SLAM DUNK

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedySLAM DUNK
MOVIE ComedySLAM DUNK (Movie)
MOVIE ComedySLAM DUNK: Zenkoku Seiha Da! Sakuragi Hanamichi
MOVIE ComedySLAM DUNK: Shouhoku Saidai no Kiki! Moero Sakuragi Hanamichi
MOVIE ComedySLAM DUNK: Hoero Basketman-damashii! Hanamichi to Rukawa no Atsuki Natsu
MOVIE SportsTHE FIRST SLAM DUNK

REVIEWS

• 

  myvelouria

  90/100
  Love, basketball, and the birth of a genius.

  Before there was Kuroko there was Sakuragi. “Slam Dunk” is one of those iconic 90s series that didn’t just leave a lasting impression, it actively influenced a whole manner of people. Both the manga and anime helped spread basketball to a Japanese as well as Chinese audience leading to the NBA gaining popularity in East Asia. Its impact on the sports genre is undeniable. For the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Jump they released a collage of their protagonists through the years and had Sakuragi in the front row with the likes of Goku and Luffy. But what is the secret to its success? The best place to start is with the story.

  Hanamichi Sakuragi is a delinquent at Shohoku High School famous for two things: for his explosive temper and being rejected by a total of fifty girls throughout middle school. One day he meets a girl named Haruko Akagi and is immediately smitten while she is impressed by his tall, athletic build. When she suggests he try the basketball team he hurls himself at the opportunity to impress her. The problem, however, is he has a total lack of talent or knowledge of the sport. In spite of that he declares himself to be a basketball genius, something he will boast throughout the series. After she introduces him to the sport he meets the cool and gifted Kaede Rukawa. The two immediately clash due to their opposing personality types as well as the fact that he is the boy Haruko, as well as most of the female student body, is in love with resulting in a rivalry. As the story moves forward he meets Shohoku’s team captain, and Haruko’s older brother, Takenori Akagi and the other members. Together they work towards realizing Akagi’s dream of winning nationals while Sakuragi stakes steps towards becoming a true basketball genius.

  “Slam Dunk” manages to be both a great sports anime as well as a great coming of age story. Sakuragi spends a great deal of time throughout the series struggling with basketball. This I feel is as it should be. He was a total novice who never heard of dribbling before, so naturally he won’t be a star player until he really educates himself and practices. Once he reaches a point where he is playing basketball for himself and not merely to impress Haruko it shows how far he has come as a person. And it isn’t just Sakuragi who has interesting things going on with his character. We have the history behind Shohoku’s team and their struggles. Seeing how Akagi worked so tirelessly to aim for the top despite coming up short through the years endeared the character and made his iconic quote “if you give up, the game’s already over” carry so much weight. The story of Mitsui going from an MVP to falling off due to an injury and coming back around to reentering the sport was one of the emotional highlights. There is an enjoyable friendship between Sakuragi and Ryota who shares quite a deal in common with him. Even a character like Rukawa who initially seems to be just the quiet, stoic type has some layers to his personality that keep him from being dull. He is not a great student, yet he is fully devoted to the sport. So much so that his play style is perceived by others as selfish and difficult to work with. And while Haruko is there as Sakuragi’s love interest and initial motivation, we also see her as a very intelligent and helpful girl whose advice is shown to be incredibly valuable. Not to mention Sakuragi’s delinquent friends like Yohei, Shohoku’s vice-captain Kogure, the characters from the rival teams like Uozumi and Sendoh, this is a cast filled with very well constructed and enjoyable people.

  “Slam Dunk” at its core is the result of Takehiko Inoue’s own personal attachment to basketball. Like Sakuragi he joined his school’s basketball team growing up thinking it would lead to him being popular with girls. In time he found himself to be just enamored with the sport and this passion definitely carried over into the anime adaptation. Despite the limitations of TV animation in the early 90s there is a real sense of excitement in these episodes. Seeing the matches play out is thrilling, you actively are hooked and want to see if Shohoku will win. And when the time came for Sakuragi to really come into his own and pull off something impressive, something that nobody expected him to do, it leaves you feeling so in awe. I am not somebody who is very interested in sports personally and I went in not having more than a surface level understanding of basketball and its rules. What I found to be extremely beneficial was that as the story progresses the audience is gradually fed information about the sport and how it works. This is something we come to understand as Sakuragi does and it’s not done in a way that would feel tedious to someone with a preexisting knowledge. It’s woven into the episodes seamlessly and this is largely due to the fact that when making the manga Inoue understood that he needed to provide this information in order to win over the audience. Again at the time “Slam Dunk” was in circulation and airing on Japanese TV basketball was a rather unpopular sport, by informing the viewer and exciting them through the material it built popularity among Japanese youth. The feeling I get when I think back on the series is one that is humble. It’s a person saying “here is a sport that brought me great joy, would you like to see a story about it”.

