Ro-Kyu-Bu SS, the sequel to the infamous Ro-Kyu-Bu anime, is a by-the-book moe show that shows cute girls in rather suggestive positions and scenes related to sexual situations. With this in mind, you’d think it’d be more focused on that aspect than the basketball, which it is also focusing on; to my surprise, the show does a great job of balancing out the fan service and the basketball development, so they don’t feel out-of-place. That isn’t to say all of the ecchi jokes or situations all hit the mark just right, as some of them felt overly long and drawn out at times, but for what it’s worth, the ones that work are charming enough to overlook the bad ones. Again, it’s one of those things that you’re either going to love or hate, and from my perspective, as someone who doesn’t like or dislike lolis, it isn’t anything too demeaning or offensive since the tone is very lighthearted. You can tell the writers are just having fun with the concept and putting it on-screen for us to see.
With the sequel in question, one thing that might disappoint fans of the previous season who enjoyed the fan service is that SS doesn’t feature as much ecchi comedy and mainly centers on the basketball aspect more. One thing that Ro-Kyu-Bu does well is how they handle the actual basketball strategy when a game has commenced. Any basketball fan will feel at home with how the girls strategize their movements and give out orders to their teammates, just like an actual team would do. It is played straight without any needless fanservice in the game sequences, which is nice to see that the writers aren’t trying to be forceful in trying too hard to entertain us. We come across new characters that are supposed to be the opposing team players for our main leads. Their development in how these girls have grown to love the sport isn’t done with as much forced melodrama as the first season did, so I applaud the writers for at least showing some restraint. We finally get to meet most of the girls’ family members to get some interesting background information about their family lives so that we don’t see the girls' lives as one-sided.
The characters themselves are about as cliched as you’d expect from a show like Ro-Kyu-Bu, but that doesn’t necessarily break the show entirely from this angle. Certain cliches have been done in many cases, and you can make cliches in anime still work if you have competent writing and voice acting to go with it. Fortunately, the voice acting is outstanding and fun due to a stellar ensemble cast, and the writing is competent enough to go through with less eye-rolling drama. To mention the cast, the casting here is fantastic from the very lovable Kana Hanazawa as Tomoka, Yui Ogura as the moe-tastic Hinata, and Kanae Itou as Aoi Ogiyama (the fact that she’s in here more works in benefit to the show.). With this casting, the chemistry between their voices and the characters is quite solid and lovable at the same time. Making you laugh and go crazy with joy as they go through so much hilarity along the way.
The music in Ro-Kyu-Bu is mostly your standard J-Pop fare with pretty decent singing. With the sequel, I found that the opening was fun and energetic, just like the first season’s opening, but the ending was relatively weak and shallow in how it was written. The first season’s ending song was just like the opening and left the show with a pleasant, joyful atmosphere. Still, the singing in SS’s ending felt too forgettable and straightforward, even after repeatedly listening to it on multiple occasions.
With a genre that has a lot to do with Moe girls, your art has to convey some emotion that tries to capture our attention. Otherwise, we won’t get anything out of it. To Ro-Kyu-Bu SS’s credit, its art design is nice and sharp, with the girls looking even cuter than before with their immense giant basketball-shaped heads and their hypnotic eyes that stare at your soul. The same cannot be said for the animation, as it is your traditional animation that doesn’t achieve any new visual flair that we’ve never seen before. As I said before, not even the basketball scenes garner any lasting impact on this department, which is unfortunate.
Basketball and Lolis combined might not make a luxurious experience for many people. Still, for the roughly 2-3% of the people in the anime community who do, this would be their holy grail. As for me, the feeling is mutual for both sides of this debate. I can understand why people will have a hard time trying to get through something that they can’t fathom should’ve been put into a budget, but at the same time, I can’t help but like it for what it is. It doesn’t try to be more than what it already is, and it does succeed in becoming an entertaining comedy in this case. If there will be a sequel, we need to have more drunk Tomoka. ‘Nuff said.
Grade: B
