Review of the anime Kuroko no Basket (“Kuroko no Basuke”)

It seems that I have already noted more than once that after the defeat in World War II, Japanese culture came under the increased influence of the West, especially the culture of the United States. This was expressed not only in music and cinema, but also in sports. For example, such an unconventional sport for the rest of the world as baseball has become widespread. Other sports are only slightly inferior to it in popularity, among which basketball . Of course, the basketball theme could not escape the universe of Japanese animation. I want to dedicate this review to one of the sensational sports titles of past years - Kuroko no Basket (“ Kuroko no Basuke ”) .

Brief information

Kuroko no Basket is a basketball sports anime produced by Production IG . At the time of writing this review, three full seasons and several special episodes have been released. The first season appeared in the spring of 2012 and consists of twenty-five episodes. The second season appeared in the fall of 2013 and consists of twenty-five episodes. The third season appeared in the winter of 2015, and also consists of twenty-five episodes. The series is based on a manga authored by Tadatoshi Fujimaki . In addition, three recompilation films of the series and one sequel film, Kuroko no Basket Movie 4: Last Game, . In this review I will only touch on the first three seasons.

The Teiko High School Basketball Club is an unusually strong team with over a hundred players and three straight championships. But among the brilliant players, five geniuses stood out, better known as the “Generation of Miracles.” However, a strange rumor circulated around these five that there was another player on the team, unknown and completely unnoticeable, who was recognized by all five geniuses. A ghostly sixth player named Tetsuya Kuroko . It just so happened that after graduating from high school, all the Generation of Miracles players fled to different high schools with strong basketball teams. Tetsuya went to the Seirin , where, having met with a promising classmate Taiga Kagami , he decides to go towards new horizons. And chief among them is the victory over former teammates from the “Generation of Miracles”. But the way to get there is still very, very long...

Plot and main characters

To thoroughly understand the intricacies of the animated series “Basketball kuroko” you need to watch all the episodes to the end, right from the debut season. All the action in the anime revolves around a basketball team , the fame of which was passed on by students of one of the Japanese schools. The members of this team have no shortage of skill, as evidenced by numerous victories in tournaments and championships.

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Suddenly Kuroko leaves for another team, where NBA star fan Taiga Kagami follows him. The latter dreams of promoting basketball in Japan to leading roles and plans to play for another team. Also in the manga series, the miniature and insightful girl coach Riko Aida, endowed with the talent to instantly recognize the qualities of a player, amazes with her inner strength. Rico's task will be to unite two strong basketball players under the auspices of the club ; this is the only way the team will be able to win. The confrontation threatens to spill over the floor and after the release date of the episodes of the new season, viewers could find out the denouement of this sports drama. But there are no plans to continue.

Characters

Like all team sports anime, Kuroko no Basket a lot of characters. This is not surprising - each team must have at least five main team players + bench players. How many teams will Seirin play against in all three seasons? I think there will be ten teams in which we are shown at least a couple of players. So consider it. Of course, among all this variety of characters, about twenty are important. The truly bright ones... I would single out three. Firstly, I liked Daiki Aomine , the ace from Generation of Miracles, Kuroko no Basket In principle, the rest of the players from Teiko also turned out to be quite interesting, but it was Aomine who turned out to be the best developing and most changing character, who does not lose his charm throughout all three seasons. It was really interesting for me to watch him. The second, oddly enough, I’ll single out the captain of Seirin – Junpei Hyuuga – who is quite far from the image of an ideal captain, and therefore interesting. And third, perhaps, I’ll highlight several antagonists who are best revealed in the second and third seasons and do an excellent job of evoking negative emotions - they are really easy to hate.

