Ranked #89

Slam Dunk

You know that feeling when you don't really want to watch something but when you start doing it, amazingly, you have lots of fun? Well I do because that is what Slam Dunk is doing to me. It is about this basketball team in Shohoku highschool and its main character, Sakuragi, who tries to complete himself as a basketball player and gain the love of a girl, named Haruko. Sounds cheesy but, believe me, it is nothing you have experienced before.

Now, from the first few episodes, you can obviously see that this anime, which received huge acclaim at its time, has a clear goal to spread the popularity of basketball in a country where basketball was almost non existent. For true fans of this game, who are hoping to see some great moves in this series, a disappointment awaits. The problem is that Japanese studio emphasized areas of basketball which aren't necessarily the most important and beautiful. For those true fans, it would be like watching a "learn-how-to-read" video when you're 20 years old. From this side, the anime looks really outdated.

However, what amazed me the most, was that the jokes were not outdated at all. If you don't like the basketball scenes, watch it as a comedy and, trust me, you won't be disappointed. Through time, you get used to the characters and even start enjoy their stories. We've all movies about American high school teams who MADE it. This was something new for me and I did not give up on it. Love, basketball, friendship, competition and lots of laughs - this is what you can expect (and should receive) from Slam Dunk.

I can say this easily: there will be basketball fans who will hate Slam Dunk and there will be non-basketball fans who will love this anime. Just give it a try and if you'll have fun a few times - it was already worth it. read more

Slam Dunk is one of those classics of sports anime. You always hear about it and wonder if it actually is the best thing since sliced bread. Well, it isn't. But it is funny and entertaining and worthwhile if you have the patience for it.

Imagine GTO in high school and determined to learn how to play basketball to get closer to the girl he has a crush on -- tah-dah, Slam Dunk! The story has the expected sort of "learn a skill, show a skill" repetitive story line common to a lot of sports and shounen animes, but it's punched up by a little delinquency, a little reformation, and a tiny bit of one-sided romance. The one real downside to the story is the occasional trips into a DBZ/Naruto-esque timefreeze: sometimes one basketball game takes, like, 3 episodes and you wonder how it's possible that only 2 minutes anime-time have gone by in the last 20 real-time. ;)

The art is a little rough sometimes, kind of typical for the time period. There's a lot of panning across stills and repetitive looks at the same image. It can be a little annoying, but I kept on reminding myself when it was made (1993-1996!) and I got over it. The one thing that I noticed the most was probably the fact that the key on their court looks different from a real key in a NBA or Olympic court, but I decided to stop thinking about it a few episodes in.

The character of the main character is what makes the whole thing entertaining, I think. He is brash, tactless, rough and stupid -- and, for some odd reason, really funny. Even when he gets on my nerves, he does something random and ridiculous and retarded, and it just ends up cracking me up. He's always calling himself a genius (when he doesn't know how to do anything) and laughing in this obnoxious, cocky manner and making awful mistakes, but he's somehow loveable anyway and you end up rooting for him because he's just that charismatic. The thing that's really nice about him is just how flawed he is... he's got natural athleticism, but he's far from being a natural on the basketball court and he's loyal, strong, and dedicated, but he's also impatient and hot-tempered and loud. And he's really nicely backed up by a team of interesting, diverse guys who each (eventually) get their time in the limelight and each have their own personal struggles to overcome while striving to work together as a team.

Overall, I enjoyed watching Slam Dunk -- despite the really slow pacing of some of the actual games. It's funny in that rough, delinquent way that will be familiar to people who've seen Hajime no Ippo and Great Teacher Onizuka. If you're an American basketball-purist, you might have some issues with the show, but if you're just looking for a fun, classic shounen about some rough-and-tumble guys... you've found what you're looking for. read more