Atsushi Murasakibara

**Atsushi Murasakibara** is a character from the *Kuroko no Basuke* anime and manga.

The former center of the Teikou Middle School Basketball Team and a member of the Generation of Miracles. He listens to no one but Akashi and still does even though they are currently in different schools. He didn't play for Yousen in the National High School Basketball Tournament finals simply because Akashi told him not to. He was the fourth GOM member to appear.

In the AWA fics, Atsushi is a student at the AWA Academy.

## **Appearance**

Murasakibara is abnormally tall for someone his age. Standing even taller than Papa Mbaye Siki, he is one of the largest players seen in the entire series. He has shoulder length, lavender hair that touches his back and violet eyes.

He wears Yōsen High's jersey with the number 9. During the fourth quarter of the match against Seirin High School, he is seen with his hair pulled back into a ponytail. He has also been seen wearing a white "Tonicwater" t-shirt paired with unbuttoned khaki overalls.

## **Personality**

Contrary to the impression his height gives, Murasakibara acts very lumpish. He fools around at serious times, which is not always well received. He is mildly sadistic and childish. He claims that the only reason he plays basketball, is because he's good at it, he doesn't care for the sport at all. He has always told others that he dislikes, is bored by and even hates players who play basketball with passion, even when they are losing. However, it is hinted that he actually likes basketball from the bottom of his heart due to his activation of Zone. In accordance with his childlike nature, he has a sweet tooth and is seen eating sugar-related foods all the time, except during a match. It is also mentioned that Murasakibara spends every single penny he has on all kinds of junk food.

According to Kuroko, Murasakibara isn't the calm type, and was actually quite the opposite while playing with the Generation of Miracles. He used to be very active in the attacking lineup during his junior high school days at Teikō, and even set a record of scoring 100 points in a single game when he was enraged. However, since basketball bored him, halfway, he became less aggressive and had been limiting himself to defensive plays only. His actual specialty is offense. During the match against Seirin, Murasakibara was startled when Seirin managed to cut Yōsen's lead from 18 points to just only 5. Murasakibara claims that it is pointless for the weak to struggle any further and then switches to offense after being enraged.

The actual reason of his lazy attitude towards the game is because if he gave his all and went all-out, he may hurt his opponents or even teammates with his huge size. But when he was matched up against Jason Silver who is bigger than him, he smiled for the first time in a game for he doesn't have to worry on anything while giving his all.

Murasakibara also has the tendency to be with people who can make decisions for him. In Teikō, he was always obedient to whatever Akashi ordered him to do. In Yōsen, he is seen listening a lot to Himuro's advice.

## **Abilities**

As one of the Generation of Miracles, Murasakibara skills are superior and unrivaled to any other high school center. Murasakibara is described as the most natural talented amongst the Generation of Miracles as his height is 208cm (*6' 10"*), which is the average height for a center in the NBA. He has a long wingspan, long legs, and even large hands. He relies on all of these aspects to get rebounds, block shots, and dunk. Because he doesn't "like" basketball, he prefers staying on defense; but even then, he doesn't feel like blocking if he doesn't want to. At important matches like in the Winter Cup, he is forced to do his best and his skill is truly shown.

During the match against Jabberwock, Kise mentioned that Murasakibara could hurt his opponents or his own teammates, should he ever go all out, and until he met Silver, Murasakibara believed no one could match him in terms of physique and strength. With an opponent like Silver, Murasakibara can go all out. He is shown playing with an expression that Kuroko recognized as "*similar to Kagami's when he goes against a strong opponent*."

### **Defense**

With Murasakibara's arms and legs being especially long, this allows him to take giant steps to catch up easily and block a shot. He has been seen blocking shots from Hyūga and Kagami when the ball is underway, so much higher than the take-off. He can also tower above all the team's centers and catch the rebound easily. The entire area inside the three-point is his domain, which means that no one can escape from his absolute defense. According to Aomine, Murasakibara is so strong that even he has difficulty bypassing him.

After being taught how to guard the post against bigger and stronger players by Okamura, he is able to block Silver's shots twice.

### **Vice Claw**

Just like Kiyoshi, Murasakibara can use his big hands for rebounding the ball with only one hand. Instead of jumping towards the ball with both hands, he has gained the ability to rebound the ball with only one hand. This gives him the advantages of recovering the ball much quicker and with a longer extension. Murasakibara acquired this skill after watching Kiyoshi demonstrate it.

### **Power**

Not only is Murasakibara capable of blocking and rebounding, he can also contribute for the offensive plays, with incredibly powerful dunks. His colossal size and juggernaut strength are more than enough to overpower three defenders and dunk over them, as seen in the match against Seirin. He has also been seen doing reversal dunks with ease, a feat that requires much more power than a normal dunk; facing away from the rim requires more strength to compensate for the momentum gained from running towards the basket on a normal dunk. At the peak of his destructive power, he was even able to bring down the entire backboard.

When Murasakibara was on the offensive, it was also seen that, contrary to his seemingly sluggish attitude and overwhelming size, he could easily sprint both short and long distances up and down the length of the court. He even outran Izuki and got back to defense easily. He is also shown capable of handling the ball on both ends all by himself. His scoring ability is so great he has scored 100 points in one game.

