Shintarou Midorima

Shintarou Midorima is a character from the Kuroko no Basuke anime and manga.

Shintarou was the vice-captain and shooting guard of the Generation of Miracles. He now plays for one of the Three Kings of Tokyo, Shūtoku High.

Appearance
Midorima has dark green hair parted to the left that doesn't reach his eyes. He has light green eyes and wears black-framed glasses that are framed on all sides except the top. He is very tall, being the second tallest from the Generation of Miracles. He bandages his left hand outside of matches, so that nothing can influence his left-handed shot. He also files his nails for the same reason. Midorima is often seen with a lucky item, that varies from a stuffed frog, to a bear, to a potted cactus. Out of games, he wears his school uniform: a black jacket that is strapped all the way to his neck and black pants. He plays with jersey number 6 at Shūtoku, and no. 7 at Teiko.

Personality
Midorima is usually very reserved. He feels no need for fooling around, although Takao tries to persuade him many times (often ending up with him annoying Midorima). Acting kind to opponents is very hard for him, while his friend Takao has no problem with that. Very confident in his abilities, he often acts high and mighty around others (mostly his teammates). He strongly believes in the Oha Asa horoscopes and is set at ease when he hears that his zodiac sign, Cancer, will have a lucky day, even going as far as carrying a so-called "lucky item" with him everywhere. He also believes in blood types compatibility, as shown when he said Kuroko's blood type A and his blood type B don't get along. His motto is "Man proposes, God disposes", which means doing your best and fate will decide the rest. Takao once commented on his preparation for matches, ranging from filling his nails, taping his fingers, listening to the Oha Asa horoscopes, and carrying his lucky item of the day accordingly, as some sort of obsession.

Midorima harbours a reluctant admiration for Kuroko, he seems to resent the fact Kuroko is able to stand against members of The Generation of Miracles despite his lack of natural talent and that he chose a new and relatively unknown team like Seirin. He thinks that Kuroko is stupid to choose a school who cannot use his strength.

Despite usually being calm, he snapped during Shūtoku's match against Seirin High in the Winter Cup. He told Takao to stop fooling around and had the intent of destroying Seirin completely. Takao compared him to a dangerous wild beast. During the same match, Midorima also let go of his pride and began playing with his team in order to win. He never relied on others in the past, but now puts winning up front and plays as a true team. In the successful teamplay, he was also seen enjoying the game and laughing, which he rarely does.

Takao often calls him a tsundere, because he tends to help people but denies doing so. Midorima has good insight and is able to understand other people's abilities easily, like Kagami or Kuroko's. He sometimes gives them advice under the guise of scorn and criticism. He helped Kagami with his aerial understanding and pushed Kuroko to play by himself, leading to the development of the Vanishing Drive. Further more, he shared his theory about Akashi's dual unique ability with Kagami and Kuroko.

As revealed in the flashback, when the Generation of Miracles started to grow arrogant, Midorima was different from the rest. He never stopped practicing and still valued its importance. When the Generation of Miracles would make a bet on getting the most points in a game, he would not participate because all he wanted to do is fulfill his role. He went along with the situation as long as they were winning, although it annoyed him. The other fact that shows that he differs from other the Generation of Miracles is that so far, he is the only one who has had the guts to stand up against Akashi. His passionate hostility towards Akashi during the Winter Cup semi-finals is an example of this.

Abilities
Besides his shot, Midorima is also very fast and strong. He is smart during matches and is able to fake his shot very fast and bypass his opponent easily. He is also very proficient in defense, in his match against Kagami during the training camp, he surpressed him overwhelmingly. He also blocked Kagami's first dunk attempt at Inter High and training camp by jumping later than him. Midorima has also been seen making mid-range shots while contested. Midorima can also perform a chase down defense block as seen in the match against Rakuzan when he blocked Hayama.

High Projectile Three
Midorima is mostly known for his incredible shot. Midorima always shoots with his left hand and he bandages his fingers in order to not let them affect his shot. If Midorima is not sure he will score, then he will not shoot. He mostly shoots off the catch, and he is able to create space for his shot. He can shoot the ball from anywhere outside the three point line and the ball flies with exceptionally high arc.