In Kuroko no Basket, there are two main protagonists who are pitted against each other more than once throughout the plot, like Yin and Yang. Kuroko , on the one hand, is not a bad protagonist, however, he did not evoke . However, everything here is completely individual - Kuroko is definitely not bad. He is a sort of eminence grise who has the most influence on the course of Seirin's matches. It would seem that this is not a very common type, which can even be called unworn. However, I still didn't like him. I guess I just don't like amorphous characters who, for some reason, are made unreasonably strong - there is no single explanation for why he deserves the power he has. He's just strong because he loves basketball and trains hard, that's all. And don’t give a damn that all the other characters also love this sport and work hard at training - it doesn’t help them much. The second protagonist, Taiga Kagami , is much more straightforward. I'm somehow tired of such noisy characters, twisting everything in their path. But at least he really tries to gain strength, which can inspire a certain degree of respect. No, not interest - just respect. In general, to summarize, there are a lot of characters, but only a few of them seemed interesting to me.

Heroes

• Tetsuya Kuroko is called a ghost player, and his advantage is certain superpowers. He does not try to tell others about them, and for opponents and participants in the game he often becomes invisible.
• Taiga Kagami is considered a natural basketball player. He entered the first year, and his signature performance in the form of a meteorite jump and a shooting star causes genuine delight among fans.
• Riko Aida is in charge of the team's training. She is able to instantly determine his abilities and potential by a person’s appearance.
• Junpei Hyuga holds the title of team captain. He is famous for his precision shots, including three-point shots. In difficult situations, he is able to act decisively and without hesitation.
• Teppei Yeyoshi is known as the founder of the Seirin Club. In the team he plays the role of a tearing defender.
• Shun Izuki is calm and collected. He loves to joke with others, but often his humor is unsuccessful.
• Rinnosuke Mitobe is a hard worker and is used to giving 100%. He doesn't like unnecessary words and communicates well with the team.
• Shinji Koganei is considered a versatile player, capable of hitting the basket from anywhere on the court.
• Satoshi Tsuchida belongs to the “eternal reserve” category, as he rarely appears on the court.

Plot

Do you know why I love basketball? For its entertainment and unpredictability . Entertainment, because athletes demonstrate the pinnacle of using a trained body. They jump higher, run faster, throw more accurately and think better. They must be able to do absolutely everything. Unpredictability because in basketball it is not clear who the winner will be until the last whistle. History knows a huge number of cases when teams came back from seemingly impossible gaps and won the match. And the score sometimes remains equal until the last second, and the matches smoothly flow into a war of endurance in overtime, of which there can be an unlimited number in basketball. This is a complex, spectacular and unpredictable sport, so it is not surprising that in an anime about basketball I expected to see all its best qualities on display. However, everything turned out to be not so simple.

in terms of entertainment in Kuroko no Basket - the matches are literally filled with bright passes, powerful slam dunks, duels and long-range hits. In addition, many characters are equipped with unusual abilities, the unfolding and collision of which I found interesting to watch - all in the best traditions of shounen. In addition, the fate of most matches here is decided, as in life, at the moment of the last throw. Perhaps, it is precisely because of the entertainment that Kuroko no Basket , despite the endless streams of pretentiousness and talkativeness, looks quite easy and relaxed - after all, it’s been a long time since I binge-watched an anime.

On the other hand, the unpredictability in Kuroko no Basket is at a level close to zero . At a certain point, it began to seem to me that I was watching Groundhog Day, in which different matches with different people proceed according to exactly the same scenarios. Firstly, this concerns the results of the match - by God, in watching all three seasons I was wrong with my prediction once (and that was because a draw is a rare result). It’s time to go to bookmakers and become a millionaire. You don't need to be a psychic to predict the outcome of matches in Kuroko no Basket - the most standard plot cliché for sports titles is used here, when a team of promising newcomers first somehow copes with their opponents, then encounters the first impassable obstacle, loses, cries, and then returns stronger in order to take revenge and move further in the tournament bracket. And this is repeated as much as necessary.

Predictability concerns not only the outcome of the match, but also its flow. At a certain point, I began to notice that a couple of seconds before the event, I already knew its result. Why? Yes, because they are implemented according to the most common templates, which only change places from match to match. Did the player learn some new super move that can't be stopped? This means that in a match he will use it successfully a couple of times, and then the enemy will still find a way to stop him. If the team starts to rejoice before using the technique, that means that’s it, the technique will be 100% a failure. Conversely, if a team suddenly loses hope, then the next action of its player will be successful. If the team’s game is not going well, Kuroko will come out and reduce the gap with a new wonderful tactic. Kuroko's game isn't working? This means that it will 100% go to his comrades, who previously kicked oblong objects and could not do anything. And in the fight for the rebound, the player who screams the loudest will make it. The match will be won by the players who tell their opponent one more time that they will not lose! This, in a nutshell, is the recipe for success from Kuroko no Basket - I'm giving it away for free! Go ahead and implement it on the basketball courts.

