Busou Chuugakusei: Basket Army
武装中学生 バスケットアーミー
The story is set in August of 2026 at the Fuji Training Facility. Natori Touko, a third-year middle school student in the Eastern Private Defense Academy, is entrenched in field training with instructor Kamiya. It has been a harsh training regiment, but it is finally the last day. Kamiya proposes a extracurricular class under the name Newest Weapons Research. But then, an incident occurs that rocks all of Japan.
Synopsis
The story is set in August of 2026 at the Fuji Training Facility. Natori Touko, a third-year middle school student in the Eastern Private Defense Academy, is entrenched in field training with instructor Kamiya. It has been a harsh training regiment, but it is finally the last day. Kamiya proposes a extracurricular class under the name Newest Weapons Research. But then, an incident occurs that rocks all of Japan.
Characters
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Reviews(4)
Bombolz
April 3, 2014
I thought that I should write a review about this anime, since it has an interesting premise. There's not much to say about the anime, but I will elaborate why my interests were attained during the course of this short work of anime. Story: 2/10 Being a 5 episode anime, with 4 minutes in each episode the story definitely wasn't there. It had an interesting backstory, and it seemed the anime was created with the thought that it would be completed. The anime contained many plot holes which would probably have been explained in later episodes if there were any. The lack of story/ story development andthe amount of plot holes forces me to give the story a 2/10, despite it's intriguing backstory. Art: 8/10 One of the highlights of this anime was the detail and art style of this anime. The art was simply breath-taking and not something you would see in many anime today, which was somewhat surprising considering the anime only had 5 episodes (of 4 minutes each). The animations were fluid, and quite frankly the characters had some interesting designs. Because of such a limited time-span, I was unable to give a score higher than 8, given time, I'd probably give it a 9/10. Sound: 4/10 Don't misunderstand the 4/10. The anime had some great moments with the sound and music, but being such a short piece of work, it was hard to give it a high score. To be perfectly honest, I was quite impressed by its smooth integration of music. It was a shame that it ended with only a 4/10, if the anime had a more time, it would have been interesting to see how much was added and how well it was integrated. If the sound quality was continued in future episodes, the score would definitely be up in the 7 or 8 range. Character: 1/10 The anime severely lacked any character development, and its perfectly understandable. After being introduced to over 10 characters it's amazing how we even manage to understand and perceive certain aspects of the characters personality and traits within 20 minutes. Despite this, none of the characters were develop and we have no clue who is 'good' and who is 'bad', this is not necessarily bad if it was intended to blur the lines between good and bad, but within the 20 minutes, it is very unclear whether or not this was intended and even if it was, it was lacking too much character development. Enjoyment: 6/10 Despite such negativity, I found myself to enjoy the anime quite some bit. Honestly I didn't expect much coming into this anime, but it was only 20 minutes so I thought I might as well watch it. Needless to say, I was not disappointed and quite happy that I made the decision to watch it. Overall: 4/10 The anime had its many flaws but it had great potential. This anime was unique in many ways and anime of today lack such aspects which uniquely and daringly pushes itself outside the box to differentiate itself from today's standards. The backstory was definitely what actually made me finish this show. It quickly explores the impact of death, which was quite important as (to be perfectly honest) anime, especially those today do not even dare touch on this. We all agree that SAO could have been something truly amazing, but lost its impact very early in. What made SAO such a success was the psychological aspects and the impact of death on the characters. Death was a very real thing in SAO, which was something that it should have revolved around, instead it quickly changes into a typical romance with beautiful art, and unique backstory. Surely enough, SAO is something that I still find myself attached to and that I like it a lot, despite its flaws, I cannot stop liking this anime. Back on topic, Basket Army was an interesting anime and I would like to see more anime take on this train of thought. An anime which explores friendships and bonds between characters through the course of their training, then those characters are thrown into the midst of war and slowly, the characters die off and it is clear that death is very real, that even the viewer can see and feel it. Nevertheless it is quite amazing how something so short (20 minutes) can earn itself a 4/10 for its overall score, it is something to be proud of despite its low score.
