Kuroko no Basket vs Haikyu!
Anime is a beautiful thing. I think past all the cliches and tropes; I think we as fans can tend to make some gross summarizations and waving of the hands. At least that was me because even with years of watching everything from shonen, ecchi, to romcom, I made one thing clear.
"I already hate regular sports enough as it is; why the hell would I watch anime based on it."
But throughout my high school career, as I grew more and more social. As I invested effort more and more into the swim team that I didn't spend nearly enough time appreciating. As I spent more time enjoying the hype of high school football deep in the bleachers. I finally understood the hype of having all that hard work and determination become so tangible you can grasp it with the honor of an athlete surpassing their limits. And with 2020 leaving me with barely anything else but a hunger to grow my writing, I eventually bit the bullet. I spent the end of that year and the beginning of this one watching the arguably two biggest sports anime of the 2010's respective eras: Haikyu! and Kuroko no Basket.
After watching both of these amazing shows, I noticed a lot of similarities. Both Knb and H! feature a short "untalented" protagonist whose drive is recognized only after a traumatic middle school experience. After the said experience, the main character gets in contact with a much more passionate high school team with aims for the national tournament and a much more talented and opposite deuteragonist that they learn and influence in a give and take friendship. How they present, this similar story is very different, though. Enough differences to have some fun commentary. So in this blog, I've decided against my better judgment to compare and fairly contrast both of these shows, with the very ending showing off my favorite of these two titans. So with that fanciful intro out of the way, let's get this fanciful game started! However, let's go over the rules first.
Note
So a quick little note before I begin. Take both a pinch of salt and a chill pill. I like both Kuroko no Basket and Haikyu! Despite their kinda dumbass names (they translate to the basketball that Kurko plays and volleyball, like come on), I do like both shows overall. But if I do have a problem, I'm not afraid to discuss it. If you want these shows, then I doubt my opinion will change your mind anyway, so please let's keep things civil. Next, to understand where I'm coming from, I'll mainly be using the anime for both shows. I watched all three seasons of Kuroko and the movie while I've watched all three seasons of Haikyuu and a little bit of season 4, so it's a little bit of a level playing field. Each section will inform you of both shows, giving me my overall thoughts on how each show handles each section. Finally, for reference, I'll just be calling each anime by an emboldened underlined initial of their name to make transitions to them in each section easier (Ex: Knb and H!). With that out of the way, let the games begin.
Summary
Knb
About a year ago, Japan's middle school basketball was changed practically forever when a group of almost superhuman players gathered together. And those players quickly became known as the Generation of Miracles, a force to be reckoned with for those who dared to face them. However, under the harmful tutelage of their past coaches, the Miracles soon became drunk on their talent, losing faith in the game they once loved and effectively shutting down any resistance from that simple fact. All except one, the one shadow that stood amid their all-encompassing light for far too long. That shadow is the soft-spoken Kuroko Tetsuya who felt that the victory that the Generation of Miracles strived for wasn't the one that should get achieved. However, realizing that they won't listen through petty words, the shadow decided to find a new light within the highly cooperative Seirin High, or more specifically, the power of another Gom level player Taiga Kagami. With their prowess combined, the pseudo Miracles have set out to show their superiors the shadow of defeat and the reason why they get barred from the gate of true victory!
H!
Years ago, a young Shoyo Hinata managed to gaze upon the flapped wings of the Karasuno crow known as the Tiny Giant. And it was from that small little moment that Hinata's obsession with volleyball would be born. For years on end, he hounded every single classmate he could find into playing with him, but no one wanted to play with him, and his school never had a volleyball team to count on. All he had was a spirit that won't quit and wings that would fly faster and higher than any wall. But even with all that, it amounted to little more than a crushing middle school defeat at the hands of Tobio Kageyama.
In comparison to Hinata, Kageyama was a volleyball prodigy, easily able to dominate and control every field of play. However, with his bossy attitude and a temper as petite as Hinata, the so-called king of the court has absolutely no servants that will follow him. With both of their obvious problems, 2 worked all through the summer to become stronger players that will meet again on the court. Little did they know that this would take on an all-new meaning as both of them had reserved rights to play for Karasuno. With their vastly different ideals but undeniable talent plus the skills of their respective teammates, these clipped crows might just have the means to flock together and murder the competition on their flight to Nationals!
