Coming from a long time fan of the game of basketball I found this manga to be absolutely atrocious. The "lack of presence" in this particular case for the main character made no sense and how it was beneficial in basketball was explained poorly. Even more so was when the main character lacks talent everywhere else besides passing was just appalling. For the mangaka to even pass off this idea for the main character and to implement this into basketball was executed badly. Not only that, the mangaka just dumbs down the sport immensely, and I find his ideas of basketball play to be terrible and barebones whenever a match happens. Read Slam Dunk instead if you want a enjoyable basketball manga that at least has some basketball IQ in it

This manga's biggest selling point is Kuroko. The idea of having a physically weak character be the star of a basketball manga is quite attractive, as is his ability to disappear from view and do potentially interesting things. It's a concept that I haven't really seen sports manga use (unless you count One Outs, but that one focuses on actual mind games/calculations and is really on a whole different level), and in that, it succeeds.

But once the novelty of this idea wears off, the manga loses its charm. It fails in kind of the same way that Prince of Tennis kind of failed - the tension just isn't there. Slam Dunk was amazing because the drama and the character/team growth that results from that drama was handled very well - the readers care enough to want to root for the team and the characters that they're reading about, and they'll keep reading it to see them win. Kuroko just doesn't have that - after a certain point, it simply becomes a routine: team has match with strong opponent, team gathers up power to catch up, strong opponent powers up, team gets into trouble, team powers up, strong opponent powers up even more, team shows off teamwork powers, team wins. There's nothing here that would make the reader actually care about the team other than the initial "I want to see where Kuroko goes" sentiment. In fact, most people would have trouble even remembering all of the main team members' names, not to mention all the rival teams that come up during the course of this manga.

To be honest, this is a bit disappointing for me - I expected more because the premise interested me. But to date (144 chapters at this time of writing), it's been pretty average shounen sports; it's not bad per se, but it's not amazing either, and it probably never will be.

Interesting idea, I like it. I like the whole idea of Kuroko just being the passer.

Storyline is great, but I kinda predicted at one point what was going to happen, but hey *shrugs* it's your typical shounen sport moment.

Anyway, characters are great, although I kinda got overwhelm by so many character by the 2nd volume. I would had preferred that we had more time with the team characters just so we can actually REMEMBER them. I actually had to reread twice from the beginning to realize, "Hey, you did appeared at the first volume."

Looks like Kuroko is gonna evolve, but I'm not gonna review much until I get much deeper into the manga.

I don't normally read Sports Manga but this one looked interesting because of Kuroku being unnoticeable, I like the way the two main characters develop. And how it shows despite Kuroku not being amazing at basket ball he resorts to his own techniques that make him amazing. Also it's good that the characters and team is not invincible.

UPDATE: It's starting to go downhill at the Winter Cup, there's too much powering up too quickly, it seems like new skill are being developed like billiow. And the matches drag on.
UPDATE no.2: After a long break I started reading this manga again, the matches still drag and the power ups are ridiculous, but the arc of Kuroko's middle school and the reasons he is out to defeat the generation of miracles is really good, and got me interested again. It makes you understand Kuroko's motivations better.
I am hoping that Serin win the winter cup and the manga ends, I don't want it to be drawn out and ruin it.

... Last updated on September 1st, 2013, 3:54pm

Every fucking one has the same face, but that's okay. Art may improve with time. It's above average sports shounen(Can't compare with eyeshield, slum dunk, giant killing, major, hikaru no go, most of adachi works...). For me the big problem ,a lot of the genre gets, is:you only need one guy to play. IT'S A FUCKING TEAM SPORT, no matter how much a guy are good. It's boring seeing one-to-one duels, they are on par with Captain tsuboring soccer duels...
For a coach who wants to be awesome, she don't do much. Everything is good, but not awesome. Except for the jokes, that man knows how to do funny post-chapter jokes.

... Last updated on July 22nd, 2011, 1:48am

Just started reading this, and the first thing I thought was "Kuroko reminds me of someone."
It wasn't until I was halfway through the first volume that I finally figured it out. "L" from Death Note! XD

That being said, I really enjoyed the first book and look forward to reading more. The characters are interesting, A lot has been said about Kuroko's ability, so I won't say more than "ninja". But Kagami's hyper-shounen-style "I'm going to be the BEST!" is balanced by Kuroko's almost apathetic-but-he-really-wants-to-win character; creating something fresh and fun.

The side sempai characters are almost too nondescript and cliche at first, but they to become interesting during the first tournament. (Love the Captain!) The only one I don't care for much is the lone female, "Coach", but I can live with her.

Definite recommend. I only gave it a "9" for now, but we'll see if things can get even better after volume 1.

... Last updated on June 26th, 2011, 8:10pm

The main character is supposed to be somehow known to be unnoticeable. Okay. But once you start paying attention to that person he becomes noticeable, while in this manga, for whatever reason, he's still unnoticeable. I don't get it.

i really like this manga! xD i like how kuroko is unexpectedly a great basketball player and all those cool basket ball stuff =D not much of a sports person but this is awsome! is there anything similar?

ever since slam dunk, i've been waiting for a fun basketball manga that i could read. cross over came out but after a while, it really started to piss me off and i gave up on basketball manga. until i decided to read this. it's fun, its energetic. and characters are interesting enough to actually keep reading.

After Prince of Tennis, I started with this manga but kind of stopped half way. Prince of Tennis has great tennis action but the characters are...sort of... They don't match their ages, let's just put it this way. And Kuroko no Basket has great characters and it's nice how they protrayed Kuroko as someone "weak" only to have him beat a couple of teams, even two of his ex-teammates (so far that I've read).