Trivia / Kuroko's Basketball

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• All-Star Cast:
  • Oh yes. The anime packed some big names such as Kensho Ono, Yuki Ono, Daisuke Ono, Jun'ichi Suwabe, Ryōhei Kimura, Kenichi Suzumura, Hiroshi Kamiya, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Takuya Eguchi, Hirofumi Nojima, Soichiro Hoshi, Tatsuhisa Suzuki, Kazuya Nakai, Nobunaga Shimazaki, Kishow Taniyama...and the list goes on and on.
  • The English dub is no slacker either, packing in rising and established names such as Khoi Dao, Zeno Robinson, Erik Kimerer, Daman Mills, Ben Diskin, Xanthe Huynh, Robbie Daymond, Aleks Le as the the Generation of Miracles for starters. And that's not even getting into the very extensive supporting cast.
• Creator Backlash:
  • In the most recent Kuro Fes interview where Fujimaki gave comments on certain characters, he states he purposefully writes Kise on the "losing end" of things and says he's an outlet of jealousy he has against ikemen.
  • He has an even lower opinion on Haizaki (though few people can argue with that one). Fujimaki detests guys like him and wrote him (and Hanamiya) specifically to be detested by the fans, even stating that if Haizaki ever won the Kuro Fes popularity poll he would've dropped the whole fanbook project completely.
  • Yumi Kuroiwa, one of the animators, complained about working on the anime on her Twitter account, often saying that she wanted to work on Haikyuu!!. At one point, she even admitted that she lost Kuroko's character design sheet and decided to animate from memory. Along with posting explicit Yaoi fanart of Haikyuu, this was most likely what got her fired from Production I.G.
• Genre Relaunch: Kuroko is the first sports anime in a while to gain traction amongst the Western anime fanbase, paving the way for later newcomers Haikyuu!! and Free! to become major successes. It helps that all three share the same peripheral demographic.
• Late Export for You: Despite its popularity, the anime doesn't have an Official English dub...that is, until 2020, where news came out that the anime was dubbed by Bang Zoom! Entertainment under the "Netflix Dubbing Agreement" on the SAG-AFTRA Database. However, no dubs in other languages were made (aside from both Filipino as it's really popular in the Philippines where parts of the Filipino Dub that is aired on Philippine TV are even uploaded on YouTube as well, and a Latin American Spanish dub at 2023, which was broadcasted in a different streaming service), contrary to Netflix-exclusive productions.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Jun'ichi Suwabe is more known for playing the smooth-talker, flirty characters such as Ren Jinguuji or Victor Nikiforov, but here, he plays as the foul-mouthed and rude Aomine.
  • Nobunaga Shimazaki more often plays quiet characters with a cold demeanor like Haruka Nanase, but here, he's the Apologizes a Lot Sakurai.
• Promoted Fangirl: Xanthe Huynh was a fan of the series long before being cast as Momoi in the English dub.
• Role Reprise: Kensho Ono reprised his role as Kuroko in all four of the stage plays, despite him admittedly pointing out that he really doesn't look like Kuroko.
• Same Voice Their Entire Life: During the Teiko arc, the anime gives all of the Generation of Miracles (then 12 years old) the same voice actors they have as teenagers. It's jarringly out of place.
• Star-Making Role: While he was already fairly established before, the anime gave Kensho Ono a huge boost in popularity and firmly established him as a voice actor.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Fujimaki actually considered making Kuroko and Akashi siblings during the Teikou arc, which explains why they have similar hairstyles (their physical resemblance is something many fans had caught on pretty early). He shot down the idea because it might take the focus off the main plot and might "turn out like a soap opera".
  • In an early idea, Nijimura's hair was rainbow-colored. Fujimaki says he's rather glad he didn't follow it through.
  • The 2007 one-shot chapter has some major differences that were not present in the main story:
    • Kagami and Hyuuga were originaly named "Shigehiro Akiwara" and "Kashiwaki" respectively.
    • Kagami, Kuroko, and Hyuuga were the only named members of the Seirin team present. Riko, Seirin's coach, does not appear at all.
    • There were third-years present on Seirin's team, instead of it only consisting of first and second-years.
    • Teiko, the school that the Generation of Miracles attended, was originally named Shoei. This name was later reused for Kiyoshi's middle school.
    • Instead of a practice match between the first and second-years, Seirin had a practice match against a school called Yosen. This name was also reused, as the school Murasakibara and Himuro play for.
    • Kuroko was considered one of the five members of the Generation of Miracles. In the regular series, he is instead referred to as "The Phantom Sixth Man".
    • The light/shadow concept between Kagami and Kuroko was originally labeled as a sun/moon concept.
    • Kagami and Kuroko's jersey numbers were 12 and 15, respectively, instead of 10 and 11.

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