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The game between Seirin and Shutoku continues with plenty of tension in the latest episode of Kuroko no Basket.

I had a feeling Midorima would add something like a fake to his usual play.  It would make sense, especially when he knows Kagami will constantly try to block every one of his shots.  Is it too much to ask to see him actually miss a shot simply because he missed it, though?  Seriously.  Without being blocked, I want to see him miss.  Because otherwise I’ll just be forever convinced that he’s not human.

Fortunately, Kiyoshi’s there to back Kagami up against Midorima with his fakes.  Of course, that won’t matter if Midorima decides to be less of a narcissist and start passing to his teammates.  I’ve got to wonder how Kuroko feels about this.  I mean, he’s uneasy because he wants his own team to win, but his whole thing has always been about teamwork, right?  He should be kind of happy that Midorima is playing as part of a team rather than playing just for himself then.

I have to mention the animation in a particular scene in this episode.  When Kagami’s legs get tired, the animation of his muscles twitching is pretty amazing.  I know people sometimes complain about the animation in Kuroko no Basket, but it’s scenes like that that, in my opinion, make up for it.  The muscle animation was just awesome.

I really like the fact that we get to hear some of Takao’s thoughts about Midorima in this episode.  I mean, I’m pretty sure we all assume that the teammates of the Generation of Miracles players don’t really like the GoM guys because they’re selfish and all that, but it’s nice to actually hear that from the horse’s mouth.  Takao acknowledges that he’s not friends with Midorima, which is really important to both of their characterization, if you ask me.

Now this is just pure speculation, and it may be a little early for it, but I’m thinking Kuroko’s going to need to come up with a new trick pretty soon after using his new drive.  Everyone’s going to be expecting it after he uses it against Shutoku.  Not to mention the fact that both Kise and Momoi are watching this game.  That’s two separate future opponents that will now know just how effective this new move is.  What else might he have up his sleeve later?

Kuroko no Basket Episode 31 Preview

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