Kuroko’s Basketball Episode 35
What They Say:
Through Kiyoshi’s efforts, Seirin takes back the lead in the second quarter. Kuroko quietly burns with rage at Hanamiya’s mockery of Kiyoshi and his insincere attitude towards basketball. At the beginning of the third quarter, Kirisaki finally sends in Seto.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Kuroko’s Basketball has done a good job in the last couple of episodes of really giving us some decent foundation material for the team, giving us time with Teppei as they restarted the club, and bringing it all into the present with the match against Kirisaki. The problem has been that Kirisaki has not come across as a sporting team in a lot of ways and a good bit of this comes down to dealing with Hanamiya and the way he deals with things. Kirisaki just hasn’t felt like a team that you can root for or empathize with and Hanamiya makes it all the more apparent at the start here. So much so that his lack of respect for the game and players in general is enough to nearly make him seethe, something you really don’t see from Kuroko often as he expects everyone that plays has a true love of the game and what it means.
The first half deals with the way the Seirin boys deal with this since they see how it’s impacting Kuroko but also how it impacts them as well. It’s something that does in the end rally them because it’s a bonding moment. For Kiyoshi, it’s the kind of extra nudge he needed to really start seeing the opposing players and what they’re truly capable of and to be able to move past them. Not that the Seirin team is infallible here nor that the Kirisaki team has some huge weaknesses. It’s just that they all start to come together in a newly energized way while pushing past their limits and coping with the struggles they’re having, especially with how Izuki’s passes are continually being stolen now and scoring is proving more difficult than ever.
The game itself does dominate the episode, which is good since that’s how most of the episodes are and there’s a whole lot to like with that. As the game wears on though, and we see how cocky Kirisaki gets with it, it does allow for that push to happen where the Seirin players are able to start changing the tide an flow of the game, though not without the Kirisaki players providing some brutal moves along the way, so much so that Kiyoshi is hit hard physically. We see how the two sides are operating and that while evil is the wrong word to apply to Kirisaki, they’re definitely playing in a way that makes them come across that way. And it puts the team into a difficult place because the Seirin players want to win, but they don’t want cause a situation like which happened before, and that means that Kiyoshi will have to sit out the rest of the game in order to let the others carry it forward.
In Summary:
With this game stretching a fair bit now due to the flashback bits, we’re getting only so far after what felt like some progress. But this is an important game because of the history between Kirisaki and Seirin and seeing how it’s playing out in greater detail definitely really does drive home the narrative. I’m definitely not liking some of the Kirisaki players and you can understand the need to win and push past them, which is what makes the rest of the Seirin team stepping up and telling Kiyoshi that they have to turn over to him so worthwhile as it shows just how strong of a bond the team has. There’s a lot of good pieces in here, and it does flow well, but I just wish it had achieved a bit more than it did.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.