Basquash! (Shoji Kawamori & Thomas Romain's New Project)

[ChibiGoku]

Seems to be a new series that has some of the Oban crew working on it. Unlike what I originally thought, it isn't a French-Japanese co-production. However, it does have french influence, at anyrate.

Anyways, it's a new series and apparently more "light hearted" as well, from Shoji Kawamori (Macross) and Thomas Romain (who worked on and directed Oban Star Racers). The series is scheduled to air in Japan sometime in 2009 and will broadcast on MBS. It'll also be animated by Satelight. The series seems to be an odd combination of Basketball, Mecha (Robots), Music, and a slight football influence. Seems to also have this real "hip hop" appeal to it.

Regardless, here's the staff listing with the known characters (and their voice actors). There's only one name I'm unsure of on the spelling, but everything else should be correct:

Staff
Original Concept : Shoji Kawamori, Thomas Romain (Roman Toma), Satelight
Project Director : Shoji Kawamori
Director: Shin Itagaki
Series Composition - Script : Tatsuo Satoh
Writing : Yuuko Kakihara, Yuki Enatsu
Character Design : Takahiro Yoshimatsu, SUEZEN, Kazuhiro Soeta
Mecha Concept Design - Art Director : Thomas Romain
Music: Kei Yoshikawa, AudioHighs
Animation Production : Satelight
Copyright : Shoji Kawamori, Thomas Romain, Satelight, Bashquash Production Comittee, MBS

Characters
Dan J.D. : Hiro Shimono
Sela D Miranda : Shizuka Itou
Iceman Hotty : Yuuichi Nakamura
Miyuki Ayukawa : Masumi Asano
Coco J.D. : Kana Hanazawa

While I don't generally like Sports anime (sans racing), I might give this a chance. Thomas Romain (as with Shoji) has done some interesting past works, so here's hoping this'll be one of them.

[Sonhex]

Been following the virals and just watched the new trailer on Catsuka. Now, I'm not a huge fan of sports shows, but this looks as much action/adventure as sports. Which is good, because this looks like a really cool show.

I enjoyed Oban Star Racers immensely and this has a similar sort of feel (must be the Franco-Japanese influence). Satelight just keep getting better and better at CG (unlike Gonzo) and this looks like the next step after Macross F (which I kind of enjoyed). Character design is really appealing as is the hip-hop influence. It's got a fresh feel and may be one of the few 2009 series worth checking out. It certainly stands out against the usual medocrity on the horizon.

[Tsuka]

Indeed, the official website has opened, including trailer.
http://basquash.com/

If you read french, you can also discover some comments about the TV series by co-creator Thomas Romain :
http://www.catsuka.com/news_detail.php?id=1228839105

[ZODDGUTS]

Wow looks pretty damn good. I know the CG will be good since it's done by Satelight just hope the animation stays good.

[Navel]

Long wall of text on Catsuka. So, the concept was originally Thomas Romain's, but Satelight's Shoji Kawamori (the father of Macross) said the project was not adapted to the japanese market, and was lacking in scope. Shoji Kawamori took over script writing and characterization, while Thomas Romain was free to do whatever he wanted with the visuals and the mecha design. Shoji Kawamori's objective was to break free from the traditional robot series he himself was the author for more than 25 years.

Then he goes on to say that a bunch of other famous and not so famous people joined, and sets a bit the stage for the action: a parallel Earth, a game inspired from street basketball, but using some transformable robots, and "freestyle" is a keyword of the concept. Well, nothing beyond young audience level in what he says, hopefully Shoji Kawamori can give it more depth. Later he mentions the series is aimed at teenagers and adults.

The 26 episodes series will air starting april 2009, and will be broadcasted during a night-time slot. There will be two manga series, etc.

This was a Public Service Announcement for non french readers.

(there's too much there to be translated, and I'm not french either, sorry !)

