The flow of the game is hugely important, and when you lose it the psychological effect can be significant.
What They Say:
An up-and-coming power player, Taiga Kagami, is just back from America. When he comes to Seirin High School, he meets the super-ordinary boy, Tetsuya Kuroko. Kagami is shocked to find that Kuroko isn’t good at basketball, in fact, he’s bad! And he’s so plain that he’s impossible to see. But Kuroko’s plainness lets him pass the ball around without the other team noticing him, and he’s none other than the sixth member of the Miracle Generation.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
While we got some character material in the lead-up to the Winter cup getting underway, it didn’t take long for us to get to the match itself that’s going to set the tone for what’s to come. Getting Seirin back in the game even though we just had the previous matches so quickly is something that could throw off viewers in some other shows, but it seems to be par for the course with basketball shows in particular where it just keeps hitting the court faster and faster. And that’s a good thing as it’s great to see Seirin so totally on board and aggressive here with what they’re doing and in dealing with Aomine. Their opposition is taking it serious from the get go, which is expected after what they saw play out during the previous matches, but they’re a bit surprised by seeing just how much the Seirin players have grown and changed.
Touou’s not a team to be dismissive of in general but it’s also easy to say that of any team that makes it to the Winter cup, especially since there’s so many Generation of Miracle players out there. The fun comes in seeing some of the match-ups that happen, such as Kagami going right up against Aomine so early on when the tide of the game and the whole psychological aspect can go either way. It’s shocking to those watching, but you can sense what Kagami has learned and is intent on doing here so that it’s not a reckless move, but one that has Kagami taking an intriguing approach to dealing with this kind of opponent. It’s not expected in general and you have to wonder what kind of mental game is being played here that could work as a longer term strategy.
While we get some good driving material in the first half of the peisode, especially in seeing how Kuroko uses his talent and special moves to really move things along, there’s also the knowledge that it can go only so far. We even have Riko saying this, though she does go on about how even if they do know, they can still use it. The second half gives us some bench time which works nicely to show us the two sides figuring out the best approach to use going forward and that just ends up going with the obvious, putting Aomine right on Kuroko to try and deal with his Vanishing Drive since they think they have it. But even thinking this, the yreally have some interesting challenges as the game moves forward and you can feel the energy seep away, all the optimism they had at the start simply not able to hold up with the reality of how the game is going. Riko does her best, but you can see how so much of what Aomine says is really making a dramatic impact here.
In Summary:
Kuroko’s Basketball moves the game forward smoothly here, at least for the viewer, as Seirin is hitting nothing but speed bumps that’s throwing off the dynamic of the team. They’ve worked hard to get far and thought they had something that would take them to the next level, but the challengers are definitely beyond impressive. So much so that you can see the toll it’s really taking on Kuroko as the whole Generation of Miracles aspect is coming more into focus since so many will be involved in the Winter Cup. We get a lot of basketball here and some solid commentary along the way that helps to keep it exciting and fun, even if it feels like the Seirin boys are in real trouble.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.