The First Slam Dunk

Shohoku's "speedster" and point guard, Ryouta Miyagi, always plays with brains and lightning speed, running circles around his opponents while feigning composure. Born and raised in Okinawa, Ryouta had a brother who was three years older. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, who was a famous local player from a young age, Ryouta also became addicted to basketball.

In his second year of high school, Ryouta plays with the Shohoku High School basketball team along with Sakuragi, Rukawa, Akagi, and Mitsui as they take the stage at the Inter-High School National Championship. And now, they are on the brink of challenging the reigning champions, Sannoh Kogyo High School.

(Source: GKIDS, edited)

Sakuragi, Hanamichi Main

Kimura, Subaru Japanese

Mitsui, Hisashi Main

Kasama, Jun Japanese

Miyagi, Ryouta Main

Nakamura, Shuugo Japanese

Rukawa, Kaede Main

Kamio, Shinichirou Japanese

Akagi, Takenori Main

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Mito, Youhei Supporting

Kobayashi, Chikahiro Japanese

Anzai, Mitsuyoshi Supporting

Houki, Katsuhisa Japanese

Akagi, Haruko Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Ayako Supporting

Seto, Asami Japanese

Kogure, Kiminobu Supporting

Iwasaki, Ryouta Japanese

Inoue, Takehiko Director, Script, Original Creator

Kasamatsu, Kouji Sound Director

Kitada, Katsuhiko Episode Director, Key Animation

Suganuma, Fumihiko Episode Director

Reviews

Nov 28, 2024

BadGuyBoog

Recommended

A review coming from someone who has never seen the original series and doesn't even like basketball. This is a masterclass in filmmaking. Starting with the animation. Of course, I'm sure you've already heard how stylistic, smooth and phenomenal the animation is; it is one of the best looking clashes of 2d and 3d animation styles I've seen, so much so it was hard to tell at times what was cgi and what was traditional animation. But what really stood out to me about the animation, was how it uses the merits of animation to pull off camera movements that are simply not feasible in ... Live-action. The way the camera weaves, ducks, dives, pans, tilts and zooms all in smooth drawn out sequences to really put us in the middle of the action with the characters was simply breathtaking. Those sequences, as complex and as close to the characters as they are, is only possible with animation, a camera cannot capture those movements that well. Maybe one shot like that, but it takes tons of planning, rigging, blocking and money and is simply not feasible to make a movie where most shots are this complex. But with animation, the limitations of the camera are shattered. It's a breath of fresh air to see an animated movie, especially an animated movie that has no fantastical elements, use the merits of being animated to this extent.

The sound design was also incredible, showing a surprising level of restraint in what needed sound and what didn't. By blocking out certain sounds in certain moments to emphasis the importance of certain actions, it creates a very focused narrative and adds to the hype. And I'm not just talking about moments where they mute the sound or choose not to have music, but choosing when you hear the crowd or how loud they are, or how heavy the breathing is; instead of having all of these elements play all at once, they masterfully choose the right moments and volume to create a narrative with the audio.

The writing and editing go hand in hand for this movie. Now, I know the anime, and by extent the manga, did most of the heavy lifting for this movie, but the way the editing process stitched the story together is simply stunning. While I'm sure the manga gives ample time with each character, having never read or seen that, this story was still able to give me the nuance of every character with just their facial animations, very restrained flashbacks, almost all of which connect to the main character and progress his story, and it was enough for me to get invested in every one of them and see their growth. Unlike most anime, where every backstory and motivation has to be explained to us like we're fucking toddlers, this movie gives us just enough to piece together these characters and allows us to experience their nuance and make out own assumptions, without interrupting the pacing with pointless exposition.

All of this is the power of editing. I have never seen the show, but I know they changed the main character, so I don't have much so say on that, but I think his story and his framing device for the other characters was genius. But of course the most difficult part of this movie was always going to be balancing the emotional core of Ryouta's backstory with the action of the game. Unlike most sport movies, all of this movie takes place over a single game, intertwined with flashbacks to the characters stories. Balancing these two aspects, making it seem like neither one interrupts the other abruptly, or making it so we are just waiting for the scene to be over to get back to the action, or the drama, is an incredibly difficult feat. But this script is so tight and the editing is so well paced, that I hardly even noticed the transitions between scenes. It all just flows so damn well culminating in of of the most hype inducing, surprisingly subtle, emotional and pure spectacle of a film that I am just left in awe.