[duckroll]

Trailer direct link: http://basquash.com/movie/www/pv081210.wmv

[shomazta]

At first I thought this series sounded quite retarded/childish, but upon viewing the official site, well the one that was up before the official official site went online today, I immediately decided to rethink my viewpoint, seeing as the animation quality of the robots playing around in the city, not the 2d "anime" version, but the 3d semi-realistic bots running around... I felt this definitely was something the producers have been putting time and effort into. Even the animation design does not displease me, in fact I find the character designs quite superb and the attention to details within the surrounding art to be very good as well. I'm still not certain whether or not I'd find the plot interesting enough, seeing as it seems to be geared more towards a younger audience, and the bots are very un-realistic... the movements are nothing like that of a insanely weighty metal machine, and other such actions portrayed in the trailer are definitely absurd. All in all though, this series is something that I at least plan to check out next Spring... the design and setting sort of remind me of Michiko to Hatchin... not much... but sort of, so here's to hoping it's not just some kids show, and is indeed like that of micchin

[Navel]

It does say in the interview that the same people who worked on Macross Zero and Macross F are now working on this project, so that's where the quality of the 3D comes from. But indeed, the story and its purpose don't seem to inspire anything beyond the obvious.

[Westlo]

Looks like we're in for a really nice first episode visually.

[Sonhex]

Extended bootleg trailer from Comiket75. Lots of new footage and a character or two not yet on the website.

Anyone else getting a Gurren Lagan vibe from this trailer? Dan - Shimon etc... It even has Yoko-esque fanservice curtesy of Miyuki.

[ChibiGoku]

Bumping this up, since it's getting near an airdate.

I'm honestly surprised. There seems to be zero interest in this show. Over at Catsuka, people see very interested in this show. However, here? Absolutely nothing. Infact, I really don't see much talk about this in the english community at all. I figured with Shoji's involvement there would atleast be some discussion on it.

Guess not. Anyways, I'm looking forward to this. I have been since the initial information came out.

On NicoNicoDoga, there's an interview with Dan's voice actor and the Project Director Shoji Kawamori which you can watch here. It has some additional episode footage included in it as well.

[BluWacky]

Originally Posted by ChibiGoku

Bumping this up, since it's getting near an airdate.

I'm honestly surprised. There seems to be zero interest in this show. Over at Catsuka, people see very interested in this show. However, here? Absolutely nothing. Infact, I really don't see much talk about this in the english community at all. I figured with Shoji's involvement there would atleast be some discussion on it.

Catsuka is a French language forum after all, and Thomas Romain's involvement is likely to be more exciting to the French than many other people.

And as for Kawamori, as much as I love him, he's a bit of a loose cannon these days, and Basquatch just looks a bit silly if you ask me. Suggesting it's sports-influenced kills a lot of my interest (what can I say, I'm a geek after all...) and as impressive as I think Satelight's cel and CG work can be I'm just not very interested in basketball-playing robots or whatever it is. I only watched a bit of Oban because the racing put me off (as much as I liked the rest of it) and I just can't get that excited about this show, unfortunately.

Also...well, there's just not been very much hype about this one. The flash teaser site went up eons ago and I remember just not finding it very interesting so I put it aside and forgot about it - the opposite of, say, Higashi no Eden, where the barebones teaser site made me more curious about what was coming.

It's not long to wait now until it premieres anyway. Perhaps some hype will pick up between now and then.

[Midonin]

I was going to put this one aside at first, but a quick look at the voice cast (mostly the trio of idol girls - Haruka Tomatsu, Megumi Nakajima and Saori Hayami [and they're singing the OP!]) was enough to draw me in. Plus it adds some variety to my lineup for the next season.

Edit: That, and using giant robots to play basketball gives me a very Megas XLR feeling, and Megas was an awesome show before it got axed.

[Keiichi_chan]

I think it's because the show hasn't started airing and noone knows what to expect. I LOVED Oban and Macross, two of my all-time favorites actually, and Slam Dunk is one of my favorite manga so I'm actually VERY excited about the potential here, but it could be a total bomb except for higher-than-normal animation.

The concept sounds absurd and childish, but the concept of Oban was pretty bland until you see the amazing characterization and mature delivery. This could easily be another Oban and a fresh take on mecha definitely sounds interesting to me. I definitely see this being a bigger deal once people see the first episode and know whether it's good or just pretty visuals.

