I Am Serious (本気です, Honki desu) is the second episode of the Kuroko no Basuke anime. It adapts Chapters 2 and 3 of the manga, Monday, 8:40 on the Rooftop and I'm Serious.
Synopsis[]
Kawahara on the rooftop
The Seirin High basketball club has a tradition for each of its new applicants before they can be accepted as official players. They have to declare their name, class, and ambitions on the roof during the school's morning assembly. It seems simple enough, but there's one caveat: If they fail to reach their goal, they'll be expected to come back later, strip naked, and declare their feelings for the girl they love.
But the basketball team has something closer to worry about after Riko Aida schedules a practice game against a powerhouse school, Kaijō High. The team's ace and one of the Generation of Miracles, Ryōta Kise, pays the team a visit to see his old teammate and decides to test Taiga Kagami's skills for himself while he's there.
Plot Summary[]
Introduction[]
The episode begins with Taiga Kagami practicing alone at a streetball court, restless with excitement to play against the Generation of Miracles. He recalls his previous conversation with Tetsuya Kuroko, who told him that he would be destroyed by their strength, and doesn't care whether the match is official or not as long as he can play against one of them.
Trial Membership[]
Kagami later speaks with Junpei Hyūga and asks when he can play, to which he is told that he's only a trial member for the club and can't yet play in games. Kagami rushes to see Riko Aida next and asks for an official club membership form. She tells him that Kuroko saw her earlier to ask for the same thing, asking how impatient he is before giving him a form. She stops him before he can leave to say that she will only accept the applications on Monday at 8:40 on the roof.
Kagami grabs Kuroko
While leaving, Kagami stops in the hallway to read an excerpt of Seirin High's student newspaper pinned to a board on the wall. The article is about the school's basketball club and their participation in the previous year's tournament despite only being a team of first-years. Kuroko appears beside him and comments on their strength, surprising Kagami enough to yell and grab him by the head. He internally questions how Kuroko had ever been considered the phantom sixth man of Teikō Junior High and wonders why he chose to attend Seirin instead of a strong school like the other Generation of Miracles. However, Kuroko disappears before Kagami can voice any of these questions.
Monday, 8:40 on the Rooftop[]
Fukuda on the rooftop
Five minutes before Seirin High's morning assembly, Riko Aida gathers Taiga Kagami, Tetsuya Kuroko, Koichi Kawahara, Hiroshi Fukuda, and Kōki Furihata on the roof for a conversation. She tells them of her promise to push the team towards the national championships and tells them to leave if they aren't ready before explaining an extra condition for being accepted into the club: Give your year, class, name, and announce your ambitions from the roof. If you fail to achieve it, you'll come back, strip naked, and confess your feelings for the girl you love. In response to their shocked disbelief, Riko explains that the second-years had already done the same ritual the year before.
Kuroko's megaphone
Kagami says that it isn't even a test and confidently jumps on the railing to introduce himself, shouting that he will defeat the Generation of Miracles and become the best player in Japan. The next is Kawahara, who goes on a lengthy tangent about his life story and is hit out of the way by Riko. Fukuda explains that he joined after hearing an upperclassman ask for his help. Furihata says that the girl he likes said that she'd go out with him if he became the best at something and aims to be the best at basketball. Kuroko is next and asks if he can use a megaphone to announce himself since he isn't good at speaking loudly, but before he can say anything, the school's principal interrupts and scolds them for causing a disturbance.
Maji Burger
Later in the evening, Kagami makes another visit to Maji Burger and orders a large stack of burgers before unintentionally sitting down at Kuroko's table. Kagami asks why he didn't go to a big name school like the other Miracles and if he has a specific reason for playing basketball. Kuroko explains that his team at Teikō Junior High was too focused on victory and that he felt they lacked something important, intending to beat each of them in his own way and help Seirin become the best team in Japan. Kagami corrects him saying that they won't only try, but that they will be the best.
