Now, if you guys read my last post… then you know that I loved the way Kuroko’s basketball ended. But I would have loved to see the Generation of Miracles plays as a team. My Twitter friends didn’t disappoint. They told me there was a movie, so all was not lost. So the movie came out in 2017… I found it on Crunchyroll. The U.S. street basketball team named Jabberwock comes to Japan and plays a friendly match with the Japanese team Strky, but after the Japanese team suffered a crushing defeat, Jabberwock team members began to mock the Japanese basketball. The Jabberwock’s leader tells all the players from Japan to either quit playing basketball or go die. Their comments infuriated Riko’s father, so he assembled a team of five Generation of Miracles members plus Tetsuya Kuroko and Taiga Kagami, called Vorpal Swords to perform a Revenge match against Jabberwock. I am all for a revenge match. I love it. I really wanted to see how the new Generation of Miracles operates. The old team was all about themselves. I wanted to see what they can do when they work together. Is this opponent going to give them a run for their money? Well, let’s see. Check out the trailer here: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DadWQihpBeo)

The movie starts off with a bit of backstory on Kagami… We know from the show that he transferred from the U.S. Back in the present, Kagami is seen walking to Seirin but is surprised when Kuroko appears behind him with Nigou in hand. Kagami receives a phone call from his coach Alex. She is calling Kagami from the USA while accompanied by a coach. She tells the American coach how great of a player Kagami is and that he loves basketball more than anyone. The coach in return asks her if he can expect a “good answer” from Kagami. I wonder what this is about. Is he planning on leaving Seirin? What is the plan? No time to dwell on that because… Everyone you know is gathering to watch a street ball game. I have been to a streetball game before. It is supposed to be fun/funny and laid back.

After the phone call, Kuroko and Kagami arrive at Seirin late, just before the match between Team Strky and Team Jabberwock begins.  The rest of the Generation of Miracles teams prepare to watch as well, commenting on their ex-teammate’s appearance and skills. Hyūga remembers a phone call he had with Kiyoshi who told him of the bad reputation the Jabberwock has, making Hyūga worry. But what kind of trouble could there be at an exhibition game? The match of Team Jabberwock vs Team Strky begins with Jabberwock catching the ball during tip-off. The match continues but the atmosphere of the court changes with Jabberwock’s play turning into a provocative one. The Generation of Miracles notice that this style of play is not only provocative but shows just how openly the Jabberwock is looking down on their opponents. It is so degrading that even if they wanted to, the audience couldn’t enjoy the match at all. Like it was disgusting… The match comes to its end with a dunk from Silver, Jabberwock winning with a score of 86 – 6. Kasamatsu approached Gold to congratulate him and his team on their victory, however, Gold doesn’t return the handshake and instead labels the Japanese players as incompetent, calling them monkeys. Gold spits on Kasamatsu’s hand, laughing at how pathetically team Strky has performed. (First of all… Spitting on me is the best way for you to end up fighting EVERY TIME YOU SEE ME. On sight. All day… Every Day.) Kagetora steps in, challenging Jabberwock to another match in order for the Japanese players to prove them wrong, arranging a revenge match between Team Jabberwock and the Generation of Miracles. I mean who else? You had to know because all of the members of the Generation of Miracles showed disgust watching the game.

The Generation of Miracles all arrive at the gym along with Kuroko and Kagami. Three bench players; Takao, Hyūga, and Wakamatsu appear as well. Hyūga is troubled by the thought if he should really be here but Akashi notices this, assuring him that he is welcome. The newly founded Team Vorpal Swords begins to practice in order to work on their teamwork and cooperation. They need to work on cooperation since they were all out for themselves in the past and saw each other as rivals. Cooperation is the only way to win.  The 1-week practice begins and the players are syncing up well, though Riko thinks it’s not perfect yet. Then, they reviewed the players of Jabberwock with Silver standing out as the person who has a perfect body. Supposedly he is more agile than Aomine, has more jumping power than Kagami, and is more powerful than Murasakibara. While the other two were all hyped up, Murasakibara is bothered as he is mostly the one to defend Silver. On the other hand, Akashi admits that Gold has some abilities that restrains his, shocking them but he assures them that he will win. The practice continues.