Limitless Range
Another thing that is incredible about his shot is the distance. Midorima has shown that he can score from the half court line and even on the opposite side of the court. He has trained this for at least four years. It is an incredible feat because in reality, most full-court shooters do it with a gridiron-like throwing motion, while he does it with a normal jump shot, a great testament to his overall strength and endurance because it is so repeatable for him. Also, because the shooting percentages are so low that it is normally used at the end of the quarter or at the end of the game as a buzzer-beater. Since Midorima can shoot from the other side of the court, this stops the opposing team from starting a fast break because he is already on defense.

According to Junpei Hyūga rather than the score the true horror of Midorima's shot is the deep psychological impact to opponents. This especially true since most players would freeze on their spot as watching the ball fly with abnormally long air time until it reaches the hoop.

So far, the only ones who have ever been able to stop Midorima's shots, are Kagami by blocking his shots, Kuroko by blocking his dip off a pump fake, and Akashi by stealing the ball before Midorima could bring it above his head. If a turnover occurs from his side the court, it gives the opponents great court position and a closer shot.

He also did this off the court when he shot a box full of dessert onto the motorbike rider that knocked down Momoi.

Sky Direct Three-Point Shot
Midorima and Takao have recently developed a play that uses Midorima's shooting abilities and Takao's accurate and fast passes. This technique consists of Midorima shooting without the ball and during the process of shooting receiving the ball in his hands, passed by Takao. If the pass goes through and the shot is untouched, this play is almost impossible to stop, especially with Midorima's shooting and Takao's passing. This play is a huge gamble though, something Midorima had to overcome by trusting his teammates greatly.

Takao and Midorima made this play to counter Akashi's Emperor Eye, since the height difference leads to Akashi simply not being able to steal the ball because it is out of his reach. The technique is a combination of Midorima's perfect shooting and Takao's perfect passing. However, as Midorima is left-handed, the passes from Takao must come from the left side.

It is also used in the game against Team Jabberwock, however Akashi is the one passing to Midorima. Takao said that the two is the most suited for this skill.

Perfect Accuracy
Midorima has near, if not perfect accuracy, being able to calculate  the distance to the net with precise precision despite shooting with a incredibly high arc, which Hyūga remarked is a difficult feat. Midorima can hit shots from anywhere on the court. He also has phenomenal accuracy with things other than a basketball, as he has hit a thief on a motorbike with a box of dessert from a considerable distance.

Trivia

 * On the first character poll, Midorima ranked 2nd, with 1478 votes. His "specially-made rolling pencil" ranked 30th, with 21 votes. He ranked 6th on the second poll, this time with 936 votes.
 * The kanji (Midori) in his name means green, hinting to his hair color.
 * In the entire series, Midorima has never missed an untouched shot.
 * According to Kise, Midorima has a funny accent.
 * Midorima has rarely been seen smiling in the series.
 * According to the CHARACTERS BIBLE:
 * Midorima's first name was supposed to be Ryōhei instead of Shintarō.
 * If Midorima had an alternate job he would be a doctor.
 * He hates cats, because he got scratched.
 * His favorite food is red bean soup, especially the canned ones. He is shown drinking the canned red bean drink quite often and even drank the chilled one in summer. He is seen drinking red bean soup, but not green bean soup.
 * His hobby is playing chess/shogi and listening to classical music.
 * He likes reading and listening to astrology/fortune-telling-related materials, and brings different lucky charms. On the bloopers, his stuffed frog, Mr. Ribbit, was made from ceramics and was smashed from a stray baseball hit, leaving him aggrieved.
 * He plays the piano.
 * He's bad at cooking.
 * Midorima's type of girl is someone who is older.
 * His motto is: "Man proposes, God disposes".
 * The player he has his eyes on is Akashi.
 * Midorima occasionally ends his phrases with "Nanodayo", a combination of three Japanese sentence-ending particles which adds a tone of "an explanation about something that doesn't really need explaining" to his words.
 * In a Q&A section in the manga, it is revealed that:
 * Midorima was 174 cm tall upon entering Teikō.
 * His best subjects are Chemistry and Biology.
 * Midorima has a younger sister.
 * He hates Nattō, because he cannot stand the smell.
 * He is the only Generation of Miracles member so far not to be seen dunking (because he prefers scoring more points by shooting threes) or entering the Zone.
 * On Shutoku’s team, Midorima is allowed 3 selfish acts a day.
 * Midorima has extremely bad luck if he doesn’t have his lucky item; if he doesn’t carry it with him, he is in constant life threatening situations until he secures it.
 * According to Kuroko, Midorima gets good grades.
 * Midorima’s favorite subjects are Chemistry and Biology.
 * Midorima likes red bean bread.