Anime Review: Kuroko No Basuke

Hey Guys, so I have actually been writing this review for quite some time. If you have followed me on any type of social media this was actually supposed to be up mid to end of 2015. I am glad to say that this is my first post of 2016. Sorry that I have been gone so long, but welcome to this review! As you can tell there are a few changes to the blog and, while they aren't dramatic, I am hoping the are for the best. The first as you can tell is the title of the blog. No longer is the date in the title, but it will appear at the end of each blog as a sign off kind of thing. The next is that I am only doing one item per blog post, so let's begin!

Anime Review: Kuroko no Basuke

I am not a person that likes sports, obviously. I would rather sit inside with a good book than run around playing games. Sports anime is a far and few between genre. There are only three (current) sports anime I will watch (over and over again mind you). Those three shows are Haikyuu, Free, and Kuroko no Basuke. Yep. Volleyball, swimming, and basketball. Now I have tried other shows and manga but I just can't get into them. Let's break down the parts that make me love Kuroko and hope you have fallen or will fall in love with this show.

Story

The basketball team of Teiko Middle School rose to distinction by demolishing all competition. The regulars of the team became known as the "Generation of Miracles". After graduating from middle school, these five stars went to different high schools with top basketball teams. However, a fact few know is that there was another player in the "Generation of Miracles": a phantom sixth man. This mysterious player is now a freshman at Seirin High, a new school with a powerful, if little-known, team. Now, Tetsuya Kuroko - "the sixth member of the "Generation of Miracles", and Taiga Kagami - a naturally talented player who spent most of middle school in the US, aim to bring Seirin to the top of Japan and begin taking on Kuroko's former teammates one by one. The series chronicles Seirin's rise to become Japan's number one high school team. The rest of the Generation of Miracles include Ryota Kise, Shintaro Midorima, Daiki Aomine, Atsushi Murasakibara, and Seijuro Akashi. (source)
I instantly fell in love with the show as soon as I started watching it. I happened upon it one day after watching Free and the show was just starting it's second season. I watched the first season in like a week and then caught up with the second season to the point of crying desperately for the next week to arrive. Then when season two ended I had caught up in the manga series and was waiting for new chapters as well. The manga finished it's run and they announced a third season to air in the winter and spring season of 2015.

The appealing part of the story is that while the abilities of the Miracles is highly exaggerated it's as real a feel as Free or Haikyuu. The characters aren't all powerful and never experience loss whether it's the main characters losing games or the Miracles losing games, you do get a sense of reality smeared across this high paced basketball game. Plus they aren't super powerful either, each of the characters are only high school students and they experience limitations in their abilities, but we'll talk about that later when we discuss the characters. 

The 30 volume manga series ran from December 8th of 2008 until September 1st of 2014. The three season show ran as follows: Season One ran from April 7th of 2012 until September 22nd of 2012 at 25 episodes, Season Two ran from October 5th of 2013 until March 29th of 2014 at 25 episodes, and Season Three ran from January 10th of 2015 until July 1st of 2015 at 25 episodes bring the three seasons to a total of 75 episodes. Now if you are sad that the story is over, don't fret because there is one last game. A new serialization started under the name Kuroko no Basuke: Extra Game which brings the Miracles together as they tackle the streets. This manga started airing December 29th of 2014 and is rumored to be green-lit for animation.

Music

Be honest. You didn't really think that I would watching a sports show without an ulterior motive, did you? Of course not, aside from the characters (who I will get to momentarily), the music of the show is obviously what captivated me. Like seriously. Did you expect anything less from me? I'm a music junkie. I always have to be listening to music and I am easily captivated by an amazing song. With seven openings and seven endings, let's take a peek at my top 7 for each. 

My top seven opening credits was really hard to pick because of the fact that there are so many good openings (all of them) and they all fit with the section of the show they are paired with. So let's see what I finally settled on in regards to the opening fitting the series as a whole. 

1. "Punky Funky Love" by GRANRODEO - Season 3 Opening 1
2. "ZERO" by Kensho Ono - Season 3 Opening 2
3. "Can Do" by GRANRODEO - Season 1 Opening 1
4. "The other self" by GRANRODEO - Season 2 Opening 1
5. "RIMFIRE" by GRANRODEO - Season 1 Opening 2
6. "Memories" by GRANRODEO - Season 3 Opening 3
7. "Ever-changing Magical Star" by GRANRODEO - Season 2 Opening 2

Unlike the openings, the end credits were so very easy to place an order to. My number one choice had actually been my ringtone for the longest time and would still be if I didn't have BIGBANG's BANG BANG BANG as my ringtone. But that's a story for a different day. Here's my list.

1. "FANTASTIC TUNE" by Kensho Ono - Season 2 Ending 2
2. "GLITTER DAYS" by Fo'xTails - Season 3 Ending 1
3. "WALK" by OLDCODEX - Season 2 Ending 1
4. "Catal Rhythm" by OLDCODEX - Season 1 Ending 2
5. "Ambivalence" by SCREEN Mode - Season 3 Ending 2
6. "Latana" by OLDCODEX - Season 3 Ending 3
7. "Start it right away" by Hyadain - Season 1 Ending 1

Kensho Ono is obviously the reigning champ in this battle as he took the number 1 and 2 spots of the ED and OP lists, respectively. The opening credits get you so pumped for each episode it isn't even funny. That's why Punky Funky Love got the top spot because who doesn't get amped up each time that op is playing? 

