Ro-Kyu-Bu! (Japanese: ロウきゅーぶ!, Hepburn: Rōkyū Bu) is a Japanese light novel series written by Sagu Aoyama and illustrated by Tinkle. ASCII Media Works published 15 novels between February 2009 to July 2015. The series follows a high school freshman Subaru Hasegawa who becomes the coach of a grade school's girls' basketball team after his own basketball club is disbanded for a year due to a scandal. Three manga adaptations and three PlayStation Portable visual novel games were produced. A 12-episode anime television series, animated by Project No.9 and Studio Blanc, aired between July and September 2011. A 12-episode second season titled Ro-Kyu-Bu! SS, animated solely by Project No.9, aired between July and September 2013.
Contents
Plot
High school freshman Subaru Hasegawa is forced to stop playing basketball at his school for a while when the team captain gets himself involved in a scandal for being suspected of sexually abusing a little girl, and the club is disbanded for a year. His aunt, Mihoshi Takamura, then assigns him to be an elementary school girls' basketball team coach. Initially, he agreed to train the girls just for three days, but after learning of their circumstances, he decided to keep coaching them. Thanks to the girls, Subaru's passion for basketball is reignited as his efforts to improve their skills come to fruition and he becomes close friends with them.
Characters
Keishin Academy
Subaru Hasegawa (長谷川 昴, Hasegawa Subaru)
Voiced by: Yuki Kaji
The main protagonist and a high school student who is tasked by his aunt to coach an all female sixth grade school basketball team. Currently, his school's basketball club had its activities suspended after its team captain got himself involved in a scandal for being suspected of being a child molester. He reluctantly accepts Mihoshi's offer for him to train the girls for only three days initially, until he learns that the club is at the brink of being disbanded without his help, realizing how important it is to Tomoka and her friends. After helping save the basketball team, Subaru ends up agreeing to be their trainer until they graduate.
Aoi Ogiyama (荻山 葵, Ogiyama Aoi)
Voiced by: Kanae Itō
Aoi is Subaru's childhood friend and also a former member of his school's basketball club, who displays feelings for him despite refusing to admit them. She is always prone to help Subaru when he is in trouble or depressed, but for some reason he avoids telling her he is coaching a team of elementary schoolgirls, until she follows him and finds it by herself. She later becomes Subaru's assistant coach and then becomes the coach for the fifth grade team upon its formation, and then again Subaru's assistant coach once the two teams are united.
Mihoshi Takamura (篁 美星, Takamura Mihoshi)
Voiced by: Shizuka Itō
Subaru's aunt who was chosen as the adviser of the basketball team despite having no knowledge of the sport at all. She blackmailed Subaru by threatening to expose embarrassing moments of his childhood if he would not help her with the club. Despite her age, she strongly resembles a little girl.
Touko Hatano (羽多野 冬子, Hatano Tōko)
Voiced by: Rina Satō
Touko is the School nurse in Keishin Academy. She is the one who gave nicknames to each of the girls, except for Tomoka, whose nickname was chosen by Subaru himself. She seems to have yuri tendencies to Mihoshi, which annoys the other.
Suzuridani Academy
Miyu Aida (藍田 未有, Aida Miyu)
Team Jersey Number: 4
Position: Point Guard
Voiced by: Mariya Ise
Miyu is a sixth grader and is the ace of the basketball team who maintains a friendly rivalry with Tomoka. She requested for Rena to be included in the final tournament knowing her talent, despite Rena's poor attitude towards her teammates. Maho calls her "Little Girl with the Ribbon" (ちびリボン, Chibi Ribon).
Aya Miyakoōji (都大路 綾, Miyakoōji Aya)
Team Jersey Number: 12
Position: Center
Voiced by: Yumi Hara
Formerly of their school's gymnastics team, she is drafted into the basketball team when her height became a detriment to her routines. She has forged a friendship with Airi, told to her by her teammates to be taller than her.
Rena Ashihara (葦原 怜那, Ashihara Rena)
Team Jersey Number: 13
Voiced by: Akiko Hasegawa
She first made herself known to the Takenaka twins with a braggart swagger and beat them in a 2-on-1 basketball game. The deal between them is supposed to be amongst themselves, but dealing with her has become an affair for the whole team, particularly Masami, when she accidentally messes up with her operations during the food festival. She is used to, and is excellent in, 1-on-1 basketball, but she was forced to play 5-on-5 during an important tournament, something she is not accustomed to, and against Keishin—the very team she crossed.
