Tetsuya Kuroko

**Tetsuya Kuroko** is the main protagonist of the *Kuroko's Basketball* series. He was the Phantom Sixth Player of the Generation of Miracles at Teiko Junior High who specializes in misdirection and passes. He now plays as a regular with Seirin High with the goal of bringing the team and Taiga Kagami to the top of Japan.

## Statistics

* **Name**: Tetsuya Kuroko, The Phantom Sixth Player
* **Origin**: Kuroko's Basketball
* **Gender**: Male
* **Age**: 16
* **Birthday**: January 31
* **Classification**: Human
* **Blood Type**: A
* **Height**: 168 cm (5'6.1")
* **Weight**: 57 kg (126 lbs)
* **Skin Color**: Pale Light
* **Eye Color**: Blue
* **Hair Color**: Light Blue
* **Relatives**: Unknown Parents, Tetsuya 2 (pet)
* **Alignment**: Good
* **Status**: Active
* **Class**: **S-Class**
* **Powers and Abilities**:
* **Standard Equipment**:
* **Weaknesses**:
* **Notable Attacks/Techniques**:
* **Voice Actor**: Kenshō Ono

### Power Stats

* **Attack Potency**:
* **Speed**:
* **Lifting Strength**:
* **Striking Strength**:
* **Durability**:
* **Stamina**:
* **Range**:
* **Intelligence**:
* **Key**:

## Appearance

Kuroko has a fragile outlook and a very small build for a basketball player which is why he is usually seen passing. He has light blue hair that he styles to his left. His eyes are blue, and he has a blank gaze. His skin is fairly pale. He wears the white, black, and red Seirin jersey with the number 11. He also sometimes wears black sweatbands. His basketball shoes are white with a blue streak.

When out of training or matches, he wears his school uniform: the standard Japanese gakuran. The top piece of a gakuran is black, long-sleeved and has a standing collar which buttons from the bottom up to his chin. It has blue trimming on the sleeves and vertically in the middle. He also wears regular black pants. It has been noted that his bed-head is especially atrocious.

## Personality

Kuroko has a deadpan and straight forward personality. He is very hard working and always tries to satisfy the needs of the team above his own. He has no presence and is quite unnoticeable, a trait that goes well with his misdirection. He has also displayed much respect towards fellow passionate basketball players and thinks that while senpais have to have pride, kōhais need to have respect. Despite his initial kind personality, Kuroko gets extremely furious at dirty play, such as when his teammates were threatened and injured by foul methods in the Kirisaki Daīchi game. His aura changes so drastically, that even Kagami gets scared when he sees him like that. When Kuroko gets angry, it gets very hard to beat him, as he is filled up with fighting spirit. When the situation worsens, he seems to turn talkative.

He has metaphorically referred to himself as a "shadow". He means that he is playing for someone else, and that he becomes stronger when the "light" is stronger. The "light" would be the player he supports during a basketball game. During his Junior High school basketball career, his "light" was Aomine, and now it is Kagami.

Outside the court, despite his unnoticeable personality, Kuroko is very gentlemanly when dealing with women. Amongst his friends, Kagami, Aomine and Kise are really shocked to see how easily Kuroko can cheer up Momoi and even knows what to do on a date. Kuroko also lectures Kagami that he should deal with women more delicately.

Overall, he is a very calm, rational person, but it is shown that he also has his silly moments. One time, he says that he can also become noticeable and does so by pulling his jacket over his head, making people automatically see him and laugh. There are times where he uses his misdirection ability to run away, and also a time where he was late for a game but pretended to have been there from the start  (until Kagami pointed out the sweat on his brow, indicating that he was actually late and had run all the way to school). While initially antisocial towards his teammates, he gradually warms up and starts to openly express himself more. It has been shown that he has a soft spot for cute animals, like kittens and dogs (Tetsuya 2).

## Main Skills and Equipment

**Basketball Skills** Though Kuroko is fairly weak, his talents allow him to play a central role in any team. Possessing a superbly observant eye in addition to his ability to blend in invisibly to any environment, Kuroko can perform imperceptible passes and virtually unstoppable steals, getting the ball to and between his teammates faster than opponents can react. His near-invisibility makes him highly susceptible to on-court injuries however. Further, his talent is not effective indefinitely. If he is left in play too long, opponents grow used to his misdirection tactics; as such, he must be placed on the bench at varying points in any match to prevent this. Kuroko is incredibly important for Seirin having been called a trump card.

