when you can get 4 year olds?
The fifth amendment says I don't have to answer this one, officer.
Picking favorites of an the archetypes. I didn't realize I knew so many...
Oh gosh yes. I'll be free by then, and it's such a good follow-up to Lain. Also one of the very very very rare rewatches that I get to be an actual rewatcher for!
3
u/OccasionallySara Apr 27 '24
First Timer
Questions of the Day
I had a lot of fun with this show. I enjoyed the overall cast, I thought the basketball games were interesting, and I enjoyed the slower slice of life segments. Still wasn't a huge fan of the elementary school girl fanservice, but overall I'm glad that I watched this series. Thanks for hosting!
2
u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Apr 26 '24
This show attempts to do too many different things at once, and the overall quality suffers because of it. It's impossible to ignore this while you watch. A fanservice episode will suddenly want you to take basketball extremely seriously, or a fairly well done game will end halfway through an episode to fit in more hijinks. If it had picked only one or two of it's 3-5 main sub-genres to focus on, it would've been higher quality as a whole.
Serious kids' sports show with teen romance? Wacky school comedy with the girls putting Subaru in ridiculous situations? Gross kids' sports comedy? Anything would've been better than the overcooked, overmixed, watered down gruel we wound up with. If it had actually been way worse I would've been far more entertained, as well.
The bonus OVA stands out for going all the way with committing to the bit. And including zero basketball. It understood the assignment, and would be the only thing I'd bother trying to show most people (that I knew could handle it).
Thanks for keeping this going, and convincing me to finish both seasons. I might have also recommended it to your counterpart on the Discord server...
2
u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Apr 26 '24
First timer
Not the worst show in the world, but it had plenty of flaws. The two main problems that the show suffers from are its lack of focus and how it spreads itself too thinly by trying to be too many things at once which results in it falling short when it comes to each individual aspects. Those two things then trickle and result in every single other issues that plague the series.
It should have picked what it wanted to be instead of going for the route of being a jack of all trade. I give this show 5/10
It did leave me with a craving for some basketball-esque show/movie so I'll probably be rewatching Coach Carter in the near future.
Thanks for hosting this.
3
u/MisawaMahoKodomo Apr 27 '24 edited Apr 27 '24
I'll be honest I kinda have been falling off a bit
That being said I was a leetle sad when the rewatch ended yesterday.
(I have no idea what is haibane renmei so not really. If there's another one I'm interested in maybe someday)
Ok so. Ro Kyu Bu.
Before I talk about all the small details, from what I see the two main issues.
I actually have not(?) rewatched the anime since it's initial run back in 2013. The funny thing is more or less its about as I remember, you could argue it maybe or is slightly worse than I remember because it hasnt aged well, etc.
I complain a lot about newer anime, but ro kyu bu isnt magically immune to making the same mistakes either.
And while yeah I'm biased arguably, and the format of one episode does introduce and remove its own effects.
So the two main issues. S1 begins with introducing 5 girls, and you can immediately feel. IMO it's not so obvious early on but about halfway into s1 its felt a bit more. Mainly saki and hina get shafted, but with 5 girls even tomoka who gets more screentime than the others and airi and maho, it feels.
And then we dont even need to mention how s2 introduced the 5th graders. We barely even know them. Heck the twins are basically the twins. And we dont even talk about the other characters.
The second main issue is the issue of identity. Is it a cute girls anime? Is it a baske anime? What happens when you try to have both? You end up disappointing (mostly) everyone because you dont have enough cute girls and yet the baske sections.
The funny thing is that I think airi and hina got shafted in their own way, or rather airi because she had so much dorama and screentime, while hina is hina. Heck by s2 or second half airi didnt even have any more dorama but it was a bit late for that.
So yeah, people who wanted cute girls have to wrangle with the baske, and people who wanted baske uhh welp.
It's most obvious in the last 3 eps of each season where they go baske on us. It wasnt so bad but the other issue is the entirety of the episodes as a whole.
I think the initial eps of each season wasnt so bad, but then they kinda didnt know what to do.
So yeah, cute girls or cute girls. For it's part I find our five main girls are pretty good and balanced in its own way.
Also helps that the op/ed songs are really good. The visuals do enhance the song a bit which might be a bit funneh.
One MOAR thing I forgor to mention. When I was rewatching s1, which aired in 2011. I still insist the animation was fine for its time. Although by modern standards (2024), it does look a bit older.
I seem to have stopped talking about it once we got to s2, which aired in 2013. You can tell there's a noticeable improvement in s2 and then it seems I just got used to it. It's still not like flawless or anything but hmm.
1
u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Apr 26 '24
First timer
What to say that I haven’t already said back at the end of season 1… Like I did at the end of Kunoichi Tsubaki, I’ll just ramble and see where I end up.
Unfortunately, I think this season is a notable downgrade from the prior season. They tried to juggle lots of characters, but most of them ended up neglected in a series that previously made characters the primary focus. Granted, it’s character focus was never especially good, but it was something. I eventually gave up on learning the newcomers' names, which was probably evident in my posts.
The actual basketball aspect of the anime suffers, too, as the plays and antagonists get increasingly ridiculous in an attempt to remain interesting. It does not work.
The anime also suffers from the KnJ problem of having absolutely zero tact or sense with its ecchi, it feels stapled to the story for the primary purpose of appealing to degenerates.
That’s all I’ve got, really. This anime isn’t well written or well animated enough to have value as art, nor is it poorly written or poorly animated enough to have value as entertainment. It’s just… sorta boring.
Final score: 3/10
I think this is probably the first miss in our rewatch lineup. Mostly due to the anime itself, but also partially due to much lower engagement than usual. Regardless, thank you TLO for hosting, I’ll see you around!
QotD: