Kuroko's Basketball: Manga Volumes 5-6 Reaction & Review!
Added 2023-06-22 13:00:04 +0000 UTC**Headphone Warning**
We defeat Shutoku for the first time and are now up against Touou! And ENTER AOMINE! You can already tell the way that the mangaka loves Aomine, both drawing and writing him in these volumes!
We not only get the introduction of Aomine but the ENTIRE Touou game! And then that cliffhanger previewing the arrival of the pink bear himself? I'm so hyped!
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
Having to wait (unless you had weekly access) to the end of the Shutoku and Seiren match would have been INSANITY! But I’m sure it worked on the marketing side of things - curse you, publishers! Hahaha! I hadn’t thought about it being Kagami and Kuroko’s “eye” and Akashi’s this early on but yes, the foreshadowing is THERE. And yesssss, the mangaka did such a good job with the emotions on all the Shutoku members’ faces, I agree! And **nervous laughter** it’s making me nervous as well! I just LOVE that Kagami BASICALLY has a pitcher all to himself! XD And oooh, yes, Midorima supporting the ship and giving Kagami advice all along! :3 I just LOVE the relationship that develops between Midorima and Kagami in this series! OMG, I never thought about how Aomine would have known who Kagami was…I figured Momoi did research; I could SO see Kise sending Aomine pics like, “Look! Your ex got a new man and he’s practically just like you!” Sparking Aomine’s interest…but yes, while he’s a jerk, the mangaka is clear to let us know he wasn’t “always” that way – yet another dark foreshadowing of Teiko. I actually like Wakamatsu’s design in the manga, so I’m curious to see if it changes as the mangaka keeps drawing them. But yes, Midorima and his “disguise;” what a dork. We love him, though. And does that make Kise Iwaizumi in this situation? It’s weird to think of those two similar, but maybe it does! Agreed on Momoi and Riko, for that matter – the female characters in Slam Dunk, with the exception of their manager, were all fangirls essentially so this is pretty refreshing to see them do so much in the series! I love Aomine in the manga – and I just imagine Suwabe voicing him and that helps. Suwabe elevates that performance SO. MUCH. And trying to imagine Sakurai in a drug deal had me ROLLING! XD He’d just say “I’m sorry” as he hands the guy a pound of marijuana. XD The guy’s like, “This is legal, you know?” 😛 The anime already makes this series SO shippy – lemons stuck in people’s mouths would only make it over the top! 😛I feel there was SO MUCH GROUND covered in these two manga and we’re barely into the series – that definitely makes me give a nervous chuckle at what all we have to look forward to as we’re not even a third of the way through the manga yet…hmmmm….we’ll see, eh? Thank you for the comment and kind words!!
Romaniablack
2023-06-25 14:18:36 +0000 UTCI also love that cover because of all the little things you pointed out, but also we get a slither of Kagami in the form of part of his shoe being visible. The mangaka being unable to order the same thing as anyone else is definitely a bizarre thing to me too. Typically I order something different from anyone else I'm eating with but that's more down to dietary issues constraining my choices more than anyone else I've gone out to eat with. I can't imagine having to potentially wait several weeks to even several months (as I have done for other manga) to see the resolution of the Shuutoku-Seirin match. That truly was an evil place to end the volume one, from a reader's perspective. From the mangaka and publishing company's perspective it's a smart choice to get people invested into buying this volume to get the answer. Definitely a little bit of foreshadowing for Akashi's Emperor Eye, and Kuroko being "Kagami's eye" in their match against Rakuzan. Aomine, in the Teiko flashback, pointed out about Kuroko observing people a lot, and I feel like this moment against Midorima also shows how Kuroko's observations helps him to accurately predict a person's actions. Against someone like Midorima I'm sure it's easier to predict, not because Midorima is predictable, but rather because Kuroko has spent so much time with him and has gathered more knowledge/observations about him. I feel like the mangaka did a much better job at showing the pain in all of Shuutoku's members' faces, therefore making it all the more painful for the reader. My heart got all twisted at the misery on Miyaji and Kimura's faces, the shock on Ootsubo and Takao's, and the pained grimace on Midorima's face. And now it's making me feel so much dread for moments in the anime that ripped my heart out, because they might prove to be even more painful in the manga 😭 The restaurant scene was just as comical in the manga. Also the drinks they're having are definitely non-alcoholic but they still get served