After more than 20 years, Shonen Jump's iconic coming-of-age sports manga SLAM DUNK is back with an all-new animated movie delving further into the happiness and heartbreak of Hanamichi Sakuragi, and his teammates on the Shohoku High Basketball Team.
Debuting in 1990 as part of Shonen Jump's line of regularly published manga, Takehiko Inoue's SLAM DUNK tells the story of Sakuragi, a physically gifted but somewhat unfocused teenager who is on the pathway to rougher times until he meets Haruko Akagi, a classmate who is really into basketball and encourages him to join the team. While Sakuragi has no interest in sports, he joins the team to help his relationship with Haruko. After overcoming the typical issues of fitting in, Sakuragi bonds with other team members, including Haruko's brother Takenori, whom he finds similar misfits him. The more the players bond, the better they do, until finally they are a legitimate contender for the champion, as long as the classic issues of being a teenager don't get in the way.
The new movie entitled, The First SLAM DUNK, is scheduled to premiere on December 3, 2022, in Japan, with an international and online rollout sometime afterward. The film was produced by Japanese cartoon and anime powerhouse Toei Animation and directed by Inoue, the SLAM DUNK creator himself, which bodes well for the film. His directorship is a welcome signal to fans that the story will continue to have the same feel and be of the same quality as the original saga. Indeed, since the series was retired, it's unlikely anyone has thought deeper about the story than Inoue. He offers the best way to introduce it to a public that has largely forgotten it exists or has never heard of it. Watch the trailer for The First SLAM DUNK on Toei's YouTube channel below.
SLAM DUNK Is All About Sports and Friendship
SLAM DUNK, the manga, originally ran from 1990 to 1996, during which time it became one of the most popular manga at the time, and the most popular sports manga ever. It opened the doors to success for subsequent sports manga such as Haikyuu! and Blue Lock. The success of the manga spawned a SLAM DUNK animated series that ran from 1993 to 1996, as well as several standalone films, the last of which premiered in 1995. Even after SLAM DUNK ended, Inoue stayed involved in sports manga content creation. Indeed, one of his follow-up manga was Buzzer Beater, which Inoue started as a webcomic in 1994 before it was picked up by Shonen Jump and added to its regular rotation. Needless to say, Inoue certainly has been waiting for another opportunity to continue telling his SLAM DUNK story.
As Inoue said in a 2007 interview with Anime New Network, while the story may technically focus on high schoolers playing basketball, the real story is the camaraderie and friendship that develops among the players on the team. Fans old, and new, will have a chance to watch anew those endearing moments when Shonen Jump's SLAM DUNK hits theaters starting next month.
Sources: Anime News Network (1), (2), Toei Animation