First Impressions – Kuroko no Basuke 2
Magical basketball players are back to win the InterHigh!
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I can’t even remember how long it’s been since Kuroko first aired (…or when I even got around to watching it for that matter), but the important thing is that I’m all caught up for season 2. It looks like they’ve upped the animation budget as well this time around, so even better~ |
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It’s time for some duuuuuunnnnnnkkkkkkkkksssssss! Well not really, but definitely some amazing ninja moves. I’ve come to love the sports genre after reading Eyeshield21, watching Oofuri, Giant Killing and Chihayafuru. You can see I really don’t care about the sports rather characters and plot tension. Kuroko no Basuke is same with an all-star cast, leaving you behind in bunches to select who should you really support. Not to mention, handsome bishies doing their thang, which is always good in my books. |
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What can I say when my second long-awaited anime is finally here except “YEEES!!!”? Kara no Kyokai, and I decided to |
Bromance… Or Not?
Kuroko no Basket: Kagami’s Deleted Affair
After effifn’ 26 episodes of the first season, the fans are exposed to Kagami’s past. When I first found out about his background, I was surprised that he had such a deep story within that brute strength of his. Even though, to be honest, his story seems to be a bit silly now that I think about it. Anyhow, the point is WOW… He actually has a story! Now what makes his story silly? Well, the bromance between Kagami and Tatsuya in strain just because of a silly reason. Tatsuya got frustrated of his injured arm, and he decided to vent off his frustration on Kagami by ending the bromance between the two of them if Tatsuya loses. As a person who values friendship more than basketball, I found Tatsuya’s reasoning to be childish and not sensible. Is that how much the friendship between Kagami and Tatsuya worth? Is it something that can be cut off easily just because of a mere basketball game? No wonder, Kagami intentionally lost himself at the game. Between friendship and basketball, he chose friendship. But this is a basketball-centric anime, which means everything revolves around basketball. And if I see everything on Kagami and Tatsuya’s point of view, it makes sense… In a way. Basketball is the reason why they became brothers. It is the only thing they have in common, and without basketball, there’s no way the two of them became THE Japanese basketball couple in Hawaii (I think it’s Hawaii). Kagami might want to protect their friendship, but he did it wrong. Friendship is the result of their passion in basketball, and to preserve the result, Kagami should have preserved the means of getting that result. Which is basketball, in this case. Though the wall between Kagami and Tatsuya is still there, Kagami still has a chance at hooking up fixing their love bromance. As it has been said before, he should preserve the means of getting that bromance back, and he can (finally) do it by winning against Tatsuya. Now the question is, can he win?
Seirin High Five!
Kuroko’s stalker-ish behavior and jealousy knows no bound
Even if the beginning rap down by that old coach was a bit annoying (as an old watcher), it gave the clear message that Seirin was up for Winter Cup with Shuutoku (OD voiced Midorima’s team), which means more than one level-up required for any sports story is already done. From the events of season one, the team is even more pumped to roll out their new acquired moves and the reason they turned up on Street Basketball. Though, who would have thought that it would cue to Kagami’s flashback and a new character introduction. Even in the trailers, I was curious to know who this guy would turn out to be because definitely he’s not from Generation of Miracles but seeing his endurance, he’s going to be a tough cookie. Which leads me to Kuroko, who has been playing Kagami’s shadow for a while now; his reaction to Tatsuya has been lukewarm at best but more than anyone he will help out Kagami in winning against Tatsuya if that’s in the cards. It was almost funny how Kuroko intervened in the whole Tatsuya/Kagami mess with #2 but good thinking nonetheless with calming down effect. Still, with SuzuKen voiced Atsushi in the mix, I’m definitely looking forward to the match and hope for the Seirin bishies to win with some smooth moves but even chances are that they will be defeated to fire up their prep for Winter Cup. In the end, both works really.
