Kuroko’s Basketball Episode 48
What They Say:
An up-and-coming power player, Taiga Kagami, is just back from America. When he comes to Seirin High School, he meets the super-ordinary boy, Tetsuya Kuroko. Kagami is shocked to find that Kuroko isn’t good at basketball, in fact, he’s bad! And he’s so plain that he’s impossible to see. But Kuroko’s plainness lets him pass the ball around without the other team noticing him, and he’s none other than the sixth member of the Miracle Generation.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The ups and downs of the match between Seirin and Yosen is certainly interesting and fun to watch, but I have to admit that after the lengthy battle with Touou, the match here feels like it’s a bit weaker overall since time is progressing faster. It’s not that it’s not intense, but something about it just feels kind of superficial in a way. Part of that comes from having so little down time overall between matches and glossing over the one inbetween here while also painting Yosen as some super-team with the way they shutout their opponents. We’ve had some decent character bits to be sure with but there’s also a kind of surreal nature to this when it comes to the character of Murasakibara with his seemingly impossible height and physique.
This is made all the more so during the opening minutes as you get everyone trying to hold him back and they look positively tiny in comparison to him. Of course, someone as tall as him will play the game different than everyone else and have his own take on, but we see how he’s just dismissive of the game in general and especially those that are shorter than him. When he makes a very forward play that ends up taking down the hoop structure itself, it shocks pretty much everyone on both sides and the audience as well. The thing even gets more comical in a way as it goes on and Murasakibara dominates so much that when the captain gets knocked down, he pretty much picks him up by one arm and just makes it clear that he’s really a whole league above them. We’ve seen that in different ways before, but this one just feels more intimidating in a different way.
The play of the game is big here as it goes on and we see the Seirin boys really playing their hearts out after seeing their captain take such a rough moment and the way it unfolds is really fun to watch. It’s not so much that there’s a ton of highly fluid animated moments, but some smart editing and movement pieces, as well as reaction shots and key stills, make it really intense as you can feel the pushback that they make. The boys put their all into it right up to the last moment of the game, though there’s always a kink in the works along the way. Getting through the third quarter here and keeping it close, which is more than the Yosen players have felt in quite some time, makes it far more challenging for them and seeing them struggle and get invested in the game like they haven’t before really makes for a strong series of events to unfold.
In Summary:
With the next episode and presumably the one after that brings the season to a close focusing on the fourth quarter of the game, the Winter Cup will reach an interesting place this season while leaving us wanting more. This episode has a good deal of payoff to it as we see the Seirin players really step up across the board, not that they weren’t trying before, but there’s a very different feel to their play as they go against a team that forces them to evolve and grow their play on the spot. There’s a lot to like across the episode here, even if it does still feel kind of superficial in a way, and taking in the way Murasakibara plays definitely takes a little getting used to. But the end result is another strong episode in this match that leaves you wanting more.
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.