Catching up to: Basquash! 21
nekosasu | September 9, 2009 | 3:34 pm
The usual tsundere-provoking embarrassing situation. I wouldn’t doubt it’s a nice sight, though!
Basquash! is moving onto the last stage! Everything is set - but first, here are some impressions of the last episodes.
(I know, ep 22 aired a couple of days ago, and it just got subbed too, but I already had this post done. Couldn’t publish it because of this unexpected and unprecedented Animeblogger downtime. If anything in episode 22 conflicts with what I’m saying here, please omit it.)
These few episodes felt like some kind of “cooling off” period before the big finale. Some stuff happened indeed, but at a slower pace overall. (Episode 19 could be considered an exception, with a horribly fast match during the first half. But the Coco’s recap in the second was simply unprogressive.)
Until now, our protagonists were playing Basquash for the sport, but there was no real goal for them as a group. They all followed Dan JD, who initially wanted to go to the Moon for Coco, but in the end, I guess he lost track of it for Rouge. Nevertheless, there has been a plot leading them for quite a long time, but it is only now that it is surfacing.
Coco’s “accidental” injury, BFB, OCB, Eclipse, Rouge. Those were all tools to raise one kid to become a - no, the legend: Dan JD.
Slash and James have been trying their hardest to lead Dan, the prospective Legend, to Mooneyes, and they had the support from the moon, too. At first, they seemed to be the antagonists, but as the story progressed, their aims seemed to be of altruistic nature. On the other hand, the real baddie emerged ever so slowly: the CEO of Lunatec Inc., Jan Harris. He wants to create the Legend too, by the means of the three girls of Eclipse.
To Basquash! or not to Basquash!, that is the question.
Throughout this entire series, we have been hearing “Legend here, Legend there”, however, we have never really heard what this Legend actually is supposed to cause! But episode 21 might have offered us an answer to this question.
At the beginning of the episode, we see the moon engulfing the entire sky, Flora and Aurora contemplating an apocalyptic scenery, and Dan jumping towards the moon in his usual Basquashing fervor. It was unclear what the meaning of that dream-like sequence was. Later in the episode though, as Jan is briefing Citron and Violette about the “concert”, he tells them that “Eclipse will become the Legend; and push back the moon by activating the Ultinium ore”.
So in essence, something has been tampering with either Earthdash’s and/or the Moon’s gravity, which caused the Moon to leave its orbit and to getting closer and closer to Earthdash, threatening life on both planets. Cue the Legend, who is to make use of his Lightning Ball to react with the Ultinium ore on Earthdash, and create a force of repulsion that will push the Moon back to its orbit.
Whether this sounds accurate or not, I don’t know, but it does seem plausible. If it happens like this, I would be very interested to know the magnitude of Basquashing required to create such a humongous force. [1] Dan sure would have a heck of a responsibility on his shoulders. Save the world with your Basquash! …Basketball as a means to save a world. That’s so weird.
However, that’s just conjecture of mine. Once again, we got no clear answer either. For a series that has been showering its viewers with loads of fast-paced information throughout the episodes, obscuring this bit of utmost importance (which is the whole point of Basquash!, in fact) seems odd. I was even led to believe that it was just a lie from Jan to sway Citron and Violette.
In conjunction with Flora’s dream, though, his words turned out to be true - but then, I think he hasn’t said everything. He must be scheming something deeper. I mean, Slash and James, who represent the Moon’s interests, share the same goal of getting the Legend to save both worlds. So why is there a need to fight, to instigate more conflict? To convince that gullible King into bending to his wishes? To abusing three normal girls, experimenting with them and enhancing the capacity of their bodies, at the risk of their lives?
Sure, Jan probably would like to be mentioned as the one who created the Legend(s) [2], but it would sound so ridiculously petty if that was the only thing he was pursuing. Of course, fame and recognition could be one of the reasons, but there must be more. Does he want more money? Ownership of the Ultinium reserves? Taking over the Kingdom? World domination? What are his reasons, anyway?
