The Slam Dunk TV series was derived from Takehiko Inoue’s Manga of the same title. It was aired in Japan on October 16, 1993 until March 23, 1996 and like other popular anime series, it reached other parts of the globe.

This is the first sports anime that I’ve seen. A very creative work. This is what’s so good about anime, they don’t just stick to fighting. They can make an animated series about basketball and make it just as exciting. Every episode is so exciting that it makes me want to play basketball after watching it on TV. And most of my friends feel the same way.

Slam Dunk is a sports anime with a mix of drama and comedy. The humor part of every episode is simply the best and maybe this is the funniest anime series that I’ve seen. The emotional parts of the series comes after every ball game and can get you carried away sometimes. The anime is composed of 101 continuous episodes.

The story is about a high-school varsity basketball team (Shohoku) but the main character is a freshman student named Hanamichi Sakuragi. Sakuragi’s the kind of student who often gets into a fight. Although he’s tall, fast, and naturally strong, he’s really not into sports. Until one day, he met a girl named Haruko who urged him to join the basketball team. So he did, and there he met the rest of the Shohoku basketball team. The team captain is Haruko’s brother named Takenori Akagi. Akagi is a very serious person and very dedicated leader. His dream is to bring his team to the National tournament and be the best in Japan. Another teammate is Sakuragi’s greatest rival (since Haruko has a big crush on him), Kaede Rukawa. He was only a freshman but was already considered as the team’s ace player. Together with Akagi, Rukawa, and other team members like Kogure, Miyagi, and Mistui, the team tries work their way to the top and become the best team in Japan.

I’ve seen this anime only in Japanese and Tagalog. I haven’t watched an English version so I’m not sure if there is one and I haven’t found one even on the internet. The graphics, animation, as well as the music looked and sounded pretty old eventhough it came later than Dragon Ball Z. The opening theme became a popular song here in our country but that is attributed to the popularity of the anime here.

I have a DVD set of this anime and I can watch it over and over and never get tired of it. That’s how much I like it. I still laugh at the humor, get excited by the games, and get carried away (just a little) by the drama. It’s very good and like I said, very creative. And because of that this is in the list of my all-time favorite anime series.

I encourage all Anime fans to see this especially if you wanna take a break from all these martial arts action and see something different. And obviously, basketball fans (who also like Anime or Manga or both) will especially like this series.

Resources and Credits

• Screenshot, from Anime-Planet.com (http://www.anime-planet.com/animerec/287.html)
• Slam Dunk at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slam_Dunk_(manga))

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Category: Series Reviews

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