GoM Speculation (or not really)
Rainbow-colored GoM is already a sign
I can’t say I remember much of the character’s on Kuroko’s team, but at least the Generation of Miracles is as easy to spot as ever. We’re finally meeting the purple haired guy who eats a lot, Murasakibara Atsushi. He seems… tall. We didn’t see much of him this episode, considering that he showed up at the end, but at least he’s finally getting a formal introduction into the plot. So I assume that he’ll be more relevant in this season (not to mention that he’s in one of the 3 powerhouse schools in the Winter Cup. Finally, there’s the last guy (voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi~~!), Akashi Seijurou, who was captain of the GoM. I assume he’ll play a part in this season (again, the Winter Cup), since he and Murasakibara were huge mysteries in S1. Or more like, they were clearly important, since they were in the OP, but they never actually showed up/did anything. Of course, along with the mew arrivals, I hope the already introduced characters show up too at some point in the season. Aomine at least seems like he’ll definitely be in the Winter Cup. …I can’t believe that it’s taken me this long to realize that all of the members of GoM have their hair colours in their names (minus Kuroko, but he’d be waay more boring of a character if his hair was black). Even the GoM’s coach, Momoi, fits in this
Extra Magical Balls
Well, there was more drama than basketball playing this episode, but that’s totally okay with me. We’ve seen so much about Kuroko’s past team mates, it’s time that we see what got Kagami into basketball and what he did in America when he lived there. The English wasn’t even that Engrish-y either, I’m rather impressed. Of course if back-stories aren’t for you, the next episode looks like it will go right back into the basketball action, since they left off at a rather intense place. Overall though, this was a great opening episode for Kuroko. They explained just enough at the beginning for me to remember what went on the last season, and then thankfully moved on and introduced the new plot. It was a good balance and I’m rather excited for the new season~
This anime is on a pretty good start with its first episode. Though, I want to start on a separate note, flaunting my seiyuu fagism as I keep on happening about interesting facts like seiyuu starting up their music careers and keeping it steady with their VA career. Maaya Sakamoto and Suzumura Kenichi have made it quite big with their side-music careers but do you think they are it? No way! It’s the next best thing, a recent example being Free! OP and ED, which were performed by Tatsuhisa’s (Makoto’s seiyuu) band OLDCODEX and star cast respectively and similar is happening with Kuroko no Basuke. Old favourites from season one OLDCODEX is back (as they sung the second ED of S1), to perform the ED, while the OP is handled by GRANDRODEO, Taniyama Kishou’s (Tatsuya’s seiyuu), band, recently known for Karneval and Code:Breaker’s OPs. So yeah, you not only get better production value but pumpy music to boot in season two.
This episode in particular was pretty good for an opener. Not just production value but pacing was perfect. For a good sports tale, it’s imperative to be not boring and even when some of the season one episodes had more talk than sporty action, the characters and their chemistry with each other made up for it. If you ask me, seeing the Seirin guys around a restaurant table, while Kagami wolfed down everything in sight and Riko lectured them was like meeting old friends again. I can’t wait to see them in action and let’s not forget the Hiroshi Kamiya voiced red-haired bishie. Oh man, his strategies and team power is something we have all been waiting for. Therefore, this season better keep up it’s pace!
What I’m going to say is pretty much the same like Kara no Kyokai. Just like what the two said, the premiere of the second season started off with a bang. Everything in the anime shows that they’ve upped the budget for the animation, which is mighty fine for me. I love seeing muscles and bishies, especially if they are animated beautifully and without flaw. It seems that the studio is showing more effort too, and this can be seen by the not-so-Engrishry English that was used in this anime. Kagami and emo dude sounds like Japanese living in America (in a way), though the structure of the sentences is still stiff for people who have been living in English-spoken country for years. There’s also the accent that was just wrong for some of the characters. But let’s stop talking about language and go back to the basketball. Though it was just the first season, the studio did a decent job at making everything easily accessible for those who wants to refresh their memories about the first season. The explanation of the important characters are simple without complicated stuff whatsoever. The best of all though is how the studio went straight to the main plot without doing that annoying reintroduce-the-characters-for-the-whole-episode method. So far, Production I.G. did a fabulous job at making the first episode look appealing and interesting, so let’s see how this basketball-centric (or drama-centric?) anime is going to be.
Preview: Rain to add the dramatic atmosphere with that deadly stare-down.
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
OH. YES. I can not believe it’s actually out. It’s been a painful year and finally, my fangirl heart rejoiced. Yay for basketball and hot bishies~!!
The relationship between Himuro and Taiga was a little silly, but I think that he initially had quite the self-esteem, when Taiga appeared and called him an older brother, he must have taken it quite seriously, for whatever reason there may be, and started feeling responsible. He felt like he had to uphold the image of an older brother, who should be wiser and stronger than the younger one. And when Kagami started getting stronger and defeating Tatsuya, he felt like he had no rights to be his self-proclaimed aniki. Plus, I guess, there was something important happening in his life that added oil to the fire. Okay, I think I’m taking this too far xDDDD
I really liked the beginning, when that reporter dude was talking about the teams in winter cup, making everyone seem badass and, of course, completely ignoring Kuroko’s existence. I literally hissed “You forgot Kuroko, aho!” That was kinda irritating. But the awesome opening made up for it ^_^ Though I’ve seen the one that somehow got on youtube and I like that version more, tbh. But who cares, it was still awesome. Kagami’s jump at the end looked amazing =w=
I’ll never get over the engrish. It sounds so ridiculous but kinda cute at the same time.
