Buzzer Beater

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: BUZZER BEATER

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 13

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Feb 5, 2005 to Apr 30, 2005

Premiered: Winter 2005

Broadcast: Unknown

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: TMS Entertainment

Source: Web manga

Genres: Shounen, Sports

Duration: 25 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 6.58¹ (scored by 5,126 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #5367²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #4298

Members: 11,947

Favorites: 14

6.58

Ranked #5367Popularity #4298Members 11,947

Winter 2005TVTMS Entertainment

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Episodes: /13

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Synopsis

Hideyoshi is a homeless boy living in New York in the near future, who survives by hustling other kids in basketball games. But now he's been drafted into a pro team-a pro team with a very unique goal. There once was a time when humans dominated the game of basketball. But times have changed, and now the physically superior alien players have taken over the game, and there are barely any human players left. But Hideyoshi's team-the first all-human team to compete in the Space League-intends to change all that, and bring the championship back home to Earth.

(Source: ANN)

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Buzzer Beater
Sequel:	Buzzer Beater 2nd Season

More characters
Characters & Voice Actors

Hideyoshi

Main

Takimoto, Fujiko
Japanese

Ivan

Main

Inada, Tetsu
Japanese

Cha-Che

Main

Kobayashi, Sanae
Japanese

Main

Ueda, Yuuji
Japanese

Han

Main

Nakao, Ryusei
Japanese

Maru

Main

Kosugi, Juurouta
Japanese

Main

Nakata, Jouji
Japanese

Rose

Main

Fujita, Daisuke
Japanese

Lazuli

Supporting

Asakawa, Yuu
Japanese

Yoshimune

Supporting

Ishimori, Takkou
Japanese

More staff
Staff

Miya, Shigeyuki

Director, Character Design

Namura, Hidetoshi

Episode Director, Animation Director

Tonokatsu, Hideki

Episode Director

Ooba, Hideaki

Storyboard

Edit Opening Theme

"Hideyoshi no Theme (ヒデヨシのテーマ)" by Kouichirou Kameyama

Edit Ending Theme

"Azayaka na Mono (Acoustic Version) (鮮やかなもの（Acoustic Version）)" by Every Little Thing

More reviewsReviews

Jan 19, 2009

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 5

Ckan (All reviews)

19 people found this review helpful

Buzzer Beater is an anime centred around the young basketball genius Hideyoshi and his attempt to take on the inter-planetary basketball league which is currently dominated by the physically superior Aliens.

Buzzer Beater was an anime with a fair amount of potential, but it is in my opinion lacking what makes a good sports anime.
There is a lack of effort put into the series and although I have not watched the sequel ( Buzzer Beater 2007 ), this first installment was not satisfactoy in terms of "sports action" nor noticeably entertaining (thus renegating it to the level of timekiller).

Story - 6/10
The anime mainly focuses on the read more

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Jan 7, 2009

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Ilyaoh (All reviews)

10 people found this review helpful

Buzzer Beater, a Basketball anime, I love basketball, never thought this anime would work, the first time I saw it, I shared that opinion, the second time too, but now I've watched it for the first time I really enjoyed it.

So it's about Basketball, intergalactic basketball that is. Which is a pretty cool idea, if they used basketball like it would be in real life, it would've been just as good as now, but perhaps the intergalactic part brings the anime more out to the public, sin...ce it's something special.

I really enjoyed the characters, the main character is like most shonen-kids, loud, irritating and cocky, but since it's a regular thing, you probably won't mind it. The other characters are really cool too, they look normal, some even plain, but that's a cool think, I wished they would've worked them out more, but maybe that'll happen in the sequel(?) "Buzzer Beater 2007". But how they want to create a human team to enter the intergalactic league is cool, since we got underrated too much by those stupid aliens.

Oh, the aliens, that part could've been better too, it's an intergalactic match, but in the entire show, we get to see 2 races, Gorans and Humans. They should've expended that view on races more.

