Wataru Hatano, Toshiki Masuda, Takahiro Fujiwara to play Rakuzan's Uncrowned Kings

This year's 49th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is announcing on Saturday that the third Kuroko's Basketball television anime season will premiere in January 2015 on the MBS, Tokyo MX TV, and BS11 channels. The third season begins with episode "51st Quarter." The magazine also presents a key visual that shows the four schools that survived into the Winter Cup Best 4.

One of those schools, Rakuzan, will have new cast members to play three of the five "Uncrowned Kings" (from left to right at the bottom): Wataru Hatano as Reo Mibuchi, Toshiki Masuda as Kotarō Hayama, and Takahiro Fujiwara as Eikichi Nebuya. These voice actors will also perform on the drama CD bundled with the original manga's 30th volume on December 4. The drama CD will adapt stories from the novel version of the franchise. Also debuting on December 4 is KuroFes! , the second official fanbook.

Shueisha's Jump Next magazine announced that Fujimaki would launch a sequel manga in the magazine's next issue on December 29. Fujimaki launched the main manga series in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2008, and Shueisha will publish the 30th and final compiled volume in December. 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. The third season is scheduled for next year, although the exact month was not announced until now. Crunchyroll streamed the anime outside of Japan as it aired.