Ro-Kyu-Bu! (Light Novels)

[houkoholic]

1. Most likely Subaru's rival Ryuichi's cousin

2. Who knows as volume 11 didn't describe her skills in detail

3. It's going to depend on the pace and the number of episodes of season 2, but if going with the pace of season 1 with the same episode count I think there's a good chance we will see the 5th graders match as the "final battle" of season 2.

[tsunade666]

Originally Posted by houkoholic

1. Most likely Subaru's rival Ryuichi's cousin

3. It's going to depend on the pace and the number of episodes of season 2, but if going with the pace of season 1 with the same episode count I think there's a good chance we will see the 5th graders match as the "final battle" of season 2.

How can she be Subaru's rival unless she is self proclaimed one because she is outclass by Tomoka and isn't Subaru's rival a guy who is a all-rounder type which I forget the name.

There is a battle between the 5th grader coached by Aoi and 6th graders?

[judasmartel]

Originally Posted by tsunade666

There is a battle between the 5th grader coached by Aoi and 6th graders?

Spoiler for :

Just took some glimpses of Volume 11 (since I can't read Japanese), and I was amazed that at one point, the 5th graders under Aoi's coaching led by as many as six points. This is against a team that proved to be a very tough customer for Suzuridani, one of the best elementary girls teams in the prefecture. That's pretty awesome in my book.

This was in a large part due to Aoi employing a run-and-gun offense reminiscent of D'Antoni-era Phoenix Suns, which uses the 5th graders' abilities to the fullest. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it consists of the Takenaka twins playing the offense and passing the ball around in quick succession, Kagetsu and Mimi's awesome pick-and-roll game, and Masami (aka Loli-Mitsui) spotting up from long range.

The above was executed so well that Subaru got serious and abandoned his usual play-safe tactics to lead the 6th graders back into the game. The power of teamwork finally saved the day for them.

[houkoholic]

Originally Posted by tsunade666

How can she be Subaru's rival unless she is self proclaimed one because she is outclass by Tomoka and isn't Subaru's rival a guy who is a all-rounder type which I forget the name.

Subaru's rival's name is Ryuuichi, he had a young female cousin who played against Tomoka on a street game. The one playing against Tomoka in the picture is probably her, that's why I said she is Subaru's rival Ryuuichi's cousin.

And Ryuuichi is a forward, not an all-rounder type.

Originally Posted by judasmartel

Spoiler for :

Just took some glimpses of Volume 11 (since I can't read Japanese), and I was amazed that at one point, the 5th graders under Aoi's coaching led by as many as six points. This is against a team that proved to be a very tough customer for Suzuridani, one of the best elementary girls teams in the prefecture. That's pretty awesome in my book.

This was in a large part due to Aoi employing a run-and-gun offense reminiscent of D'Antoni-era Phoenix Suns, which uses the 5th graders' abilities to the fullest. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it consists of the Takenaka twins playing the offense and passing the ball around in quick succession, Kagetsu and Mimi's awesome pick-and-roll game, and Masami (aka Loli-Mitsui) spotting up from long range.

The above was executed so well that Subaru got serious and abandoned his usual play-safe tactics to lead the 6th graders back into the game. The power of teamwork finally saved the day for them.

Spoiler:

Pretty much as you said.

Except Subaru didn't abandon his usual play-safe tactics (he only realised that in the future he needs to teach the 6th graders to not use up the shot clock all the time to set up each offensive play). What he did first was to shifted Airi from going into a deep under the basket attack position during offence to a more middle range assisting position near the free throw line so that during the defensive phase she can go back quicker to get into her defensive position thus forcing the 5th grader to pass the ball to Masami. Saki's job was to throw off Masami's shot by subtly throwing Masami off from her best shooting distance by defending slightly further outside than usual (there were no three point lines for Masami to use as a guide) but also leave her enough opening so she would take the long shoot but misses, then Airi would be able to get the rebound and thus a turn over. Once Subaru's plan managed to stop the scoring streak of the 5th graders and disrupted their tempo he then got the 6th graders to step up their speed of attack thus levelling the score and finally winning the game. So Subaru's counter-attack plan was targeting the weakness of 5th graders.

[judasmartel]

Hmm... Sounds like Keishin's going run-and-gun all the way!

Spoiler for :

As for Masami feeling like she's the slowest ball-handler in the team, well, Steve Kerr (and probably Hisashi Mitsui himself, but low stamina due to a long break from basketball had more to do with it) had a similar problem. That didn't stop him from making huge contributions to the success of the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls.

Probably the real problem is that unless the 3-point line is implemented in official tournament play, long-range shooting has limited uses because it's so much better to go for a 3-point play than settling for a long range shot.

[tsunade666]

Originally Posted by houkoholic

Subaru's rival's name is Ryuuichi, he had a young female cousin who played against Tomoka on a street game. The one playing against Tomoka in the picture is probably her, that's why I said she is Subaru's rival Ryuuichi's cousin.

And Ryuuichi is a forward, not an all-rounder type.

I didn't understand much the sentence

Is subaru the all rounder type and Ryuuchi is the power forward type/offensive player?

