Kuroko's Basketball

First-years Taiga Kagami and Tetsuya Kuroko join Seirin High's young basketball team. The coach, Riko Aida, is skeptical of Kuroko, despite his past.

Coach Aida makes the first-years pass another "entrance exam" and sets up a practice match with Kaijo High and its former "Miracles" star Ryota Kise.

The practice match gets off to a bad start when the Seirin players realize that Kaijo's team is not playing to its full potential.

Kaijo takes the lead early on in the practice match, but Kuroko and Kagami working together has the potential to turn the game in Seirin's favor.

After the match, the Seirin squad celebrates at a steak house. Kise asks Kuroko about the reasons for his checkered middle school basketball career.

Seirin's first match in the Inter High preliminaries is against Shinkyo Academy, whose ringer player, Papa Mbaye Siki, is even taller than Kagami.

Seirin is in the lead over Shinkyo at the end of the first quarter, but with Kuroko benched to save his strength, Kagami has to face Papa alone.

Seirin faces off against Seiho High and their star player, Tomoki Tsugawa. Kise consults a horoscope that predicts disaster for Kuroko.

Seiho's reputation for defense proves deserved, and Seirin's match against them turns into a slog. With the game on the line, it's up to the seniors.

Seirin's game against Seiho goes down to the final buzzer. Immediately after that, Seirin faces the formidable Shutoku team.