is a Japanese anime television series animated by Satelight. Created by Shōji Kawamori and Thomas Romain, the series aired on MBS between April and October 2009. The anime is licensed by Maiden Japan.
Plot
In the world of "Earth Dash", humanity is divided between the highly advanced lunar society and the struggling surface society. One of the most popular sports is BFB (Big Foot Basketball), where players compete while riding mecha known as "Big Foot" in a massive arena. In Rolling Town, Dan JD and his friends discover a passion for the sport and adapt it for street play, renaming it "Basquash". Despite facing numerous obstacles and setbacks, Dan and his team refuse to give up on their dreams of greatness. Along their journey, they must overcome their past hardships and confront powerful opponents to prove their worth in the world of Basquash.
Characters
Main characters
Team Basquash
The main protagonist, Dan, is a young boy who loves basketball but despises BFB due to an accident that crippled his sister. His attempt to demoralize the sport ended up making it more popular when he invaded an official BFB game and awed the crowd with a highly skilled demonstration under his alias, "Dunk Mask", on his own Big Foot, which he named Dangan. As a result of the widespread destruction, he is imprisoned for a year and charged with massive debt, numbering 5.3 billion Rollings (the local currency). This event, as well as Dan himself, has since gained the status of a legend, inspiring the sport of Big Foot Streetball. His dream is to make enough money to pay for his debts and send his sister to the Moon to treat her paralyzed legs. He has developed a strong rivalry with Iceman as an opponent and ally. Near the end of the OCB tournament, Dan realizes Rouge's feelings for him after she played against him without reinforcement medication in an attempt to keep her play honest, resulting in her losing consciousness in the middle of the game. As she left for the Moon, he promised to eventually travel to the Moon himself, asking her to wait for him, hinting that he may have developed feelings for her. Dan can throw a "thunderbolt ball", a basketball that shines with a 'radiant light that traced a shape of the heavens creation.' For this, he is believed to be the Legend, the one destined to save Earthdash and Mooneyes. At the end of the series, it is revealed that he is not the Legend; everyone who is a 'basquasher' (a term for Basquash players that he coined) is a part of the Legend. Using their combined skills and their own 'thunderbolt balls,' the 'basquashers' reactivate the ultimate in Mooneyes by throwing a 'final dunk'' bumping Mooneyes back into orbit, effectively saving Earthdash and Mooneyes, as they were previously in a collision course with each other. In the aftermath, all that is seen of Dan is him about to play basketball with Iceman, affirming that he will continue to play and that he has not lost any passion for basketball, and possibly Basquash, either.
A skilled basketball and BFB player with the nickname of "Platinium Gale". She likes to be abused, but hates weaker men and is looking for a well suited match. She believes Iceman to be this special man and on one occasion has asked for his "genes". When Dan played at the official BFB game one year ago, she claims to have believed him to be "the one" as well. She has been shown to have some affection for Dan, though it may have faded. It is later revealed that she is the daughter of a wealthy business-man, whose family later disowned her mother and herself, since she was a female, and not able to become an heir. For as yet unexplained reasons, her mother later died. She resents her family and her father for both abandoning her mother, and only watching her as she died. After their departure from Turbine City, she learned that her father was killed. Her reaction is mixed, on part with her past hatred of him, and the fact that she can't deny the fact that despite their past, she still sees him as a father. After the Old Timers began talking to her about her father, it is revealed that her father may have had other personal and possibly more benign reasons for disowning her. She has since come to peace with her father's memory. Upon meeting Navi, she reveals feelings that go deeper than just "wanting his genes", a dogma she had kept with all other males she had been attracted to. However, she states that she does not like nor dislike him; it is just the fact that he is too big for her. Towards the end of the series, she dismisses this previous statement, and acknowledges her feelings for Navi, regardless of their difference in size, during the final moments of the Legend Tournament. Together, they participate in the 'final dunk', along with Dan, Iceman, Rouge, Falcon, and Flora contributing their part of the Legend. In the aftermath, she is being looked after by the Old Timers in Turbine City, with Navi. Navi and Sela are together, playing Basquash, happy, and possibly in a relationship with each other.
A vicious BFB player with a shrouded past holds a grudge against Dan, for destroying the BFB statium, ruin his game and destroying his honor. He is also known as "The Frozen Inferno" and is skilled at long shots. He beats his enemies by throwing balls at them with crushing speed while shouting "Destroy!" These balls, once thrown, take on a dark blue color due to their strength. Later, it is revealed that these are his own personal "thunderbolt ball". He wears blue glasses and has dark red eyes. His savage gameplay contrasts vastly with his personality off the Big Foots where he is normally portrayed as a cool and polite person.
It was later learned, in a rather unorthodox manner by Dan, that the "Destroy" balls he throws at his teammates (causing them to be victims of these vicious projectiles) are actually passes. This can be interpreted that Iceman cannot let go of a ball without it becoming a "Destroy Ball" while playing. He holds a grudge against Falcon Lightwing, who threw him out of their BFB team, causing Iceman to fall from grace.
