The game ends quickly but there’s still so much more to deal with.
What They Say:
Serin is victorious against Kaijo, barely. It is a shock to Kise, who has never lost in his life. After the game, another former Teiko Middle school player, Midorima, has a few words for Kise.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The battle against Kise and his team in this practice round has been pretty intense but largely filled with quick thinking and luck as the whole team has to come together to deal with their opponents. It’s not been easy, especially since there’s little time in the way of real practice or training as a team beforehand, leaving the only thing to really drive them is the way Kuroko and Kagami have managed to work together. Their quick victory at the start of this episode in a last ditch approach works well and makes a good impact on Kise in the end as he’s never lost and that has to sting, but is a necessary sting to have from time to time.
With the match ending quickly in this episode, that gives us a lot of time to get back to the characters in a non-intense competitive format, which is good since we really only focused on the two leads during the first several episodes while getting a tease about the others, like the captain. There are some good bits with Kise after the game when he’s away from everyone as we see a little more of the bigger picture with someone else from the Generation of Miracles, but a lot of what makes the post game segment work is that it has the team heading out for food and fun. And a real challenge; since they’re broke, the manager has found a steak house with a massive steak that’s free if you can finish it. Most of them are just shocked by the size but there’s just a lot of fun in them trying to eat it all and largely failing.
In addition to the fun, there is some good dialogue that occurs as it goes on as well as Kise manages to confront Kuroko over what happened as their last school and how it all unfolded. Kuroko’s got his reasons but it’s Kagami that watches on in order to see how it will all unfold. There’s some boys bravado here to be sure, made worse when Kagami really gets involved, but it’s amusing how they all get easily distracted when there’s a rough basketball match going on nearby that just irks them because of their love of what the game is really all about. It’s an awkward piece that unfolds but in the end it’s used to cement the position between Kagami and Kuroko more while still keeping some tension between them.
In Summary:
With the first game of the series over with, practice game that it may be, it has a lot of fun with things overall. The characters are better explored now when it comes to their performance and we get to see just how well not only the pairing of Kagami and Kuroko is but also how others will build the team as well. The push towards going big with the team for the school works well and what we get here helps to show the potential. I did rather enjoy the post-game material more than the game in a lot of ways because it shows where the real rivalries will be but also the kind of camaraderie that will grow from the team as they spend more time with each other outside of practice time. The show continues to hit plenty of good notes and this episode is no exception.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
