Sports Anime??

This week I started watching Kuroko no Basuke(Korosuke's Basketball or KnB.)  For a sports anime, it's actually fairly realistic.  Yes, there are some thing's that may seem as though they can't occur in reality, and for their ages, they are highly unlikely; however, the truth is that for the amount of the series I've seen so far, it's very likely.  No, there aren't going to be auras that are visible around the players or to discern the path of the basketball and which player caused the change, but yes there are people out there who, if they practice enough, can shoot from anywhere on the court.  They could pull off agility-based moves if they play the sport in their every spare moment and as for the passing that Kuroko manages...I wish I'd seen this show when I was much younger, but I don't think it was even in manga form yet when I was a kid.  If I had seen it, however, I can tell you I'd have tried to be more like Kuroko rather than trying make myself seen. 

Of course there are a few things that are unrealistic at least for games in America, but we who watch animes are already aware that there are many differences between our school sports competitions and theirs.  Hell, there are innumerable differences between Japan's culture and America's, but that doesn't stop us from trying to emulate things we see that are rather awesome.  Perhaps, in the very far future, some of the things we see portrayed will be put to successful use by children?

Competition Vs Inclusion

So the last couple of weeks have been crazy busy - we moved and I managed to get an abscessed tooth.  Not fun.  Then on Tuesday, I hear about a school in New Jersey changing their sports policy to allow basically any student who wants on a team to be on said team.  I need to admit here and now, before putting down the rest of my thoughts, that I don't know anything more than a few very vague details.  Apparently, a student got so upset at not making the team, their parents complained to get them on causing the school to change its policy.  Again, I do not know the specifics.  I could have any number of things wrong with the story I heard.

As for what I wanted to say about this "more inclusive" policy, I am in two minds about it.  On one hand, I am glad that kids who are serious about a sport but perhaps aren't as talented as others get to join their sports team, however, I am also upset at the even less realistic competitive environment this school seems to be promoting.  To explain what I mean:  When these same students attempt to get a job, will this make them think they should be hired despite possibly not being qualified because they were allowed to join a competitive team in high school but did not necessarily have the talent to back up the position received.  On the other hand, those who have focused and truly want to go on to become professionals in said sport may not get the chance because of the lack of ability to show how good they truly are to scouts for both college teams/scholarships and the professional teams.

What it comes down to is it could be good depending on how this new policy is implemented.  If, for example, they have a tiered system where all those who try-out automatically make a team but the team made is dependant on skill and talent.  Those who are dedicated and constantly practice make the higher competitive teams and those who thought they were able to get by without putting in the effort would be on the least competitive team.  Thinking about it, it would be similar to that of how most bands and academic teams function.   Those who are willing to put in the time and effort, get to be in the most wanted positions, but those who aren't willing to work hard to keep that position could end up basically being an equipment manager or last chance alternate.

If, however, they just let them join with no extra plan to ensure that those who are dedicated to what happens to be their passion can both pursue and be recognized for it, then it could truly be a detriment for everyone in that school.  Of course, I don't know what is involved in the actual plans for this particular school's new policy, but there will be those who are not willing to even give it a chance.  Because of this, there could be a lot of good from the policy that gets diminished.  At the same time, there are going to be those who can see no problems with the new policy.  The issue with that would be no making the policy better by looking at the problems and finding a way to fix them.

Again, I don't know specifics with this, but these were my thoughts based on the small amount of information I had regarding them.


I'm posting this a day late mostly because of the move and then Mother's Day (which I hope all mothers had a wonderfully relaxing day!)  Also, my computer still hasn't been put back together after the move, so I had to borrow my husband's.

Sports and Games and Writing

First, let's just all admit it's been a long and tiring year.  To be completely honest, I'm typing this as I listen to an anime I decided to finally try to watch: Haikyu! after having gone out with my husband to watch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.  While watching this I started to compare volleyball and basketball.  They almost mirror each other in a strange way.  This is going to severely simplify things. 

See volleyball has six players per team on the court at any time.  There's an out of bounds area, but the biggest thing to remember is to keep the ball in the air - to hit it across the net in the center of the court.  For basketball, there are five players on the court and an out of bounds area, but that's about it for the similarities other than taller people tend to have a better time playing the sports or at least they tend to get more recognition.  Instead of keeping the ball in the air and from hitting the ground, a player has to dribble the ball.  This means it has to keep hitting the ground.  The only time to have the ball in the air is to either pass or shoot for a basket.  Basketball keeps track of points during a specified amount of time.  Volleyball takes its time to reach the points to win a game.  So as I said - they mirror each other oddly.

The other reason I started to type this particular post?  The new Jumanji movie got me thinking.  I think I want to write a story with a similar concept, but more like really throwing the stereotypes on their heads.  We've seen instances where guys and girls switch bodies and people either age or get de-aged, we've seen general change-ups in stereotypes: mostly the exact opposite.  Some examples would include the jock whose actually a brain, the "ugly duckling", and my personal favorite (note the sarcasm in this bit) the gamer girl.  Obviously, there are a lot more, but for this story, it would be a take on the gamer girl.

Well, that's it for this year's rants.  Hopefully next year I'll be better at my weekly aimed posts.   Have a Happy New Year for 2018, everyone!

Super Bowl and FutureLearn

So I meant to post this much earlier, and I would apologize, but that's getting tedious.  I believe I've mentioned that posts might be sporadic.  I promise I'm trying, but I still don't have my computer.  So instead I'd like to thank you for returning to my posts even with the waits between them.

For those who live in the United States of America, today was a bit of a special day - Super Bowl Sunday.  I'm going to be honest.  I know absolutely nothing about the Super Bowl except that it's a huge football event and the commercials during it are usually pretty epic.  That being said, I hope those who watched the Super Bowl were well entertained by either the game or the commercials (whichever reason you were watching it.)  My first time hearing about Super Bowl Sunday was from one of our regularly watched family shows as a kid.  It could have been Full House, Roseanne, or Home Improvement.  I don't really remember which one.  Football has never been a sport I really watched.  Heck, I've never really watched sports.  They tend to bore me from the home sidelines.  Even at the event, if I'm not participating or don't understand the game (like the fact that I just can't seem to grasp the rules of football) I quickly lose interest.

Outside of that...I haven't been up to too much, just trying to keep up on house chores...Oh!  I'm participating in some Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through Future Learn.  It's kind of nice, and I can take it at me own speed working around everything, even putting a few courses on hold until I have time to return to them.  With my huge list of varying interests, this is a terrific benefit!

Anyway, hoping you guys enjoyed the start of February!  And Happy Valentine's a week early!