Ro-Kyu-Bu! – anime review

posted in: Anime Review, Featured | 14


After the Ikoku Meiro no Croisée and Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel review todays review is about another show I’ve watched in the anime summerson of 2011, Ro-Kyu-Bu.

This 12 episode long anime was produced by Project No.9 and Studio Blanc, the story centers around Subaru and the members of the girl basketball club, Subaru loves lolis, haha ok I actually lied, he loves basketball, he has entered the basketball club of Nanashiba High School, unfortunately the club got suspended shortly after it started, the coach was fired, because of personal misbehavior.

[singlepic id=1424 w=320 h=240 float=none] [singlepic id=1423 w=320 h=240 float=none] His aunt who is a teacher at an elementary school and the advisor of the girl basketball team asks him, if he could be the coach of this basketball club. At first he isn’t very interested to train small girls, but he agrees to be the coach for three days, after he learned from his aunt, that the girl basketball club will be dispended In case the girls loose the upcoming match against the boy basketball club, he agrees to train the girls a few days more so that they will be able to win.

The team consists of Maho, Tomoka, Hina, Saki and Airi, in the first place only Tomoka is serious about basketball and the others just joined beause they are friends of Tomoka. Later they show some talent and are having fun with basketball and also grow together as team. Subaru tries to be a good coach and also helps the girls with overcoming their personal problems.

[singlepic id=1426 w=320 h=240 float=none] [singlepic id=1427 w=320 h=240 float=none] Because of his trainer job at an elementary school Subaru gets accused of being a lolicon and gets tasteless comments, even from his good friends, but he doesn’t swing that way. After the first game the show is more about comedy and awkward fanservice situations than basketball.

[singlepic id=1425 w=320 h=240 float=none] [singlepic id=1428 w=320 h=240 float=none] The show gets interesting again when his childhood friend Aoi, who has feelings for him learns about Subaru’s coaching job, at first she is damn jealous because she thinks that he is more interested in the girls than in her and that they are her love rivals. When she realized how important basketball and Subaru are for the girls, she does something in spite of herself and helps with the training, even though she still discharges scathing remarks torwards Subaru.

The character driven episodes, the slightly romantic vibes between Subaru and Tomoka and also the comedy are entertaining parts of Ro-Kyu-Bu, but I was more interested in the basketball part.
In the last quarter the show concentrates on its strong points again, basketball and the teamplay.

[singlepic id=1422 w=320 h=240 float=none] [singlepic id=1429 w=320 h=240 float=none] The animation style of Ro-Kyu-Bu is average, it’s bright and vivid, overall nothing bad and nothing special, there are decent looking backgrounds, decent looking animations and the characterdesign is good as well, even though the heads of the female characters are really big.

Overall it was a good show with cute characters, about basketball. friendship and teamplay with a few minor flaws here and there, what bothered me a bit was the sometimes awkward fanservice, playing basketball in swimsuits, seriously ^^ and the lolicon hints weren’t really necessary.

thx for reading see you tomorrow with the fourth anime review from summerson 2011.

14 Responses

  1. tsurugiarashix

    Slight correction, the series was produced by Project No.9 and Studio Blanc (with some involvement from Magic Capsule). Sentai is just the licensor.

    As far as the series goes, I did throughly enjoy it much more than I thought it would. The animation in some cases was a bit on the unstable side (probably attributed to the three studios working together), but overall it was a nice series – whether you like sports or not ^^

    • wieselhead

      Oh thank you for the correction I will edit it ^^
      It was fun to watch (^-^)

  2. Tier

    I don’t often get bothered by stuff in anime culture. I’m happy to admit that hentai OVAs are some of my favorite anime. I have a lot of loli Nanoha doujinshi. But man, I was bothered by some of the promo art for this show. I don’t mind hentai at all but something seems really creepy about how sexualizing elementary school kids while trying to maintain a pretense of wholesomeness.

    However, despite all that, this still looks like a cool show and it looks like the NBA season isn’t going to start anytime soon, so I may as well watch this show one of these days because there isn’t any other basketball to watch. Plus basketball in swimsuits sounds kinda cool. I mean, I’d mainly be watching to see inspiring examples of teamwork and determination but lolis playing basketball in swimsuits is a nice bonus.

    • wieselhead

      Before starting this show I only took a short look at the description and at first Iassumed that Subaru would be a girl,
      after he turned out to be a guy I thought about dropping this show, because it put the whole show in a different light.

      I only like loli characters because they are cute not because I want to see them in alluring poses.
      Even when seeing the transformation scenes of young Nanoha, I was like “I don’t need to see this, damn it” XD

      “I’d mainly be watching to see inspiring examples of teamwork and determination” haha that sounds quite ironic.
      Well, the opponents of the elementary team in the swimsuit match are high school girls,
      so theres stuff for everybodys taste ^^

  3. Nightmare

    This show reminded me of Dog Days in the sense that it really brought nothing original to the table but still managed to have a few really likable characters. It’s a feel-good show that’ll leave you with a valuable life lesson or two.

    While they do hint some sexual aspects it’s done innocenctly and they don’t really question your morals like in for example, Kodomo no Jikan.

    And don’t kid yourself, you’d happily take Subaru’s role any day of the week :]

    • wieselhead

      The characters were quite likeable, Maho was funny )
      t was good that Subaru was shown as someone who liked this girls because their innocent cuteness and not because he’s a lolicon.
      Haha yeah, that would be nice if my team had such cute members, but not because I’d have a love interest in them. ^^,

      I was wondering why none from the girls parents appeared to look what kind of person Subaru actually is.

  4. Blood C review

    […] everyone after Ikoku Meiro no Croisée , Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel , Ro-Kyu-Bu and Usagi Drop, today I can present you the 5th review of an Summerseason 2011 anime. Its about […]

  5. exilehero

    A show about lolis playing basketball and it focuses on the basketball? Haha I wouldn’t have guessed. It sounds more interesting this way though.

    I was under the impression that the show focused more on the girls doing loli things or something. It sounds way more appealing when it’s about basketball and team play. Thank’s for clearing that up for me Fab.

    • wieselhead

      well there are a few loli scenes, but it were less than I expected.
      It was good that they always returned to the basketball and team topic

  6. Nopy

    When I heard about Ro-Kyu-Bu, I thought for sure that I was going to watch it because the character designs were by Tinkle. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the animation quality; sometimes the characters looked like they had deformed limbs and faces. I dropped the series after 3 episodes.

    • wieselhead

      The big heads already appeared very deformed that I wasn’t bothered by the other things 😀
      In my opinion it was a good show I have to say.

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