Ro-Kyu-Bu!/Awesome

Ro-Kyu-Bu!/Awesome

Don't let the Moe Moe aesthetic fool you. True to form as the Distaff Counterpart Spiritual Successor to Slam Dunk, Ro-Kyu-Bu! definitely has its share of awesome moments as a sports series.

Ro-Kyu-Bu!

 * A minor one in Episode 2, with Subaru making 10 free throws in a row in the arcade. While it's not exactly as awesome as it sounds, keep in mind that he has been out of practice for quite some time since his team's one-year suspension.
 * Tomoka taking on boys her age all by herself during gym class. This single act alone inspired Maho take up basketball and form the Keishin girls' basketball team just for her and their friends.
 * Tomoka challenges Subaru one-on-one on their first ever practice session together with the condition that he continues coaching her team if she wins. He proceeds to wipe the floor with her without even jumping to block. Thhough to be fair, he did place a handicap on himself not to jump, and she did not take any jump shots either, so all of her shot attempts were drives to the basket that he can easily defend against with his experience and size advantage.
 * However, after Subaru learned about Tomoka's back story, he was so moved by her desire to play basketball with her newfound friends even if it means she will have to quit playing otherwise that it got him back to basketball and he decides to stay on to protect her dream.
 * The boys vs girls match is arguably the first Crowning Moment of Awesome in the series, without which the story would have ended then and there.
 * With a little bit of trickery, he had Airi feast on the boys' non-existent frontline to draw double teams on her, freeing up either Maho or Saki for an open jump shot. If that fails, it's down to Tomoka going one-on-one on Natsuhi, and if that fails, Hinata's Innocent Charm should do the job.
 * With the game and her team on the line in the final minutes, Tomoka once again takes on the boys by herself. But when they triple-teamed her on the last play, it was Maho of all people who won the game and saved her team (and the story) at the buzzer!
 * A ragtag bunch of cute little school girls, most of them who know next to nothing about basketball at all, managed to defeat the defending boys' basketball division champions with nothing but the basics of the game and some information from Mihoshi. All within a span of only two weeks!
 * Tomoka taking on Mihoshi's challenge to make 50 free throws in a row so that Subaru can keep coaching the girls, and with massive persistence, eventually pulling it off in the rain! Shiny Gift, indeed!
 * In Episode 7, Tomoka would have managed to get past Subaru for the first time ever, if only she did not trip over her worn-out shoes.
 * In Episode 8, with Subaru on the line, Airi managed to block Aoi's potential game-winning shot... and lands on her boobs.

Miscellanous and Meta

 * Hinata's Character Development is definitely a Crowning Moment of Awesome in itself. To wit:
 * She made the game-winning shot against the boys' team, this time in the inter-class tournament.
 * The BOSS HAND reverse shot against Suzuridani in their practice match, which she does again in their official match.
 * In SS, she managed to curb-stomp an opponent who was giving her a hard time before.


 * While Ro-Kyu-Bu! almost certainly did not influence the rise of Japanese basketball the way Slam Dunk did in The Nineties and maybe Kuroko no Basuke today, it may not be a mere coincidence that the Japanese women's senior national basketball team managed to win the Asian women's basketball championship three times in a row since the anime series aired in 2011.
 * Heck, their B-team even had their own Subaru in the form of American coach Tom Hovasse during their Asian championship run in 2017. That's right, Japan's B-team managed to win the Asian women's championship!