  When I started “Slam Dunk” I only knew the basic outline of the story and in the end I feel what I was given far surpassed my own expectations. I felt as if it transported me back to the early 90s, it’s less of a case where it feels dated and more of this feeling that they captured time in a bottle. The characters, they drew me in. The story kept me entertained for all one hundred and one episodes. What I would consider to be something of a drawback though is the anime is not a complete adaptation. The manga ended just a few months after the anime did. Instead of creating a forced ending to the TV series they found a place to leave us off that, while still fulfilling, is not the way Inoue concluded his manga. When it was over I didn’t find this to be a major flaw as I liked where it stopped, but if you go in thinking you are getting the full story that the manga laid out I will tell you that is not the case. That being said I think there is still plenty of reason to watch the anime. The voice cast is fantastic, the music is great, the designs are highly appealing, and that passion Inoue filled his manga with is still present. It is that fire, that energetic love for basketball that is the key to its success. Watching it I was completely able to see why this series inspired so many people. In the words of Sakuragi himself, you’ll watch won’t you?

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• 

  KaylAguas

  88/100
  Masterclass story about Basketball

  Preface:
  Hey! Thanks for reading my review of Slam Dunk just some quick notes. My review is solely based on how it affects me as a person and how my past experiences play a role in the overall enjoyment of this anime. Review will be broken down like so :

  • Art
  • Animation
  • Story
  • Characters
  • Soundtrack
  • Overall Enjoyment

  So let’s get started, I will avoid spoilers as much as possible but don’t worry, spoiler tags will be included!

  #__Art 8.5/10__

  Gotta give credit where credit is due. Toei Animation managed to actually capture more or less Slam Dunk’s art style in the manga. Albeit slightly inconsistent. One thing I really love about Toei Animation’s adaptation is how they managed to encapsulate and elevate moments through by simply changing the art style. It actually emphasises the importance of these moments and gives us, the viewer, more of an emotional impact rather than it remaining consistently the same.

  My favourite out of these styles is the painterly look. It is a standout when it’s shown on the screen. I absolutely love how it looks aesthetically, and captures iconic moments for the character and brings a sense of achievement not just for the viewers but the characters as well.

  My main problem with the art is how inconsistent it is, while it is really good for the most part, it really breaks the immersion of the audience. I get thrown off when the characters are just weird looking, like a body double for the characters themselves. When it comes to basketball, when they zoom out to take an overhead shot of the court, I cringe looking at how weird the scale is. Sometimes the court looks twice the size it actually is and sometimes looks really small. As a basketball fan, I watch a lot of basketball matches (Go Spurs Go), so seeing the wrong scale it kinda pulls me out of my immersion.

  Overall art is pretty solid.

  #__Animation 7/10__

  Oh boy, Toei Animation, notorious for reusing shots, stills where the “character’s mouth is only moving” cop-out, inconsistent animation and just general cheap practices. This is the only point that really grinds my gears. Some comparisons :

  

  The Gif on the left looks so buttery smooth. Maki-san with a simple hesitation to the left which gets Ryota to move to the right, only for Maki-san to change directions with a simple crossover. It is so well done and looks like a legit crossover from a basketball game. This is an example of good animation from Toei.

  Now look on the damn right, alright so Rukawa goes for a spin fake and drives to the basket to take a JUMP SHOT. I repeat just a jump.shot.. ALL WE GET IS A DAMN STILL IMAGE!!!!! You’re telling me that the jump shot is harder to animate than the dunk. No way, even though it is from the OP. At least animate the shot or movements of the players around him. It feels so lazily done when they just don’t move and they use action lines to express movement. I might as well read the manga! Lastly, when they show a character driving in it just cuts to them being at where they planned to be, motion and rhythm is absent on this show which is so disappointing. If you watch any basketball and see the highlights, one of the biggest selling points for basketball is the cool movements of the players.

  I particularly chose that bit because it doesn’t contain spoilers but I can assure you that the “iconic” moments of the show are plagued with this kind of poor animation. It’s a shame, as those moments still bring me excitement and glee when i watch it. I feel like if it was done better, the show would be held in higher regard. I will not give them the reason of “it’s from the 90s”, the 90s had some superb animation like NGE, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun and LOTGH. So really it’s Toei’s fault. Budget is another thing, Toei just takes popular IPs and just runs with it. They literally produce a crap ton of shows, and the quality plummets. Toei is what a textbook Quantity > Quality is.

  Sorry this bit really pissed me off.

