Ro-Kyu-Bu

It's about basketball, I swear.

What do you do if you're the aunt of a star basketball player whose high school team was just disbanded because its leader got into a relationship with their advisor's elementary school-aged daughter?  You blackmail him into coaching the girls' basketball team at your elementary school, of course.  Hasegawa Subaru is put in that position, initially agreeing to only coach them for three days, to prep them for a match against the boys' team, but after "losing" a bet with his aunt and the team, he stays on and continues coaching.

Ro-Kyu-Bu took some heat in the beginning due to the rather obvious claims that it was targeted toward a lolicon audience, but despite that, it turned out to be one of my favorites this season, and only the second "sports" anime that I got in to (the first being Bamboo Blade, back when I was vaguely interested in kendo). 

The story itself is mostly character driven, split, loosely, into character arcs.  First there's Subaru becoming a temporary coach, then Tomoka challenging herself to shoot the 50 consecutive free throws to win the bet to keep him as their coach, Maho resolving her issues with Takenaka at a training camp before another game, Airi getting over her height issues (as an elementary schooler who looks more like she belongs in high school),  Hinata's health issues, and culminating with a match and near win against a much higher ranked school.  There were, however, two characters (one main, and one almost-main) who didn't get full arcs of their own. The first is Saki,who still played a major role throughout the series, usually as the tsukkomi (straight man in comedic routines) to the antics of the rest of the team, though in other cases she ended up needing one of her own.  The other is Aoi, Subaru's tsundere childhood friend and fellow basketball player, who stumbles onto his coaching activities, then begins helping him with them.

Like I said earlier.  Ro-Kyu-Bu ended up being an unexpected favorite for me this season, and, while it's probably not for everyone, it still comes pretty well recommended from me.

It was all Saki's idea...

And I can't leave this out.  Hinata's "Oh~" verbal tic is probably comparable to Suiseiseki's "Desu".  Don't believe me?  Watch.  And prepare for diabetes.