Kuroko's Basketball

Plot

The basketball team of Teiko Middle School rose to distinction by demolishing all competition. The regulars of the team became known as the "Generation of Miracles". After graduating from middle school, these five stars went to different high schools with top basketball teams. However, a fact few know is that there was another player in the "Generation of Miracles": a phantom sixth man. This mysterious player is now a freshman at Seirin High, a new school with a powerful, if little-known, team. Now, Tetsuya Kuroko – "the sixth member of the "Generation of Miracles", and Taiga Kagami – a naturally talented player who spent most of middle school in the US, aim to bring Seirin to the top of Japan and begin taking on Kuroko's former teammates one by one. The series chronicles Seirin's rise to become Japan's number one high school team. The rest of the Generation of Miracles include Ryota Kise, Shintaro Midorima, Daiki Aomine, Atsushi Murasakibara and Seijuro Akashi.

Seirin High team fought Ryota Kise's team first in a practice match. Although Kise was capable of copying all of Kagami skills with adding more strength and speed, Kuroko's abilities helped narrow the distance and eventually, Seirin won this game. They met Shintaro Midorima in the preliminaries of Interhigh. The game was much more difficult, not only because Midorima and the last 3 members of "Generation of Miracles" are considering stronger than Ryota Kise, but also Kuroko's ability of misdirection was completely shut down by Takao's Hawk Eyes. One again, they defeated Midorima team but the winning streak ended after the desperately lose to the Ace of "Generation of Miracles" - Daiki Aomine. After this game, they lost more and be thrown out of Interhigh.

The team trained for next Winter Cup, and in the preliminaries they met Midorima team again. This match ended into a tie, so Seirin need to defeat team Kirisaki Daichi. After a hard match, they won and gained a ticket to the Winter Cup.

In the first round, with the awakening of Kagami and the sacrifice of Kuroko, they finally defeated Daiki Aomine. In the quarter-final, Seirin won a tough match against team of the Center of "Generation of Miracles" Atsushi Murasakibara. They set to play against their original rival - team of Ryota Kise in semi-final. An extremely hard match against the power of Perfect Copy, Seirin won and came to the final. The final was where Seirin must fight team Rakuzan - the Emperor, team of the Captain of "Generation of Miracle" - Seijuro Akashi. The game ended with Seirin High victory and they were announced as this year's champion.

Manga

Written and illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki, Kuroko's Basketball was serialized in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2008 to September 1, 2014. The chapters were collected and published into 30 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, the first on April 3, 2009 and the last on December 4, 2014. Fujimaki began a sequel titled Kuroko's Basketball: Extra Game in Jump Next! on December 29, 2014. At their New York Comic Con panel, North American publisher Viz Media announced their license to the manga. They will release the series in 2-in-1 editions, beginning in 2016.

Anime

An anime adaptation based on the manga is produced by Production I.G. The series premiered on April 7, 2012 and ended on September 22, 2012. On April 5, 2012, Crunchyroll announced that they would simulcast the anime as part of their spring lineup of anime titles. As of September 22, 2012, the anime ended with a total of 25 episodes. The second season premiered on October 6, 2013 and ended on March 29, 2014, also with 25 episodes. The third season premiered on January 10, 2015 and ended on June 30, 2015, with a total of 25 episodes. Three compilation films that compiled the anime series' Winter Cup arc opened in Japan in 2016. The first compilation film opened on September 3, 2016, titled Winter Cup Compilation ~Shadow and Light~, the second compilation film opened on October 8, 2016, titled Winter Cup Compilation ~Beyond the Tears~, and the third compilation film opened on December 3, 2016, titled Winter Cup Compilation ~Crossing the Door~.

An animated film adaptation was announced at the KuroBas Cup 2015 event on September 20, 2015. The film, titled Kuroko's Basketball The Movie: Last Game, will adapt the Kuroko's Basketball: Extra Game manga. It is scheduled for release in Japanese theaters on March 18, 2017. The staff and cast from the previous seasons will return to reprise their roles in the film.

Light novels

Five series of light novels have been written by Sawako Hirabayashi called Kuroko's Basketball: Replace and illustrated by Fujimaki. Each light novel focuses on the members of the Generation of Miracles. The first light novel Replace was released on March 4, 2011.

Audio CDs

The music for the Kuroko's Basketball anime series were directed by four different composers. Ryosuke Nakanishi, R・O・N, and Alpha Eastman (21-25) were in charge of the first season while Yoshihiro Ike was in charge of the second season.

Video games

Three video games based on Kuroko's Basketball have been released. The first game Kuroko's Basketball: Kiseki no Game (黒子のバスケ キセキの試合, Kuroko no Basuke Kiseki no Gēmu, Kuroko's Basketball: Miracle Game) was released on August 9, 2012 for PlayStation Portable. A second game Kuroko's Basketball: Shōri e no Kiseki (黒子のバスケ -勝利へのキセキ-, Kuroko's Basketball: The Path to Victory) was released on February 20, 2014 for the Nintendo 3DS. Shōri e no Kiseki sold 45,681 copies in its first four days on sale. A third game Kuroko's Basketball: Mirai e no Kizuna (黒子のバスケ 未来へのキズナ, Kuroko's Basketball: Bonds for the Future) was released on March 26, 2015 for the Nintendo 3DS. Kuroko also appears as a support character in the Jump crossover fighting game J-Stars Victory VS.

Reception

The Kuroko's Basketball manga had sold nine million units in Japan by September 2012. As of 2013, the manga had sold over 23 million copies. This number grew to 27 million by April 2014. Individual volumes frequently appeared on the lists of best-selling manga in Japan, and many editions have been in the 2012 Top-Selling Manga. Kuroko's Basketball was the third highest selling manga series of 2013, with 8,761,081 copies sold in a year. DVD sales of the anime series have also been featured in the Japanese anime DVD ranking various times.

Controversies

After the anime began airing in 2012, the series became popular with dōjinshi circles, particularly for yaoi dōjinshi, though there is no yaoi in the series itself. Several events at which doujinshi of the series were to be sold, as well as several other locations linked to the series and the author Tadatoshi Fujimaki, including a television station airing the anime, a convenience store chain selling items of the series, and Fujimaki's alma mater Sophia University, received threatening letters containing a powder or liquid substance. It is still unknown if it is one individual behind all the threatening letters, nor is the reason for the threats known. Multiple doujinshi events, including Comiket, banned content related to the series, barring creators from selling Kuroko's Basketball-themed doujinshi at their events. The suspect, who was later revealed to be a 36-year-old man named Hirofumi Watanabe, was eventually caught and was arrested on December 15, 2013. Due to the loss of Kuroko's Basketball doujinshi because of the threats, there was a special event that specifically focused on doujinshi related to the series affectionately named Kuroket, organized by the Comic Market Preparatory Committee, held during the Comiket Special 6 – Otaku Summit 2015 on March 29, 2015. The event hosted approx. 2400 dōjinshi circles.