Cast
Knb
Starting off with the main man himself, Kuroko is a much different protagonist than I'm used to. Instead of loud and brash, Kuroko is a relatively quiet individual known for his rather invisible presence in and off the court. Simply put, Kuroko is a certified and hardworking team player who enjoys basketball through and through, and through his stance as being a "weak" player tries to spread the message of respect and humbleness to every player he comes across while inspiring it for others. Kuroko's "light" is Taiga Kagami, a goliath of a player that had the potential to become a miracle, leaving him often judgemental, hotheaded, selfish, and widely ambitious. Under Kuroko's tutelage and subsequent losses to the GOM, though, Kagami adopts a far more friendly, mature, and altruistic mindset.
The leading players of team Serien are the calm but still very much aggressive and commanding Hyuga, punny guy Izuki, strong silent Mitobe, feral Koganei, happy but airheaded Teppei, and the overethuatically violent but well-meaning coach Riko. However, the real bread and butter lie in the Generation of Miracles. These lucky few include the formerly passionate and jerkish Aomine, excitable pretty boy Kise, eccentric yet serious Midorima, the large lethargic glutton Murasakibara and the royal-like captain who strives for victory: Akashi.
Knb, despite its significant focus on teamwork and cooperation, mainly focuses its energies on the uber-talented and flashy Generation of Miracles. They make it pretty apparent that Kuroko, Kagami, and later Teppi are pretty much the only reasons they can even win against the others, which is true but a little saddening as it almost stunts the growth of the other players too much. While this gives Kuroko a much more present recurring cast and a more accessible switch of focus for its various characters than H!, it does leave a very lacking representation of its main characters. Serien's best moments, for the most part, are as a joint collective that relies heavily on their flashy moves and little gimmicks to remain unique. But yeah, when it comes to the Generation of Miracles, most of the character development and cool moments are given to them which on some level does help to make their matches with Seiren more personal.
H!
On the flipside, Haikyu! features a very large but easy to keep up with the main cast. In the starting lineup, we have Shoyo Hinata, a bright ball of energy with a bit of Napoleon complex. As a main character, Hinata is characterized largely through his insane tenacity and thirst to play volleyball. This tenacity is so amazing that he often can liven up the drive of just about anyone he meets while sometimes also displaying innocent selfishness. His other half is Tobio Kageyama, a highly talented setter with a bad temper and massive control issues that gets better with time. Rounding out the Karasuno Crows are the aggressively stern Daichi, wacky and gentle pillar Sugawara, anxiety-filled Asahi, energetically dependable Nishinoya, easily rambunctious and energetic Tanaka, future captain Ennoshita, disinterested troll Tsukishima, and the very timid Yamaguchi.
Outside of the leading team, we have the beautifully stoic and respectfully anxious team managers Kikyo and Yachi. The supportive Takeda and the devilish coach Ukai. Unfortunately, Haikyuu has a vast but very memorable cast, so I'll just be going over the best and brightest rivals of Karasuno. First up, we have the socially awkward but intellectually blunt Kenma of Nekoma, then the forever petty but cooperative Oikawa of Aoba Johsai, and finally the stoically strong Ushijima of Shirowtawa.
Haikyu!, on the other hand, literally has dozens of characters in the roster and manages to make each and every one of them equal parts essential to the overall team. There's a real sense of energy and heart put into every character, and it makes me think of them as real people with real lives. The multilayered interactions between most of the cast are something special and give way to some awesome comedic and joyous scenes. While the overall cast doesn't recur as often as Knb Haikyu! also does an amazing job at highlighting its 3-dimensional opponents even though we, unfortunately, don't get to see them very often outside of their spotlight. But I think that's part of the charm as one of the earliest episodes of the series highlights that even though there has to be a loser in each game, they still are hungry enough to enjoy and bask in the sunlight of their passion. At the end of the day, they aren't any villains or heroes in this series, this game, just people who love it so desperately that their defeat is crushing to us.
