pictures, slam dunk, and a fourteen-year-old's sense of justice

A couple of screen shots from Episode 81 of Slam Dunk for your viewing pleasure. The awesomeness depicted herein may be too brilliant for your eyes, so I recommend lowering screen brightness. The first is when Sendoh pulls off an amazing three-pointer, and Rukawa (I like to imagine) finally accepts that the former is better than he will ever be; the second is after Sendoh makes that basket.

I'd almost forgotten that Sendoh does things in this game that Rukawa in his most brilliant moments hasn't come close to doing, nor ever will, judging by certain obscure laws of statistics in basketball anime shows of which I am the author. It's meaningless to hedge one's bets in this game: obviously Shohoku's victory was orchestrated almost entirely by Fate, guided by Coach Anzai. (I suspect that that White-haired Devil, convalescing in the Zenlike tranquility of his hospital room, may have visited a murrain on Ryonan.) At any rate, convinced as I am of Sendoh's undoubted superiority to Rukawa, I shall forbear to analyze Slam Dunk in such depth in the future (at least in this viewing). It won't be irrelevant, however, to confess that I had a plan laid out when I was fourteen and watching this brilliant show for the first time, in case Ryonan lost. What follows is more than highly delusional, so keep in mind that it was a fourteen-year-old's idea.

Kanagawa, being the largest prefecture, gets to have three teams qualify for the IH. (It's only fair.) The six teams in the finals are Kainan, Shohoku, Ryonan, Takezato, Shoyo, and Takezono. 6C2 = 15, so fifteen games will be played. Kainan wins all five of their games, Shohoku wins 4, Ryonan wins 3, Shoyo 2, Takezono 1 (just because there's a semi-serious character on the team), and Takezato none. After Shohoku beats Ryonan, they are assured a place in the IH. Shoyo and Ryonan, both at this point at two wins, need to compete for the third and final place. Ryonan wins, obviously; and Shoyo, sad and disheartened, goes back to training with the dim hope of making a comeback in the winter. This is how SD justice is served.