This was such a warm and uplifting movie. It tells the story of a high school basketball player who's forced to change schools because of bullying. And in his new school, he finds not only a great team that teaches him how to love basketball again, but also life-long friends.

It's so sweet and inspiring. And his new team is absolutely precious. That they stay life-long friends - which is mentioned in the movie - despite every one of them choosing a wildly different career path in the end - the main hero becomes a sports teacher, the ex-captain a world-hopping businessman, another becomes a sushi chef, yet another a cop etc. - is just the cherry on top.

Also, I'm glad that the bullying wasn't simply swept under the rug, that it was shown that it left a mark on Yoichi, that he suffered from PTSD because of what his former team mates had done to him. It was a really great touch - and his new team mates had his back!

Also #2, there was very little to no romance, it was all about friendship and overcoming difficulties and it really didn't matter if their team manager, Hiroko , ended up with Yoichi or with Shunsuke, that really had no impact on their friendship. And that was great!