  #__Story 8.5/10__

  It wouldn’t be a surprise to say that Slam Dunk has a linear story. But with that said Slam Dunk has a lot of heart and is endearing to the viewers. Where the characters are well written and are realistic.

  It starts off with Sakuragi joining the basketball team because of Haruko and his interest in her. What I really like about his introduction to basketball, is how shallow his reason for joining is. However, the more he plays the more his love for the sport grows. We see him compete with other high school basketball teams to compete for a spot in the Nationals.

  You are brought along this experience of basketball through Sakuragi’s eyes. We watch him as he learns how to play basketball, while also learning how to play it ourselves. The way the story is written masterfully relates to people who have not played basketball before. The audience is also well informed through Dr T’s lectures which are well thought out, not taking too much time and bringing the point across in a comedic manner.

  We also see Sakuragi’s ups and downs and feel how he feels during those moments. When he scores a basket we get hype just as does and when he loses, you actually feel upset and affected that he lost. We are touched emotionally because of how well the characters are written. I’ll elaborate on this further onto the next section.

  This may sound biased, but for me I constantly knew how they felt and how those key moments in the anime felt like. There was a certain moment that really hits close to home that I actually almost teared up. Watching Slam Dunk really brings me back to my competitive days and I feel like I get to relive that experience, the good and bad the bad, the whole shabang. Takehiko Inoue brings reality to this piece of fiction. You can tell he wrote this with a lot of passion for the sport.

  What I appreciate most about Slam Dunk is the fact that Takehiko Inoue was doing his part for society. He wrote Sakuragi as your standard anime delinquent, loud, brash, absurdly strong and has coloured hair. Inoue-sensei was able to inspire delinquents in 90s Japan to get off the streets and do something worth their time like what Sakuragi has done. People may just look at this as just an anime but for some it could open new opportunities for delinquents who have lost their way. He shows how you don’t have to be good at school but if you’re passionate enough about something, you can make a career out of it. You can tell he tries to sympathize with delinquents and bring them out of that life.

  This portion will contain spoilers regarding the ending so be warned!!
  
  It’s a shame it didn’t get a full adaptation and was cut short, but i do have to give credit where credit is due. Toei animation did a splendid job at wrapping up the show. In the end we see the players leaving for the National tournament. The ending feels like a new beginning and I absolutely love it. We see Sakuragi develop fully as a player and hope to see more of him in the future.

  #__Characters 10/10__

  Takehiko Inoue, has a brilliantly written cast of characters, all well written and are relatable.

  Starting off with the main character himself, Sakuragi Hanamichi, like i mentioned earlier, Sakuragi is your run of the mill loud protagonist. However, like I said, I believe he was written this way to relate with delinquents in 90s Japan. He’s a very endearing character from the amount of effort he puts into his craft and just being a goof ball during games. He’s a talented beginner and is a projection of delinquents doing something worth their time, in this case basketball. Love the relatability of Sakuragi.

  The Shohoku Basketball team, arguably, has as strong of an influence as Sakuragi does. We see Sakuragi form a “tough-love” relationship with Akagi-senpai. The rivalry between Rukawa and Sakuragi is quite overrated and I believe that the older brother-younger brother relationship between Akagi and Sakuragi is quite wholesome. There are times when Akagi is facing difficulties and Sakuragi shows everyone how he’s Akagi’s younger brother and even claims it himself of how great he is because of Akagi. It’s admirable how Akagi always criticises Sakuragi but recognizes his efforts and does praise him for it.

  Rukawa and Ryota are both similar in a way that they want to be the best for their respective positions. Rukawa wants to be the best player in Japan and Ryota wants to be the best Point Guard in Japan. They don’t have super deep relationships with other characters other than Ryota’s interest in Ayako.

  One thing I feel is overlooked in other sports anime is the role of the coach. Anzai-sensei plays a massive role in strategizing how the entire team plays. He also inspires his players, and he helps them grow as a person. This is driven home through the relationship between Mitsui and Anzai-sensei.

  Mitsui and Anzai’s relationship is one of the reasons I believe Inoue-sensei wrote Slam Dunk this way. Minor spoiler below :
  Mitsui has fallen off his basketball days due to injury and could not compete for his first year in Highschool.. He then tries to play with his injury but makes it worse and quits the team becoming a delinquent, after 2 years he remembers why he joins Shohoku basketball team, to be under the tutelage of Anzai-sensei and to win the Nationals through his teachings.This brings warmth to my heart because Anzai-sensei manages to bring Mitsui out of that life and reignite his passion.

  Lastly i would like to mention, Sakuragi’s Goon Squad. The Goon Squad is the kind of best friends everyone probably has. The ones that make fun of you and rejoice in your downfalls, but is always there to help you when in need. They’re not there to be a gag, they actually affect Sakuragi’s basketball growth in surprising ways.