The art is good, at first I got annoyed by it, because when they spoke or awed, their lips hung out, that's kinda annoying. But if you get further to the end that dissappears, or I just got used to it. The animation itself is from mediocre level, and in the field/matches/games it's entirely different, sometimes they use CG/3D art, for example the ball or if they shoot hoops. And sometimes they use this special form of camera work.

The motion is smooth yet simple, and the envirment moves like crazy, which makes it look like a drunk is holding the camera, this was weird once I saw it, but sometimes it gives out a cool scene, the matches itself are sometimes simple, but exciting. The normal things you see in these kinds of anime's, the training and the result of training, can't be seen in this anime. The end of the last match was a bit too.. weird? It didn't fit the character that much, nor the anime itself.

We can see the main character en the head point guard train in one episode, but there's no result left to be seen, not enough, but that could be that the opposing team was just to strong. Kind of disappointing, the length of this anime could've been increased too.

It's just 13 episodes, and how the story goes now it's fine, I don't know if the viewingrate was good, but when it was, they should've lengthened it, maybe to the mediocre 26. Since now it still ended in the smaller league.

Besides that it's actually a quite enjoyable anime, there are funny sequences, but also tense one's. For a basketbal-lover, it might be a bit disapointing, but it should be watched since it's pretty good.

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Jul 13, 2009

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

lyza (All reviews)

5 people found this review helpful

They tried...Just another basketball-based anime. Though unlike slam dunk and dear boys which leaves a huge impact on the audience, it is somehow entertaining. i read some reviews about this anime and saying that it suck is totally unfair. It is not as exciting as those i have mentioned earlier but it's entertaining or maybe i'm just a huge fan of basketball. hehe i'm not a fan of its art but it has some attratctive guys or gorans there.

The story obviously revolves around a blue-haired kid (hideyoshi) with extraordinary talent he always bad mouth his opponents saying he'll win and he makes sure read more

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Jan 9, 2020

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 7

Quirky_analysis (All reviews)

1 people found this review helpful

Note: this is from a video review, look for links on my profile page.

It is, nominally, about a game, but as is regular in the genre it turns out to be about the characters, although mainly focusing on a few. Like its similar predecessor, SD, BB is comedic and has a personality-driven protagonist that, despite the differences in height and blue, instead of red hair, can get into mischief. The comedy springs from there principally, but both have differing approaches to their relationships with other characters (SD has more of an attempt at romance); both, clearly, have a dissimilar number of episodes, and so can express each personality for a longer or shorter time, but BB could have included more of them (besides the central cast), although in the end it is still sort of a microcosm of the author's previous manga.

It doesn't exclusively focus on the sport, but it is in the background and integrates along with its other narrative details. It tackles a concept that not many other 'casual' anime in this genre can address, "what if whole teams were much taller, stronger?" - since, like in SD, they're set not in a hypothetical near future, but likely in schools where everyone has basically the same strengths and weaknesses, with only a little variability (and even then, with usually at least the same amount of tall people in each team) - but not BB, it isn't even set in any kind of school (which already makes it different from most others in the genre), and instead wonders whether those with talent potential, no matter their background circumstances, could succeed in a competitive environment. Of course, this isn't any scientific evaluation, and the protagonist specifically clowns about, often with his street friends (who are more alike in height and personality, as opposed to the differences in Sakuragi's group), which makes this a fundamentally comedic narrative, but it does have its serious moments even for Hideyoshi. The comedy can focus more on height here, whereas in SD it wasn't as possible since the protagonist wasn't as short.

The science fiction elements are also an obvious difference in comparison, and while the most immediate effect this has is on, as mentioned previously, the opponents the protagonist's team play against (who, despite being from another planet, are shown to be relatable and not at all dissimilar to Earth's team) - the sci-fi is also very much in the background, with flying cars and apparent differences in technology shown in between discussions and games.