Kuroko's message
The next day, there is a commotion at Seirin about a large message left on the ground reading "WE WILL BE THE BEST IN JAPAN". Kagami grins after seeing it and Riko comments that it just might be interesting enough to work. Kuroko is one of the only students not crowding by the window to see the message and is instead reading a book at his desk. When reaching up to rub his nose, white chalk powder is seen on the sleeve of his uniform, showing that he was the one responsible for the message in order to fulfill Riko's order on the roof.
A Practice Game[]
Basketball Monthly
In the basketball club's locker room, Shinji Koganei picks up an edition of Basketball Monthly featuring interviews with the Generation of Miracles. He and Junpei Hyūga flip through the pages searching for an article about Tetsuya Kuroko, noticing that it was released when he was at Teikō Junior High, only for every player to be featured except for him. When asked why he wasn't interviewed, Kuroko answers that they simply forgot about him. He isn't bothered by being forgotten and explains that he's nothing like the other five prodigies.
Practicing
Fukuda walks into the locker room next and announces that Riko Aida is back from scheduling a practice game. While he doesn't know who the opponent is, he mentions that Riko was skipping with excitement. Hyūga warns the team that her skipping can only mean one thing—that their opponent must be tough. She later reveals during practice that their opponent is Kaijō High, whose team is strong on the national level and recently acquired one of the Generation of Miracles, Ryōta Kise.
Signing autographs
Kise himself decides to pay a visit to Seirin High prior to their game and effortlessly draws the attention of dozens of students on his way to see the team. He is able to quietly observe a bit of the team's practice before the gym is crowded with female students looking either for his autograph or simply to see him. He apologizes to the basketball team once they notice him, saying that he didn't mean to cause a fuss and asking if they can wait for five minutes.
Once the students leave, Kise introduces himself to the team as Kuroko's friend from middle school. Kōki Furihata takes a moment to check Kise's interview in Basketball Monthly, reading that his exceptional physical abilities and rapid rate of growth were able to make him a regular despite having only started playing basketball in his second year of middle school. Kise quickly tries to downplay the article as exaggeration and claims both that he is the worst out of the five and that the others bullied him for it.
Copying Kagami
Their conversation is cut short by Kagami abruptly throwing a basketball at Kise, who is able to quickly react and stop it with his hand before getting hit. Kagami sarcastically apologizes for interrupting before challenging him to a 1-on-1. Kise takes a moment to think before agreeing. He opens the match by copying the same move that he saw Kagami using earlier during practice, causing Kagami to fall from the force behind it.
Dunking on Kagami
From the sidelines, Kuroko states that he doesn't know that person and that he had underestimated how quickly the Generation of Miracles would improve in the few months since their time at Teikō Junior High. Kise calls the match disappointing after scoring once and asks Kuroko to join him at Kaijō instead, calling Seirin a waste of his talents. Kuroko respectfully declines and explains both that his thinking had changed since middle school and that he had already promised Kagami to defeat the Generation of Miracles together. Kagami only smiles at his defeat, glad that he's against a strong opponent, and backs up Kuroko's challenge before the episode ends.
Characters in order of appearance[]
Characters in italic are only seen briefly and have yet to make a proper appearance.
Manga and Anime Differences[]
- During the scene on the roof, not only Kagami shouted his resolve, like in the manga, but also Kawahara, Fukuda and Furihata's reasons were seen. Their full names have also been revealed.
- Kawahara told an overly emotional story about him discovering basketball while watching an all-star game and that when he joined the basketball team in Junior High school, he wasn't very good and dragged everyone behind. He was interrupted by Riko, who said it was too long.
- Fukuda said that he wants to help people and when he heard a second-year (Izuki) recruit members by "asking their help bring the basketball club to number one", Fukuda actually believed it and accepted Izuki's request.
- Furihata's reason is that he wants a girlfriend. The girl he had an eye on, said that he should be the best at something to have a shot at her. Therefore, he decided to become the best in basketball.
- The scene where Riko was skipping practice and when they looked at the basketball magazine in the manga, were merged in the anime.
- Kagami making his fast cut during practice and Kagami and Kise's one-on-one where moved from the right side of the basket in the manga, to the other side in the anime.