Basquash!

I find it difficult to explain why I loved Basquash!, but the point still stands that I enjoyed it from beginning to end.
The only way I can describe Basquash! is by comparing it to other popular anime. So... Basquash! is pretty much a mix of those kids anime like: Bakugan, Bayblade, Pokemon, Digimon... Those ecchi anime like: Highschool DxD, Highschool of the Dead, the ecchi parts of No Game No Life... Those bat shit insane anime like: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Fooly Cooly, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ... Those regular shounen like: One Piece, Bleach, Fairy Tail... Those mecha anime that focus ... more on the story and character aspects rather then the mechas like: Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion, the aforementioned Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, And those sports anime like: Kuroko no Basket, Haikyuu!!, Hajime no Ippo... Now you might be wondering how I made all these connections and unfortunately it's because I turned off my brain for the entirety of Basquash!. I forgave all the minor flaws by just not caring, but some flaws stuck though. I was expecting an above average sports anime with well choreographed scenes and since mecha and sports aren't my favourite genres I wasn't expecting much more than just a fun little show that keeps me busy for the weekend. And from the first few episodes it did just that, until it started veering over to the bizarre side. From the fact that boobs growing bigger on the moon, the fact that someone yelling destroy and throwing the ball as hard as he could was the way he attacked opponents and passed the ball to teammates, the fact that a princess pretended to be a boy to join the group, the fact that they never bothered explaining what the animals people have or their bodies do and why they stick to them. The fact that the main villain has glasses the size of his head's height...
To put it it bluntly, Basquash! was a thrilling experience and one I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did. It has a hell of a lot of flaws, but they didn't devalue the experience, if anything they improved it.

Story: 10
The story was not what I was expecting, it turned on it's head so many times it even makes Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann jealous. I enjoyed that the only force strong enough to stop a practiced and skillful army was a boy and a basketball. Also the characters hop in and out of the story so much it might as well been a sitcom.

Art: 8
When it comes to the first few episodes the anime looks gorgeous, but after a while the animation loses it charm and the direction it had in the first few episodes was spectacular. If it kept it's quality animation this anime might have been close to a perfect 10

Sound: 9
The only problem I had with the music was the fact that they used the OP's theme song a couple of times and most of them have been still shots of characters talking over and some shots of the match.

Characters: 10
Every character is loveable in their own way. They were able to pull of quite the show in terms of comedy, depth, romance and I enjoyed them a lot.

Enjoyment: 10
My rating system revolves mostly on my enjoyment of the show, which isn't to say that the other categories were boosted because of my enjoyment, but my enjoyment decides whether or not an anime deserves to be a certain score. And if it's comedy and randomness wasn't present Basquash! would have been a 7 or an 8 at best.

Overall: 10
If you're going to watch Basquash! you need not take it seriously. It is a show that thrives on being random and making you enjoy every second of the ride, even though you will need to turn your brain off to enjoy it to it's fullest.

Basquash is like that first date you have with an interesting person. You are not to sure what to expect and approach it with an open mind. A few minutes into the date and you hit things of and you tell yourself this could be the start of something special. Sadly, as the night progresses you realize you had the wrong impression all along as the date gets worse and worse till you feel like pretending to be sick so you can leave early.

Art: Pretty amazing for the first 10 episodes or so. Very nice blend using computer generated graphics for the bigfoot and regular ... 2d art for the characters. The backgrounds and environment all looks lively and the action scenes are very fluid. Sadly the quality starts to deteriorate past episode 10. Action scenes start having pieces of slideshows in them, computer graphics look less outstanding. Character art looks lacking. In the final episodes it did pick back up but not to the quality it had from from the first few episodes.

Story: You don't expect much from an anime about playing basketball in giant robots. I wish they had just stick to that instead of it turning into something way too serious half way through the series that came out of no where

Sound: First opening and ending are pretty damn good. During the first half there will also be some enjoyable instances where they tie the opening song to the idols performing it live before a big game which i thought was a creative concept. Second opening was also good, though not as good as the first. I did not care for the second ending song much. The singing in the second half was also poor compared to the first.

