Will the film adaptation of “SLAM DUNK” depict the “last minute”?　25 years after the series ended, expectations for the evolved anime

There is a section in this article that refers to the contents of volumes 30 and 31 of SLAM DUNK (Yuhiko Inoue) (Jump Comics edition).

|It’s been almost a quarter of a century since Slam Dunk ended.

On January 7, 2021, manga artist Takehiko Inoue posted on Twitter, “[Slam Dunk] is going to be a movie!(It was announced that the work would be made into an anime film.

SLAM DUNK” by Takehiko Inoue is a landmark basketball manga serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump” from 1990 to 1996. The main character is Hanamichi Sakuragi (a first-year high school student), a juvenile delinquent who dyes his hair red. The story is a masterpiece of a kind of bildungsroman (growth story) that depicts how he accidentally joins the basketball club and eventually develops his talent to the point where he becomes an active player in the national tournament.

By the way, I watched a program called “150,000 People Vote in the Manga General Election” broadcasted on TV Asahi the other day (January 3, from 0:40am).

SLAM DUNK” by Yukihiko Inoue is a landmark basketball manga serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump” from 1990 to 1996. The main character is Hanamichi Sakuragi (a first-year high school student), a juvenile delinquent who dyes his hair red. The story is a masterpiece of a kind of bildungsroman (growth story) that depicts how he accidentally joins the basketball club and eventually develops his talent to the point where he becomes an active player in the national tournament.

Incidentally, I watched a program called “150,000 People Vote in the Manga General Election” broadcasted on TV Asahi the other day (January 3, from 0:40am). What impressed me again was that “SLAM DUNK” was chosen as the third place following “ONE PIECE” (Eiichiro Oda) and “Onikin no Bashi” (Yoseiharu Agoge). Needless to say, the first and second places are works that are currently being serialized, while the other was serialized until May of last year, so for a work that has been serialized for almost a quarter of a century to be ranked third is nothing short of an accomplishment.
There is an archive of this program on Youtube, so if you are interested in it, please watch it. Search “150,000 People Vote for Manga! Manga General Election”.

This proves that the work “SLAM DUNK” is still loved by many people. In other words, some of you may be wondering, “Why now? In other words, while there may be some people who are wondering “why now?” about this anime film adaptation, it is a masterpiece that has a universal appeal (or a theme that never goes out of style) that can be read (or watched) at any time, regardless of its contemporaneity.

What I’m personally curious about is whether or not the final chapter of the original story, the game between Shohoku High School and Sanno Kogyo, will be filmed in this movie (for the record, the main character Sakuragi belongs to the Shohoku High School basketball team).

(For the record, the main character Sakuragi is a member of the Shohoku High School basketball team.) This is because the previous TV anime and theatrical versions of the same story were not depicted to that extent, and I would love to see that “legendary game” visualized with today’s highly advanced animation technology.

As those who have read the original story will know, the last minute of the game between Shohoku High School and Sanno Kogyo in volume 31 of the book (Jump Comics version) is a masterpiece (almost a whole book’s worth of pages is devoted to the description of this “last minute”). Especially when there are less than 12 seconds left in the game, all dialogue, monologue, and narration are eliminated, and the story proceeds only with the players’ movements and the expressions of the spectators. It could be said that this is the ultimate expression of a sports manga that does not rely on words, or it could be said that it is a direction to make the most of Sakuragi’s line at the end of the film, “All I do is hold my left hand out…”.

In any case, when the new movie (the fifth theatrical version) is released, there is no doubt that “SLAM DUNK” will once again boom (even more than now).

If it were possible, I would love to see the courage of the red-haired former delinquent who dives into the press box to save his teammate’s ball in the 30th volume of the book (as well as the famous scene of the aforementioned “Left hand only to save…”), and I would love to see the courage of my younger sister I’d like to see that tearful scene on the big screen of a movie theater, when Akagi, the captain, remembers his sister Haruko’s words, “He’s a beginner, but he could be the …… savior of the basketball team one day.

[speech_bubble type=”drop” subtype=”L1″ icon=”surprise.png” name=”Nazuna”] It has been decades since the last episode of Slam Dunk was released, but it is still a basketball manga that remains in the hearts of the Japanese people. With the release of the movie, a new generation is sure to fall in love with Slam Dunk again. [/speech_bubble]