Sometime after his fall from grace, Iceman's original left arm and left leg were cut off by Price of Hell in the Underground, causing him to lose his title of "Legend". It has been confirmed that he was one of the people before Dan believed to be the Legend. After his amputation, Thousand replaced his limbs, giving him his robotic left arm and left leg. Since joining Dan, Iceman has matured considerably, going so far as to forgive Falcon. This fact is more apparent when he makes a Basquash team with Falcon during the Legend Tournament. They are the only ones with a team of two; later, the third spot is filled by Slash Keens.
He becomes the co-spokesman of the Legend Tournament, urging all Basquashers (more specifically, Dan) to come to Mooneyes and participate. In the final moments of the Legend Tournament, when Mooneyes' ultimate failed to activate after Dan's dunk, Iceman urged Dan to continue playing regardless. Dan joined him, and together they formed the lead to the culmination of the Legend, using Yang's Legend Bullet as a basketball and dunking it as their 'final dunk.' In the aftermath, he is seen waiting for Dan as they are about to start a one-on-one basketball game, showing that he will continue to play basketball and possibly Basquash. /
A foreign princess was awed by the three-way match between Dan, Sela, and Iceman during her passage through Rolling Town. She seems to have some sort of supernatural 'sixth sense', claiming to sense "destiny on the wind" when the aforementioned were playing their match, as well as when she sensed Iceman's rage as he destroyed a statue of Dunk Mask. Flora eventually runs away to Rolling Town to chase after these voices. She takes up playing Basquash and pretends to be male under the assumed identity of "Alan Naismith", named after the inventor of basketball, James Naismith. To be on par with the rest of the group, she was coached in playing basketball by Coco. It is later revealed that the voices she hears with her 'sixth sense' are 'the stones' (ultimate) and ruins of Earthdash speaking to her and that this ability runs in the royal family of Skybloom. However, her father, King Regalia, is currently unable to hear the stones. For most of the series, she remains under her guise of Alan Naismith. During the course of the series, she learns that none of the girls are fooled, and only the boys in the group remain ignorant of her gender. Much later in the series, she and Dan were threatened by her own soldiers. In reaction to this, she drops her guise and subdues the soldiers. Though Dan was the most oblivious to her gender, he says, once she reveals her real name, that he doesn't mind since she is a 'basquasher' like everyone else. She goes with the rest of the group to participate in the Legend Tournament, but at the last moment, she realizes that her level is too inferior to keep up with everyone else. In tears, she asks Rouge to replace her. In the final moments of the Legend Tournament, she hears the voices of 'the stones' once more and realizes that the Legend Bullet is made of ultimate. With this information, Rouge is able to catch the Legend Bullet and hand it to Dan and Iceman for the 'final dunk'. She is seen later playing Basquash with Falcon in the "Final Dunk". In the aftermath, Flora is seen in traveling gear on Earthdash, possibly traveling throughout the world..
A Moon giant whose ancestors were brought to Earthdash to mine ultimate in the Underground because it was poisonous to humans but not to them, he is called Navi for short. He wears a suit that is as big as a Big Foot, possibly to provide him protection from the ultimate due to his weakened resistance to its poisonous effects. He protected his friends' graves until Dan found him and introduced him to the world of Basquash, telling him that his friends would not want him to spend the rest of his life protecting their graves. Navi is now the newest member of Team Basquash, as well as the only member of the team who does not need a Big Foot to play, mainly because he is roughly the size of one. However, he has not been able to play in many official games since the group did not want to attract attention. Sela has developed feelings for him, though she ignored them at first. At first, he did not reciprocate, but eventually developed feelings for her as well. Although he did not participate in the Legend Tournament, he appeared during its final moments to deliver tennis shoes to Dan, who had burned off the ones he used during the tournament. He then went on to give his own part of the legend in the 'final dunk', along with Rouge, Dan, Iceman, Falcon, Flora, and Sela, with whom he shared the dunk. In the aftermath, he is seen with Sela playing Basquash, happy, and possibly in a relationship with her.
Dan's pet/partner with shape-shifting abilities looks like a gremlin. He usually transforms himself into a set of earmuffs/headbands or the trademark mask that Dan uses to hide his identity as the delinquent "Dunk Mask". Alternatively, he can turn into a restricting face-cover (his friends had Spanky do this when Dan wouldn't shut up, knocking him out with flatulence). Spanky seems to have a very similar personality to Dan, and it is understandable why the two would get along – albeit in a rather violent and argumentative fashion. He has also been known to give Dan a heads-up now and then, which helps him avoid being completely surprised by some surprise attacks. Spanky is always hungry and is said to be able to eat almost anything, regardless of size or material. Similarly, to Dan in his boasts, Spanky boasts that he would be able to eat anything – even the world (though he says that it would be quite a mouthful). In the aftermath, he is seen with Dan, who is about to engage Iceman in a one-on-one basketball match.