The day before the match, Kagetora informs Riko and Momoi that he’s going to Roppongi in order to watch over Jabberwock. Kuroko overhears this conversation and disappears in the middle of practice. Kise challenges Kagami to a one-on-one match before Aomine interrupts them, asking if they had seen Kuroko anywhere. The two give him a blank look, realizing that Kuroko was gone. There is only one place that he would have gone. I mean really, these people should all be used to Kuroko by now. None of them noticed that he left? It is a race downtown to stop him from getting hurt. Gold gets annoyed by Kuroko’s words and kicks him in the stomach before the rest of the Vorpal Swords arrive. The two teams are close to getting into a fight but Akashi stops them, telling his team that they should sort this out with basketball, which is something that Kuroko would want. Vorpal Swords leave but are mocked by Jabberwock for running away. The end of the first quarter is nonsense because all of the Generation of Miracles is sweating way too much. The Jabberwocks haven’t even shown their true strength.

The day of the match has come and Izuki says the Jabberwock not only insulted Team Strky but the entire country as well. The players of each team are introduced before the actual match begins. Team Vorpal Swords starts off with a good start, Murasakibara catching the tip-off before passing the ball to Akashi. In return, Akashi passes the ball further to Aomine who scores the first points of the match with a dunk. Team Jabberwock is surprised, beginning to take the Vorpal Swords seriously now. But there is something uneasy about the start of the game. Like the Jabberwocks are waiting for something. Waiting to drop the big hammer. The match carries on with different combinations and team play from Vorpal Swords. Kise uses his Perfect Copy while Aomine enters the Zone to attempt to stop Silver who has been scoring baskets with his immense strength. Things look pretty good for Vorpal Swords. But something seems odd.

The 2nd quarter begins with Silver driving past Aomine and overpowering Murasakibara with a dunk. Then, he blocks Akashi’s fadeaway shot and does a two-handed windmill lane-up while outrunning Kise and Midorima in the fast-break. Silver has dominated the quarter, widening Jabberwock’s lead to 9. With 5 minutes left in the quarter, the Vorpal Swords decided to sub out Akashi and Midorima for Kagami and Kuroko. Although Murasaikibara wants to take on Silver by himself, he is convinced by Akashi that a different strategy is for the best. Holding down Silver in the post with his whole body, the latter spins past him and is met by Kagami inside and blocked with Aomine’s help. Kuroko starts the fastbreak and Kise gets the ball, passing to Kagami and dunks. I am here for Kagami dunks. Kise dunks on the fastbreak and the 2nd quarter ends with Jabberwock leading 40-36. I am also here for Kise dunks. (Since my anime husband’s post… I have added a few more.) I am still a bit uneasy because Gold hasn’t really shown what he can do.

Gold makes an insane fast pass with no preliminary movement meaning he can’t be read. Kuroko made an alley-oop pass to Kagami but is blocked by Silver in the air. Gold continues to distribute those insane fast passes with no preliminary movements, always leaving the defenders stunned. (I would say this is the Kuroko effect.) On one play, Murasakibara bleeds after getting dunked on by Silver who is not even using his full strength yet. Jabberwock’s lead widens to 19 (61-42). I didn’t know that someone could Murasakibara bleed. My mind was blown. Kagetora explains that Akashi’s ability to drag everyone into the zone cannot be done for two reasons. First is, the players are already exhausted and won’t last for the rest the game and the second is that for some unknown reason, Gold is inhibiting his ability. (Akashi needs to figure out a way out of this. Because I really did not see a way t He has Murasakibara defend the no. 6 and 7 players of Jabberwock while Kise and Aomine team up to stop Silver while he will mark Gold. The match resumes and Silver seems surprised by the sudden change in the two. Kise activates his Perfect Copy while Aomine enters the Zone.

Aomine, Kise, and Kagami execute an extremely fast-paced offense, getting back the scores from Jabberwock. Soon after, Kise tells Aomine that double-teaming Silver is a little too much, and asks if he could leave Silver to Kise. Aomine agrees to it after a bit of thinking, but not without telling Kise that if he does a bad job at it, they will be back to double-teaming. Kise then provokes Silver, telling him that he alone is just enough. Having been provoked, Silver seems to have lost his composure, as Kise was able to catch up to him and block him with Aomine’s agility and Murasakibara’s block. As he faces Silver once more, Kise was able to outrun him, his agility now even faster than Aomine’s, while thinking to himself that while whatever he was going to do annoys him since it’s tiring, he won’t have any doubts if this is the only way to secure victory. Silver catches up with Kise just as the latter was about to dunk. Determined to win, Kise successfully dunks over Silver, revealing that he has finally entered the Zone. But it won’t last long.

When the fourth quarter begins, Kise attempts to shoot another High Projectile Three but fails as his exhaustion finally takes its toll on his body. Kise is then substituted by Midorima, and while he is being helped by Akashi to the bench, he criticizes himself for being weak, and for not being able to score one more basket. Akashi denies his comments, telling him that he has done well and leave the rest to him.

