Zuoshou Shanglan

Considering the Chinese are crazy about basketball, this anime didn't disappoint. I can see some familiarity. Weak basketball club, check. A female manager, check. An inside rival, check. A lit opening, big check! And like other basketball MCs, this MC has one particular outstanding skill (driving and finishing) but lacks other fundamental skills (jump shots). That's a unique facet of playing basketball he has to work on. I'm looking forward to his development. Also, I'm glad to see that except from height, there's a lack of stereotyping here. Basketball is arguably the hardest sport to animate, so I won't be surprised if I see a ... lack of movement in some plays. So far, it's been great, and I'm so hyped to see the succeeding episodes.

(THIS REVIEW IS WRITTEN BEFORE THE FULL SHOW AIRED)

Let me start out by saying this, the anime is not that similar to Kuroko no Basket (which I am a BIG fan of). That can be a good or a bad thing depending on the person.
Left Hand Layup is an anime that presents basketball way more realistically than KnB. People tend to compare a lot of sports anime to KnB, which is why I will write my review based on the differences and similarities between the two.

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Differences:

LHL shows players using real moves (like a high pickup or hop step for example) without having any of ... the players say anything about it and going crazy, while KnB does the opposite.

None of the moves the players do in LHL have any special names (so far), while in KnB you have different special named moves (ex. vanishing drive).

LHL does not have a “zone” (so far). KnB does.

LHL has way more “off the court” scenes than KnB (based on the first 4 episodes I watched), but both of them present the story in a way that works for the anime.

There is no talking in mid air and all of the moves are mostly how they would be in real time. Fast paced.

Story. (See possible spoiler containing differences)


Similarities:

LHL has a main character (Xu Xingze) with a unique hair color (white). Kuroko has that as well (blue). This is not that important.

LHL has a main character that is good in one thing (dribbling, driving and layups). Kuroko has that as well (passing). It is not yet mentioned that Xu Xingze can’t shoot, but there is a scene where he hits the side of the backboard, which might indicate that he sucks at everything else besides dribbling, driving and layups.

The story might seem familiar (see possible spoiler containing similarities below).

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Now, the animation at some parts looks a bit odd (most of the time in “off court” scenes), but the most important animations (the basketball moves) look so good. They look really smooth, clean and realistic. Sometimes it is a bit over exaggerated (ex. arms get really stretched).

Overall, for now, this is an 8/10 for me. It presents basketball realistically without any “superpowers”, for some this might be a bad thing but for me it’s a good thing since we already got this with KnB.

Below are the possible spoiler containing differences and similarities.

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(THE POSSIBLE SPOILER CONTAINING DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES)

Differences:

There is not a “dynamic duo” between the main character and a side character (yet). KnB has Kuroko and Kagami.

There is not yet a dynamic duo between 2 side characters (yet). KnB has a lot (ex. Midorima and Takao).

The story might seem familiar in some aspects, but it also kind of different. There is only 1 rival school and none of the “we are so good as teammates we need to split up” things. Instead, Xu Xingze is looking for someone that he knew that went to the rival school, but none of the players seem to like talking about him since he got expelled.


Similarities:

There is a certain teammate that wants to play alone, kind of like Kagami in the first season of KnB.

The story might seem kind of familiar. Xu Xingze transfers to a school that loses a lot and doesn’t have a lot of players, Xu Xingze’s school = nice students while other school = bad bullies.