The First Slam Dunk

The First Slam Dunk-S1E1

The First Slam Dunk-S1E1

I'm a HUGE Slam Dunk fan (both anime and manga). This movie was everything I wanted and hoped for. The movie was simply excellent. Thank you for this movie! The animation style is an immaculate balance between the anime and the manga. There is a delicate and satisfying blend between the original source material and new stories. As a non-pro basketball player to whom ball is life, the animated movement and action are so realistic. The movie also had a perfect mix of humor, action, emotion, and sport. I cannot believe it's been 30 years since the original anime and manga. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I'm excited to watch it again next week!!!

Every characters are alive. 90's vibe ruled. Music, movements, characters, story and the memory were mixed and whirled through 120 minutes, then absolute silence lasted at last. The writer knows how move people's mind. Family, friends and showdown are always the best ingredient for touching stories and all of them are well matched with Music. This is why the youth is beautiful. Your youth shall be awaken through this. It is natural why the 30 years old original comic books were sold out nowadays. Everyone who has lived through 90s wants to revive his/her blood boiled through this experience and the real young ones will easily take part in.

As a fan of the manga over 30 years ago, I was kinda disappointed in the quality of the anime series. Thus movie fixed that. The animation was exactly how I imagined the scenes to be like when flipping through the pages of the manga. Even though I already knew how the match turned out, I still had to hold my breath and couldn't help but cheer like at a live sports event throughout the movie. This movie no longer focuses on Sakuragi and the story is told from Ryota's perspective. Considering his back story wasn't developed much previously, this was a good decision to offer something new to fans of the manga and anime series. Will someone not familiar to the franchise enjoy this? Not knowing the stories behind the other characters might make it difficult to connect with them, but I think everyone can enjoy the basketball scenes and the match which the entire movie is centred on.

As an avid slam dunk fans who watched the original series in LD, I i went into the theatre without any research or watching the trailer. The focus on Miyagi bring out the struggle a teens and a mother that lose 2 family members and how Miyagi transform himself from a "untalented and short" basketball player that is living in the shadow of his brother to become a pivot player in the team. The original manga wasn't too focus on him and this movie gave him a great back story. And it also gave fans of the manga the chance to watch the epic match between shohoku vs sannoh on amine. I recommended my friends to not find out too much about this movie and just go watch it.

When I first saw its poster that only Miyagi's trivial face was featured I doubted if the movie was only about him or his face was just among promotional posters featuring every character in the team - unfortunately I was so wrong. It turns out the whole movie is about Miyagi and his unnecessary family drama while watching just one match. It was like you are in the bus and the bus driver constantly hits the brake and hits the pedal every 20 minutes. Your soul gets sucked with boring cliche drama and then it shows the match and unnecessary drama over and over again. In the end whatever emotional hype they tried to build up was not effective to me. Even after credit the movie actually ends with the Miyagi family's drama. Then why not make the name of the movie "Miyagi - Slam Dunk Depression Into Mood"? In the anime and manga Miyagi is like one of the background character, very similar to Yamcha in Dragon Ball. Why he was the main character of this movie beats me. No one cares about his existence at all. We don't necessarily like Slam Dunk for basketball and the main character Sakuragi but we like it for the humor it had which was 90% destroyed and replaced with old man depression. This is not the Slam Dunk I liked and waited for at all. This didn't worth to wait for 2 decades. It was like when we were waiting for Half-Life 3, Valve released Half-Life: Alyx. As for the match, if a special version of the movie had ever released that never shows Miyagi's unnecessary backstory only then the movie could ever be watchable unless you are an emo and your life is so happy you seek constant drama in your life. If you don't care about Slam Dunk but just wanna watch a basketball movie, even then the movie doesn't worth to watch. No normal person would want depression in basketball match. But biggest problem of depression is the match constantly being cut to show parts of Miyagi's trivial life. If events shown in chronological order it would be okay because only then we could forget about his substory, wouldn't think when the match will cut out the next time to show depression parts. Because of this I couldn't get into the mood of the match at all. This is really "how to ruin storytelling 101" moment here. Good job, director. Miyagi will never be in any of my artworks ever again, not even when I draw the whole team into one frame.