  Overall, the characters in this anime are amazing.

  #__Soundtrack/Voice Acting 9/10__

  The OPs and EDs were perfectly chosen for this anime. The first opening, Kimi ga Suki da to Sakebitai, really gets me pumped before every episode starts. It captures the fun adventure we will be going through. My personal favourite song is Sekai Ga Owaru Made Wa its not an Opening or Ending song, it was played during one of the key moments with Mitsui and got me moved. It just hit me more emotionally, its quite funny how i dont understand Japanese but get overwhelmed with emotions listening to Sekai ga owaru made wa

  The voice acting was pretty good, every voice perfectly suits the characters they play. A stand out would probably be Sakuragi’s as Takeshi Kusao sounds exactly what I expect Sakuragi to sound like.

  The foley in this anime is pretty good, everything was quite in order and nothing too bizarre that pulled me out of the anime compared to the animation.

  Overall pretty pleased with the sound department.

  #__Overall Thoughts 10/10 and Miscellaneous Things__

  I thoroughly enjoyed watching Slam Dunk, there wasn’t a moment where I felt I was forcing myself to watch the show. There were no unbearable characters and the development for every character was well done.

  Slam Dunk is a must watch for any anime and basketball fan as well as Sports fan. It’s amazing how i always felt right at home watching Slam Dunk.

  Note: I apologize if it was long or quite messy but hope you enjoyed reading my review!
  Note : Just imagine if MADHOUSE remade this.

  __Art: 8.5 __ __Animation: 7/10__ __Story: 8.5/10__ __Characters: 10/10__ __Soundtrack: 9/10__ __Overall Enjoyment: 10/10 __
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• 

  Henway

  69/100
  A historically significant sports anime with highs weighed down by its significant lows.

  Slam Dunk is a show full of colorful and memorable characters that is, ironically, slowed down by the basketball games they play in.

  The main character, the genius himself, Sakuragi Hanamachi rides the fine line between lovable and insufferable. For 95% of the time, he is a loud and obnoxious goofball, always spouting about being a self-proclaimed basketball genius despite being a total beginner at the sport. However, because we see his constant failures and his relentless drive for improvement, Sakuragi manages to avoid being an arrogant and unlikable main character. Sakuragi's development as a basketball player is also impressive. Sakuragi's skillset is slowly built throughout the series and he doesn't magically become a highly skilled and well-rounded character like his rival/teammate Rukawa; his initial skill in jumping high for rebounds and endurance is realistically due to his naturally insane athleticism. These aspects of Sakuragi's character make him a character you want to root for. Despite his bravado, you want to see him overcome his obstacles and become a better player. His usual goofiness makes the short moments where he is serious and shows flashes of true brilliance that much more impactful and are the most anticipated moments of each basketball game.

  The rough and tumble Shohoku High starting line up conists Akagi Takenori, Mitsui Hisashi, Miyagi Ryota, Rukawa Kaede, and of course Sakuragi. Each of them have unique personalities that entertainingly clash with each other. Their motivations and aspirations are interestingly explored, particularly Mitsui's story. Rukawa is an interesting foil to Sakuragi. The former is quiet and already an elite high school basketball player while the latter is bombastic and is just learning the game. Their rivalry is a source of lots of funny moments, but also a source of frustratingly drawn-out knuckleheaded plays by Sakuragi. The rest of the cast are entertaining as well, including Sakuragi's boisterous but loyal group of friends, Haruko, the object of Sakuragi's unnoticed love, and the opponents from other schools. The cast plays off each other very well and there is a very real sense of camaraderie built throughout the show.

  Unfortunately for how much fun the episodes about training or exploring the various characters can be, the basketball games themselves tend to be not fun because of how long they are drawn out. So much time is taken up by the players on the court talking to each other, coach monologues, or a sequence where every single character in attendance react to something that happened. A large chunk of time is also taken up by Sakuragi daydreaming about how he'll embarrass Rukawa with his genius performance. These are the only times I am annoyed with how boastful Sakuragi is. The moments where the game isn't moving at a snail's pace, where something really cool happens, are teetering on few and far between. But the climaxes of each game are still satisfactory to even awe-inspiring. The highest highs of Slam Dunk are definitely found in the games, but not only after slogging through padded episodes with cool moments peppered throughout it.

  If the amount of episodes for each game were at least cut down by a third, I would have enjoyed this anime a little bit more. Despite my complaints, there is still a lot to like about Slam Dunk. Slam Dunk is still a piece of anime history I don't regret watching all 101 episodes of because after watching it, it is clear that the genius basket-man Sakuragi Hanamichi's journey into falling in love with basketball set the standard that almost all sports anime afterwards go by.

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