He mostly plays on the position of small forward based on defesive matchups and substitution strategies, but in recent matches in his high school career his stats list his position as a questionmark. This is because Kuroko is difficult to place in one of the five set basketball positions, his role in the team applies to none of those, but mostly as a pass-first point guard based on size and passing abilities.
* **Misdirection**: Kuroko is naturally hard to notice so he developed a playing technique using that "invisibility". He simply behaves as if another player will get the ball and not him. Plus, he tries as much as possible to not showing emotions to reduce his already weak presence. He pushes the opponents to focus their attention to someone else and then steps in unexpectedly. When the opponent can't see him, it is much easier to steal the ball. Misdirection is a technique that fools the opponent's senses.
	+ Kuroko uses his misdirection in function of his teammates. He must make eye-contact with the passer while doing his misdirection and so the eyefield of the other players becomes a "mirror" for Kuroko's position. This also marks the key to disabling Kuroko's misdirection. The player guarding him must simply stop looking at Kuroko, but look at the passer and derive Kuroko's position from him.So far, the only person capable of doing that is Imayoshi. Not only that but the new skills he has learned such as the "Vanishing Drive" and "Phantom Shot" has made his "lack of presence" wear out. This is simply because these skills require a hold to the ball and the crowd starts to notice him because of this. This is the main reason Akashi didn't teach him how to shoot.
* **Invisible Pass**: Following from his misdirection, Kuroko uses himself as a relay for passes and redirects the ball to another player by just gently touching it. He receives the ball from another player and immediatly changes its course to a free player. This pass is very hard to predict and almost always leads to a basket. The true form of this pass, according to Midorima, is a *tap pass*, which allows Kuroko to change direction of the ball without touching the ball for a long period. This is the only type of pass that works well with his misdirection because of minimum contact with the ball.
* **Ignite Pass**: As an extension of his regular pass, Kuroko can also move the ball even quicker. He only does this if his imperceptible pass can be intercepted at some point. When he receives the ball, he punches it directly to a free player. This way, the force behind the pass will increase greatly and the ball will move much faster. This pass is also called the **Acceleration Pass**. But because this pass is very powerful, only some players can catch it succesfully, in Junior High school only the Generation of Miracles were capable of receiving this pass. In Seirin, Kuroko only passes this way to Kagami and occasionally to Teppei Kiyoshi. After their harsh training in Summer, according to Aida Riko all second years now are capable to receive it however it's painful for them as Hyuga said. Teppei Kiyoshi also noted when the first time he received this pass in street basketball tournament he could catch it but not continuously.
	+ **Ignite Pass Kai**: A new, upgraded version of the Ignite Pass. Instead of simply thrusting the ball using the palm of his hand, he also puts a strong spin on it. He spins his arm and wrist round and round and creates a rotation around the ball. By doing this, like a gunshot, Kuroko puts more acceleration and power behind the pass by transferring the rotation of his arm to the ball. The ball is so strong that it can even pass the Generation's ace, Aomine. He learned this in the winter training camp, under the training of Kagetora.
* **Cyclone Pass**: When the opponents score, Kuroko takes the ball, spins very fast and releases the ball to fly across the whole court. The pass is very fast and powerful, and flies in a straight line from the start to the end of the course, which is perfect for fast-break. Someone remarks it as Ichiro's laser beam (Ichiro is a famous Japanese baseball outfielder). He first showed this in the game against Shūtoku High, in a fast-break with Kagami against Midorima. In their second match, Kuroko showed his full court pass without spinning first.
* **Vanishing Drive**: After being soundly defeated by Daiki Aomine, Kuroko trains himself to evolve his play style. Given the absolute presence and importance of the ball in play, it had been previously thought impossible for Kuroko to maintain his misdirection while in possession of the ball; as such the time he spends handling the ball on court is extremely minimal. He has overcome this previous limitation, and has developed the ability to imperceptibly move past players while dribbling the ball, creating his own 'vanishing' drive. The ability is effective enough to pass through the defenses of Shintarō Midorima, a member of the Generation of Miracles, and can also pass Takao's Hawk's Eye. Kazuya Harahas speculated that Kuroko uses blinking to bypass the defense, but this has been proven wrong.
	+ The real explanation of this skill was given by Midorima, in Seirin's second match against Tōō. The skill is basically a cross-diagonal move (a *duck-in*) to where the opponent's eye field can't see. Kuroko bends over in a specific angle at drives following a specific route, that the opponent has it very difficult to follow. But the real Vanishing Drive is a collaboration with Kagami. Similar to Kuroko's misdirection, Kagami draws the attention of the opponent to him, just for a second, and that makes it possible for Kuroko to pass his opponent successfully.
