What They Say:
The training camp from hell has begun.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While there have been plenty of struggles for both Kagami and Kuroko after the losses faced, things are starting to turner a corner for them overall. We’ve had some pretty grim episodes when you get down to it with how they’re handling everything, but the show intends to change things up a bit here a little bit with a touch more humor. With the training camp period about to arrive now that vacation time is practically here, the decision on where to go is being made by the coach and Hyuga, which the others feel like is being decided on by an old couple. Beach or mountain, neither really matters to Hyuga though as long as they train and train hard. Of course, other factors come into play as well because they have to go on the cheap for lodgings, which means that Riko will be doing the cooking.
Just the curry tasting bit in the first half alone is priceless as several of the guys go through the process and barely survive. Some of them try and be real men and tell her it’s good and eat all of it, but they truly do suffer the consequences of it when you get down to the results. Amusingly, they all discover that Kagami is a pretty solid curry cook and that helps tos tart easing things, and even gives Riko what she needs for some lessons, though there’s a few tricks along the way that are revealed which is hilarious. It’s all a very good setup in the first half as they head to the beach vacation for their training. A training that even gives us a hilarious and brief bit with Riko’s father regarding his daughter and all these young men.
The group may work its practices a little too easily in a way, with some beach time for one day improving them more than one might expect, but it’s a good mix of activities that gets them in ger and readjusting their way of thought. Basketball doesn’t dominate completely though, which is a welcome change of pace, as there’s some good discussion in general about the team and the meeting with Shutoku who also goes here it seems when they’re doing their training. That works to Riko’s advantage (and nobody will argue with her while she holds a bloody knife) as she gets both teams to practice by playing against each other. There’s a lot of good little reveals during this bit of practice and some observation that helps to flesh things out a bit, giving us plenty to look forward to as the series starts moving forward again.
In Summary:
Kuroko’s Basketball tends to do the majority of its episodes focusing on the games and practices themselves, but when it shifts gears even a little it’s rather welcome. What we get here has a heavy focus on basketball itself, but steps outside of it a bit with some good cooking silliness, some beach time that works just right and other good nods that really helps to humanize the characters off the court without going into their personal histories. It’s a very engaging episode overall as shifts gears yet keeps to having Riko deal with what the real problems are for the team and overcoming them. We get a lot of forward progress here, but as Riko notes, its results may not be seen for a bit. But getting there is definitely a lot of fun in this episode.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
0 comments