Takehiko Inoue (TI) deliberately used 3D mo-cap animation in the Shohoku vs Sannoh match scenes and 2D animation in the non-match scenes. This makes the movement of the characters in their basketball game scenes very realistic. The selection of 2D animation with the use of desaturated colours is intended to be closer to the original source of Slam Dunk (SD) itself, which is the manga. SD fans who started reading the manga since the late 90s may feel a strong sense of nostalgia when watching The First Slam Dunk (T1SD), at the same time satisfying their longing for it. The basketball match scenes stays true to its original manga source. Some parts had to be shortened in order to meet the broadcast time, causing the end of the match to feel a little forced and short. Many scenes, especially those comic relief moments, feel like they can only be understood by the manga readers and may not caught by first-time viewers. TI named it The First Slam Dunk because this story is adapted for viewers who are getting to know SD for the first time. Therefore, it was quite interesting when Miyagi was chosen to be the main character of T1SD. In the manga, not much of Miyagi's back story is revealed. Unlike the other members of the Shohoku team, readers get to know the characters Sakuragi, Rukawa, Mitsui and Akagi better. Each of them is over 6' tall and has a great level of athleticism. The 5'5" tall Miyagi was always at a disadvantage compared to them. Miyagi is dwarfed by the other Shohoku team members. His weapon is his speed. He is constantly at war with the guilt inside him of losing his beloved brother. Miyagi's life journey is filled with challenges. He was criticized from an early age for not being as good as his brother at basketball, bullied caused by the envy of his teammates and battled with inferiority complex due to his physical inadequacy compared to the rest of the team. In a sense, the main character of SD in the manga, Sakuragi, can be seen as a 'superhero' when compared to Miyagi. Sakuragi is a quick learner, runs fast and has incredible jumping power coupled with his height. When the Shohoku team played against the reigning champion, Sannoh, Sakuragi had actually only been playing basketball for 4 months. This difference, coupled with the tragedy of Miyagi's back story makes this T1SD closer and deeper to the hearts of many SD fans who watch it. Either way, I think the average SD fan must now be in their 30s-40s, having gone through the challenges of adulthood and the bittersweetness of their respective lives. In this sense, Miyagi is more 'human' than Sakuragi and maybe this is why TI chose to make Miyagi the protagonist of T1SD. Salute to TI. As a first-time director, I think T1SD's is excellent. I felt unsatisfied watching it just once.

Comic fans told me that I would enjoy it more if I read the comics, but I watched it without reading it. Still, I was able to enjoy the best 1 matches that make my hands sweat. I felt that Japanese animation has evolved very much. In the past anime, expressions that were somewhat deceiving were recreated down to the smallest detail by using CG and motion capture technology. It's a bit disappointing that the past reminiscence scene was a little long and the exciting scene stopped. If you can, go see it in an IMAX cinema. The images and sound adjusted for the IMAX theater were very powerful and wonderful.

Knowing that most of the audiences are fans who have read the manga + some new viewers, the director employs a different approach to bring the film to life, rather than introducing all characters from A to Z (that could be boring). It is definitely a very smart way of using a basketball match, supported by the backstory of Ryota Miyaki, to make the movie more solid and compact. On one hand, the fans get to find some classic moments and new elements in the movie, while on the other, new viewers get to know Ryota better. Although we basically know what will happen at the end of the basketball match, the visual excitement and intense moments are all well presented and intact for your enjoyment! I also like how the movie describes the relationship between Ryota and other characters. It's not too much or too less, but just enough to remind fans about the connections. The movie has a few flaws as follows: Firstly, there are no behind stories about the characters and talents of Akagi, Sakuragi, Mitsui (a 3-pointer) and Rukawa (ace of the team), as a result new viewers may not connect well with them or enjoy the movie to maximum. Secondly, Ryota's side stories are acceptable in the first half, but it becomes cheesy + too much in the second half, especially while the basketball match is on the line! Finally, the emotional attachment is there, but the intensity is weak. We know what it means and we feel it, BUT it just doesn't touch one's heart at all! I gave 7.0/ 10.0. Watching it without high expectations will allow you to enjoy it better! Of coz, with knowledge about the manga and characters is definitely an advantage!