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)
Kuroko’s Basketball definitely kept things moving in the last episode as the two teams went at it. Even as Seirin seemed to start getting the edge and moving forward, changing the flow of the game, it hit a wall and went back the other way. Touou is just too intense and the gap was widening in a significant way, making it seemingly impossible for the Seirin plays to achieve their goal. But as we see, it was all part of a master plan, which feels hard to believe, that gets it to the point where it seems like most of the players are able to disappear from the view of their opponents on the court. While it stops Kuroko from using his misdirection technique, it allows the others to change the flow of everything and it has that sense of real momentum and change coming. But can it hold up?
The first half works through this kind of struggle in a pretty good way as the two sides really go at it and it’s hard to see who has an edge. The big problem is that while the Touou players start to falter in some ways, missing shots, being blocked more and uncertain in general, Aomine is seemingly impossible to throw off his game. The makes him hugely impressive when you realize the scale of what’s going on and the plays he pulls off, especially since he’s intent on just screwing with Kuroko as much as possible. He’s rising to the level of a real challenge now and Aomine has a real thrill when it comes to that as it’s so rare at the level he’s at in high school basketball, even at this kind of high championship level. That makes him a monster on the court when he actually goes all out like he is here.
The second half takes some of the thoughtfulness and exposition that’s in the first half and really pushes forward with the game itself, especially with some useful commentary by those watching from the stands with how it’s going. Of particular note is that while Aomine has played at a high level, nobody is sure what his absolute 100% is like, so there’s a lot of uncertainty there as the minutes tick down and the gap closes between the two teams with the score. It’s a pretty engaging match as the minutes wind down and you see how Aomine is still able to control the court even as Kagami goes all out, taking his skill to an unprecedented level for him that’s combined with his almost primal instinct. But the race against the clock also goes against more than that, making for a tense time as we see it all unfold.
In Summary:
Sometimes you think the game can’t get more intense. But as the minutes tick away and the teams go against each other in a hard and brutal way, you have to be impressed. There’s always that edge that this is just too intense or to skilled to be a high school team, but it’s so easy to get caught up in the moments and minutes of it all that you forget it all. And even more so when you see the way both sides really step up and go all out with their moves that are intense but not wholly unrealistic. With Aomine facing off against Kuroko and Kagami in particular, he’s coming alive like he hasn’t in a long time and that’s just fascinating to watch, no matter the end result of the game that will likely come in the next episode.
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.