Akashi is still having a hard time with Gold. As Gold approaches Murasakibara in the paint, he uses his eyes’ wide field of vision to pass the ball to no. 8 who scores with a 3-pointer. Everyone was surprised the way Gold utilized his ‘eyes’. Gold stated that he has the “Demon Eyes”. (I don’t know. Maybe it is me. I do not want Demon Eyes.) Not wanting to lose, Akashi uses his own streetball style of dribbling and passes behind the back to Aomine. (Akashi seems too smart to be sucked in by other people’s play but he did this.) Aomine goes for a formless shot but is blocked from behind by Gold and proceeds to perform an ankle-break on Akashi in the fastbreak. (Poor Akashi. He is much better in the movie than he is in the show.) Kagami tries to stop him but still scored with a double-clutch layup and drew the foul. Feeling that he has to take over, Murasakibara helps Akashi who is in total shock, and tells him to give the ball in the post and ties his hair. Well, we all know that when the hair gets tied up… he is SERIOUS.

Remembering Okamura’s teaching in the post, Murasakibara finally gets it and smiles for the first time in a game. The flashback for this is so cute. It seems that because many of his opponents were weaker than his and not as big as him… he held back. He is finally able to go all out like he has never been able to do before. As Silver can’t back him down, he decided to shoot a fadeaway instead but was blocked by Murasakibara and dunks against him on the other end. Silver was shocked to see Murasakibara suddenly overflowing with strength. Murasakibara continues his dominance until Silver intentionally collides with him, causing Murasakibara to fall and (presumably) break his wrist. Murasakibara wants to continue to play but the coach and the rest of the team refuse to let him do so. I say Silver should have gotten kicked in the shin for that.

At the start of the final quarter, Kise finally runs out of energy and Akashi helps the Kaijō player reach the bench. Back to the match, Gold states that Kise’s effort was meaningless. Gold shoots his invisible pass, only for Akashi to intercept it, greatly shocking the Jabberwock player and making his teammates realize that the other Akashi is back. The shocked Gold notices his sudden change but at the same time, thinks that he has ‘it’ and decided to try one more time to prove that he is correct. Akashi jokingly says that he was a ‘little bit rusty’ but guarantees that it won’t happen again, provoking Gold. One more time, he performed a crossover behind the back with no preliminary movement and jump-stops into a fadeaway jumper but Akashi had already seen through it and steals the ball. 

Gold expresses his surprise at Jabberwock being pushed to that point and admits that they made some miscalculations and their biggest miscalculation was Akashi. He added that it’s the first time he met someone with the same “eye” as his, shocking the Vorpal Swords, especially Akashi. I mean I knew this clown had something up his damn sleeve. The jerk. Akashi is slightly rattled and things look hopeless for a moment. As the match progresses, Akashi knows that in order to win, he would have to discard his other self who keeps reminding him of this fact. For the last minutes of the match, Kuroko is substituted in, replacing Murasakibara to turn the match around in their favor. Akashi’s dual personalities merge during the last minutes of the match, managing to keep Vorpal Swords head to head with Jabberwock. In the last deciding seconds, Kuroko manages to steal the ball from Gold before passing it further to Kagami and Aomine who end the match with a dunk. I am here for all the dunks.

After the match, Kagetora organizes a party for the team, encouraging them to drink but in the end, they settle down for a juice since they’re underage. Everyone is enjoying the party until Kise asks the rest what news Kagami has to tell them all. In a different room, Kuroko and Kagami are looking out the window before informing the rest of their team that Kagami will be leaving for America, something Kuroko already knew since he heard Kagami’s phone call with Alex. Kagami tells the rest of Seirin that he will be transferring to a high school in the USA, working on becoming an NBA player in the future. (This is what that phone call was about. I am so annoyed… not happy etc. Means that the show is really over.) Everyone expresses their support for Kagami as well as the Generation of Miracles who have overheard the conversation as well, seeing Kagami as their best rival but also a good friend. Akashi suggests that since Kagami will be leaving that they should have a farewell match with the Generation of Miracles playing against Seirin. The Generation of Miracles play in their Vorpal Swords uniform while Seirin plays in their school one.

I enjoyed the movie. Great animation. It was good to see how much the characters have grown. They seem to all be getting along and doing well in their lives. Even though, the Jabberwock had shitty personalities… they gave the Generation of Miracles a run for their money, which we know they enjoy. So to that end, they served a purpose. They can still kick rocks though. I loved every minute of it. I watched it on Crunchyroll but I see that it will be on Netflix shortly. So definitely go watch the show… THEN… watch the movie. Tell your thoughts below if you have seen it. That is all for now.