Slam Dunk (manga)

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Slam Dunk
スラムダンク (Slam Dunk)
Genre	Sports, Shōnen. Comedy
Manga: Slam Dunk
Authored by	Takehiko Inoue
Publisher	Shueisha Conrad Raijin Comics (Hiatus: June 2004 - Current) Tora Aman Kana Planet Manga Summit Manga Chuang Yi (English) Editorial Ivréa Elex Media Komputindo Grupo Editorial Vid Editorial Ivrea
Serialized in	Weekly Shonen Jump
Original run	1990 – 1996
No. of volumes	31
TV anime
Directed by	Nobutaka Nishizawa
Studio	TOEI
Network	Animax, TV Asahi GMA Network ABC-5 NTV7 TV Azteca WKAQ-TV Telemundo Etc...TV MTV Italia
Original run	October 16, 1993 – March 23, 1996
No. of episodes	101
OVA
Directed by	Nobutaka Nishizawa
Studio	Toei Animation
No. of episodes	4
Released	1994-1995

Slam Dunk (スラムダンク, Suramu Danku^?) is a 31-volume Japanese manga and anime series written by Takehiko Inoue about a basketball team from Shohoku (Shōhoku) High School. It was first published in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan and has sold over 100 million copies in that country alone.

It was so popular that many Japanese teenagers began playing basketball after it was published.^{[citation needed]} Inoue has also used basketball as a central theme in two other manga series: Buzzer Beater and Real.

The anime series, consising of 101 episodes, was produced by the TV Asahi terrestrial television network and Toei Animation and directed by Nobutaka Nishizawa. It was first aired on TV Asahi from October 16, 1993 to March 23, 1996. It was later aired on the anime satellite television network, Animax, in addition to four animated movies produced. The anime follows the manga storyline, but leaves out the National Tournament games. The animated movies are separate stand-alone stories.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Critical response 4 Trivia 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Plot

The main character of this manga is Hanamichi Sakuragi, who started out as an outcast who fights as a method to gain power and publicity, becoming the leader of a gang. Hanamichi, being very unpopular with girls, has been rejected by them fifty times. Yet, he finds out that Haruko Akagi is the girl of his dreams, and is happy when she's not scared of him like all the other girls he has asked out.

Haruko, who recognizes Hanamichi's athleticism, introduces him to the Shohoku basketball team. Hanamichi was reluctant to join the team at first because he had no previous background in any sports and thought that basketball was a game for losers (also because the fiftieth girl - see the Trivia section below - rejected him for a basketball player). Sakuragi, despite his immaturity and hot temper, proves to be a natural athlete with potential and joins the team in order to impress Haruko and prove that he is worthy of her. Kaede Rukawa - Sakuragi's bitter rival (both on the basketball court and love, even when Kaede doesn't acknowledge Haruko's crush on him), the star rookie and a "girl magnet" - joins the team at the same time. Hisashi Mitsui, an ex-junior high school MVP, and Ryota Miyagi, a short but fast player, both also rejoin the team and together these four struggle to complete team captain Takenori Akagi's dream of making Shohoku the national champion. Together, these misfits gain publicity and the once little known Shohoku basketball team becomes an all-star contender in Japan.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Slam Dunk characters.

[edit] Critical response

In a poll of over 79,000 Japanese fans for the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival, Slam Dunk! was voted the #1 manga of all time.^[1]

[edit] Trivia

• Some details, such as how the tournament matches between Miuradai and Shoyo take place, are related with more detail in the anime, while in the manga they are only summed up and punctuated with a few panels.
• One player, Tetsuya Naito of Miuradai, exists only in the anime. In the manga, when Hanamichi commits his fifth foul, he dunks the ball on Miuradai captain Murasame's head instead of Naito's.
• The video games based on the anime are all labeled with From TV animation Slam Dunk, indicating that it follows the anime more closely (this can be seen in the looks and lineups of some minor teams, like Tsukubu or Miuradai, respectively), to the point that none of the games feature any team foreign to Kanagawa, with the exception of Toyotama High, which hails from Osaka Prefecture and is featured in SD Heat Up!! for the Super Famicom. It is also to be noted that one of the four teams in the Kanagawa Final League, Takezato High, does not make any appearance in the games, possibly because of their lack of depth in the story; Ryonan, Shohoku, and Kainan all defeat them easily, despite Takezato being seeded first in their respective tournament block.
• In the first OVA, it is found that Tatsuma Oda, the basketball player who is currently dating Youko Shimamura (the fiftieth girl rejected Hanamichi), is currently playing for Takezono High School. In the story mode of the games, you usually face this team in Stage 2 (because Shohoku and Takezono had a training match prior to the tournament, after the one against Ryonan; the match appears in this OVA), with the exception of the arcade game Super Slams which does not feature Takezono. The events of the OVA are told in the anime, unlike the manga, around the time Takezono faces Kainan for a spot in the Final League (in the manga, it is only briefly mentioned that Kainan defeated Takezono). The episodes featuring Oda and Takezono are exclusive of the anime.
• Posters on internet forums realized that the author of Flower of Eden, Yuki Suetsugu, was plagiarizing from Inoue's manga, including Slam Dunk [1]. As a result, Flower of Eden was no longer published by Kodansha and the series' U.S. release by TOKYOPOP was cancelled.
• Many of the characters are seen wearing noticeable real-life basketball sneakers such as Nike Air Jordan 6's, 7's , 8's (like Hanamichi and Kaede) and other shoe brands such as Converse (Takenori and Ryota) and Asics (Hisashi). Until after the first match against Ryonan, Hanamichi also used to wear a low-top pair of Adidas, which became worn out.
• The manga not only inspired Japanese youngsters to take up basketball, when it was published in other East Asia countries such as Taiwan, China, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, many teenagers or young adults started to take an interest in basketball (also due to the limited space with high populations, a basketball court does not need as large an area compared to football). The sales of basketball memorabilia and TV viewing of NBA or FIBA Asia Championship also increased as a result.^{[citation needed]}
• In the film Battle Royale, Yoshitoki Kuninobu is reading volume 30 of the Slam Dunk manga in a flashback scene.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• [2] (in English)
• Slam Dunk Fansite (in French)
• Slam Dunk Manga Summaries