Presentation
Knb
Now to start the most easily distinct part of the review. Despite most of the cast of Knb being first-year students, I doubt you would be able to tell from looking at them. Because of their largely muscular frame, small heads, and tall bodies, most of the cast look like they belong in the actual NBA. Combine that with the often dark stadiums, pulsating electronic/rock music, flashy effects, and over-the-top expressions. Kuroko portrays every sport like it's actual life or death, which makes sense given the over the top, dbz style combat of the series. Kuroko is a story about basketball prodigies throwing around techniques so ludicrous that they could feel at home to my hero academia or jujitsu kaisen (reminder still need to see that). The best examples are the almost laser-like Ignite Pass Kai of Kuroko, the future predicting Emperor's Eye of Akashi, and of course, the iconically ionic Zone that gets usually displayed by most top-tier characters. Hell, most of the characters in the series feature at least one stupidly overpowered special move to help them stand out. Despite all that, Knb cuts corners with the animation a little bit initially with its freeze frames and zoom-outs, which dominated a lot of the first season. In the seasons to come, the animation for Knb gets to be a lot more consistent. So consistent that even I'll admit that in later seasons many GOM games become outright animation spectacles with many repeatable moments and comparatively long stretches of pure quality.
Soundtrack wise I'll also say that Knb knows what it's doing and does it well. Most of the tracks have a very larger-than-life rock and electronic-oriented style with blaring guitars, ever-present drums, and big neon lights made to hype you up. The best example is op three other side, a masterfully beautiful opening highlighting all important characters as godly figures with perfectly calculated yet dynamic dunks and shots. In terms of metaphor, Kuroko does try its best to show the limits and upper echelon of its players. The most direct and ever-present metaphors are probably that of the whole light and shadow plus the gate. Kuroko has a complete support player and is truly nothing more than a shadow compared to the light that is other players like Kagami, inspiring both harsh limitations and a need for teamwork. The gate also implies these themes. We realize that while it does show the isolation of raw talent, it also indicates that finding the "true" gate is only through the relationships that come along the way. Combine that with the animal-theming of certain characters going around, and you can tell that Knb is very much an anime focusing a lot on the sort of struggle that comes with pure talent.
H!
In comparison to Knb Haikyu! features an art style that is atmospherically very different. Bright warm colors, positive stadium reactions, and overall jovial tone leaves the series with an overall fun yet energetic experience. The character design is also a lot better in H! in my eyes, giving even the most minor characters a memorable and realistic design while still making everyone look like plausible teenagers that could exist. Animation wise the series is also a lot more consistent than Knb, remaining solid and stable throughout each season. However, this can become jarring given the change of studio that happens in season 4. And while H! does also have a couple of beautifully over-the-top scenes and some very unrealistic concepts like the ridiculously fast minus tempo of Kageyama and Hinata or Oikawa's ability to bring the best of any team he's on without any prior experience with said team. However, both skills and many others are built upon realistic principles of the game and also are hard-earned through shown training. The over the top animation, to me, also isn't supposed to be Hinata pulling out some ki blast or fancy jutsu. I know it's a bit weird to explain, but to me, at least H! relies heavily on the animation jump to convey how the characters feel in the heat of the moment. We see that feeling many times from characters often scatting out the sound of a move or just simply how good a powerful set is or how satisfying a block feels. However, it should get noted that the animation jumps do get repeated pretty often, like Oikawa's jump serve and Ushijima's spikes which can be a little disorienting.
To match the tone of the series Haikyu!'s soundtrack is structurally aimed to create that fun feeling I mentioned before. There's lots of swelling and sweeping music but made in a significantly softer and more inviting tone to convey that motivational sports team vibe the series is going for. The best example is one of my favorite openings, Fly High, an entire opening that saves its best and most expressive animation on one emotional and gratifying split second moment with the main match of the arc. In terms of metaphor, H! centers itself mainly on using the animal mascots of the series as a way to contextualize better the strategies and the struggles of the respective teams of the series. Karasuno uses the symbolism of the crows to show off their current underdog status and rather loudly energetic personalities. However, over time Karasuno uses their hunger and scrappy status to learn quickly, improve and copy the experiences of their rivals as a way to fly high over the competition through their incredibly varied offensive capabilities. Other metaphors of this nature are the carefully quick to react cats of Nekoma or the singularly bold nature of Shirotawza's large white eagle. This animal symbolism gets pretty much made to amplify Haikyu!'s central theme. That, too, is the instinctual, almost primal feeling of one who wishes to experience their passion. So much so that one can become lost in it. It's a story about how one finds the means to metaphorically fly and get lost in the thing they enjoy with as many people as possible for as long as possible.
