Kuroko no Basket (Kuroko's Basketball) Review

The Premise: Kagami expects basketball in Japan to be pretty boring after playing in the U.S. After all, he was one of the best back at his old school. But he's heard about a group of players called the Generation of Miracles. These five guys, who played together in middle school but have all moved on to different high schools, are supposed to be nearly unbeatable. Kagami's goal is to surpass them all.
But what's with this kid Kuroko from the basketball club? He's short. He's slow. He's weak. He's got so little presence he might as well be invisible. Oh yeah, and he's also the legendary phantom sixth player from the Generation of Miracles. And he has the same goal Kagami does - he wants to defeat his former teammates from the Generation of Miracles. But his reason's a little different. He wants to show them that there's a better way to play basketball than their egocentric, winning is everything style.
Neither Kagami nor Kuroko is going to be able to take on the Generation of Miracles alone. But if they combine their unique skills, they just might have a chance. 

My Opinion: Now, I'm a genre omnivore. I'm almost never going to refuse to read or watch something based on genre alone. But ... a sports anime? I've never watched an entire game of any sport in my life. I'm just not interested in sports. 
But one night, I was bored and nothing appealed to me, so I thought "what the heck" and started episode one of Kuroko no Basket (also known as Kuroko's Basketball or the more unwieldy but descriptive The Basketball Which Kuroko Plays).
I marathoned 50 episodes in three and a half days. (I should probably explain, I was off work, it was pouring rain outside, I felt lazy and it's not unusual for me to marathon even shows I only sorta like.) 
As sports go, I don't dislike basketball. The pace is quick and it's fairly comprehensible. And this series is much the same. The pacing of the plot and action is really smooth and fast-paced. Each episode transitions seamlessly into the next, so if you're hooked at all you'll want to just keep watching/reading. The action is usually shown or explained in such a way that even if you don't know much about basketball you'll know what's going on, without being too expository. The animation is quite good. The soundtrack is generally unobtrusive, but at epic moments it becomes very intense, orchestral sports movie music - appropriate for the genre. 
One of the reasons I'm not too interested in watching sports is that I don't know any of the people playing them. I know for sports lovers, that doesn't really matter - they're watching for the sport itself. But for me, it's hard to get interested in a group of total strangers playing a game. And that's one reason I really like Kuroko no Basket - the characters are unique and well-developed. I know these characters, so I care whether they win the game or not. The characters are all real, believable people. Okay, there may be some stereotypes in there, but most real live people fit into a stereotype or two as well. 
There aren't a ton of twists and turns to the plot, but it's not all that predictable, either. In fact, several times I thought I knew what was coming and turned out to be wrong. And the characters' back stories tend to be pretty solid and interesting.

Anime vs. Manga: Usually, I prefer the manga over the anime (though this is often because the anime ends miles before the plot of the manga and they have to tack on some lame ending that doesn't make sense). This is one of the ones where anime actually serves the story better. Ask a sports person - would you rather look at still shots of the game, or watch live coverage? The manga does expand on a few things that aren't covered as thoroughly in the anime, but the action works better as, well, action. And the anime adapts the manga very, very closely. 
Tadatoshi Fujimaki's drawing style in the manga, especially the early chapters, is softer than the anime and the characters all look a bit younger, but the difference between the two isn't glaring. The animation is quite good - there's a definite animation bump in quality for the action as opposed to moments where everyone's standing around having dialogue, but that's both usual and understandable. I would have liked just a bit less use of stock animation, but I do understand why animators use it.  
It looks like there's going to be a third season, which is great - the second ends not exactly on a cliffhanger, but in the middle of a tournament and it's not such a predictable plot that you know for sure who is going to win or what exactly is going to happen.

Warnings: This story is about basketball. Everything - every back story, every moment of character development - revolves around how this effects or is effected by basketball. If you really can't stand basketball, this is not the story for you. The characters have families, they attend school, and at least one guy has a girlfriend - but unless this touches in some way on basketball, you're rarely ever going to see these people or see any of the characters in a non-basketball-related situation. 
I can't say for sure because I don't play sports, but for an overall realistic show, some of the abilities of the characters stretch credulity a little. The athleticism seems not impossible, but the players' ability to strategize like chessmasters while playing high-paced basketball seems like a bit much. The main characters' coach is a seventeen year old who can easily compete with trained adult professionals. None of this is impossible, and it didn't really bother me - just once in a while I'd think, "oh, come on now ..."
Also, there is an adorable puppy dog for no reason at all. At first this annoyed me a bit - sticking in a cute animal sidekick for no reason - but then, after all, people do have pet dogs so why shouldn't there be a dog? At least they don't overuse the dog for cutesy reaction shots. 
Oh, and if you like reading fan fiction, be forewarned - even though there's virtually no romance in the actual story and a guy in-story who tells a friend "I'm glad I met you" is considered by the other characters to have crossed the line into excessive touchy-feely emotional territory, there are some craaaaazy shippers out there.