YMMV / Kuroko's Basketball

aka: Kuroko No Basuke

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Some fans think that Kuroko's secretly a Manipulative Bastard who caused the break-up of the Generation of Miracles team. Of course, this is a Just for Fun interpretation that no one really takes seriously.
• Badass Decay: Momoi starts off just as good, maybe even better than Riko at noticing the skills and hidden potential of players just by looking at them. But overtime, as she and Aomine watch games together, she seems to completely lose this, resulting in Aomine explaining everything to her (and the audience).
• Bishōnen Jump Syndrome: Pretty every male character that appears in Kuroko's Basketball is guaranteed to be some sort of pretty boy. This was one of the reasons why the series has such a massive Estrogen Brigade.
• Broken Base:
  • Whether Kuroko is considered an actual member of the Generation of Miracles. Currently, the wiki's stance is that he isn't, due to the fact that he isn't listed as so in multiple points in the manga and in the character bible, among other reasons. It doesn't help that the manga also lists him as being a member of the Generation of Miracles at some other points.
    • Kuroko's status as member of the GOM is plenty ambiguous even in the manga. His GOM comrades do seem to consider him one of them, due to their history together and the fact that his Misdirection was useful to them for a long while. However, Kuroko is not part of GOM as far as their fame of unbeatable basketball prodigies go.
    • There's a similar dynamic going on with Momoi: people who were never part of GOM's inner circle and only know them through watching their matches would barely recognize either Kuroko or Momoi for their talents, which are respectively not noticeable and not court-based, and so to the general public they are not part of the Generation of Miracles. The "official" members of GOM, however, are very much aware of Kuroko and Momoi's usefulness, and so consider them a part of the team as well.
• Die for Our Ship: Increasingly for the English fandom, but already very much so in the Japanese fandom.
  • Kagami for the avid Aomine/Kuroko shippers; Kuroko for the Kagami/Himuro shippers.
  • Not to mention Momoi and Riko who are often pushed to the side in the fandom by their tragic nature of not being guys. However, this has died down in recent years, as either the fans would ship the two girls with each other, or that they would ship Riko with either Hyuga or Kiyoshi (or both) and let Momoi be a Shipper on Deck for the rest of the Generation of Miracles.
  • Inverted with Kuroko with Aomine/Kagami shippers, in fact, Kuroko is generally a silent Shipper on Deck with a bit of Covert Pervert and The Matchmaker tendencies.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Hanamiya is astoundingly popular despite being one of the biggest jerks in the anime. Not only did he make 10th place in the most recent Kuroko no Basket popularity poll, he's also voiced by Jun Fukuyama, a favorite among many anime fans.
  • Haizaki is sometimes viewed as this too, especially by Nijimura/Haizaki shippers, making his background as angsty and pitiable as possible but the only one who bats an eye is Nijimura.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Takao is really popular along with Kasamatsu and Miyaji according to the most recent popularity poll. The author himself was particularly surprised by Takao's rise in popularity, since he was "just drawing him like any other minor character".
  • And now Akashi has taken Kuroko's spot as #1 in the third poll, winning by more than 2,500 votes.
  • Another example is Furihata, who scored #15 in said poll after A Day in the Limelight.
• Estrogen Brigade: Kuroko is the series that's considered to have started a string of sports anime in The New '10s that heavily cater to the female audience (mostly the Yaoi Fangirls, though there are actual sports fans and even sportswomen watching).
• Fandom Rivalry: With Slam Dunk's fans. Compared to Slam Dunk, which is a mostly realistic take on basketball, Kuroko's wild powers are frequently considered to be rather offputting to those who are there for the basketball. The rabid Yaoi Fangirls don't help either.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Ahomine for Aomine, to go with Kagami's in-universe nickname Bakagami. (Both aho and baka mean "stupid" in different dialects.) Also Kisecchi for Kise.
  • RIMFIRE is another one for Kagami due to the poorly placed song title in the season 2 opening.
  • Apparently, Murasakibara is becoming known as 'Titan' or the 'Purple-haired Titan' due to his huge stature; the scene where he's chasing after Izuki makes it seem like a scene from Attack on Titan.
  • Tsundere Carrot is one for Midorima due to his green hair and orange Shuutoku uniform.
  • To some outsiders, detractors, and to gently ribbing fans, the series is known as "Basketball Gods", "Basketball Z", or anything involving supernatural abilities due to the crazy on-court antics these boys go through. It also gets "Basugay", for obvious reasons.
  • "Oreshi" and "Bokushi" have become popular among the fandom to distinguish Akashi's Split Personality.
• Fanon: While it is Canon that Taiga Kagami, Himuro Tatsuya, and all six of the Generation of Miracles would go on to play on different NBA teams in America due to the movie collaboration, it is generally agreed by the fandom that the other basketball players would find success as well with one example being Hiroshi, Kōki, and Kōichi going on to win gold at the Olympics in 3x3 basketball for Japan (and possibly America if they join the NBA or play at the college level too), as they make up the perfect team composition of a Center, Point Guard, and Small Forward, respectively, as well as rarely being seen apart making them unbeatable in teamwork.
• Fanon Discontinuity: While the final movie "Last Game" is generally well-liked, many fans would rather ignore the fact that Kagami left for America permanently and the "boku" Akashi disappeared for good.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Many Kuroko's Basketball fans seem to have a good rapport with many Haikyuu!! fans as they are both sports manga with some similar themes and premises (sports with a ball, a team from a not so well-known school, a first year ace combo, etc).