Of course, there is also a possibility that Jan’s actions might be part of the big plot, too. After all, Dan JD’s resolve and abilities have been raised with every hardship he has encountered along the way - so if he was meant to push himself to the limit to surpass Rouge’s new strength, wouldn’t that be the best way to make the miracle happen? Eclipse as a catalyst for the Legend. That would be a brilliant move… at the cost of Rouge’s health, though. This would make for quite some drama at the end… I can’t wait!
Sometimes I just facepalm at such fake dramatic compositions. How the hell did he get up there anyway?!?
Now. Back to the events of the last few episodes… as I said, pretty uneventful for usual Basquash! proportions. [3] They were very useful for exposition, character growth and development, though.
A new character was introduced, Naviga, a giant from the moon sent to Earthdash for mining Ultinium. Pretty simple-minded, so Dan was easily able to convince him to getting out of his cave and join his team. While his story added a couple of points to the plot, he basically made no difference at all, except for relieving Dan’s pressure from the females around him.
You see, by now, it is clear to all of our girls that Dan only has eyes for Rouge. Sela was pretty undecided - at some point I even thought she’d start swinging the other way, or entirely turning into a lolicon - but suddenly there’s this cute giant whom she immediately turned tsundere for. I don’t know, sure, he’s got a myriad of genes to take care after, so it might be relevant to Sela; but… no matter how you look at this, she will never be able to take him… IYKWIM. [4] She’d need to be permanently inside a Bigfoot if she wanted to live with him… [5]
But yeah, neither Miyuki and Flora will have a chance with Dan. Miyuki realized it during her Bigfoot overhaul marathon, and Flora realized it just now in episode 21. (Especially since Dan never saw her as a girl… Not even after he got TILTed.) But it’s okay. Flora deserves a lot better anyway. :)
And then, there’s Rouge. Gah, it angers me so. The scientists were ordered to erase her memories, and jeopardize her life for the so-called upgrade, and even if this turned out to be for the greater good I mentioned earlier, I still hate this. Whether she will survive in the end or not is still in the stars, but I am pretty sure she will start remembering Dan, her friends, and all of her past before the climax. Perhaps this will be triggered by Dan’s confession? I sure hope that epiphany reaches him. Tossing out his true feelings like that should be fairly easy for such a dense and blunt guy.
I find myself unable to say anything witty about this image. Just a long, sad sigh. :(
Else, it’s business as usual… quality, music, etc; the atmosphere did take a serious turn, but the epicness and loudness are still preserved, and shall be magnified in the next episode.
One note, Ep 19 was a little weird, because of the half uber-accelerated match, and the half recap episode. It’s been a while since I came across recaps, and yet I’ve never really forgotten why I hate them. BLEH! I also wonder what’s the reason why they started including sponsors within the anime now, and especially why they moved the preview into the ED. Increase the effective episode time? (Which would kind of beat the purpose of the recap…) Or create suspense by adding a cliffhanger after the ED? Ah well.
That’s it! And next time I write about Basquash!, it might be after it ended. However, mark my words, if anything were to happen to Rouge… expect some rage. D: [6]
…What the hell are you looking at??!?
…I feel as if I’ve forgotten something. Oh… WAIT A BIT! Where is Iceman????
- And by humongous, I mean… HUMONGOUS. Physicists know about this too. [↩]
- and the surprise announcement of Eclipse’s disbandment already created an outburst of attention, so the world will be watching [↩]
- Perhaps one might blame the director switch, but I myself don’t know when it apparently happened yet, though. I usually suck at finding out the difference anyway. [↩]
- Unless she’d like being showered… Please disregard this line, my imagination is running a little wild right now. [↩]
- Said Bigfoot would be equipped with all sort of force and thrust converters to allow perfect copul- I SAID NOTHING. [↩]
- I kid. Maybe. [↩]
I almost didn’t read this big wall of text. I endured the pain, though.
Uh.. uh.. what to say… Oh. Dead-eyed Rouge is hot. Iceman x Citron OTP (Alto x Ranka, which I am totally against), Violet x IBETTHATFATSKINNYKIDGETSHER. Those jailbirds will save the day, along with Iceman, Falcon, and a giant blob of side-characters who were forgotten during the series. inb4 school days ending. Nice boat, Miyuki. I bet you built that one yourself. Joke.