	+ The only one so far to have beaten the Vanishing Drive, is Aomine. He countered it and stole the ball by closing his eyes, making Kagami's misdirection ineffective. Because of the two's mutual understanding about basketball, and by following Kuroko's breath, Aomine was able to crush down the Vanishing Drive.
* **Misdirection Overflow**: A skill Kuroko developed after completing his Vanishing Drive. He realized that if he can activate his regular misdirection and divert the attention away from him, that the opposite is also true. This is that when his misdirection has run out and his presence on the court is beginning to show. The sudden appearance of a tenth player will attract the attention of the other players. By deliberately running out of misdirection, he is giving his teammates the ability of the Vanishing Drive. The effects are clear: Kuroko has run out of his regular moves, but his teammates can now use the Vanishing Drive freely.
	+ There is however, also a grave downside to the use of this technique. The first is that it must only be used at the very end of the match. It's the same with his regular misdirection, he can't keep fooling the opponents for too long. The second is that while he is using this ability, he is also showing the secret behind it. In other words, misdirection would never work against the same opponent thus rendering the rematch an inevitable loss in the future with this.
* **Phantom Shot**: Because Kuroko won't be such a threat anymore now that the data of his inability to shoot is known amongst the Yōsen High team. Because of this reason, Kuroko began training on his shot, but only with failing attempts to score. Kuroko brought Aomine in to train him and he told him that while normal players pass with the palm of their hands, Kuroko passes like a normal player *shoots*, with his wrist and fingertips. In his shot, he tries to do the same, but a pass and a shot are totally different, so Kuroko has trouble with gauging the distance to the hoop.
	+ Because of this, Aomine pushed Kuroko to learn a new shot by himself, the Phantom Shot. The essence is to use the palm of his hand to thrust the ball forward, although that will mess up the shooting posture. Further more, because of the shooting position, the ball is lower than a usual shot. Instead of shooting the ball over one's head, the Phantom Shot releases from the chest. The opponent naturally looks lower because of the ball's position, so his view is limited. By a fast release, Kuroko can shoot the ball through the opponents field of vision, like a floater with less arc. Using the Phantom Shot, Kuroko made the first basket in front of Murasakibara, the tallest player in all of Japan, thus scored the first point against Yōsen in the whole tournament. Kuroko used his Phantom Shot in the whole Yōsen match, and Murasakibara could not block any of them, though Kuroko missed some himself. However, as explained by Akashi, if he were to keep using this move, like his vanishing drive, it would diminish his weak presence, causing him to stand out and be noticed by the crowd, disallowing him to become a shadow ever again, since the Phantom Shot requires Kuroko to hold the ball.
	+ The secret to stopping this shot however, is backing off and keeping distance to Kuroko. That way, the field of vision will not be limited downwards and the ball is visible. Kasamatsu is the first one to figure this out, after which he successfully closed in on Kuroko and blocked the shot.
* **Quasi-Emperor Eye**: To use his misdirection Kuroko needs to analyze and predict the movements of his opponents. This allows him to observe the behavior and habits of others but mostly his teammates. Kuroko acquired his version of the Emperor Eye from the deep trust and bond he has forged with his teammates backed by his observation skills. His Emperor Eye cannot predict the movements of his opponents (unless he has played with them before) but rather the teammates who he is familiar with. Kuroko also uses this to change his passing routes and to change the direction of his teammates passes if he sees the ball will be stolen with that pass.
	+ With his own Emperor Eye, Kuroko has filled the only gap that separates Kagami and Akashi. By looking only at Kagami, Kuroko predicted the future even faster than Akashi and caught up to him. He even prevented a potential steal by taking the ball from Kagami and made an alley-oop to the latter, taking down Akashi and forcing him out of his zone. This also became the key to realizing the condition for opening the door to the true Zone.
* **Kuroko-Kagami Alley-Oop**: A move that Kuroko and Kagami often execute. One of the opponents tries to pass, but Kuroko intercepts the ball. He smacks the ball onto the ground in the direction of the basket. Kagami jumps high in the sky, grabs the ball and dunks it in. They have first showed this in the match against Shinkyō Academy and did it again in the game against Seihō High. The comination started off from a missed shot from Kuroko on a wide open layup attempt and Kagami followed it up. The alley-oop combo can also come from a Phantom Shot, as shown on the game-winning shot at Winter Cup.
	+ A wrinkle to this is that a shot directly from a pass still counts as an alley-oop, just like Midorima's Sky Direct 3P, so on the final shot against Kaijo, where Kagami bounced the ball of the corner of the backboard, and Kuroko beat the buzzer with a Phantom shot to win the game still counts as such instance.

## Relationships

* Taiga Kagami
* Seirin High
* Tetsuya 2
* Daiki Aomine
* Satsuki Momoi
* Ryota Kise
* Shintaro Midorima
* Kazunari Takao
* Atsushi Murasakibara
* Seijuro Akashi
* Shigehiro Ogiwara
* Makato Hanamiya
* Papa Mbaye Siki
* Chihiro Mayazumi
* Monkey D. Luffy
* Blizzard
* Asta
* Eren Jaeger

## In Other Media

### Music

* Sings Monster's Generation with Luffy, Blizzard, Asta, Eren, Nami, Zoro and Sanji