  • They also seem to have a good rapport with fans of Free! as they helped revive interest in sports anime in the Western Hemisphere.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Sort of. Midorima's ridiculous shooting range has been good-naturedly ridiculed by basketball fans, but come the 2015-2016 NBA season where Stephen Curry's talent finally "blooms" and he starts churning out 3-pointer stats not unlike Midorima's, range included. In fact, his best range is at 70-feet if he has a good day.
  • Kuroko's passes have often been compared to that of Manu Ginóbili. When the show had a cross promotion with the National Basketball Association for their final movie, what team's jersey was Kuroko wearing? That's right, the San Antonio Spurs, the team Ginóbili played for. There's also the fact that they are both sixth men in their respective teams, to further the similarity.
• Iron Woobie: Kuroko. When he joined Teiko in hopes of being a regular in basketball and getting to play with his childhood friend, he is cited as the weakest player, and despite training every day until evening, is told that the sport isn't for him. Things get better when Aomine motivates him not to give up, with Akashi inspiring him to develop his skills as a skilled passer, making him an indispensable player. But then, as his team became too strong for anyone to stand a fair chance against them, his teammates soon lose interest in the sport and clearly show that none of them have any need for him to win, particularly Aomine, which the latter painfully points out. When he finally gets to play against his childhood friend, he suddenly gets injured and is unable to participate, so what he can only do is ask Akashi to play at their very best against Ogiwara's team... to which the team responds by making the game end with a score that utterly breaks his friend's spirit, and his own as well. When he calls out on them for it no one shows any sympathy, and out of his growing resentment for the sport, quits basketball. Then he realizes that Ogiwara had also quit the sport, and until the last few chapters, he blames himself for what had happened.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Kuroko is paired in a frenzied manner with all the members of the Generation of Miracles - not to mention Kagami, Aida, Tetsuya #2 - his pet dog mind you.
  • Kagami has quite the ship pool too; getting shipped with Kuroko, the Generation of Miracles, and Himuro.
  • Kise has the largest pool of the GOM, usually being shipped with as many people as Kuroko; his regular ships consisting of Aomine, Midorima, Akashi, Murasakibara, Kuroko, Kagami, Haizaki, and Kasamatsu.
• LGBT Fanbase: Of course a series with well-fit sweaty males in a contact sport was bound to pick up lots of gay male fans. Kagami has this in spades. He even won first place as the most wanted anime boyfriend voted by gay men.
• Love to Hate: Those that don't put Hanamiya and Haizaki in leather pants will have them here, enjoying just how cruel and diabolical they are for high school basketball players and enjoy it even more when they get their just desserts.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Akashi and his scissors. In his first appearance, he borrows a pair of scissors from Midorima to attack Kagami with. It must have really made an impression on the fans, because in fanart Akashi is always drawn with a pair of scissors, in fanfiction he often has or uses a pair of scissors, etc.
  • One of the protagonists of Smile Pretty Cure! is blonde and has the last name Kise. Fans of both Kuroko's Basketball and Pretty Cure quickly associated this to her being Ryouta's up-to-that-point-never-mentioned little sister. Thus, the Kise siblings meme was born.
    • It later became canon that Kise actually does have two sisters, which may have added fuel to this meme.
  • "The only one who can block me..." ^Explanation Aomine has a tendency to state that the only person that could surpass him is him alone, leading to many, many jokes evolving from that.
  • "Is it me or they are trying to make Aomine more evil than he really is in the manga?"
  • Shintaro Midorima in Shuutoku's uniform = Carrot-san (and some other vegetables).◊
  • The series is often summed up as "Kuroko and his new boyfriend getting revenge on his five evil ex-boyfriends".
  • On a smaller scale, the duet song "Time Machine ga Nakutatte" of Kuroko and Kise has a part where Kise goes "Kuuurrrrrokocchiiii!! Yeah!!". The quote became very memorable with Japanese fans and they often draw Kise using this quote with Kuroko, even with its own tag on Pixiv.
• Moral Event Horizon: There's no doubt that the Generation of Miracles crossed it with how they defeated Meiko during middle school. Even the most avid fans of the team — or Akashi, in particular — acknowledge that they went too far.
• One True Threesome:
  • Kagami/Kuroko/Aomine is by far the most popular. Kagami/Kise/Aomine and Aomine/Kuroko/Kise also exists.
  • There are many fans who would ship Riko, Hyuga, and Kiyoshi with each other, as Riko and Kiyoshi are Amicable Exes, Hyuga seems to have a thing for Riko, and Kiyoshi and Hyuga are also incredibly close.
• Periphery Demographic: The series has a MASSIVE Estrogen Brigade, to the point where it can be described as its main following. 97 percent of fans are female, which is why you see Kuroko's Basketball merchandise in otome magazines and fairs. Many have chalked it up to the series' impressive Ho Yay dynamics, tons of Pretty Boy characters, and dedication to character writing.
• The Woobie: Kiyoshi. In the flashbacks, nothing wrong seems to happen as we watch him form a basketball team in Seirin, and after getting enough members, helps them play in matches and win them. But then during a match against Kirisaki Daichi, a player deliberately sets up a scenario where he would greatly injure his leg, leaving his hospitalized and unable to play. He pushes himself to be able to play alongside his team just when the Winter Cup tournament is about to begin, but at the cost of this season being his last chance to play basketball ever again.