At the beginning of the first episode, it's explained that the basketball team at Teikou Middle School demolished its competition, and that the regulars of the team became known as the "Generation of Miracles." After graduating from middle school, these five stars went on to different high schools with top basketball teams. However, unknown to many people, there was a sixth player in the "Generation of Miracles," who is kind of a "phantom player."
The series itself begins with the various clubs at Seirin High School recruiting the first year students to join. Two notable young men express interest in joining the basketball club. The first is Taiga Kagami; he's tall, strong, and naturally talented at basketball. He spent most of his middle school years in America, and since returning to Japan, has wanted to play some serious basketball.
The other is Tetsuya Kuroko, who claims on his form that he was part of the Teikou Middle School team. The coach and team captain are very hopeful when they see this. In reality, Kuroko isn't a very good player, and is rather unremarkable and rather plain-looking. But it's revealed in the first episode that he uses his plain looks to his advantage, and it lets him pass the ball around without being seen. He's the "phantom player" from Teikou Middle School. At the end of the first episode, Kuroko and Kagami make a pact to defeat the other members of the "Generation of Miracles."
I'm usually not a big fan of sports anime, but I admit that I enjoyed what I saw in the first episode of Kuroko's Basketball. The story and character development caught my interest, and I also liked the animation being used for the series. I thought the animation really helped to enhance the story. Content-wise, I didn’t really see anything in the visuals of the first episode that could be considered offensive.
Even though there's a lot of potential for Kuroko's Basketball, I fear that it may never be licensed in North America, simply due to the fact that it's a sports anime. Sports anime typically isn't licensed and released for the North American market, and the few that are tend to not sell well.
If you have an interest in sports anime, or if you enjoy basketball, then I would highly encourage you to watch the subtitled episodes of Kuroko's Basketball that are available at Crunchyroll, since this is potentially the only way it can be seen in North America.
After watching the first episode of Kuroko's Basketball, I would recommend this series to anime viewers who are 12 or 13 years of age and older.
| Kuroko's Basketball | 25 | 2012 | Shunsuke Tada | Production I.G. | N/A |
