“Kuroko’s Basketball” follows personality devoid Kuroko and his rag-tag team of high school misfits as they try and beat other high schools, some of them having players from the “Generation of Miracles,” a former middle school basketball team with exceptional players, but for some reason most say that there were only five members of the “Generation of Miracles,” even though Kuroko was one of the members also apparently. I mean, every time we meet another member of the “Generation of Miracles” they completely acknowledge that Kuroko is an amazing player, so why the misconception?
Well apparently the reason for this misconception is that Kuroko has the presence of a blank sheet of paper. Literally, players on the court will completely forget that Kuroko is even playing because of his lack of presence. Another thing that could make Kuroko forgettable is the fact that he is terrible at basketball. For a title like “Kuroko’s Basketball” one would expect Kuroko to be front in center, making three pointers while jumping 50 feet in the air. But in the first episode the anime explains quite clearly how much Kuroko sucks at the sport. In fact the best player on the team is no good delinquent Taiga Kagami, who sports red hair to show the audience how angry he is all the time because red equals GRRRRR I’M ANGRY! The series then follows Kuroko and Kagami who team up, with Kagami having actual talent with Kuroko being able to pass the ball to him with nobody else noticing.
The story of “Kuroko’s Basketball” is nothing to gawk at, I mean once you see the team win one game you’ve pretty much seen them win them all. The only interesting point to the show that I found was the fact that the main character is not technically the star of the anime. Kuroko has to help out all the other players on the team, a value that is little explored in a lot of sports anime, and fits well of a game like basketball. It made it interesting at times to see how the team would use Kuroko to effectively beat the other team, imploring a sense of strategy. Only problem is that after the first couple of games the only real thing Kuroko does is pass the ball quickly and soon the effect of “Whoa who saw that guy coming,” gets old soon. Also after Kuroko’s team gets their ass handed to them in episode 18, the series comes to a complete halt with boring training episodes and watching other teams play. It’s an incredibly anti-climactic ending to a series, one that is banking on the fact that there will be a second season. (At the time of this review a second season will be premiering in October.)
The character of Kuroko is about as interesting as the plain piece of paper I mentioned earlier in the review, having no real motivation, personality, interesting backstory. All we know about him is that he played on the “Generation of Miracles,” making for a bland main character. Kagami is pretty much in the same boat as Kuroko; only his main personality trait is being mad and angry. The two characters have nearly no chemistry, making for an uninteresting paring that should be the heart of the series. Interestingly enough the show tries to explore the relationships of Kuroko and the other members of the “Generation of Miracles.” Most of it boils down to in the end either a player liking Kuroko or hating him because of his school choice. There also seems to be a bigger focus on the “Generation of Miracle,” then there is Kuroko’s team, with the last big game of the series involving two different members of the “Generation of Miracles.” With more of a focus on the “Generation of Miracles” the main team in question becomes less interesting as the series progresses. Oddly also the series only features three of the five members of the “Generation of Miracles,” holding out the last two for the second season. All I’ve got to say about that is they better be gods at basketball considering how one of the members introduced, Daiki Aomine, can literally score upwards of 60 points in one half.
The animation of “Kuroko’s Basketball” is fluid, with attention to detail during the games themselves. Most games are nicely animated, making every game at least somewhat enjoyable to watch. Character designs for the main characters have different color hair, to represent their personalities and to differ them up from all the other players that look exactly like them. On Kuroko’s team there was several times where I forgot which player was who because nearly all of them looked identical. Not that it terribly matters; the only real people who the show focuses on are Kuroko and Kagami.
The two openings for the show are serviceable, being able to hype one up for the show, while the first ending I thought was great. Seriously, I thought the first ending is one of the best ending songs I’;ve heard in a while being catchy and a nice way to end an episode. Most anime series now a days sick any random song at the end (see Kuroko’s Basketball’s second ending), but the music they picked for the first ending was great in my opinion. Most background music was nice, making the games quite intense at time. All in all nothing that stood out (except of course for that great ending).
In the end, ones enjoyment of “Kuroko’s Basketball” depends on how much they enjoy most sports anime. Coming from someone who cannot stand sports, I found “Kuroko’s Basketball” enjoyable at times. The nice little twist the premise adds, the animation and the first opening makes “Kuroko’s Basketball” stand out a little bit from other sports anime, but besides for that the show is generic in nearly all other categories. I do plan on watching the second season and am hoping that the show is able to fix the character problems plaguing the story (i.e. focus more on Kuroko’s team, work on better chemistry, give more motivation’s, etc.), for if they can fix that they would have a real winner.
OVERALL: “Kuroko’s Basketball” is taking some steps in the right direction with a focus on the whole team, but sloppy character development hold the series back from being truly fun.
