Kuroko's Basketball, is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2008 to September 2014, with the individual chapters collected into 30 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. It tells the story of a high school basketball team trying to make it to the national tournament. By April 2014, Kuroko's Basketball had 27 million copies in circulation. It was adapted into an anime television series by Production I.G that began airing in 2012, with a second season that began airing in October 2013 and a third season that began airing in January 2015. A sequel manga by Fujimaki titled Kuroko's Basketball: Extra Game began serialization in Jump Next! on December 29, 2014. Viz Media has licensed the manga for publication in North America. An anime film adaptation of the Kuroko's Basketball: Extra Game manga premiered in Japan on March 18, 2017. In December 2015 a stage play adaptation was announced, set to open on April 2016, followed by more stage adaptations.
Plot
The basketball team rose to distinction by demolishing all basketball teams. 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 known to few 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 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 added strength and speed, Kuroko's abilities helped narrow the distance and eventually, Seirin won this game. They then 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 considerably stronger than Ryota Kise, but also Kuroko's ability of misdirection was completely shut down by Takao's Hawk Eyes. They managed to defeat team Shutoku but their winning streak ended after they lost badly to Touhou Academy, whose basketball team contained the Ace of the "Generation of Miracles" - Daiki Aomine. After this game, they lost their remaining two matches against Senshinkan and Meisei and were eliminated from the Interhigh. However, a new player arrives to join Seirin - Kiyoshi Teppei, the man who formed the Seirin Basketball team. They spent the entire summer training for the Winter Cup, even coincidentally meeting Shutoku while training. In the preliminaries, they met team Shutoku again. This match ended into a tie, so Seirin needed to defeat team Kirisaki Daichi. Kirisaki Daichi's captain was Hanamiya Makoto, a member of the Uncrowned Kings well-known for his underhanded methods to win a match. However, they won and gained a ticket to the Winter Cup.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki, Kuroko's Basketball was serialized in the manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 8, 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. On December 27, 2015, Tadashi announced that he will end Kuroko's Basketball Extra Game manga in the next issue in early March 2016. At their New York Comic Con panel, North American publisher Viz Media announced their license to the manga. They began releasing the series in 2-in-1 editions 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 DVD and Blu-ray version of the second season was released on June 20, 2014, along with an episode which was designed around a specific chapter in the manga by Tadatoshi Fujimaki by working on chapter 124, and a bonus CD with an audio drama starring Satsuki Momoi. 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 , will adapt the Kuroko's Basketball: Extra Game manga. It was released in Japanese theaters on March 18, 2017. The staff and cast from the previous seasons returned 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 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 was released on August 9, 2012 for PlayStation Portable. A second game Kuroko's Basketball: Shōri e no Kiseki 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 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.
Stage plays
A series of 2.5D musical stage plays began in 2016. Kensho Ono reprised his role as Kuroko from the anime series. Additions to the main cast included Yuuya Asato as Taiga and Shota Onume as Aomine. The plays were directed by Norihito Nakayashiki, who also directed Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyu!!.
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 dōjinshi 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 materSophia 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 dōjinshi because of the threats, there was a special event that specifically focused on dōjinshi 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.