After being taught by Okamura on the post, he no longer uses wasteful movements that hamper him from using his full power. Murasakibara is able to overpower a player like Jason Silver, whose physical abilities are beyond genius basketball players, when he plays without holding back.

#### **Thor's Hammer**

Murasakibara's signature dunk is known as the *Thor's Hammer*, and consists of a two-handed dunk combined with a mid-air spin. Its execution involves Murasakibara posting up under the basket, receiving the ball, and jumping and spinning 180 degrees in mid-air. Because of the momentum from Murasakibara's size and weight during his mid-air turnaround, he is able to overpower opponents without losing altitude during his jump. Thor's Hammer has been seen to easily overwhelm three defenders simultaneously.

### **Zone**

According to Aomine and Kise, in terms of ability, he meets the requirement to enter the "Zone" but unfortunately, he would never be able to because he was assumed to not have the most basic term needed, the love for basketball. However, their assumptions were proven wrong when Murasakibara surprisingly entered the Zone. At the brink of despair and exhaustion against Seirin High, including Kagami already in the Zone, Murasakibara opened the gates of the Zone. His power grew substantially and his speed was even greater than before. Also, Kagami needed Kiyoshi's help to block his Thor's Hammer (though Kagami's Zone was coming to an end at the time). However, not much of this was shown, since Murasakibara's body was near exhaustion and Kagami's Meteor Jam ended the game before Murasakibara could.

After the match, Murasakibara claimed to quit basketball, but broke down in tears not soon after. This makes clear that Murasakibara does have a burning passion for basketball, in contrary to what was previously believed, which enabled him to enter the Zone. Furthermore, the main condition for him to enter remains unknown.

## **Trivia**

* He ranked 8th on the second character poll, with 573 votes.
* The kanji (Murasaki) in his name means *purple* (or *violet*), hinting to his hair color. There is no distinction between "*violet*" and "*purple*" in Japanese language.
* Murasakibara is most likely related to the nba player Shaquille O'Neal since both of them are extremely strong, can dominate their opponent and are excellent in defending.
* He has a habit of shortening names and adding the suffix chin, for example, Aka-chin (Akashi), Kuro-chin (Kuroko), Mido-chin (Midorima), Mine-chin (Aomine), Kise-chin (Kise), Sa-chin (Momoi), Muro-chin (Himuro).
* According to the CHARACTERS BIBLE:
	+ If Murasakibara had an alternate job it would be as a pastry chef.
	+ His type of girl is one who is tall, but not taller than him.
	+ His motto is "*Sweets are Justice.*"
	+ His favorite food is Nerunerunerune candy.
	+ His hobby is looking around or visiting cheaper sweet stores, eating and sleeping.
	+ His specialty is shooting gallery and goldfish scooping.
	+ He's bad at handling small things, like threading a needle.
* According to *KUROFES:*
	+ He is a member of Health committee.
	+ His best basketball moves are block.
	+ The player he has his eyes on is Kiyoshi.
* As shown in *Replace*, Murasakibara and Kuroko got along surprisingly well as friends during their early days at Teikō. It was later in time that their different opinions on basketball led them to clash, making Kuroko the former teammate with whom Murasakibara fought most often. Still, Kuroko has stated that he likes Murasakibara as a person.
* Murasakibara has the record for making 100 points in a game, this could be a tribute to the NBA Wilt Chamberlain, the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game.
* In a Q&A section in the manga:
	+ Murasakibara was 186 cm tall upon entering Teikō.
	+ Murasakibara's best subject is Physics.
	+ Murasakibara hates crows, the reason being that because they make weird noises.
	+ Murasakibara has 3 older brothers and 1 older sister.
	+ He hates carrots, because he hates vegetables.
	+ His top three favourite dishes were:
		1. Cream stew
		2. Dolsot Bibimbap
		3. Squid Ink Pasta
* Murasakibara can eat a whole box of popsicles in the winter if he’s sitting under a kotatsu.
* He believes Kuroko has really good luck when it comes to winning free stuff from snacks. He eats snacks all the time and never wins anything. However, Kuroko doesn’t want to use his luck on something like that.
* Murasakibara and Kuroko get along really well, except when Kuroko starts talking about basketball. Then Murasakibara just gets annoyed.
* He is the only one to break the 'newer-style' backboard, where while the glass doesn't shatter, the back extension collapses, bringing the backboard down rather than shattering the glass or just taking the rim off like Kagami did. Shaquille O'Neal, while being at nearly 30kg heavier than Murasakibara, had done it in every way possible in his career before the current-style backboards are introduced after the mid 90's because of his power and strength.
* Murasakibara has a body size and defensive skills comparable to Bill Russell(6'10", 215-220 lb), but Russell is left-handed, and wore no.6, just like Midorima does for Shutoku, and Russell never snatches rebounds with one hand, and would try to keep the ball in play after blocking shots.
* Unlike O'Neal's 'Black Tornado' (a move Andrew Bynum copied in his rookie season), Thor's Hammer can directly dunk from right after the pass is received. Shaq's version of 'Thor's Hammer' is less commonly performed.

## **External Links**

* Atsushi Murasakibara at Kuroko no Basuke Wiki