Also, what is apparent from watching is that decisions were made to contrast the hues in the anime; protagonist's blue, so his opponent's red, but that doesn't stop there at all as even environments are usually one or another, kind of like how in Tatami Galaxy one hue is more likely to envelop most others, except in BB they're more 'solid', more bright (as even street lights are), and this presumably was made so life could be felt emanating from, mainly Hideyoshi, but also societies at large.

So, this anime tries to differentiate itself as much as possible, especially from its predecessor, and it succeeds to be sufficiently different (just not as long). One doesn't then quite understand why, on average, it seems to be perceived as inferior, by not even a margin, as it is fundamentally similar, actually. In addition to the comedy it adds imaginative, sci-fi elements, with architecture pronounced to an extent that it needs to be highlighted - SD doesn't have such, mainly due to its mundane settings, and so the geometry can't be seen as unique in as much as it is similar to most other, usually slice-of-life anime out there, whereas in BB it adds a background to what is, still, a familiar narrative.

It is grounded in any reality potentially common to many, with aspirations possibly matching too, as is SD, but it looks upwards and asks what and how something as mundane as a team game can be combined with a concept as grand as the universe. While it does not explore everything that may be as most other sci-fi do (e.g. Kaiba, about memories, but then again how tall players are is more relevant than their memories in a game), it is still very much solidified as a background in its multitudes - architectural sci-fi, if such a genre were to exist.

It is a story about change, growth, substance. Even the wealthy owner of the team is shown as seeking something other than what is material, and while the protagonist's comedy doesn't always coincide with the owner's desires, it still works well to cover any ground between the serious and the ridiculous. It isn't quite a complete story, but then neither was SD, although it was still appreciated for its comedy mainly - viewers might have bonded with the characters more due to being four times as long, but then, if one was to evaluate the comedy on its own both can be enjoyed in their own way.

The male protagonist has a comedic relationship with their female counterpart, as in SD - although both approach the dynamics from a different point of view, as with the latter it is more romantic, whereas in BB a sibling rivalry is more the feeling (notice the red-blue differences, such contrasts not present in SD). What this anime combines well is differences - whether the story is situated in this world or in another in outer space, it can be quite seamless, but still obvious as the hues are, almost always, clearly distinct. The very fact that it attempts to deal with a mundane sport, only for it to be exported to a hypothetical future where intergalactic games are possible, is, at the very least, an interesting intertwining. Even the protagonist's name comes from Japanese history (a daimyō from nearly a century before Yoshimune, a shōgun, also the owner's name in BB), thus merging the past with the present and future. Hideyoshi was historically known as a "great unifier", so Inoue Takehiko, the author, is possibly making the protagonist in the anime a similar figure when it comes to winning or losing games.

Sometimes the anime even tries to make viewers think it's some detective story (mainly instigated by journalists) or even a neo-noir, especially in the latter half, and so appropriately it utilizes jazz to instill vitality where otherwise there is either comedy or competition.

This is a city most would recognize even today, with existent buildings, but then suddenly it's outer space and the travel is much easier and as omnipresent as the flying cars that also silently create a technological norm within the anime. What makes it different from sci-fi like Kaiba is that the entire world isn't unrecognizable, the geometry isn't so unique that even the art style is idiosyncratic (although every anime's art is different, it shares with SD certain comedic indicators e.g.) - it is a world that could easily be reality animated, but then it goes further and asks "what if?"

It is a journey of maturation, not unlike most other narratives, but yet it is done in a certain optimistic, zesty sense of mockery that Sakuragi, in his 'genius', would surely appreciate. It is a tale of hope, possibilities, and the many impressions light can have. It is a visual feast, and while not perfect or complex, it is surely about as enjoyable as its older 'sibling' anime. Just as this is a shade of blue, the red contrasting 'beetle' is just as hilarious. Whether 26 episodes or 101 anime can surely still be entertaining at whichever length and for a variety of reasons, whether comedic, visual, or speculative.

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