Product: Hoop Days: Zone 1 (2005)
Rating: 4.0
Willful suspension of disbelief
OK, anime has some great and inspiring sports titles--Princess Nine comes to mind--and this is quite inspiring in places. I want to give this a 3.5, but a 3 would be too petty, so a 4 it gets from here.Frankly, Japanese and basketball go together like strawberries and mustard. Too often have I seen a 5'9" Japanese high school (or even junior high school or even a *female* junior high school) student dunk all over the place. Sorry, but I subscribe to a few sports magazines, and that just doesn't happen on that island.So, it's inspiring, and I recommend it for the nice story it tells, but you have to swallow one heck of a lot of disbelief to see dunks and 50-footers from Japanese teenagers.I like the sports anime stories when they focus on what the Japanese are great at (like baseball) or what they're decent at (like soccer <football>)Once again, I might be too cruel, but it's amazing when people talk about generations of great Japanese b-ball players; it's like talking about generations of great American badminton players. Having said that, the USA just won the badminton world championship--albeit with an Indonesian import and a second-generation Indonesian.Good for them, and good for Hoop Days.