Storywise though, I have to give the show props for not being a cookie cutter underdog narrative. We start with the basketball team as a complete sham and front for a delinquents' hangout brought about by the school's mandatory club rules. So when the team does get dragged into trying to play a game, they suck. A lot. They never win any of their practice games. They lose their first match in the tournament prelims. In fact, in the show's 50-episode run, the team plays five games and wins exactly zero of them.
The basketball games aren't really what's important in the show though. They're simply the medium for carrying the real meat of the show: the character arcs. You've got the usual spiel with the kids about finding a passion and working hard to achieve something even if you fail, but I find the advisor to be the most compelling character as the representation of the primary conflict of the series. Because of their reputation, the basketball team commands not an iota of respect from the school, neither from the faculty or the other students. The advisor comes in only because he is told to by the principal, and he immediately lays it out that he is not invested in the future of the team and would really have it be disbanded as soon as possible. He is convinced that people don't fundamentally change, but the team's earnest efforts to get better and make up for their mistakes slowly wins him over. They might cause trouble and get into fights, but they're ultimately just kids, and kids need to be nurtured and encouraged, not abandoned.
It's a sweet sentiment, but it's a bit undermined by how much of this show is its very lame treatment of its female characters. We get a scene early on with one of the main characters trying to peep on the girls' locker room and then steal their underwear, and that pretty much sets the tone for the entire show. The most egregious instance is when they play a practice game against the girls' basketball team. When the coach brings it up, the boys scoff at the idea that any game with such a lopsided physical advantage could possibly be worth going through, and one of them cheekily suggests that maybe they'll be motivated if the girls all strip naked if they lose. This turns into the captain of the girls' team getting stuck as the sole victim of the losing condition, and absolutely none of the boys even try protesting this despite the show presenting some of them elsewhere as good-natured and nice people. I've never been a high school boy, so perhaps having uncontrollably horny urges is simply accurate to real life, but I'd rather not see it in my media.
Ahiru no Sora is basically a melodrama in disguise, complete with a obviously dying mom for the protagonist, and to that effect it's pretty good. Worth a look if you can ignore the lackluster animation, somewhat slow pacing, and questionable characterization, but there's no doubt in my mind that the manga is the better format for the series.