Probably someone will now start arguing and say that all sports anime are predictable, because the result in sports can only be victory and defeat (sometimes a draw), and there are few options here. To some extent, this is true, and I took the predictability of match results in Kuroko no Basket calmly. However, the predictability of each individual action, be it a throw, an interception or a pass, is usually not inherent in high-quality sports titles, as they kill any intrigue. Essentially, it's like seeing spoilers a couple of seconds before the actual event. Considering the already leisurely pace of the story, significantly diluted by useless chatter, the lack of surprises in Kuroko no Basket turned out to be a serious drawback for me.

However, there is of Kuroko no Basket that I seriously disliked. What’s curious is that if I were an ordinary viewer, I would hardly have paid attention to her. However, it just so happened that I follow basketball, am actively interested in basketball and play basketball, and therefore this fact could not hide from my eyes. The fact is that not enough is said about basketball itself in Kuroko no Basket , which plays a serious role in the case of sports anime. Of course, I’m not talking about some superficial things like throwing a ball into a hoop, and whoever hits the most wins. They are demonstrated quite clearly Kuroko no Basket First of all, I mean the terminology, as well as the theoretical component of basketball. But there was definitely something to talk about here! It’s not for nothing that in professional teams, and especially in the NBA, there are entire analytical departments for which expensive software is written. If, watching Haikyuu !! or the conventional Yuri on Ice , I learned something new about the sport described, but I can’t say the same Kuroko no Basket Hell, there are practically no scenes in the title where the entire site is demonstrated with the tactical arrangement of the athletes - there is no talk about any depth of the chosen topic here.

This is sad, because in fact, basketball is one of the smartest games, in which, in addition to powerful muscles, you need to have a clear head. A well-played combination can be no less spectacular than an explosive dunk, as various NBA teams have proven more than once on the way to the championship (for example, the Spurs ). I can forgive Kuroko no Basket for being unrealistic when each match consists of a series of highlights that rarely happen in real basketball - after all, without these exaggerations and super moves, the anime would be boring. I can forgive the constant pretentious conversations during matches, which completely destroy the dynamics of the narrative - without this, shounen would not be shounen. But I was very disappointed to see that in Kuroko no Basket the depth of basketball was not even fifty percent explored. Perhaps the fact that I am a basketball fan somewhat spoiled the viewing experience. But how many references could be made... How much information to add... Eh. And here they didn’t even mention Michael Jordan once - that’s necessary...

A few words about the second and third seasons. Basically, they give you exactly what you expect from them: revealing familiar secondary characters, adding a couple of new heroes, techniques, jokes, and a few predictable matches. The first season seemed frankly weak to me; the second is a little better, largely thanks to the epic confrontation between Aomine and Taiga; and the third turned out to be even better due to increased dynamics and approach to the finale. If it weren't for the third season, I would have been disappointed. Speaking of jokes, the humor in Kuroko no Basket turned out to be as simple and intelligible as possible. This includes scenes about Kuroko’s invisibility that are repeated throughout the plot. And jokes about the trainer’s small breast size. And Taiga’s bickering with everyone around her. And Midorima's good luck symbols. Unobtrusive, simple, and even funny at times - all in the best traditions of shounen.

Panache

Basketball is one of the most dynamic sports disciplines existing in the universe. It is constant movement, athleticism and demonstrating the limits of human performance. This is an incredibly fast and beautiful sport, in which every second of delay is worth lost points, and sometimes even a lost game. Of course, based on the above, when watching an anime about basketball, you expect to see a lot of high-quality animation, because the theme of the title provides a huge number of prerequisites for this. These include slam dunks, alley-oops, screens, crossovers, and coordinated movement of team players with precise passes. In general, my Kuroko no Basket Unfortunately, they were not fully justified.

