With her magical sweaty Fujiwara-chan wristband, Mutsumi is simply unstoppable and shreds the opposition’s defense en route to a lopsided 86-43 victory. Even Anzaki apologizes for her harsh words, but Mutsumi acknowledges that some of those things had to be said. Now that the girls’ team has won the finals for their bracket and are in the National Tournament, the story swings back to the boys’ team. The boys’ team is clearly flawed beyond Fujiwara and Aikawa, but there is some good news as the doctor declares Fujiwara’s knee healed. The doctor also hints at the severity of the injury that Anzaki had suffered, but she asks Aikawa not to tell anyone about it.
In order to get some good practice in, the angsty smoldering senpai’s are brought in as a practice squad. After a tearful speech from Anzaki, even the angry power forward Kondou agrees to play. Though they show some rust in the first half, the former captain Igarashi is quite wily and sees through Mizuho’s weakness. By playing man-to-man on Fujiwara and Aikawa, sagging off Miura, and packing the post with three defenders, the senpai team is able to make a game of it. Still, the current squad pulls out the victory by having Aikawa direct plays, and by playing a more aggressive offense. The hard-fought game is appreciated by all, and Fujiwara and Anzaki make a special point of thanking Kondou for his help.
I always thought that Mizuho played an odd lineup, but it seems that this is actually tradition. I was surprised to learn that Igarashi plays a combo of point guard and small forward, although at least he is taller than the current squad’s small forward (Aikawa). For all of Kondou’s bluster, he totally sucked out. As a power forward he should have no problems getting his shot off over the small lineup that Mizuho plays, but he gets his open shot blocked by a scrambling Aikawa (ok, that’s forgivable cause Aikawa has mad hops) and then gets blocked on an isolation play against Fujiwara (there is no excuse for the PF getting blocked by the PG in a situation like this). Didn’t anyone teach Kondou how to post up? I’d rag on him some more, except that Mizuho’s current PF (Ishii) can’t even dunk the ball T_T. Aside from the silly basketball, and the continuously fugly animation during the action sequences, Dear Boys has really been hitting its stride lately. It doesn’t drag along like most sports series, and the drama outside of the games is pretty interesting. They should really re-release this anime when they get some budget money.
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Kabitzin – who has written 1940 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