Shit made me want to watch basketball and I hate basketball. Maybe I should watch more sport animes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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May 21, 2024

Zeemod155

Mixed Feelings

I can't say I recommend watching this movie as an introduction to Slam Dunk. Because I tried and got mixed results. That's not to say you can't enjoy this movie, in fact I enjoyed it a lot. What it does for 3D and sports action direction is something to be marveled. But the one issue is it's difficult to appreciate. And this movie deserves to be appreciated NOT just enjoyed.

To simply enjoy it feels like missing the heart of the chapters/episodes of drama and trauma, of build-up and expectation that are earned throughout these characters' life journeys. And so much of it is dedicated ... to that drama/trauma outside of the game compared to the game itself (the build-up and expectation part). And I struggled connect the pieces all the way. But also can't quite place the purpose of certain things like to structure of stopping the single match to have the entire backstory told piecemeal. Like who even knows if I'd find the flash-back-to-flash-forward style of storytelling more or less helpful after reading it all first?

So while I was under the impression that one could watch this as an introduction, this isn't a review so much as it is a cautionary tale. Perhaps others who have never read a page of Slam Dunk before got exactly what they wanted (and more?) but that should not be the expected outcome for everyone. And I do feel that having a super popular movie released years after the anime/manga is going to have the effect of garnering new attention from people like me who want to see what's up. So I hope this review is still "valid" in the minds of MAL readers.

Although I have to say I'm very interested in picking up the manga/anime now. So in a reverse intentional way "mission accomplished"? It will be interesting to see how manga/anime reads after experiencing this movie in full. It got engaged in the potential of the material which is something I couldn't have said had I never tried this movie out in the first place.

MAL requires me to give an overall rating which I feel uncomfortable doing since a re-watch seems to be in order after I fulfill my required reading (at least up to this point in the story). So this is an even split between how I feel now and how I think I'd feel after. Is that even okay? My actual score is blank so it's not like it will affect the aggregate score anyway :)

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 4, 2023

aLotQuestion_

Not Recommended

Funny

Spoiler

To be honest, I think the "MC" of this movie is just so wrong. Why Miyagi of all people? Out of all 5 people the most mysterious is definitely Rukawa, he pretty much has ZERO background beside basketball is everything to him. We at least know some background about Miyagi already, the MC should be Rukawa instead for the reason why he is the most persistent against being the best of the best in basketball.

Half of the screen time is about Miyagi background and the a lot of the scene in the match has to be cut. For examples, the scene where Kawata did a ... slam dunk and look down on Sakuragi, the introduction of Kawata brother get COMPLETELY omitted, flash back of Kawakita became a random running scene without content...

For fuck sake, I don't feel shit about Miyagi background, even the 1 minute scene of Sakuragi's flask back is more sad than Miyagi's brother death, and even the few second scene of Sakuragi telling Anzai Coach he wanted to be back in the field is more hot blooded than Miyagi's.

I just don't understand why, not just Takehiko Inoue himself but almost ALL recent author love to do stupid decision or ending like this and ruin the show. The show is selling nostalgic ONLY. I really hope Oda from One Piece don't make stupid ending like this, one of my childhood...

Overall, I highly not recommended, don't waste your money to buy ticket, NOT EVEN FOR NOSTALGIC!

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: The First Slam Dunk Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) WeAllShineOn - Dec 3, 2022	81 replies	by RacingManiac »» Dec 7, 9:30 PM
	Do you think more anime should be directed by the mangaka? APolygons2 - May 8	9 replies	by Guilmon1 »» Oct 11, 12:56 AM
	Is this a sequel? Andrevenus01 - May 3	9 replies	by DracoXXX »» Jul 17, 9:14 PM
	Blu-Ray when? HusaynTV - Aug 14, 2023	9 replies	by leftjoycon »» Apr 2, 9:56 PM
	『THE FIRST SLAM DUNK』Movie Blu-ray/DVD LIMITED EDITION + Standard Edition sold 234,764 copies in its first week deg - Mar 5	5 replies	by Otaku_4511 »» Mar 14, 8:48 AM