in those big glass tankards that, at least in the UK, are only typically used as beer/lager glasses. Takao is truly such a trickster with how he manoeuvres Kasamatsu over to being with the rest of Seirin, resulting in that table of craziness. Also hadn't realised this was the very first instance of Midorima giving Kagami advice. Kise's text is what pushes Kagami to try harder 🥺 The manga definitely doesn't seem to be being just as fanservice-y as the anime does, especially with Momoi's entrance. A question I want answered is how did Aomine know who Kagami was? Like yes the street basketball court seems to be near to where Seirin are practicing in the pool, but he's not in uniform so he doesn't have to be someone with Seirin. Though now I'm just imagining Kise having sent Aomine (or more likely his bestie Momoi) photos he took of Kagami 🤣 Either that or Momoi gave a detailed description of Kagami to Aomine. The double spread of Kagami and Aomine is beautiful. Even though Aomine comes off as such an ass. But yes the glimpse of him smiling back in the Teiko days feels very much like the mangaka telling his readers not to just write Aomine off as a mere jerk. The KagaKuro fistbump 🥺 Anyone not in this fandom would not understand why a fistbump is such a meaningful action. Out of all the characters I definitely agree that it feels like the mangaka knows some of how he wants Wakamatsu as a character to be, but it's not a complete image yet. From my perspective, Wakamatsu isn't as bulky as in the anime. Also his facial features are *a lot* younger-looking than in the anime, even in comparison to everyone else. Ah, Midorima's "disguise". I mean I know a simple disguise is always the best and easiest to pull off; but there's a simple disguise and then there's Midorima's attempt at a disguise 🤣 He's such a dork. Shiratorizawa and Touou are very similar in how they're built up. Also both teams are very much about power, and though they have an amazing ace the rest of the team are no slouches. So Oikawa turning up with the glasses for the Shiratorizawa-Karasuno match is definitely similar vibes to Midorima at this Touou-Seirin match...but in that respect does that make Kise Iwaizumi for calling Midorima out on his behaviour? 🤣🤣🤣 I like that whilst Momoi can seem like she simps over Kuroko a bit/a lot, and she can be very sweet and soft, when it comes to basketball she's just as serious as the rest of them. She strives to do her best to prepare her team for their opponents. It's really not often that you get to see a female character with such a mix in her personality, but I feel it's even more unusual with a male mangaka for a shounen (not to say there aren't male mangaka for shounen manga that can accurately portray and create female characters who feel more realistic and less a specific caricature of a woman/young girl, it's just that such characterisations of women/young girls are more predominant in a lot of the shounen I've read and watched). That image of Kagami vs. Aomine and Kuroko in between is just so good! 🥰 And you know Aomine would use the fact he's a little bit taller than Kagami as one of many reasons for why he's better than him, because they both can be such big kids like that 🤣 As much as I love Aomine's entrance in the manga, I do love it more in the anime with him putting his arm around Kagami and hearing Suwabe's drawl...yeah I feel like Suwabe Junichi plays a big part for why I prefer the anime for that moment 😆 But yes, when we get the reversal it's going to be so good! That moment of Aomine coming up to Sakurai in the locker room definitely feels quite threatening, especially with what has been shown of his current personality. Or like there's some kind of illicit drug deal going down. And instead it's just Sakurai's ability to prepare honey-soaked lemons 🤣 Kagami, even from the start, was not going to have any miscommunication trope butting in on his partnership with Kuroko 🥰 Except with that "break-up" scene in the locker room. Aomine all warmed up...that panel with the towel draped over his head might be my favourite of Aomine so far 😍 I can understand the probable reason for not getting the lemon being stuck as an animated blooper. Could prove to give just a little too much fuel for shippers 🤭 I was not prepared to be seeing the manga versions of baby Aomine and Momoi 🥺 That double spread showing Kuroko's desperation and that none of them gave up! So so good. But yeah it definitely feels like it hurts more in manga form than the anime. It's honestly pretty crazy that in these two volumes we get the end of the Shuutoku match, a proper introduction to Touou and the match against them, a summary of the subsequent matches Seirin lost for Inter-High, *as well as* Kiyoshi's first appearance. That's honestly a fair amount of ground to cover in just two volumes.
Anime Annie
2023-06-22 15:49:27 +0000 UTC
