News

Kuroko's Basketball Stage Play Unveils Remaining Cast, Visual

This year's combined fifth and sixth issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is revealing on Monday the remaining cast and visual for the stage play adaptation of the Kuroko's Basketball (Kuroko no Basuke) manga. The play's official title is Kuroko's Basketball The Encounter.

The all-star cast includes:
Seirin High School Team

• Kenshō Ono as Tetsuya Kuroko
• Yūya Asato as Taiga Kakami
• Tetsuya Makita as Junpei Hyūga
• Ryutarō Akimoto as Shun Izuki
• Kaisei Abe as Shinji Koganei
• Ukyō Matumoto as Rinnosuke Mitobe
• Daiki Kajimoto as Satoshi Tsuchida
• Asami Tano as Riko Aida

Kaijō High School Team

• Mario Kuroba as Ryōta Kise
• Ryūnosuke Matsumura as Yukio Kasamatsu
• Shinichi Wago as Yoshitaka Moriyama
• Kōshü Hirano as Mitsuhiro Hayakawa

Shūtoku High School Team

• Ryō Hatakeyama as Shintarō Midorima
• James Takeshi Yamada as Kasunari Takao
• Spi as Taisuke Ōtsubo
• Daisuke Takenouchi as Kiyoshi Miyaji

Tōō Academy High School Team

• Shōta Onume as DAIKI Aomine
• Akihiro Hayashi as Shōichi Imayoshi
• Kazunari Matsufuji as Kōsuke Wakamatsu
• Eiji Akaso as Ryō Sakurai
• Arisa Sugi as Satsuki Momoi

The stage play will run for 21 performances from April 8 to April 24 at the Sunshine Gekijō theater in Tokyo. Norihito Nakayashiki (Haikyu!! stage play) is writing and directing the play.

Pre-sale tickets are on sale until January 11 and cost 7,800 yen (about US$63).

Tadatoshi Fujimaki launched the Kuroko's Basketball manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2008, and Shueisha published the 30th and final volume (pictured at left) in Japan in December 2014. Viz Media will start releasing the manga in English in summer 2016, and it describes the series as follows:

Kuroko Tetsuya doesn't stand out much. In fact, he's so plain that people hardly ever notice when he's around. Though he's just as unremarkable on the basketball court, that's where his plainness gives him an unexpected edge – one that lets him execute awesome moves without others noticing! And now that he's a high school student, he's on a mission to defeat each member of his legendary middle school team, known as the Miracle Generation.

The first anime season based on the manga aired from April-September 2012. The second season aired from October 2013 to March 2014. The third season aired from January-June 2015. Crunchyroll streamed all three seasons outside of Japan as they aired. Daisuki also streamed the third season.

[Image via Comic Natalie]