Basquash! - Episode 3

Basquash! continues along its merry way in episode three, showing no signs of drifting away from its in your face street attitude and frequently breath-taking animation - And thank goodness it's sticking to its guns is all I can say.

After the appearance of the mysterious guy in his mecha who cut short Dan and Sela's street basketball session with his own terrifying abilities last episode, so this episode begins with the pair of them continuing to struggle to get to grips with this new arrival. In Dan's case this just plain pisses him off, while Sela finds herself caught between the agony of defeat and the ecstasy of finding a man who she wants to... ahem... share her genes with. I'll leave you to figure out what that means.


With both Dan and Sela's mechas laid up as a result of this conflict, they can initially do little as this mysterious man turns his attentions to other street basketball players, smashing them to bits one by one while maniacally shouting "Destroy!", a turn which innovatively earns him the nickname of Destroy. So, in the end it's time for Dan in his best Dunk Mask outfit and Sela (aka the Platinum Hurricane) to lure out and unmask Destroy, a plan which turns into an intense street basketball game that gets the whole city out of bed to watch, and also appears to have garnered some interest from farther afield too, not least in the form of the visiting princess Flora (voiced by Rie Kugimiya no less).

Three episodes in, you could probably start compiling evidence for Basquash! as a case of style over substance, but I'm not buying it - I get the impression that it knows exactly what it's doing, and when all is said and done it's rip-roaring stuff to watch. The street basketball scenes are perhaps a little clumsier than they might wish to be, but every episode is so filled with energy and panache, lust and passion that you can't help but be carried along on the rollercoaster upon which it offers you a seat up front, encouraging you to accept everything daft that it shows you in the same way as past classic anime shows like FLCL. If you can let reality take a back seat and give Basquash! full permission to run away with your imagination, then it's quite an experience.