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Crunchyroll Adds Kuroko's Basketball OVA Episodes to Catalog

Media distribution service Crunchyroll announced on Monday that it has added two flashback original video anime (OVA) episodes of the Kuroko's Basketball (Kuroko no Basuke) anime series to its catalog. The new additions are "Tip Off" episode 22.5 of the first season, and "Mō Ikkai Yarimasen ka" episode 41.5 of the second season.

Crunchyroll is streaming both episodes now for users in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

Tadatoshi Fujimaki's Kuroko's Basketball manga centers around Taiga Kagami and Tetsuya Kuroko, both ace players of Seirin High School's basketball team. Both players are achieving a level of skill that approaches the famed "Generation of Miracles," a name given to the Teiko Junior High Basketball team of genius basketball players, still called by that name even after advancing to high school.

Fujimaki launched the original manga series in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump mangazine in 2008, and Shueisha published the 30th and final compiled volume last year. Fujimaki then launched the sequel manga Kuroko's Basketball Extra Game in Shueisha's Jump Next magazine on December 29. As of April, the series had more than 27 million copies in circulation.

The first anime season based on the manga ran from April to September of 2012. The second season premiered last October and ran through March. Crunchyroll streamed the first two anime seasons outside of Japan as they aired. The third season premiered in January, and Daisuki and later Crunchyroll streamed that season. Production on a theatrical anime film for the franchise has been green-lit.