neko's thinkbox

The epic continues! ...though please, refrain from urinating. Thank you.

The epic continues! …though please, refrain from pissing urinating. Thank you.

My last post on Basquash! was on episode 7, so I had 8 episodes to catch up to. I thought I would not catch on immediately, but one episode was enough to get me back into this adrenaline-filled mood. And then I couldn’t stop until I ran out of episodes.

The story progressed well (if not abnormally fast), and spanned an interesting tourney with a Moon Passport as first prize, which our guys obviously won. It was a long way, especially with the constant romance between JD and Rouge. She also helped him to overcome his fears and become stronger. But not only JD; Sela and Iceman also graduated from their past during this tournament. Sela came to terms with the death of her mother, while Iceman showed Falcon how much he’s changed as a person. And now they’re on their way to the moon… or not.

So yeah, Basquash pretty much kept riding on that full throttle EPIC ACTION wave, and I noticed more and more how they can achieve that effect constantly: loudness. There is seldom one single sound; there’s always a loud cheering public, a loud and fast bgm/insert song, a loud voice/scream (usually Dan screaming), loud and sharp sound effects, explosions, etc; but beyond the mere sound, there are also especially loud visuals: extremely fast and earth-shattering animations, shaking screens, flashing lights. It’s difficult to watch this anime and not be excited by it. But I’m sure you knew this already. Wait, I already said it last time. Ah well.

This batch of episodes had a myriad of great stuff going on. In a nutshell, the most interesting event was the showdown between Team Basquash and Eclipse, even though it was not so much on the team effort as it was on Rouge and Dan JD. But really, I don’t care about the team for now. I’m all about Rouge. Oui, je t’aime, ma poupée aux cheveux rouges! … err. Aaaanyway, I was really saddened about Idol Red’s sudden departure, and about the fact that her body had been tampered with in the first place.

I still love her dearly much. Very very.

I still love her dearly much. Very very.

Then again, it was all part of the major plot to lure Dan, the presumed Legend, onto the moon. I really liked Rouge; I already had my eyes set on her^[1] but she really interested me a lot in her minor tsundere behavior. She even kicked Sela off my ranking. I really hope to see her again on the moon. (I wonder what is to become of oppai metisse Miyuki though, if Dan decides to be with Rouge… xD)

Flora still keeps doing that reverse trap act – funny how nobody ever found out about her gender, despite the fact that she sung during that first match against Eclipse, or that she is one of their fans. (Speaking of which, look at these fansEven Man-Faye would pale in comparison!!! On second thought… no.! Hope you won’t run into similar beings at Otakon.) Oh and a thing that’s been on my mind for a while… Flora could be very well related to Jun from Natsu no ArashiATASHI NI KAKETEEEEEEE, heh.

I found it funny how JD’s trauma was depicted as a horse and a tiger chasing him. Of course, it was a wordplay on the Japanese pronunciation of trauma – torauma – tora uma – tiger horse… Well, I guess that’s how Dan understood it anyway, since he sucks at English.

Another thing that caught my attention was the typography. At first, those symbols appearing in posters and news resembled something cryptic and illegible, but they are alphabetic all right. Just veeeeeery hard to read. Takes getting used to, but sometimes you’ll come across some funny lines. I had noticed it in some examples before, but especially in the Skybloom Kingdom there were plenty of posters with French lines! Here are some examples, some of which quite hilarious.

No bubbles! And no cleavage! And no touching asses either!

No bubbles! And no cleavage! And no touching asses either!

Lollipops forbidden! They could wake up your neighbors. (For once, that typo was a GENUINE one. I suck.) I don't get that

Lollipops forbidden!^[2] They could wake up your neighbors. (I don’t get that “No Geta” note though.) By the way, NO SHAKING HANDS? LOL!

Please, don't pick your nose. Not because you'd look stupid, but because you would litter the road.

Please, don’t pick your nose. Not because you’d look stupid, but because you would litter the road.

Fame precedes Basquash it seems. So much they even use it as a verb.

Fame precedes Basquash it seems. So much they even use it as a verb.

So TEOTWAWKI won't happen in 2012? Sweet. And what the hell is Catsuka?

So TEOTWAWKI won’t happen in 2012? Sweet. And what the hell is Catsuka? Are they talking about this page?^[3]

The sudden short OP in episode 12 came across to me as particularly weird. Well, it turns out they turned that episode in two mini-episodes with some ad spoofs by a moon company called Lunatec Inc.At first I read “WANTED”, lol.. Oddly enough, I didn’t see a major reason why this episode was done like this – perhaps it was just to introduce that company? Or just to provide some random original entertainment?

And I like the new OP/ED. Now I want to know, why the hell our pack has been smashed back to Earth. That’s just stucking fupid.

1. I often listen to the old OP single and look into the booklet, and Rouge looked best :P [↩]
2. For once, that typo was a GENUINE one. I suck. [↩]
3. Would make sense, since it is a French anime site. [↩]