Others
Kazunari Uehara (上原 一成, Uehara Kazunari)
Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka
Kazunari is Subaru's friends since middle school. He has an ordinary appearance with short hair and rimless glasses. An intellectual who aspired to the University of Tokyo, he was ranked first in his class in junior high school even without studying. Although he often angers Subaru and Aoi with his insensitive remarks and gets beaten up, he firmly understands the line that must not be crossed, and even though he uses a teasing tone, he worries about Subaru who has lost his place in club activities. There are also parts of him that care about his friends, such as memorizing Town magazine articles about their accomplishments. He proposed the formation of a basketball club, and a number of himself joined. Subaru is also secretly grateful for that, but since he ruins it with his own usual remarks, it is a bit tricky.
Natsuhi Takenaka (竹中 夏陽, Takenaka Natsuhi)
Voiced by: Minako Kotobuki
He is the captain of the boys' basketball team and is Tsubaki and Hiiragi's older brother. He initially believed that the girls' basketball club should be disbanded as, to him, its members are only playing around instead of truly competing unlike his club. He harbors a crush on Hinata, a fact known by all his classmates. He is also childhood friends with both Maho and Saki, and fell out with Maho over basketball, although they eventually make up.
Nayu Hasegawa (長谷川 七夕, Hasegawa Nayu)
Voiced by: Mamiko Noto
Nayu is Subaru's mother and Mihoshi's elder sister. She was worried about her son after he was forced to stop playing basketball at school, and was relieved knowing that his enthusiasm was renewed after he became the girls' coach.
Ginga Hasegawa (長谷川 銀河, Hasegawa Ginga)
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu
Media
Light novels
Ro-Kyu-Bu! began as a light novel series written by Sagu Aoyama with illustrations by Tinkle. Originally, Aoyama entered the first novel in the series into ASCII Media Works' 15th Dengeki Novel Prize in 2008 and the novel won the Silver Prize. ASCII Media Works published 15 novels under their Dengeki Bunko imprint between February 10, 2009, and July 10, 2015.
Manga
A manga adaptation, illustrated by Yūki Takami, began serialization in the October 2010 issue of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine. The manga ended serialization in the magazine's May 2014 issue and was transferred to Dengeki G's Comic starting with the June 2014 issue. The first tankōbon volume was released on April 27, 2011; 12 volumes were released in total. A four-panel comic strip manga, titled Ro-Kyu-Bu! Yonkoma (ロウきゅーぶ! よんこま) and illustrated by Futaba Miwa, was serialized from June 2011 to October 2013 issues of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Moeoh magazine and compiled into two volumes. The first tankōbon volume was released on April 27, 2012; the second followed on September 27, 2013. A spin-off manga, titled Ro-Kyu-Bu! Halftime (ロウきゅーぶ! は〜ふたいむ) and illustrated by Yūki Takami, began serialization in volume 26 of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Festival! Comic on October 26, 2012, and ended on August 29, 2015. It was compiled into three volumes. The first tankōbon volume was released on August 27, 2013.
Anime
A 12-episode anime television series, animated by Project No.9 and Studio Blanc, aired in Japan between July 1 and September 24, 2011, on the AT-X network, and was later rebroadcast on KBS Kyoto, Tokyo MX, TV Kanagawa, Sun TV, Chiba TV, TV Aichi, and Teletama. The series is directed by Keizō Kusakawa with Michiko Itō as script supervisor. The opening theme is "Shoot!" and the ending theme is "Party Love (Okkiku Naritai)" (Party Love〜おっきくなりたい〜); both songs are sung by Ro-Kyu-Bu!, a five-member group consisting of Kana Hanazawa, Yuka Iguchi, Rina Hidaka, Yui Ogura, and Yōko Hikasa. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime for simulcast, though were later requested by the production committee to relinquish home video rights. The Anime Network aired the series in the United States. An original video animation, titled Ro-Kyu-Bu!: Tomoka no Ichigo Sundae, was bundled with the release of the PlayStation Portable game Ro-Kyu-Bu!: Himitsu no Otoshimono on June 20, 2013.
A 12-episode second season titled Ro-Kyu-Bu! SS, animated by Project No.9 and directed by Shinsuke Yanagi, aired between July 5 and September 27, 2013. The opening theme is "Get goal!" and the ending theme is "Rolling! Rolling!"; both songs are sung by the five-member group Ro-Kyu-Bu!.
Video games
Two PlayStation Portable (PSP) visual novels were developed by Vridge and published by ASCII Media Works and Kadokawa Games. The first, titled Ro-Kyu-Bu!, was released on October 27, 2011. The second, titled Ro-Kyu-Bu! Himitsu no Otoshimono (ロウきゅーぶ! ひみつのおとしもの), was released on June 20, 2013. A PlayStation Vita game titled Ro-Kyu-Bu! Naisho no Shutter Chance (ロウきゅーぶ! ないしょのシャッターチャンス) developed by Vridge was released on March 27, 2014, release. According to the announcement, the genre of the game is "loli sports shooting adventure".