FTR, the promo video on YT has over 11,000 views, so yeah. People do seem interested.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Originally Posted by Midonin

I was going to put this one aside at first, but a quick look at the voice cast (mostly the trio of idol girls - Haruka Tomatsu, Megumi Nakajima and Saori Hayami [and they're singing the OP!]) was enough to draw me in....

They are billed as "Eclipse." Now that's a young-seiyuu super-group. Tomatsu and Nakajima are good singers. Hayami is outstanding. All three are under 20.

[Midonin]

Between the duet with Sayuri Yahagi for the To Love-Ru OVA, the first single for sphere for Hatsukoi, this and her own single for Polyphonica, Haruka is going to be busy for these next few months.

I'm pretty excited.

[Katapan]

Did anyone catch the preview that aired earlier today? I'd love to know what was shown.

I'm not that surprised by the lack of interest in this show... to be honest, I don't think it has the right elements to ever become that popular, whether it be here or in Japan. I'd love to be proven wrong though, I don't want to see Satelight spending a nice budget on the series only for it to be lost in the long run.

Hell, I personally thought I wouldn't care for the show one bit when I read about the mecha + basketball combination... then I read the posts over at Catsuka, and I warmed up to the show. Maybe Eclipse/Eqrips is playing a part too... and part of the cast, but as much as I love Hiro Shimono, I don't think I'll enjoy the screaming too much (on the other hand, Aya Endo sounded like she was going to use a completely weird voice in one of the latest CMs and I'm really curious to hear how this turns out).

[ChibiGoku]

I saw it, unfortunately had a hard time trying to follow along what was being said. So I'm only able to comment so far (and hopefully information is accurate here).

However, the special showed interviews with Sela and Dan's voice actor, Thomas Romain, Shoji Kawamori, the main director and series composition writer. We also got to see alot of footage of what could've been the first episode (though some shots looked like they could've been from another episode). They also overviewed the production process and the 3D animaton sequences (which they described being where most of the action was held).

The opening theme was also briefly played in the preview as well, though doesn't appear to be any footage of the opening yet. Given what Thomas mentioned over at CATSUKA about it still being in production, that doesn't shock me. The song sounded the total opposite what I expected. I was expecting maybe a high paced and full of energy song, yet we got this somewhat "down putting" piece. I won't be able to really judge it until I completely hear it, of course.

The song, "Free", which was in countless tv spots, was apparently mentioned to being the Theme for the series, which suggusts that it's going to be played in the series, rather than an actual opening and ending (atleast that's what I got out of it). That makes me doubt the ANN entry on the ending theme, unless someone can prove me wrong there...

The music was very appropriate. I can't exactly describe it, but I thought it seemed to fit the series very well. There were also a number of vocal songs, which I'm not entirely sure if they were for the show or just used for the special.

I'd like to resee the Special again, so I could summerize my thoughts better. Especially with what was said (and I can barely remember what they said). However, one thing that's for sure is it only made me want to see the series just that much more.

Also, just before the program, they showed a full 30 second promo for Basquash!, which gave us more additional footage than we saw. They also showed a full promo for Full Metal Alchemist, which doesn't seem to be online yet.

[Midonin]

Originally Posted by ChibiGoku

That makes me doubt the ANN entry on the ending theme, unless someone can prove me wrong there...

I was the one who put it there in the first place, and as someone who keeps a close eye on my music news, I always have my sources.

"free"'s entry on Getchu that confirms it as the ending.

[Kaoru Chujo]

When another publication mentioned the Yamada Yu song but not the Eclipse song, there was some doubt on the Hayami Saori thread on 2channel as to whether Eclipse (Hayamin, Tomatsu, Nakajima) was really involved. But thanks to Midonin, here's a Getchu page that shows both the OP and ED for sale, as shown on ANN.

EDIT: I just watched the preview show and that makes it clear who does the OP. Yamada Yu's song is called the "main theme," but it seems to be the ED. Not sure.

The backgrounds, done by the French team, look stunning. It was great to hear Thomas Romain speaking Japanese so well...with a nice French accent. The main stars are played by Itou Shizuka (Wilhelmina in Shana) and Shimono Hiro (Jin in Kannagi).