Don’t read the above “paragraph”, else your mind might become mush. Having watched the latest episode, I’m really anticipating how the series will play out. Might end up being some kind of “LET’S ALL BAND TOGETHER AND BASQUASH OUR WAY TO A BETTER WORLD!” ending, but if it’s epic, I’m happy.
OT: Hisa lost? … Wow, some people suck.
Mush? Oh Rinne, how about you read up the comments on my Canaan post. :P
You sure like Citron don’t you. Better, Coco. No, Flora! Ohh yes you do. Delicious Flat Chests. Mmmmmhhh.
Well, this being a shounen series that doesn’t take itself very seriously, I suppose the end will be something stupid and happy-go-lucky like that indeed. Guess the Eclipse girls first, then that cyborg chick, then Jan himself will give in to Dan’s simple-minded morals, LEGEND; PLOX SAEV UZ! Suddenly, it’s the huge epiphany that the world is going to end in 20 seconds, Armageddon imminent; the whole universe stares at the live feed on the TV screen, and witness as Dan goes PUMPSQUAAAASHU (at +60 dB), the crystals yell STFU, moon is launched back into space, everyone survives, medetashi medetashi!
And yes, some people suck and should be lapidated. I still haven’t gotten over it. Heck, even the Koromo made it!! Freakin’ lolicons. Go hump your Louises or whatever. :(
It seems as if Iceman had destroyed so much……he destroyed himself…..(Lol jk). They might bring Iceman back in an epic manner of events along with the rugged jailbirds.
Also have you heard about the umai shakeup/troll?
No, I haven’t heard of that yet. What happened?
Subbers, srs bsns…
In the comments box for basquash 21 some dude named called bloo made a comment tht they liked their subs but they weren’t the best….ya not that bad of a comment.
Soon umai made a status post saying they are dropping basquash for good. They said the reason was bloo’s comment. Later they made an edit saying they have reconsidered and will pick it up.
I thought that would be unlikely that they would drop basquash over a single comment and was right.
They later posted that they were just messing around. They received nearly 150 comments about that post @_@.
I thought it was funny cuz usually the commenters vomit all over themselves with praise for umai, and they freaked out when they made that post.
(Deleted double comment)
150 comments, see the panic that minor troll has created… Well, I guess with that, they wanted to say “look guys we aren’t the best, but if we don’t do it, nobody will, so shush”. Leechers often take that fact for granted and say unjustified stuff…
Ahhh well, I usually could do without subs, so I’m not really concened about subbing dorama anyway.
Lol lucky, you knowing a second language and all.
On the other hand, me being lazy to learn it, have to deal with that crap…..frustrating.
Haha, well pretty much. I could probably unload my thoughts on the series, but I think there are two main things that need to happen after 21. One being that Dan saves Rouge (or makes her realize, though she’ll probably never play again), and if that’s the case, all the experimenting seems so dumb and overplayed. Secondly, Dan will save the Earthdash-Mooneyes collision; expected. I can live/enjoy that, because it’s fitting. The overplay on part of the antagonistic Jan is meh.
Those idols piss me off, sure Jan was feeding them garbage infos, but it was basically at their discretion to try and become so much better, artificially. But… isn’t that feeling of Rouge submitting herself to those risky advancements because she wanted to keep up with Dan (not be left behind) so …. raaaah. I feel pretty bad for the character, it’s sad, but there’s a ton of naivety in that trio.
Some other things which bugged me. The idols came to James, and some sort of info was revealed, but what? Coco was nearly abducted, but did that do anything for the story? Seems misplaced. The only thing I can think is that Coco’s near abduction let James in on Jan’s position.
Yeah, I don’t really know either, that whole corner feels so naive and superficial. The idols are too gullible, Jan is the evil plotting mastermind, and we’re losing track of Mooneyes about to GATTAI into Earthdash. Overplayed indeed, there should have been a more convincing last boss than Mr. Meek Foureyes.
But I don’t think Rouge wanted to submit herself though, because she definitely wouldn’t have wanted to discard her memories of Dan. She wouldn’t have omitted her medicine in a previous episode either, had she not wanted to play him fair and square… She’s just a guinea pig of Jan’s. However, as I said in the post, it might just be his plot to boost Dan’s resolve even further…