Aomine starts to get a little serious and shows them what real basketball is.
What They Say:
No episode summary provided.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Aomine having stepped into the game in the previous episode and completely dominated things while not even playing serious, the game between Seirin and Touou has definitely gotten a heack of a lot more difficult. The push against Seirin and the intense action between him and Kagami in particular really have changed things. Aomine’s hugely skilled and just doesn’t care in a way since he doesn’t feel like there’s a challenge here is still leading him to working up a sweat though and the rest of the team is getting their time on the court in as well. With Aomine having been into basketball since his earliest days, something we get in a flashback here, it’s certainly interesting to see how much he’s change over the years and how he’s lost that particular kind of fun smile.
As expected, a large chunk of this episode focuses on the way that Aomine and Kagami play against each other. There’s some real talent there with both of them, but as we see more and more of Aomine’s moves, the more everyone realizes that there is such a huge gap between them that it’s not even the same game. The realization that hits all of them, and Kagami in particular, is pretty strong. There’s just such a disbelief over what’s going on that they can’t wrap their mind around it. And as the minutes go on, Seirin gets further and further behind.
But with the way the show operates, you know the tide has to turn a bit to give Seirin some hope. We have to see the big pus h to how hard a struggle they have and with Aomine, they certainly have. It almost feels like too much with what he’s capable of though and just how far above everyone else he is, including those from the Generation of Miracles. And with Kuroko back in the game and both him and Kagami at their limits, it’s reaching that point where they’re so far past it all that seeing a way out isn’t just getting harder, it’s getting harder to believe. Throwing in a recap montage is also a surprising thing done here as the episode nears its end, giving more of a feeling that the creators in a way aren’t sure where they’re going. Obviously they know, but it feels like an odd time stretch to slide into things at this point.
In Summary:
With the streak that the Seirin kids have had and the incredible progress that they’ve made, the face off against Touou has certainly been the most challenging. They’ve had a lot of varied and difficult opponents but they’ve come so far from where they were to begin with as a team and as a school in general. With this match up, Touou comes across as strong but Aomine makes them far, far more overpowered than makes sense. His skills are intense but they take me out of the show a fair bit because it pretty much makes it all about him to the detriment of his teammates and their participation. The end result here is something that I do think the show needed, but they did it in such a forceful and heavyhanded way that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
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.