Overview
Knb
Once again, Knb and H! have very different ways of portraying their respective stories. Considering how long this is getting, I'm not even going to bother summarizing all the arcs of both stories since I don't want to keep you guys here. Due to the nature of the series Kuroko devotes most of its time to its intense games at the cost of long training arcs and supplementary slice of life material. Since the current goal of the series is mainly to devote time to beating every Generation of Miracles, as they get beaten, we get to learn more of their motivations and backstory. This often leads to a lot of backtracking to various arcs and characters. How well these flashbacks get built up and get well implemented is honestly a 50/50 bag, depending on what you think. At the very least, these flashbacks do add a lot to most of the characters and also paint similar groups like the Uncrowned Kings and other talented players in decent light with more added story.
Though if I'm going to be completely honest, I personally think that the biggest problem I have with Knb is simply its main strength: it's over the top nature. Because of that, combined with its seeming expectation that those watching already know the rules of basketball. And while basic context clues did give me a couple of things to work with, the massive amount of flashy moves and overly dramatic tone, I don't know what should be taken seriously within the game or just the show being fancy. This means that even watching this entire show without going on the internet doesn't give people the best environment to experience the sport you're advertising. Now that isn't technically Knb's job to necessarily do, and the over-the-top nature isn't a bad thing in itself, but it would just be nice to have. Speaking of the over-the-top nature, because of the nature of the Generation of Miracles and the shonen-like moves, it can lead to the GOM games either be hype masterpieces or disappointing encounters, depending on how much you can lean into this.
H!
Like I said before, the difference between both series is night and day. From the very start, we get introduced to Hinata's dreams, struggles, and preceding evolution. While there are the typical backstories and flashbacks, these are primarily focused on the various opponents and rivals of the series simply to add more layers to their overall stories and explain their love of volleyball. Many have stated Haikyu! is the story where everyone is the main character, and I agree here. This anime shows better than most that while the characters are still very much a team, they still want to be a little selfish in their growth. In fact, in a way, this balance plays a different way in highlighting Kageyama and Hinata rivalry as we see every single step Karasuno takes the steps needed to fly towards nationals from the training to the matches in between the big ones.
Haikyu! also does a great job of giving the viewer a very detailed look at high school volleyball and not having that same fact be way too underwhelming. While it can lead to certain moves getting more reverence than necessary, it also does a great job of making the game accessible to people who are generally curious. And I bet if you watch a single real-life volleyball video, you can tell how effective this strategy is. Really the only problem with Haikyu! is that such a big cast that some characters get better moments and others, but it isn't so much of a problem.
Epilogue
Okay, and with all that wrapped up, which series comes out on top for me? And honestly, as fair as I feel like I've ben to both shows, it's pretty obvious. Even if I watched Knb first, Haikyu! is still going to own my heart. I think the former has better visuals and an overall better recurring cast of opponents but Haikyu! blows it out of the park in terms of development, story, and cast. I like both shows a lot, but this series truly has no proper being as good as it is. But that still doesn't make each message less important.
For Knb, I think the most significant message it was trying to convey was that basketball could be a sport that's played one on one, but it is so much more satisfying to play with people. No man, no matter how powerful an island is, and obstacles, no matter how big, are essential. This is why the struggle to succeed should be savored because sometimes there is nothing more punishing than an unearned victory, especially in a sport, no, in life where we must constantly battle our pride and ambition. At the same time, Haikyu is the story of people, all people, and their ongoing struggle to experience their passion in full force for as long as they can. A story of trying to fly for your dream no matter what happens. Knb made me entertained by the sport I regularly enjoy outside but Haikyu! makes me want to fly into volleyball no matter how bad I am at it or bad the sport's been to me. If that isn't something, I don't know what is—either way, both shows have made me recontextualize my writing and gave me a love for sports anime. It made me appreciate and remember the pride of an athlete. And I will happily try to enjoy this passion for as long as humanly possible. After all, isn't that why we all live?