Kuroko's Basketball

In spring, the new members of the Seirin High School basketball team are introducing themselves. The captain, Hyuga, and the coach, Riko, are paying attention to Taiga Kagami, the large player who came back from the home of basketball, USA--and Tetsuya Kuroko, who graduated from the absolute king of middle schools, Teiko Middle School.

Kuroko and Kagami recognize each other's skills. Kuroko claims that as the shadow of the light known as Kagami, he will guide Seirin to be the champions of Japan. However, he had his reasons for choosing Seirin High School, a school that was just formed the year before, as opposed to the five guys from the Generation of Miracles who all went to separate powerhouse schools.

The practice match between Seirin and Kaijo has started. Kaijo's boasting that this is a light adjustment for the regular team members and saving their ace Kise from playing sets the anger of the Seirin squad on fire, and Kagami destroys a goal with his dunk shot. Kise, the genius that can perfectly copy any play he's seen once, copies Kagami's dunk shot right after stepping in.

Entering the second quarter, Seirin slowly chips away at their deficit. With the new tag team of Kuroko and Kagami, the number of offensive patterns for the team increases, and even with the genius Kise's high physical talents, Kuroko's play style, which uses his critically low presence, cannot be copied. Kuroko steps off the court due to an accident.

The practice match between Seirin and Kaijo ended with a victory for Seirin thanks to Kagami's dramatic buzzer beater. With the joyful Seirin squad behind his back, Kise sheds tears of regret when the number-one shooter from the Generation of Miracles, Shintaro Midorima, currently of Shutoku High School, appears in front of him.

The interhigh qualifiers were fast approaching. The biggest rival in the same region was Shutoku, the team that went to the elite eight in the national finals last year and obtained Midorima of the Generation of Miracles. In order to defeat Shutoku at the tournament finals and advance to the finals league, Seirin practices harder than ever before.

Kuroko, being treated like a child by Shinkyo's 2-meter-tall player, Papa, makes one steal after another, and manages to score a large lead from the first quarter. The second quarter showcased a direct matchup between Kagami and Papa. Papa was full of spirit, but Kagami overpowers him with even more determination, and Seirin manages to win their first-round match.

Seirin manages somehow to make it to the semifinals of the interhigh qualifier tournament. Their next opponent is Seiho, a powerhouse school dubbed the King of Tokyo. For the second-year players, including the captain, Hyuga, it is a grudge match since their huge loss against them the year before. To the second years who are determined to overcome their past and win.

During the semifinals of the interhigh qualifer tournament, Shutoku has so much room to spare that they didn't have to field Midorima, and their advancement to the finals was almost definite. Meanwhlie, Seirin, who is up against the regional king, Seiho, uses Kagami's dunks and Kuroko's passes to end the first quarter in a tie.

As the semifinals against the reigning king, Seiho, draws closer to an end, Kuroko returns to the court. The determination of the second years as upperclassmen, as well as Kuroko and Kagami's respect for the upperclassmen as their juniors, all combine to make every heart on the team act as one to corner Seiho. Meanwhile, Seiho has pride as the king and doesn't take any steps back.

Seirin allowed the opponents to score first, but right afterwards, Kagami receives Kuroko's spinning, super-long pass from the end line to return the score. By doing so, Seirin vicariously shuts down Midorima's super-high-projectile three pointers. Upon that, Shutoku changes the player on Kuroko to Takao, who manages to prevent Kuroko and Kagami's combination play from happening.

Not only can he score from the center line, Midorima is unstoppable as he can make shots from all the way across the court from his own team's basket. By the end of the second quarter, Seirin was down by close to 20 points. As Kuroko watches the game from the bench thanks to Takao shutting down his misdirection.

The finals enter the fourth quarter. Kuroko finally takes to the court, but as expected, Takao stands against him. However, Kuroko had a secret plan to use against Takao. Meanwhile, Kagami's stamina was about to run out. He can only jump two more times before he's at his limit. With everyone injured all over, they finally catch up to a one-possession difference to Shutoku with two minutes left.

After a fierce battle, Seirin wins over Shutoku and advances into the finals league for the interhigh qualifiers. At the teppan-yaki restaurant that they stopped by on the way home, they bump into Midorima from Shutoku as well as Kise from Kaijo. Kuroko finds a dog, which they decide to all take care of and name it Tetsuya 2go. Their days of training continue towards the finals league.

Even right before the finals league, Aomine, the ace of Tôô Gakuen ditches practice and continues to go at his own pace. Against teammates who are fighting back, their captain, Imayoshi elaborates on Aomine's extraordinary strength and Tôô's style of basketball, which doesn't rely on teamwork. Meanwhile, Kagami, who suffered an utter defeat against Aomine in a one-on-one.

Aomine has yet to arrive onsite, but the match between Tôô and Seirin begins. Even without Aomine, Tôô shows their national-level strength with personal skills from their players starting with their captain, Imayoshi, but Seirin fights back with their team play. However, with Tôô manager Momoi's overwhelming information-gathering skills.

With 30 seconds left in the second quarter, Aomine arrives just as Seirin claws their way back to a 10-point deficit. With one score as his warm-up, Aomine opens up with his superb play, but Kuroko and Kagami fight back, and being toe to toe, they draw the surprise of the crowd. Aomine's motivation rises seeing the Seirin pair as they were more formidable then he imagined.

Aomine's street-style basketball that ignores all theories proves too much for Seirin to fight. Kagami valiantly holds on, but Aomine easily goes above and beyond to gradually increase their lead. Seirin, with no chance to win if the lead becomes any bigger, finally puts Kuroko on the court and closes the lead again with his pass work.

Seirin suffers a huge loss against Tôô. They try their best for the second game of the league match, but Kuroko lacks spirit after his basketball didn't work against Aomine, and Kagami exits after worsening his foot injury, causing two losses in a row… which ended Seirin's run for the interhigh. However, that was also the beginning for their new battle to aim for the Winter Cup.

Kiyoshi, joining the team, immediately challenges Kagami to a one-on-one and has Kuroko, Kagami, and the first years play a practice match against someone obviously lacking in skill in comparison… it seemed like he was up to something. Kiyoshi's aim wasn't to make Kagami notice the value of teamwork, as his play style was getting more and more selfish after his loss against Aomine.

Each wanted to become stronger than now and to combine even greater powers in order to defeat the Generation of Miracles… Kuroko and Kagami's emotions intersect, and the new challenge for the Winter Cup starts. Even Riko's abysmal cooking, which was going to be an issue during their summer camping session, somehow improved thanks to Kagami's coaching.

At the summer camp from hell, Seirin has a joint practice session with Shutoku. Kagami, who was practicing on a separate regimen from the others, strives to better his strong suit of aerial combat but suffers a complete loss against Midorima in that field. However, Kagami clearly saw the reason why he lost against Midorima, as well as what he needed to work on from there.

The match between Kaijo and Tôô starts with the duel between Kise and Aomine, both from the Generation of Miracles. Aomine blocks Kise's attack, and Tôô uses that to initiate the first score, but Kaijo fights back with their captain, Kasamatsu, at their core, and the seesaw game continues. Kise seems to be dealt with by Aomine, but after several confrontations.

Even Kise, the genius that can perfectly copy any play he sees once, could not copy Aomine's unique play style. However, in order to beat Aomine, Kise and Kaijo chose to take the challenge of trying to copy him. Kaijo was nine points behind, but it would take some time for Kise's copy to be complete. In the third quarter, Kise quickly approaches Aomine's level at a pace much faster.