Okay, we finally saw Murasakibara’s face. Well, I’ve seen him in the OVA, but still, whenever he was mentioned in the show, his face covered with a shadow or whatnot. But that introduction made me dislike him instantly. He’s like a maniac or a psycho, I swear =_= he’s kinda freaky
But when will they introduce Akashi??? I wanna see the great captain of Teikou play. I REALLY want to see that. o-o
I had no idea about OLDCODEX O///O I looked up Suzuki Tatsuhisa’s roles and he was playing Ranmaru in UtaPri. Wow, that guy.. just wow O/////O And speaking of Free, I have to fangirl about how amazing the MC’c voices sound together. Just listen to this~ <3
Oh boy, oh boy, I can't wait to see the next ep.! I need some action *~*
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
I see in FB that you were very excited about this anime 😉
I see your point about Tatsuya, but I’m not sure whether that’s responsibility or ego. I thought big brothers are supposed to help the younger brother grows up and lets him grow when he can finally stands with his own two feet. I get the feeling that Tatsuya feels threatened and jealous in a way that he used their bromance as “hostage,” and thus that moment led to this. But I’m sure Tatsuya has a reason. Maybe that bandage on his upper left arm is the reason.
But the whole point of that reporter thingy is to show how invisible Kuroko is! He was even forgotten in his middle school interview teheh. Besides, that’s what makes Kuroko more awesome. It’s like some mysterious force is helping Seirin to win, when it’s actually Kuroko contributing the more.
I don’t think you’ve read the manga, but Kuroko has a special opinion about him. Kuroko and Midorima. What is it? You’ll have to find out next week 😉
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
My bf was constantly complaining about that xD
It’s probably both, responsibility and ego. And that bandage must have been important, too.
Yeah, that’s all good, but still, I was a little sad that such an important player doesn’t get any attention. Well, the attention of his teammates is enough for him, but still..
No, I don’t read the manga. And you just had to intrigue me like that! 4 days >_<
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 318 comments
Hehe, I see you are really exited for this season.
You just wait, Akashi will surely surprise you soon,
I’m not sure if that’s in a good way thoughPOWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
If he’s a badass negative character, EVER BETTER!
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Can’t waaaait~ >_<
POWUH: iLurker with 12 comments
This is the Prince of Tennis of Basketball, imo. Free was just a sissy show compared to either of those two. Anyway…*walks off to go stare at Bishie Basketball staredown*
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Don’t call Free sissy O^O It just had less testosterone 😀
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
Heeeyyy Free is about the manly bond among men who swim manly. It’s all about booonnnddd an bromanceee
and BLPOWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
Aomine also doesn’t fit the name=hair color scheme of the GoM. Ao is blue if I remember correctly but his hair is black.
It does make a dynamic to Kuroko though as he’s the one with the blue hair but his name has kuro(black) in it.
OTP for fangirls I guess.Solid first episode. Not much has happened on the basketball side but it still delivered on the story front with Kagami’s story. The Engrish was pretty good for the most part and I could tell they got some natives to play the street players that Kagami and Himuro played with. The main players of the flashback also did well with their Engrish.
Judging from how the OP was oozing with fluid animation, I can’t wait until we get to those matches and their ridiculous moves on the court. This is going to be fun.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I don’t know about the manga, but Aomine’s hair is totally blue in the anime. (Or at least, a very dark blue )
POWUH: 600-699 and LN Enthusiast with 623 comments
It kinda looks black at times, like in here. Or maybe because Kuroko’s is blue that I think Aomine’s is black.
Oh well.
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
In manga close-ups, Aomine’s hair on the upper part will always have a lighter shade to show the blue. The bottom part is dark, but the upper part will be lighter (though it’s more like dark blue). At least that’s what I remember. Wait, I thought Kuroko is gray-blueish… What?
I’m worried about the animation when the anime is alreay halfway. Every fangirl horror.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 102 comments
Yessss!!!Been waiting for Seirin to come back!
Kagami in America…”THIS IS JAPANESE LUNCH TIME RUSH!” AHAHAHA love that episode.
Now, Kamiya Hiroshi~!yayyy.lol
Seiyuus singing OP/ED is awesome. Yes, Makoto’s voice~ Tatsuhisa-san <3 I personally think he's super hot XD
Taniyama Kishou has a very powerful voice. Can't believe he says "Piyochan Piyochan" in UtaPri.lol
Man, theyre pros <3 love watching seiyu events~ (sadly,online
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
That UtaPri fact is such a mindf*ck 😀
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
Not into male seiyuu singing, but I always imagine their real body/face posing etc. when I hear the songs xD
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Recently, Kishou voiced Jean from Titans as well so you can understand the fangirl power behind him!
Btw, Tatsuhisa or Tattsun as I call him is hnngg adorable in RL as well. Aaah, some of the drama cds he has voiced in. xD
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 318 comments
Taniyama-san voiced Jean so perfectly. I was really impressed. It’s nice to see him more often.
Sorry for being of topic, but, I wanted to show this to Kyokai-san for quite some time, but always forget, and I think you might already know about this, but, http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10244653
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Thanks for the link, yes I’ve known about this figure since it was design clay mode. Oh this figure. I want it NAO and so baaaaaad! This one come very close to the beauty of the one I already have with sakura petals.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 318 comments
You are welcome.
Wow, right from the start? You are a true Shiki fan 🙂
I agree, they both are very beautiful. It’s nice to see a new figure of Shiki in such a dynamic pose. And by another company, there might be a chance for new figures of her in the future.