Basketball unlike you've ever seen
They may be high-schoolers, but that doesn't stop KnB from being 99% basketball focused. And, in the world of anime, when it comes to real life situations, anime defies those situations. Yes, this is basketball with a major anime twist, opening up unlimited opportunities to make it better than real life basketball. Some people may not like this due to the unrealistic approach to the sport, with all players featured having different abilities such as the Hand of Postponement due to big hands which allows for unpredictable passes and shooting, being able to shoot threes from the other side of the court in a big arc, and Player Copy, which is being able to mimic other players' styles just by looking at how they play. But I really enjoyed watching each match and learning about new abilities; it makes every match that much more exciting. Add in each of the other members of the Generation Miracles who have gone to different high-schools, including Kuroko, and things get even more intense as we see how good they are. And they are really good. So good that they have their own special abilities that make them scarier in fact.
KnB has so many captivating moments as a result of all these elements, you can see why I semi-binge watched it. I said I don't like sports, but when you have a sport that's delivered in a way with limitless possibilities to add to the drama, tension and excitement, you can't not watch it. The remaining 1% brings in the comedy that balances things out well, even during matches. Season 3 features the most intense part of a tournament, and having the comedy brings in much-needed relief and laughs after all the drama that you see during the matches.
This is probably the longest review I've posted, but there's so much going on in KnB that I can't limit myself to explain it, so I'll quickly add in a few more things! The complexity is delivered well enough so everyone understands what's going on because there's so much happening as you probably have worked out from what I've said above, and 75 episodes is definitely enough. My only two criticisms to watching KnB is that it's more of a "watch as each episode is being released" type of anime because the suspense after each episode is sort of watered down now that all the episodes are released, and even though you get to see games between the members of the Generation of Miracles, I'd have liked to seen some members play against each other to see how they'd defeat them. Otherwise, I really enjoyed KnB, and guys, you have to watch it!
Now I'm no sporty person, and the only other sports anime I have seen fully is Free! Iwatobi Swim Club. That, as you've guessed from the name, is based on a swim club and I must say I really enjoyed that despite having no interest in swimming. So as a non-basketball person, I had no idea how this would turn out, and from the first episode, which I watched with a cousin and my sister who loves her basketball, I was hooked. They weren't exactly focused on watching it so they missed out.
Anyway, onto Kuroko no Basket or KnB for short cos it's too much effort to write the title fully every time (yes I am lazy XP).
So, KnB. I guess the best way to describe this is you have MC Kuroko Tetsuya, who's a first year high-school student but doesn't have the characteristics of a MC. Instead, it's more focused on Kagami Taiga, another first year who's the complete opposite of Kuroko, but this is used in a very interesting way. As the anime puts it, Kuroko is the shadow to Kagami's light when it comes to basketball. This got me hooked, and it may not make sense at first if you haven't seen this yet, but as you progress through KnB, you'll begin to understand what this means, and the way in which this is delivered through basketball games is just brilliant.
But that is what makes KnB so good! And when you have a MC who's not entirely a MC even though the anime is named after him, it opens up even more opportunities to develop him. I said that Kuroko is Kagami's shadow, but there's much more to this. You'll find this out early on in KnB, so I'm not spoiling anything here. Kuroko was one of the players in a middle school team known as the Generation of Miracles, but he was more of a shadow player due to his lack of presence on the court because of his weak build and less-than-average skills. He uses this to his advantage and is able to make passes before the opponents realise what has happened, and because no one really sees him on court, they're not aware that he's the one making the passes; that's why he becomes known as the Phantom Sixth Player of the Generation of Miracles. The downside to this is that his presence becomes known after 40 minutes of play, so his ability becomes useless at that point.
They may be high-schoolers, but that doesn't stop KnB from being 99% basketball focused. And, in the world of anime, when it comes to real life situations, anime defies those situations. Yes, this is basketball with a major anime twist, opening up unlimited opportunities to make it better than real life basketball. Some people may not like this due to the unrealistic approach to the sport, with all players featured having different abilities such as the Hand of Postponement due to big hands which allows for unpredictable passes and shooting, being able to shoot threes from the other side of the court in a big arc, and Player Copy, which is being able to mimic other players' styles just by looking at how they play. But I really enjoyed watching each match and learning about new abilities; it makes every match that much more exciting. Add in each of the other members of the Generation Miracles who have gone to different high-schools, including Kuroko, and things get even more intense as we see how good they are. And they are really good. So good that they have their own special abilities that make them scarier in fact.
KnB has so many captivating moments as a result of all these elements, you can see why I semi-binge watched it. I said I don't like sports, but when you have a sport that's delivered in a way with limitless possibilities to add to the drama, tension and excitement, you can't not watch it. The remaining 1% brings in the comedy that balances things out well, even during matches. Season 3 features the most intense part of a tournament, and having the comedy brings in much-needed relief and laughs after all the drama that you see during the matches.
This is probably the longest review I've posted, but there's so much going on in KnB that I can't limit myself to explain it, so I'll quickly add in a few more things! The complexity is delivered well enough so everyone understands what's going on because there's so much happening as you probably have worked out from what I've said above, and 75 episodes is definitely enough. My only two criticisms to watching KnB is that it's more of a "watch as each episode is being released" type of anime because the suspense after each episode is sort of watered down now that all the episodes are released, and even though you get to see games between the members of the Generation of Miracles, I'd have liked to seen some members play against each other to see how they'd defeat them. Otherwise, I really enjoyed KnB, and guys, you have to watch it!
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