Japanese Title: Kuroko no Basket

 

Related: Kuroko’s Basketball Seasons 2 & 3 (included in review)

Similar: Haikyuu!!

Slam Dunk

Free! Iwatobi Swim Club

Prince of Tennis

 

Watched in: Japanese

Genre: Sports

Length: 75 episodes (3 seasons), 5 OVA

 

Positives:

• Good animation.
• Starts well.

Negatives:

• Can’t choose a protagonist.
• Superpowers cheapen the matches.
• No surprises.
• Worse with each season.
• Too much spectator commentary.

(Request an anime for review here.)

The hype was real for me going into Kuroko’s Basketball after the comparisons drawn to Haikyuu. Yet even with tempered expectations, this anime disappointed me. It started well…

A middle school team of basketball players once known as the “Generation of Miracles” have since gone to separate high school teams. When people talk of the team, they only mention five players, having not noticed the ‘phantom’ sixth player, Kuroko, on the court (just go with it). He gains renewed energy when Kagami, a player with great potential, joins his high school. They work together to reach the top of Japan’s inter-high championships, even if that means defeating Kuroko’s former teammates of Miracles.

At first, I thought all was well with Kuroko’s Basketball. We meet the characters in fine fashion, backstory doesn’t bog the start, the coach is funny, the first serious match is good, and the animation does the sport justice. I like the running gag of Kuroko being so inconspicuous that people often forget he’s there, similar to Hinata. The anime does stretch the plausibility of this in matches though. Even spectators act as if Kuroko was wearing an invisibility cloak this whole time. It’s a tad silly, but not a big deal. The problem lies in the writer’s inability to stop the power creep.

It starts with Kuroko’s invisibility, then onto a guy that never misses, and even to the best player being someone that never practices. Tell that to any basketball pro and they’ll laugh their arses off. One match has the entire opposing team blatantly cheat throughout to no consequences. If you’re going to have them cheat, at least make it clever so we can believe they wouldn’t be disqualified, never mind arrested. More brains needed. It fails at being cool by going beyond the realm of implausibility. And it creeps worse with each season.

By the end, one guy can make you drop the ball just by looking at you. I do not jest. He looks at a player and they lay a brick right there on court. The mysticism element in the techniques lessens their impressiveness because rather than make success come for hard work and strategy, magic hands over victory. It isn’t impressive when Superman bulldozes human linebackers to score a touchdown. A touch of the supernatural would have been fine, but here, just when I think it cannot get sillier, Kuroko’s Basketball proves me wrong.

This supernatural approach to basketball could have excelled if it didn’t take itself so seriously. When a player runs from mid-court to block the basket faster than the speed of a pass, no one questions it. At no point does anyone laugh at the ludicrous techniques on display. It feels as though the writer is desperate to legitimise his lazy approach to conveying basketball in fiction. A sprinkling of Food Wars would work wonders here.

Seasons 2 and 3 are nothing but a string of tournament matches against various teams starring one Miracle player each. Hints at good external drama from season 1 fall to the wayside. This can be engaging if the Miracle players have dimension. They don’t. Like their powers, these shounen stuffers have the ‘one trait’ that defines them, without layers to make them memorable. I can’t recall any of their names. I remember them by their colour on the rainbow. Character depth tries to step on court towards the end of each match to mediocre results, which often amounts to a complete 180 in personality. Kuroko’s Basketball has this constant sense of needing to get the next game started immediately, lest the audience lose focus on trite things like “characters” and “story.”

Kuroko’s Basketball is in such a rush that it forgets Kuroko. Oh the irony. Several-episode stretches have him as the least important character, as the next player on the rainbow takes all focus. Even Kagami becomes a shadow for too long. The airtime balance in season 3 is atrocious.

To conclude on a positive note, I must commend Kuroko’s Basketball for giving attention to the pressure that comes with being the best. Most anime, whether sports or battle, will show the strongest characters as never letting the pressure get to them, when in reality, being the best comes with a new set of pressures to which lower players cannot relate. I love this inclusion – could have been the main conflict.

Art – High

Good animation brings the games to life. The colour-coded characters are a matter of preference to the individual.

Sound – Medium

The acing is fine, but the script has issues timing player thoughts and spectator commentary. I appreciate the effort of giving a giant Senegalese player an accent – shame they made no effort with the “American” girl.

Story – Low

A mythical player from a basketball team once known as the “Generation of Miracles” takes on his former, and equally mythical, teammates in their new teams one by one. Kuroko’s Basketball amounts to a string of matches with predictable outcomes as it gives too much attention to side characters over the protagonist.

Overall Quality – Medium

Recommendation: For shounen sports fans only. Kuroko’s Basketball is as generic as you can imagine for a sports anime in terms of its structure and story. The characters stepped out of every battle anime with a cast of one-note ‘specialists.’ If you love the genre, this will be your dream. Fans of real life basketball will find it hard to stomach the bad strategies and implausibility.

(Request reviews here. Find out more about the rating system here.)

 

Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)

Positive: None

Negative: