Slam Dunk

Mangaka: Takehiko Inoue
Other works: REAL, The Vagabond, Buzz Beater
Status: Finished. 31 volumes/24 for deluxe edition

Genre: Shounen, sport

Synopsis: Sukuragi Hanamichi is a new junior (?) high school student at Shohoku High School with already a bad reputation. Not only is he known for his street fights, his weird dyed red hair, but also for unsuccessful love confessions: thirty-something ones rejected. He’s new love interest is Akagi Haruko, the basket ball captain’s little sister. However, like most of the other girls, she has a crush on another junior high school student, the basket ball incredible rookie Rukawa Kaede. To impress Haruko, Sakuragi joins the basket ball club as a basket ball genius, although he has no knowledge of the game, and quickly develops a rivalry with Rukawa. Due to his physical abilities and spirit, Sakuragi manages to learn the basics rapidly and becomes one of Shohoku team main pillar as his love for basket ball grows. In addition to Sakuragi’s improvement, the team is building itself up again and their goal is to go to the national’s high school tournament; however, many talented teams and players stand in their way…

Manga art: As usual, the art improves as the story goes. Although Slam Dunk was not the first manga from Inoue Takehiko, it was his first major success and so, his art has matured along the series. The artist uses the panels well to tell his story, the backgrounds are well-defined and there are details. Also, the chibi faces are sooo cute :D My only complain is that the characters look older than 15-17 years old; in my mind, they’re around 20… not that it affects the story or your enjoyment. Few things that I know have bothered others, but not me: the sweat drops. Lots of sweat drops ^^; and also, the fact that the characters don’t look like Japanese (eg: Akagi and some other players look like Afro-Americans).

Reviewer’s verdict: This is one of the best manga I’ve ever read… but it’s not only my opinion. Quite frankly, this manga is a pure classic and everyone should give it a chance. Sakuragi is an interesting protagonist; although immature, he has a strong personality and lots of self-confidence. He’ll make you laugh sooo much. Also, the mangaka has created a series of very interesting, strong secondary characters: you can’t help it but get attached to them and roots for Shohoku. Even players from other teams are awesome. This series has a good balance between comedy, suspense and action. Some manga go on and on and on and readers have difficulty to imagine an ending… in addition, you don’t want the ending to be too cliché or too predictable. Inoue Takehiko dealt with the ending very well and it was quite surprising. Really, thumbs up. Also, I enjoyed the art a lot. Nothing bothered me much, it was a style easy to get used too, most everything were proportionate and once Sakuragi cuts his hair, he was such a cutie!!!

Grading: This series definitively deserves 4.5/5

Notes: There have been a lot of rumours about a sequel and I wish it was confirmed or denied. Right now, the mangaka is working on “The Vagabond,” which is a samurai manga, for a couple of years… so maybe after.

Licensed? Yes, in French by Kana and in English, unknown. (I know a couple of volumes were published in English, but I’m not sure what happened as it seems to have stopped.)

Scanslation? Yes and complete by Tensai Project.

Anime? Yes. Slam Dunk has an anime of 101 eps. long + 4 OAV. I’ve watched some of the anime and it is not as good as the manga. It follows the manga closely for the first half and then, it’s basically composed of fillers. Also, the anime was made in the early 1990’s, probably ’93-’94, and so, the animation isn’t excellent. The movements are slow, which is bad when “watching” basket ball. If I’m not wrong, the anime never covered the end of the manga either.