–We’ve known she was a “damsel in distress” since her first appearance when the girls’ manager slapped her.

–At first it was about Dan’s quest to get his sister to the moon to fix her legs, but the show has done a good job turning her into a bigger and more complex character than that, making that relationship way more interesting. If anyone had been set-up to be a stereotypical “damsel in distress” it was her, and the writers managed to avoid that, so I doubt Rouge will become so two-dimensional either.

–The bad guys have spent a lot of money turning Eclipse into the anvil against which they plan to hammer Dan into their “legend,” so I think she’ll play a larger role than simply passively awaiting rescue, though, as I mentioned in my first point, she has always needed saved, to some degree.

–Rouge got herself into trouble through the strength of her character, choosing to play without the drugs, to the point of physical exhaustion, so that makes an interesting theme to play with, showing how even strong persons can become subject to forces larger than themselves.

–Finally, the goodbye between Dan and Rouge was poignant, and far from the cliche, where Dan would have made it in time for a heartfelt goodbye, or not have made it and cursed the heavens.

So, I think this plot twist only deepened Dan’s motivation and relationship with Rouge. Also, I don’t think Rouge will become truly central to the storyline anyways, because they’ve made too much of this whole “legend” stuff, and if anything is cliche, that is… As you say, nearly every anime has a main character who can either save or destroy the world. So, I think the storyline will become more and more about various elite mooninites attempting to manipulate Dan for their own purposes, and his struggle to achieve his own goals (which probably will include being with Rouge) against that background.

It almost seems like the freestyle environment is a blessing and a curse. You can pull off cool tricks like Iceman did with the pipe, but they’re also constantly reminded they’re tearing up places where people live. Maybe there’s some reluctance there to use the environment more fully?

Also, I agree the superflash animation cop-out is kind of detracting, but fortunately there wasn’t too much of that this time.

Also I think this arc has been good. A bit on the slow side at times but good. The matches have been enjoyable, Dan became a manly man, Sera turned into something much more than a DNA-hunting sexslave, Iceman’s been growing, Haruka is constantly getting fleshed out, James Loane turned out to be so obsessed with Dan’s Basquash he’ll dirty his hands if he needs to. Almost everyone went somewhere without you really noticing until you stop to think about it.

But I have to wonder… How much sponsoring are they getting from Nike for this? Because daaamn those are some fine shoes huh but come on guys you can do so much more - look you’ve got a bunch of people in giant robots doing freestyle basket over a whole city where they can use the environment however they want. THIS IS AWESOME, USE IT. I think I liked the scene where Iceman breaks a pipe just as Falcon is gonna land on it the most, it really stuck out somehow - and made me wish they’d stop using the überflash style to avoid having to actually animate the mechs properly throughout the whole games. I realize it’s already a pretty costly anime but man, it could be so much more awesome. Hey, they should just do that and then use the material to hype up a PS3 Basquash game (which would also be awesome of course), making $$$tons. I’d buy it. And I don’t even have a PS3!

I agree that I was pretty much an indy a few years ago, but to be honest I really stopped caring about that for the past years. Case in point: I loved Air, Clannad’s After Story, Hajime no Ippo and Full Metal Panic. The thing is just that if I don’t like a series, I’m not going to try and convince myself that I liked them. Gundam 00’s second season and Zeta Gundam for example are well liked, when I started watching them I really wanted to like them, but I just couldn’t.

I also don’t see what this all has to do with Basquash, by the way. I had absolutely no idea how popular the new OP and ED were when I wrote that down. I simply didn’t like this episode as much as some of the episodes at the beginning of his show, but if you liked it I’m pretty much fine with it.

tl;dr leave psgels alone!! ;~;

@Schmetterling agreed on everthing!

Aw come on, you don’t expect everyone to go with everything most people like; we won’t have this thing called “vvariety of human personalities” then.

Take Naruto and Bleach, for example. We know tat these two series is currently the top 3 Series right now. Well, not for me. Bleach has turned into a complete trash after Rescue Rukia Arc and Naruto… the fillers totally destroy everything and the plot is beginning to go no where. That’s how I think about them but what about those who still their fans? They’ll probably kill me off the spot.

And say that you’re a metal fan, you don’t expect a classic lover to like metal songs too. Andf see Code Geass, people say it’s awesome but not few people criticize it as “badly-written” and “trainwreck”.

I’m a fervent PH lover but my brother completely hates it no matter how I try to convince him.