Let the Games Begin!: Kuroko no Bosuke

Greetings, peoples!  I’m back from Ireland and back with a new review!  And believe it or not, it’s not related to Ireland.  But if you like basketball, then feel free to stick around.  This week I will be reviewing my first sports anime, and it’s one that I’ve been watching for some time now.  I’m not through all of it yet, but it’s going slowly but surely.  So I’ll close the intro and get to the review on the basketball-themed anime, Kuroko no Bosuke.

Kuroko no Bosuke (or Kuroko’s Basketball) is an anime that follows one high school basketball team’s journey to the top.  Prior to the events of the series, a famous basketball team known as the “Generation of Miracles” dominated the sport in Japan.  The team consisted of a group of five middle school basketball prodigies and became an instant legend.  However, each of the five members has entered high school and has separated into different schools.  Now in the beginning of the series, Seirin High School starts to recruit incoming freshmen.  One of these new members is Kagami Taiga, a Japanese student who attended middle school in the US and is a gifted basketball player.  However, the team later discovers that their team has also obtained one of the “Generation of Miracles” members; this member is Kuroko Tetsuya-the phantom sixth member of the group.  It doesn’t take long for Kagami and Kuroko to strike a partnership-and a friendship-, and to set their sights on taking Seirin High to the championship game.

Like I said earlier, this is the first sports anime I’ve reviewed.  That much said, there are some things that I’m learning about this genre of anime.  Still, as far as Kuroko no Bosuke is concerned, I like what I’m seeing so far.  And for that, I give it four out of five stars.  The excitement and the tone of the show are what really give it an edge.  After all, you’d find something very similar at any sports event.  Basketball fans will also be pleased with how knowledgeable the show is on basketball.  And as far as the basics goes, animation is pretty good, but the story is a bit questionable.  But I’ll explain that in my negative comments.  Regardless, this show is pretty good.  And coming from someone who wants nothing to do with sports, that’s saying something!

Now as I said earlier, there are some issues with the story.  It’s not that the overall plot is terrible- on the contrary, it’s pretty straight forward and to the point.  The issue lies in the variation in length of archs in the series-or the individual stories within the series.  One episode can cover one particular story, while it takes one story to be resolved in six episodes.  This only seems to occur when the characters are involved in some sort of tournament, ball game, race, etc.  This was something that I learned pretty quickly; though this is the first sports anime I’ve reviewed, it’s not the first one I’ve seen (that would go to Yowamushi Pedal).  This variation in length can be a little tedious, especially if the series has one individual plot in each episode.  So in a plot that takes nine episodes to resolve, you’d be pretty bored.  Still, it’s an aspect of the genre, and it can’t be ignored.  In fact, some action animes do the same thing (like Attack on Titan and Bleach).  Still, I would not pass this one up.  The thrills and excitement make it all worth it!

So overall, Kuroko no Bosuke makes basketball all the more exciting for those who are not so athletic.  It’s quick, exciting, and totally worth watching!  There’s not a lot I can say as far as finding episodes is concerned.  I’ve been watching the series at my college’s anime club, so I haven’t really done any thorough search for episodes.  Although, I certainly would give YouTube a try.  The Japanese dub is the only version available, so you won’t find it in stores or in English.  Well anyways, I guess with that much said , I’m off!  Stay tuned because next week I will be revealing this month’s Character of the Month of March.

-Hanime on Anime