[judasmartel]

Hmm. Okay then. Houko says the girl in the pic is the cousin of Subaru's rival Ryuichi.

And Subaru is this series' version of Steve Nash while Ryuichi is this series' version of LeBron James.

[judasmartel]

So the Takenaka twins strike me as point forwards at the moment, but when I tried to write up a roster list, I saw that the only positions left on the bench are PG and PF. Mimi would be the reserve SF for Tomoka, Kagetsu the reserve C for Airi, and Masami the reserve SG for Hinata.

I still can't differentiate the twins yet since they're identical and have the same play style (or so I thought). Although, that fact can be useful for playing mind games on their opponents.

In the pictures, Tsubaki's hair is more dark-colored and she wears black socks, while Hiiragi's hair is more light-colored and she wears white socks. Not sure if it's just the way the pages were scanned or Tsubaki's hair really is dark-colored.

Can anyone help me out on this? My roster list is almost done, I only need confirmation for the bench PG and PF positions.

And I still feel pretty bad for Masami since there's no 3-point line.

Images

Colored Bench

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

From L to R: Airi, Masami, Kagetsu, Mimi, and Maho.

[houkoholic]

As the latest novel has no official position for the Takenaka twins, you won't get any responses until the author says what they are going to play.

Also the girl on the left of the picture is Airi and yes she looks different to her anime counterpart.

EDIT: The picture is of the 6th graders at Subaru's birthday party. From L to R Airi, Saki, Tomoka, Hinata, Maho. And yes they don't quite look like their anime counterpart except Saki and Maho.

[judasmartel]

What? That's Airi? Unbelievable.

-==WAITING MODE ENGAGED==-

[judasmartel]

Here is a crazy theory I thought of while comparing SD and RKB.

Spoiler for Crazy Theory:

Subaru's father is actually Kazushi Hasegawa (Hisashi Mitsui's rival), who used to play for Shoyo High School, one of Shohoku's opponents in Slam Dunk.

Given that SD was released some 20 years before RKB, it's not quite a stretch for him to get married and have a 16-year old son by the time RKB was released.

If it matters, both Kazushi and Subaru's surnames share the same spelling in Kanji.

Remember that this is only speculation, and in due time the author might (or already have) release information which could confirm the validity of this theory.

[RapidPotential]

That theory seems pretty interesting, except...

Spoiler for Subaru's father:

His father's name is actually Ginga Hasegawa.

[judasmartel]

So my theory failed, huh? Oh well, but I thought it was interesting, though.

Say, how were the newly-formed team (the main five + the second unit) getting along? And how our poor little friend Natsuhi took the fact that her twin sisters were joining Subaru's harem basketball team?

EDIT: With the 10-man team already complete, Keishin can now compete in tournament play. So while waiting for a possibly inevitable Tournament Arc, I would like to know if anyone has (fan fic) ideas about what kind of teams Keishin would face? Because really, Suzuridani isn't the only elementary girls' team out there.

I have three suggestions for possible tournament opponents:

1. Team with strong inside game,
2. Tomoka's old grade school, bonus points if they got better after Tomoka left;
3. Team with strong, talented roster that rivals even Suzuridani.

[judasmartel]

1. How were the 5th graders recruited? Because I'm guessing Mimi through Subaru's father, Kagetsu through Hina, the twins through Natsuhi, and Masami through Saki. I wanted to confirm this.

2a. In the anime, Manaka Nobidome refers to Tomoka as the Keishin's team captain. So is it really confirmed that Tomoka really is the (de facto) team captain, despite Maho doing most of the recruitment of the other members of the main five (Saki, Airi, and Hinata)?

2b. In modern sport, it has become a fairly common practice to have more than one team captain, and thus they are called "co-captains". So does it make sense that Tomoka and Maho are the co-captains of Keishin?

[judasmartel]

Whoa, it's been a while, but I think this topic is pretty much dead in the water.

I think Vol.12 will be released in February. So what can we expect?

[houkoholic]

Vol. 12 just went on sale yesterday in Japan. Akibablog has some of the illustrations and if you follow the readers' impressions you can get some spoilers.

Spoiler:

Seems like the first half of the book is about uniting the 5th and 6th graders of Keishin as Masami and the Takenaka twins are still a bit strong headed, while the second half deals with Keishin's first official match against Chibi-Ribbon's team except only first half of the match.

So looks like the volume is pretty exciting and ends with a massive cliff hanger, can't wait to get my hands on it.

[sandhy88]

^^ Official match???

For what tournament? is it elementary national?

[judasmartel]

So unless it's a double-elimination tournament, then why does Keishin have to be matched with Suzuridani right in the first round? Most hero teams usually face their rival team in the Semifinals or the Finals.

Also, are there any other teams participating in the tournament?

[tsunade666]

how big is the tournament and what tournament is it?

[judasmartel]

It's actually surprising to see the rival team in the first round of the tournament. Rival teams in sports stories usually face the hero teams in at least the semi-final round (or quarterfinals if the hero team is such a massive underdog).

Spoiler for Questions:

- Who's in the lead?
- What starting lineup did Subaru use for this game?
- How does Keishin fare so far? Have they become much stronger with the addition of the 5th graders?
- Does Aya appear in this one?