On the one hand, I was pleased with the design of the characters - they are easy to remember, and their appearance suits the characters quite well. Even the notorious unnatural hair colors in this case do not cause rejection, because they fit well into the theme of basketball - just remember Dennis Rodman, who dyed his hair crazy colors. In addition, I was pleased with the graphic effects used when the characters use their special abilities (like Kuroko’s passes). On the other hand, there is too much static . Unforgivably a lot. In all the episodes of the first season, there were at most two or three scenes in which I could truly feel the dynamics of the movement of the ball and the movements of the athletes around the court. For a sports anime, animation quality is key, and I think Kuroko no Basket has some issues with that. Not critical, but noticeable. Now imagine what the title would look like if the matches in it were drawn in the same way as in the first opening of the second season? Even if not all, but at least the key points? It would be a completely different level. In Haikyuu !! , which Production I.G released just two years after Kuroko no Basket , the dynamics of volleyball are conveyed much better. Apparently they got it wrong. Although this is noticeable within the framework of Kuroko no Basket - for example, the third season is expectedly drawn much better, and comes closest to graphical expectations.

Music

The musical component is traditionally considered one of the most important in sports titles, and, as a rule, it turns out to be of quite high quality. Fortunately, the creators of Kuroko no Basket did not neglect traditions and paid significant attention to music. It harmoniously mixed classical and rock motifs, which is optimal for sports titles. Of course, up to the level of the same Haikyuu !! It’s not up to par, but it’s hard to call it bad: the background music does an excellent job of recreating the necessary atmosphere, be it the feelings of defeat, the joy of victory, or the tension of a match. However, the openings and endings turned out to be especially successful, in all three seasons: there was never a desire to rewind them - everything was very dynamic and on topic. And the visual component in them is at a high level.

Openings:

#1.1: Can Do by GRANRODEO (episodes 1-13);

#1.2: RIMFIRE performed by GRANRODEO (episodes 14-25);

№2.1: The Other self performed by GRANRODEO (episodes 1-13);

#2.2: Hengen Jizai no Magical Star by GRANRODEO (episodes 14-24);

#3.1: Punky Funky Love by GRANRODEO (episodes 1-12);

#3.2: ZERO by Kensho Ono (episodes 13-16);

#3.3: Memories performed by GRANRODEO (episodes 17-25);

Endings:

#1.1: Start it right away performed by Hyadain (episodes 1-13);

#1.2: Catal Rhythm performed by OLDCODEX (episodes 14-25);

No. 2.1: WALK performed by OLDCODEX (episodes 1-13);

#2.2: FANTASTIC TUNE performed by Kensho Ono (episodes 14-24);

#3.1: GLITTER DAYS by Fo ' xTails (episodes 1-12);

No. 3.2: Ambivalence performed by SCREEN mode (episodes 13-16);

#3.3: Lantana performed by OLDCODEX (episodes 17-25);

Ratings

Characters – 7.5. There are a lot of stereotyped heroes, but there are also quite interesting personalities like Aomine.

Plot – 7.0. There is no question of any originality - the standard storyline of sports titles.

Drawing – 7.0. For a sports anime, Kuroko no Basket has too few action scenes. Basketball's potential is only partially being realized.

Music – 8.0. Excellent musical accompaniment that copes with its tasks.

Season 1 – 6.0. The story took a very long time to gain momentum and could not hook me either in design or meaning.

Season 2 – 7.5. Here Kuroko no Basket gains momentum and becomes a much better work with all the same semantic problems.

Season 3 – 8.5. A much more dynamic and interesting show compared to the first two seasons, smoothing out the overall viewing experience.

Season 4 Mysteries

For three seasons, fans of sports anime watched with rapture the spectacle happening on the basketball floor. However, the release of the fourth season of the anime Kuroko's Basketball will introduce a new team member to the viewer. Whether he deserves to be on such a legendary team or got here by mistake - only time will tell. And moviegoers will also get to know young Kuroko , whose actions on the floor cannot be predicted. However, this time the opponent is too serious, and it is still a mystery what the main character intends to do.

Until it's released, check out when the fifth season of the Demons of High School anime will be released.