This review is spoiler free. Disclaimer: I rate manga here based on how well I think they compare to other manga not just based on enjoyment so a manga that I find to be average but still a decent read will be around a 50 60s and 70s are a bit above average etc. Dont let my 80 score make you think I consider this a bad manga its very very good. Kurokos Basketballs appeal in my opinion isnt really in the sports side of things. Sure the games are okay theres plenty of action to keep things moving but a lot of the time the pacing is erratic and they just dont stand up to the intensity of matches in something like Haikyuu. Where Kurokos Basketball does stand out however is in the pure emotion packed into both the games and the characters. First off I have to praise just how interesting the characters of Kurokos Basketball are. The mangaka has done a wonderful job creating characters that are quirky without being annoyingly weird. The Miracle Generation characters are a great example an overconfident jock an overly fastidious and superstitious guy genius pretty boy and bored genius. Are they quirky? Yes for sure but they rarely if ever cross the territory from character to annoying bundle of quirks. They feel like the sort of kids you could find in a high school hall not a bunch of caricatures which keeps the characters at the least grounded which is good because the characters are the focus and then some. Overall the cast has some tropes mixed in but theyre used in pretty naturalfeeling ways. Its a good job balancing cast with sport and Tadatoshi mixes in some wholesome moments that flesh the characters out and make the games way more satisfying. These are characters you want to cheer for and not just Seirin a lot of the rival teams are awesome as well. Kuroko himself is ironically and probably intentionally more of a catalyst for the other characters than an attentioncatching MC but he works well as a protagonist for a team sports series and his power is unique and a refreshing take on how skillful a sports shonen MC should be. His rapport with the other heavily spotlighted player Kagami is also pretty damn endearing. As far as wholesome moments go surprise Kurokos Basketball has some slice of life stuff. When theres downtime in the story rather than rushing to the next game Kurokos Basketball mixes in the occasional chapter thats just a wholesome normally jokefilled chapter that just kind of fleshes out the characters and relaxes the pace of the story. Personally I really appreciated these moments and they got me a lot more invested in the characters. I wish more sports manga could have natural feeling breaks in the story rather than oh have a day off oh have the characters meeting by accident when shopping for new equipment dont get me wrong I dont hate the latter but Kurokos does a great job in making downtime feel full that I havent really seen in other sports manga. Speaking of jokes Kurokos Basketball employs a lot of gags. They actually dont feel stale which is a rarity when it comes to shonen. Theres also a little 2panel blooper gag at the end of most chapters which is a really fun addition to the series and provides a sort of break. Kurokos Basketball has a sort of shonenesque power system when it comes to basketball. Depending on your tastes that might be a good or bad thing but I didnt mind them. Theyre pretty mild powers mostly just special moves and very few of them are crazy powers like youd expect from something like Blue Lock. Theyre closer in scope to something like Food Wars preBlue where for the most part they just feel like the characters chose to hone one or two aspects of their game to extreme levels. Theyre one of the main focuses in games which made the games weirdly fun even if they werent always intense. The games themselves as I touched on earlier are okay. The games in the final arc are great and it did feel like they improved over time. However especially early on the pacing is weird and throws off the whole thing. I do like that the series showed several games from teams other than Seirin though as it built up other teams a lot more and made the games Seirin was in a lot more satisfying. Even when I didnt fully enjoy the games themselves the series builds to emotional highs better than most series Ive read which is pretty damn awesome. As for the art its pretty good. The character designs are distinct without being too flashy the backgrounds are clean and overall the art is very much readable even if its rough. Overall Kurokos Basketball is a very good series. With interesting characters lots of emotional highs and unique games its one of the best sports series Ive read so far. Though the art can be a bit rough and the games arent always the greatest I still had a ton of fun with the series and highly recommend it to anyone looking to get their sports fix.