Welcome to the Kuroko's Basketball Roundtable! Since the manga series for Kuroko's Basketball ended September 1, 2014, we wanted to commemorate this event. I'm here with sickVisionz, my partner in crime, who is known for his expertise in the music and anime industry. He also helps the community by creating the yearly Best Anime of the Year poll. Because we only watched the anime, the roundtable will only focus on the anime series.
For those who are new to Kuroko's Basketball, here is a summary our wiki editors had written:
Teikō Middle School's basketball team was well-known throughout Japan as the best basketball team with a prime three-perfect-seasons-in-a-row record. The regular players of the team became known as the Generation of Miracles.Once graduated, these five prodigies separated and each attended high schools with excellent basketball teams.
However, unknown to many, there was a sixth member of the Generation of Miracles, known as "the phantom sixth player". This phantom player has now joined Seirin High, which is a new high school with a strong fairly new and unknown team. Tetsuya Kuroko, who is the sixth member of the Generation of Miracles, alongside Taiga Kagami, a talented basketball player who spent most of his middle school years abroad in America, are now aiming to bring Seirin's basketball team to the top of Japan by taking down the former Generation of Miracles one by one.
What got you into Kuroko's Basketball?
sickVisionz: I was curious about the sports genre and wanted to give it a shot so I checked out a series called Giant Killing. I enjoyed it a lot and was interested in watching another sports show. I had heard some rumblings about Kuroko being good so I decided to watch a few episodes.
Takashichea: It was a recommendation from KuronekoXIII, my Canadian teammate on the Sket Dance and Guilty Crown Wiki projects. He was reviewing the anime until he didn't have time. He pulled a lot of Kingdom Heart references which made me curious. I tried it. I did dropped the show on the first episode, but I gave it another try, using the 3 Strike Rule. The colorful characters and Shonen battle manga style moves hooked me in.
Who is your favorite character? Least favorite?
sickVisionz: Daiki Aomine. He's a little arrogant and his basketball matches are always entertaining and extremely well animated. I don't have a legitimate least favorite. I either like or am neutral on all of the characters.
Takashichea: Ryōta Kise is my favorite character. He's a carefree guy whose good looks has all the ladies fall head over heels for him. I loved his determination against Daiki in their match. I like to use military terms for the Generation of Miracles. Kuroko would be scout with stealth, Daiki would be shocktrooper, Midorima would be sniper, Akashi would be commander, and Atsushi would be a tank. I never knew what to call Kise. I don't have much of least favorite characters. I would put Makoto Hanamiya, but he's designed for audience to hate him for his cheating tactics.
What's your best team if you had to assemble one?
sickVisionz: This solely based off of the anime, so characters that I haven't seen aren't included.
STARTING FIVE
- Atsushi Murasakibara... you need a big man low in the post.
- Shintaro Midorima... he's a sniper with height who can score points as well as play some
- Daiki Aomine... an amazing player on both sides of the ball who is capable of completely taking over a game
- Ryota Kise... honestly, he's only in the starting five because he's part of the GoM
- Makoto Hanamiya... He isn't the best at orchestrating an offense but nobody can wear a team down like this guy. He's a master at breaking people physically and his scumbag actions will setup late game scenarios where the other team is too battered cope with our offense
THE BENCH
- Taiga Kagami... he's like Daiki but less refined. I'd use him to give Daiki a rest but when we still needed to apply pressure
- Shoichi Imayoshi... a good ball handler, solid shooter, and is very skilled at orchestrating the offense. After Makoto does his work, this guy can make slim pickings of the defense
- Tatsuya Himuro... an amazing player with insane ball handling ability. Sometimes he will start rather than Ryota.
- Junpei Hyuga... a great shooter who can come off the bench and put numbers on the board.
- Teppei Kiyoshi... a tough choice, but when he's healthy he's an amazing defensive player.
I don't have Kuroko on my team because I just don't think he's worth it. His magic pass is an amazing asset but it doesn't really take over games. You will still have close battles and honestly in a close battle I'd rather have a someone is a little worse than Kuroko at passing but significantly better at scoring and more of a presence on defense.
Takashichea: I'm not very familiar with basketball despite being a fan of the series. sickVisionz's team is pretty top notch. I can't compete with him.
- Point Guard - Shun Izuki
- Shooting Guard - Ryo Sakurai
- Small Forward - Kise Ryota
- Power Forward - Taiga Kagami
- Center - Teppei Kiyoshi
What was the best match in Kuroko's Basketball?
sickVisionz: Seirin vs Touou Academy from Season 2. There was a lot of great animation and it featured two of my favorites really going at it.
Takashichea: It would be Kaijō High vs Tōō Academy since it involves my favorite character against a shark, Aomine. Despite Kaijō High's loss, it was an exciting match and shows another side of Karamatsu.
What was the most disappointing match you saw?
sickVisionz: While I don't love every match equally, I haven't seen one that left me disappointed.
Takashichea: I don't have a match I hated. Most of the minor matches were short while the Generation of Miracles matches were longer but not too overstretched.
What were things you enjoyed in Kuroko's and things you didn't like?
sickVisionz: I like all of the characters, which is very rare for me. Especially in the shonen genre where there are a lot of tropes that instantly turn me off. I also love the animation. Production IG brings their A-game when it really counts and matches are amazing. It's like watching a good shonen fight but rather than battle with their fists or weapons, they battle with cross-ups, dunks, and finger rolls. I'm pretty new to the sport genre so it all feels like a very fresh take on things I thought I was getting tired of in anime. There's nothing I can say that I really dislike other than something cheesy like, "I wish there was more of it."
Takashichea: Being a new sport anime fan, I can't think of anything bad about the series. I did recall Whiskers's issues with the art style, the sketched neckshading. There isn't much in the series that bother me at all. We had some fan service for guys and gals, and it wasn't over the top. I definitely recommend this series to Shonen fans who haven't tried any sport themed franchises. This is up your alley.
About the Authors
 | William Taylor (sickVisionz) wishes everyone a happy convention experience and says if you're contemplating on going to a con, take the plunge! Follow him @mrsickvisionz |
 | Kerry Chhay (Takashichea) is an Asian American Studies student who is a big wiki and anime nerd. He serves as a wiki mod in Anime Vice and an Admin in To Hollywood and Beyond Wikia(a 2nd home for Screened users). Follow him @Takashichea |
No comments:
Post a Comment