Kuroko's Basketball is an anime based on a manga written by Tadatoshi Fujimaki, which is published on Weekly Shonen Jump. This series is about Taiga Kagami, a talented basketball player and his aim to defeat the Generation of Miracles, a team of talented basketball players. I think I missed something in this short summary.
Teiko Junior High is best known for its Generation of Miracles, a group of talented basketball players whose skills bagged the said school 3 national championships. After they graduated, the five players went on to different schools. But that's not the focus of this series; our focus is on the team's sixth member respected by the five prodigies. He is dubbed the "Phantom Sixth Man" and his name is Tetsuya Kuroko.
Enter Taiga Kagami, a student from the U.S. who transferred to Japan after hearing tales about the Generation of Miracles and his aim is to defeat those guys. This is when everything starts to become interesting, both Kuroko and Kagami joined the Seirin Basketball team and together, Kuroko must beat his former teammates for their school to win the championships. But it will be one long road ahead for our heroes if they wish to defeat the Generation of Miracles one by one.
For starters, I am not a big fan of sports anime because if I will base it on my experience watching that genre, for me to get interested in it, it should be either a) over the top (see Eyeshield 21) and b) has a great balance between drama and sports (see Slam Dunk and Hajime no Ippo). In the case of Kuroko's Basketball, it's a strange mix of both. Some of the basketball moves in the series are a bit over the top and is impossible to pull off by an average human being. By average human being, I mean you and me, not those NBA players; I think they can pull some of those moves seen in the anime.
More on the basketball stuff, what I like about it is that the action is intense and it gets me cheering for the teams. I rarely experience such thrill in watching sports anime and the last time I am cheering on the teams is during the time I am watching Slam Dunk or Eyeshield 21. I feel like I am part of the crowd who is watching the game. My only gripe about the action is that there are times that they make some cuts of the game. Granted, it's for the sake of the series to reach a minimum of 25 episodes but it feels like I am cheated by the producers of the anime. I want to see more basketball action!
Now for the drama bits, it's more focused on the relationships of two key characters per team, with greater focus on Kuroko and Kagami's relationship. Just like most relationships, it didn't start pretty well, but after much interaction and Kagami acknowledging Kuroko's special abilities, the two went along just fine. The growth of their friendship is one of the key aspects of the show that I liked. Their growth of their friendship feels natural and what's great about it is that the two have mutual respect for each other.
One good example is that after they were defeated by one team during the summer cup, they decided to not talk to each other to sort out what went wrong to their teamwork until they are ready to talk about it. The result? Their skills as players improved and with more training coming from their coach, these two are ready for the winter cup. As for the other characters of the Seirin Basketball team, even though most of the time they felt like they are just "there" for the sake of the team to have a team, some of them are interesting characters if you give them a chance to shine. From the team, the only ones that I find interesting are Riko (the coach), Hyuga (the captain) and that guy with a monkey face.
Since I am done talking about Seirin, how about the other teams? The other teams are interesting to say at least, especially how each Generation of Miracle interacts with them. Midorima doesn't mind his teammates, Aomine completely ignores them while Kise; he is the one who cares for them. In short, the only one who has some character development from the five members of the Generation of Miracles is Kise with Midorima coming next since it looks like he is starting to bond more with them.
Overall, the first season of Kuroko's Basketball is really enjoyable. The show has a good mix of drama and comedy, which reminded me a bit of another basketball anime called Slam Dunk and it's not a bad thing. The animation for the series looks great, especially during the actions sequences. Even though Seirin lost, there is still hope for the team to enter the Inter High Basketball Championships via the Winter Cup. With Kagami and Kuroko honing their respective skills, can the duo defeat the three members of the Generation of Miracles that didn't defeat next season?
Special thanks to Random Curiosity for the images.
