How strong is Hanamichi’s loyalty to the basketball team? Arguably, very low. But his commitment to Haruko? He’s absolutely committed to her. Now he’s found himself in an interesting position: continue on the basketball team and try to pull her eyes away from Rukawa or take the sleazy route to join the Judo team in exchange for some precious pictures of her.
Before I talk more about the episode, I’m going to get my complaints out of the way. I really didn’t enjoy this episode and I think it’s because I’m watching this in 2023 and not when it aired. But the whole obsession with Haruko is really grinding on me. Not necessarily the fact that Hanamichi has a crush on her, that’s fine and still something that shows up in a lot of current anime. But the peeping and creeping that’s going on is really frustrating. It’s only episode 8, but it’s going to be really hard for me to get over this in upcoming episodes. When it was just Hanamichi doing it, it came across more as a really aggressive crush, but with the introduction of Aoto in this episode the joke… isn’t funny anymore. This senior is also watching her during P.E. class and even keeps pictures of her in his uniform. That’s going way too far. I really think Akagi should punch more people over this. Akagi please stop all these weirdos from being weird about your sister.
Okay. Rant over.
Other than all of that. Hanamichi might be recruited to join the Judo team. And surprisingly, Judo and Basketball have a bit of history with each other. Initially, I thought it would have been an inner-school type thing, but really it’s just two guys who have been going at it since elementary school. Akagi has a lot of passion for Basketball, and his sole focus has been getting as far as he can go. Aoto… seems to have a lot of passion for Judo? I would assume he does, since he has a very similar goal to Akagi. The only downside is that he seems to do a lot of other things besides Judo. First he sends his underclassmen to go recruit Hanamichi. Then he’s off spying on the girl’s PE class. It’s only until the last third of the episode that he actually does anything Judo related. It really seems like he’s recruiting Hanamichi just because it will make them win, not because he’s thinking of the good of the team.
Akagi on the other hand does not care if Hanamichi sticks around. Rather, it might lessen his headache if the red-head did join another team. There is some benefit Hanamichi can provide to the team. He has a lot to learn and is a blank slate. He’s also highly athletic and persistent. He just doesn’t have a very team oriented personality. Right now he wants to outshine everyone there (well, mostly Rukawa). But, he has more of an investment in the team. Not by much, but I really don’t think he’s going to bounce that quickly.
I mean, it is called Slam Dunk. I’m not worried about him leaving. If anything, I’m worried about Aoto becoming a recurring character.
Sorry, this post seemed like such a rag on the episode! I was just really frustrated with the bulk of what happened!