Characters: This is one of the stronger points of this anime in my opinion. The cast for the most part is pretty likable. Dan and his pet Spanky have some of the most humorous moments I can remember and i always enjoyed the banter between the two throughout the story. I always get excited when Iceman was on the screen shouting out "Destroy!" Each of the 3 main characters all get a mini arc that focuses on them and gives a bit of back story. I do however feel like there were certain characters in the show that really didn't serve much purpose in regards to the progression of the story.

Enjoyment: The first half was one of the most enjoyable moments I've had watching anime recently. Sadly, it pains me to say it gets pretty boring half way through to the point where I was forcing myself to continue hoping things would pick back up. The last couple episodes were decent enough but no where close to how amazing the first part of the series was.

Overall I'd give Basquash a 5/10. The first half itself scores a 8/10 in my book but things really went downhill. The ending though decent didn't have the fireworks I was expecting when I first started watching the series.

Sports are a boring genre for me and mechas that don’t blow things up look out of place. Surprisingly this series is not really just about sports or mechas. It is more about wacky characters, boob ecchi and awesome ShoesTM advertisement.

The setting: An Earth-like planet where the poor live in ghetto-like cities while the rich are on the ultra luxurious, full of neon glow and fireworks moon. The backgrounds look marvelous. The show is full of explosions, semi-transparent advertisements and fireworks. It’s like the circus came to town. A huge amount of detail is given to everything and the artwork style has a slight western ... feel to it. For a series that is supposed to be about sports and mechas, the animators gave a lot of detail to city buildings, visual aesthetics and perky movements that make this one a wonderful thing to watch.

Character Figures look perky and lively and their body language is wonderful. Males are drawn to look like weird punks full of angst who want to take on the world, and females as ultra busty babes that go all fuzzy and lovey dovey over the punks. Yes, sounds corny and silly but fits the elements of the show. There is not much fluid animation though. The 3D mechas in specific care little about physics.

The story is nothing much. A spunky teenager is out to get rich and famous by being a rebellious sabotaging punk while trying to help his sister heal her feet by playing Basquash (basketball with mechas) and heading for the moon. Sounds corny? Well, it really is. He is a misfit punk, siding with a lot of other misfit punks, cause havoc, train to get better and is accompanied by a bunch of brainless super busty chicks who fall in love with him because they promised to get married as children or find sexy his dribbling or have a foot fetish.

Beyond all that, the story is NOT just about sports and the show in general was not made just to advertise shoes.Despite the mechas wearing those type of shoes, it’s never rubbed on your face. Also they are not even deifying basketball in general. It more of a wacky comedy with a rather high amount of boob fan service rather than some run of the mill boring sports story about a boy with high dreams training and playing sports as he steadily gets towards the championship… Actually it is all that but not just that. It is also about social problems, personal dramas and boob jokes. And none of that are presented too seriously, so nobody can overthink the show as some sort of deep insight to American ghettos or something.

Up until the first half, I was generally pleased with how every episode introducined more characters, more goals, more Bigfoots and more bigboobs… I mean girls. It was not letting you get bored. The second half was way less fun despite becoming more epic. It is the kind of series where little kids level entire buildings, nobody minds it much, and sends them to prison for a few days. You can only tolerate THIS much boob jokes and improbable basketball matches before you get fed up. Yes, the Basquash matches are not really exciting and the jokes kinda repeat. The whole thing also ends in a cheesy, lukewarm, forgettable way which did not match with what the initial premise of the show was promising. It eventually became the deification of a game which can save the world, like YuGiOh and its children’s card game.

Although I half liked this series it ends up being just another mediocre anime that doesn’t even advertise amazing ShoesTM very well. It is definitely memorable though, for its animation style, the wonderful visuals, and the really weird blend of sports and ecchi. Beyond that it doesn’t really delve into its themes and ends up becoming a run of the mill wacky action show in its second half.