First Impressions / Kuroko no Basuke

「これでも必死だよ」 (Koredemo Hisshidayo)
“In My Own Way, I’m Desperate”

If you ever thought that the game of basketball was boring, this week’s episode dumped a ton of basketball and basketball talk on us.

Seirin’s Fighting Spirit

Even after last week’s amazing morale comeback, things just weren’t lining up in Seirin’s favor. The momentum of the game just wouldn’t move toward Seirin and if anything it felt like Rakuzan was slowly starting to steal some of it back. That is, they were almost starting to steal some of it back until Seirin started to put some backbone into their plays. With the sidelines cheering their hearts out and everyone on the court doing their best supporting one another, we were graced with some fantastic teamwork and awesome plays.

The Smarts of The Team

Not getting much attention since the reveal of his awesome Eagle Spear move, it’s always nice to see Izuki back in action. Usually playing the silent fifth man in most games, I’ll gladly take any opportunity to hear some of his bad jokes any day. And as surprising as it was to finally see someone actually laugh at one of his bad puns, it was even more surprising watching him setup the perfect back-to-back points to help Seirin catch up to Rakuzan’s ridiculous lead.

Senpai Is More Than A Title

Rarely getting any court time except when there’s a dire situation, it was also a nice change of pace to see Koga out and about. And while he may be the least experienced out of the group, his ability to hone his senses and react accordingly was really cool to see. Typically known as the jack of all trades with a so-so rate of scoring a shot from anywhere on the court, how can you not be happy knowing that there’s something more behind the face that’s always smiling?

But in typical Kuroko no Basuke fashion, it never forgets to remind us that there are some things that hard work and effort can’t overcome and a gigantic difference in skill is unfortunately one of them. Luckily though, everyone on Seirin’s been studying since they’ve been able to take every single scrap of data and turn it into a tangible result.

Looking Forward

Someone in the comments pointed out how things aren’t going to get any easier — but man never did I think it’d be this draining trying to keep up with everything. That said, it looks like my heart will be able to rest a little easier knowing our reliable captain is back on the court. Hopefully he’ll be able to return all the fouls back to Mibuchi and then some!

 

Preview

24 Comments

  5. I missed the episode it actually happened, so I never got to ask, but how do manga reaers feel about the fact the anime cut Hyuuga’s homophobic rant against Reo when they had their showdown?

    I suppose it was a smart decision on their part since the rant didn’t gover well and Hyuuga dropped 12 places in the popularity polls after he said it, but I’m not a fan of erasing character flaws, because it WAS treated as a flaw since Izuki called him out on it.

    emd23
    Reply

    1. It might have been censored by the anime, but I thought those remarks were quite mild and well within the limits of the manga/anime medium compared to Akashi’s “I’ll kill everyone, even my own parents”. I personally don’t think it’s strange for a high school student to be homophobic though, even some adults aren’t open minded about such topics.

      WarriorsHeart
      Reply

      1. That’s interesting. First time I’m hearing of it. I agree that high schoolers are immature but I don’t think a lot of viewers would see it that way or will be as understanding. The studio was probably considering that.

        chibi-killua
        Reply

      1. I think the references are in chapters 241 and 242. I have read different scanlations for each chapter so the translations might be different. Again, I wouldn’t take Hyuuga’s comments too personally.

        WarriorsHeart
        Reply

    3. If I’m not mistaken, it occurred two episodes ago(?)

      IIRC, It was a short remark where Hyuuga gets called Junpei-chan~ and is caught a bit off guard. I don’t think he responded with any type of rant.

      I haven’t read the manga though, but I can see Hyuuga getting thrown a bit off balance against Reo.

      Takaii
      Reply

      1. The references would have been in episode 19, but I think the scenes were omitted like many other scenes from the manga, maybe due to censorship or just time restraints. Show Spoiler ▼

        I think a lot of people would find Reo a bit different.

        WarriorsHeart
        Reply

      2. Well basically what happens is that

        Show Spoiler ▼

        Hyuuga’s a super traditional guy, so it’s no surprise, but boy did the fans not appreciate it lol

        emd23
        Reply

  6. Mibuchi never played against Aomine yet he still includes him in the examples lol. So far Kagami’s zone can’t defeat Akashi and Seirin still needs a better plan to catch up to Rakuzan.

    Aomine the Ace
    Reply

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