So! It turns out that Hanamichi doesn’t actually get to fight the guys who called him up to the rooftop because Rukawa already took care of all of them. A major bummer because I really think Hanamichi needed to let off some steam after everything that happened earlier that day. Plus, all his friends were ready to get in on it too – please! let them fight once so they aren’t just left to get continually headbutted. Unfortunately – or maybe luckily? Hanamichi finally gets to come face to face with the man that Haruko was hopelessly in love with.
Honestly, huge shout out to Hanamichi for being the most dramatic protagonist I’ve seen in a hot minute. He’s so funny – ready to fight at a moment’s notice, cries dramatically when he remembers something that happened with a girl earlier that day, tries to jump off a building, starts a fight with the basketball captain. He’s a mess and so far, I love his energy and am having a blast. No one’s safe from his theatrics, so good on his friends for sticking around even if they might be the next ones to meet his fists. But on the note of why he’s being dramatic, let’s take a moment to talk about Haruko. She must only have eyes for Rukawa, the guy who doesn’t even know her name, since she seemed to completely miss the pile of other students just lying on the rooftop. Sure, Hanamichi could have been directly responsible for them, but was there ever a question about why people were fighting in the first place? I just find it absolutely hilarious how everything just fell apart due to a misconception. And even at the end of it Rukawa doesn’t seem to care that she’s around, but he’s already decided to learn Hanamichi’s name!
Not that it really means anything to Hanamichi. Not only has he been rejected by his first high school crush so cruelly, it just so happens that the very next people to cross him happen to be on the basketball team. How unlucky can one guy be in the span of one episode? In addition to everything that’s already happened, he’s now going up against the basketball captain in a one-on-one match. And if that’s already embarrassing enough, he still doesn’t actually know the rules of the game and it later comes out that the captain? Oh yeah, that’s Haruko’s older brother. In short, Hanamichi is losing in every sense of the word. But at the end of the day, this is still a sports anime. Is it really something in the genre if the main character doesn’t make a fool of himself whether he knows the game or not?
At this point, among all the humor, I’m really curious to see how he actually gets on to the basketball team. Since he’s presented as the protagonist, I am assuming that he’s going to join at some point. Fighting with the star rookie, already calling the captain a gorilla, and not actually familiar with anything about the sport (actually that’s a lie, because Haruko did tell him what a dunk was). I mean, he’s really starting from below zero. I guess all protagonists have to start somewhere. I just hope he doesn’t get completely embarrassed about how everything has played out. … Actually, maybe that’ll be good for him.