Characters

One of my favorite things about this show is that you have a diversity of characters to choose from. You can have a favorite team or a favorite type of character and I can guarantee you will find all walks of anime characters in this series. However there are far too many characters for me to talk about them all. If you wanna know more about the characters you can check out the Kuroko no Basuke Wikia page. Instead, let's take a peek at my top 10 characters. (All images for characters come from http://kurokonobasuke.wikia.com/wiki/Kuroko_no_Basuke_Wiki)

#10 (tie) - Riko Aida 
The Seirin Coach is played by Chiwa Saito


#10 (tie) - Satsuki Momoi 
The Too Manager and ex-manager of Teiko is played by Fumiko Orikasa


#9 - Teppei Kiyoshi
The #7 Center for Seirin is played by Kenji Hamada


#8 - Taiga Kagami
The #10 Power Forward for Seirin is played by Yuki Ono


#7 - Ryota Kise
The #7 Small Forward for Kaijo and Teiko's Generation of Miracles Small Forward is played by Ryohei Kimura


#6 - Shintaro Midorima
The #6 Shooting Guard for Shutoku and ex-vice captain of Teiko's Generation of Miracles is played by Daisuke Ono


#5 - Daiki Aomine
The #5 Power Forward for Too and Ex-Ace of Teiko's Generation of Miracles is played by Junichi Suwabe


#4 - Tatsuya Himuro 
The # 12 Shooting Guard for Yosen is played by Kisho Taniyama


#3 - Kazunari Takao 
The #10 Point Guard for Shutoku is played by Tatsuhisa Suzuki


#2 - Tetsuya Kuroko
The #11 passing specialist for Seirin and ex-member of Teiko's generation of Miracles is played by Kensho Ono


#1 - Seijuro Akashi
The #4 Point Guard and Captain of Rakuzan and the ex-captain of Teiko's Generation of Miracles is played by Hiroshi Kamiya


It was actually really tough to pick my characters except for the top three. Akashi and Kuroko are my absolute favorite and there is something entertaining of Takao. The best part is that two of my top three sing music for the show. 

Games

Obviously the biggest thing about the show is the amazing games. There are a total of two competitions that you get to see throughout the three season show. The first is the Inter High which is the preliminary round of sorts into the second which is the Winter Cup. Just giving you fair warning, there will be spoilers in the section so if you don't want to read these spoilers skip on ahead. That's all. So this top games will include any game from the show, this also includes practice matches because there are several instances that our Seirin team has been thrown in with the big dogs to play a quick game. Let's see this list.

#10 Seirin vs Kaijo 

This practice match was the first time we really got to see Kuroko and Kagami working together but also we got to see the Generation of Miracles in action. This match ended with a score off 100 - 98 with Seirin winning. 

#9 Shutoku vs Seirin

This Winter Cup nail bitter had Kuroko facing off against Midorima and boy was it a match. The game ended in a tie of 104 - 104. Both teams advanced. 

#8 Seirin vs Yosen 

Not only was this a Winter Cup game pitting Kuroko against Atsushi Murasakibara but also Kagami against his brother Tatsuya Himuro. This game was the point that you truly found out about the strength of Kuroko and Kagami. This game ended in a score of 73-72 with Seirin winning and advancing one step closer to the finals. 

#7 Kaijo vs Too

This Inter High game set Kise against Aomine in a match to see who could win. It was breathtaking and for a while you actually held hope that the underdog team would win. The game ended with a score of 110-98 advancing Too in the Inter High tournament. 

#6 Seirin vs Too

This Inter High match was and still is the hardest game to watch. At Teiko, Aomine was Kuroko's light but now in high school Kuroko has a new light Kagami. Watching this game is sad because Aomine crushes Kuroko and his new team. The game ended with a score of 112- 55 in Too's favor ending Seirin's chance of advancing to the finals of Inter High but securing their spot in the Winter Cup. 

#5 Seirin vs Kirisaki Dai Ichi 

This was the greatest Winter Cup preliminary game ever!! You got to see an angry Kuroko. That's enough to make any game amazing. Seirin broke the spider's web and won the game 76-70. 

#4 Seirin vs Too

Finally, Kuroko gets his redemption and the chance to fix things between him and his old best friend. Momoi was told by Kuroko that Aomine would lose this game and become his old self again. That is the truth. Winning the game by 1 point was Seirin with a final score of 101-100. 

#3 Shutoku vs Rakuzan

This Winter Cup game is between Akashi and Midorima. If Akashi had a best friend in middle school it would probably have been Midorima. So to watch Midorima and Takao showcase their teamwork against the strongest team in the high school division was pretty awesome. The game ended 86-70 with Rakuzan moving on to the finals. 

#2 Seirin vs Kaijo 

Ever wonder what it would be like to face all the Generation of Miracles at once? That's what this Winter Cup game presents. Kise is going all out to move forward and uses his power to copy the GoM's. However, Kuroko and Seirin power forward and win by 1 point. The game ends in a score of 81-80 with Seirin advancing to the finals. 

#1 Seirin vs Rakuzan
The Winter Cup final game. The game of all games. Akashi vs Kuroko. Wanna find out who wins? Either google it or better option...go watch it. It is the last half of season 3. 

What is your favorite game? Let me know. 

The End

So guys, that was the Kuroko no Basuke anime review. Holy hell this was a long as review. It is a total of 10 pages in Word. Do you like this new style of blog? Wanna see more reviews like this? Let me know. 

You can follow me on these social media sites: 
Twitter - @katrina_meade
Snapchat - katrinameade
Facebook - Kat's Anime Corner
Instagram - @vamp1929

Ja Ne! 

xx Kat
=^.^=

Update 1/13/16

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