okay, here’s the thing clowns refuse to understand: kuroko no basuke is not trying, in any way, to play itself off as a realistic depiction of basketball. it is a story that unapologetically uses its medium (i.e. anime/manga) to the fullest.
this is why i get a little irritated when people tell me to ‘go and watch haikyuu instead’ - here’s the thing: i love haikyuu, but these shows entertain me in two entirely different ways. everything from their respective cast, to their plotline/s, to inner and outer group dynamics, serve completely different purposes.
hinata is an amateur who fell in love with volleyball because he idolized a particular player - haikyuu is the story of how he makes it to the top. the story relies wholly on the concept of ambition and idea of getting there no matter what. it’s all about average players making it big. there’s no need to be extra about anything - this is a bottom-up anime; knb is a top-down anime.
hinata is an underdog; kuroko is a dark horse.
knb isn’t about kuroko becoming an ace; when he joins seirin’s team, he’s already an experienced player who’s played alongside some very talented people on a national stage. the idea of knb isn’t that he wants to be the best - its that he wants to humble the best. he wants to bring the unreachables down a notch or two (or ten). that being said, making the generation of miracles over-powered is the perfect way to accomplish that. making them vain, dionysian near-gods is both what makes the show good and helps it achieve its end goal.
an antagonist like oikawa, who works hard and values his team, wouldn’t be a bad guy in knb, regardless of his garbage attitude. just like throwing in a character as cruel and unyielding as akashi into haikyuu would completely destroy the point of the show (and the morale of its arguably unexceptional cast).
there’s a reason kise is knb’s oikawa, and ushijima is haikyuu’s akashi. they’re character equivalents, crafted in a way that suits the universe/story they’re put in. these shows are built the way they are for a reason, and each element serves its respective plot well.
so for the love of zeus, stop comparing them. just because there’s a ball and a short protagonist in the equation doesn’t make them comparable.
