The First Slam Dunk

Although there's been a lot of advance reviews expressing disappointment mainly from die-hard TV series fans, this animation movie has just completely blown my mind. Being one of an original comic fan for more than twenty years, I am truly amazed how beautiful this animation is, which should come from incredible hard work of creators. Members of the opponent team are now animated and all the characters act lively, this could not been better. New stories added, at the same time, some original parts are effectively cut off or omitted, I think I should call it creativity. Without any knowledge about original series, or even rules of the sport, you will be satisfied with this realistic sports movie and teenagers' hilarious&touchy drama.

For those who know Takehiko Inoue, the author of the manga, he is definitely not the kind of person who likes to repeat what he did in the past. To him, his work on Slam Dunk is done 25y ago. He declined so many times to reboot the manga. When I heard that a movie on Slam Dunk was in production, I didn't expect him to be the director of this movie but the guy is such a perfectionist and he wanted it to be done in his way so he took the challenge, So it's his first movie and what a movie!

On an artistic level, there is a perfect balance between the 3D actions and the painting styles of the original manga. It gives you feeling that you are really in a basketball game. The whole movie is very detail oriented, I found that truly amazing technically. Bravo to the director and his team on that. The music gave the dynamic to the movie, it was a perfect fit.

For those who know the scenario of the original manga, even though the outcome is the same, it was not the copy paste of the original manga. You will discover the same facts under a total different angle and some additional stories which make the movie very consistent. I like the way how Takehiko Inoue described relationships between some characters. That was done in a very elegant way, never too much, quite inline with the Japanese culture.

One of the main reasons why the original manga is legendary is because the whole story was very inspiring for teenagers with a lot of stories that can be seen as life lessons. Besides the characters have strong charisma but stay very real. If you never read the manga, this movie is a good start to discover it.

It is a very challenging task to adapt a manga that had 100+ million copies sold, where lots of people have read and known all the plots and details of the story, and still bringing new materials and also fresh back lots of the classic moments into this movie for old and new audiences to watch and find all these excitements......and Takehiko Inoue really have done it at the perfect way EVEN this is his directorial debut.

I've been his long time fans since the beginning of the manga released, the passion of the sport and all these little moments in the stories really gave me such great memories of my childhood. However, hearing this movie released after 20+ years after the manga series ended, did give me little worries.

But after I watched it last night at a cinema, and nothing but want to give a salute to the creator/director Takehiko Inoue. He have done it perfectly, even this is his first directorial debut, but totally understood the concept of movie flow and storytelling, so he had to cut down lots of classic scenes and incidents from the manga.

Furthermore, while he knew and understood there are lot of fans who have read the manga, or even memories every single plot and scenes, while there may still some new audience attending, so he cleverly used a different narrator to bring a completely new and different perspective to look at this classic basketball story instead of the original narrator. It really gave us lots of new elements on the backstory and histories of the new narrator, but still bringing us back all these classic moments and scenes that gave us hooked. Takehiko really balanced these new and old materials in the films that even long time fans like me can still find new elements in the story and never get bored of it.

I also like to give a big respect to Takehiko is that he brings the whole story flow and atmosphere from the manga 100% into this movie version. All the intense moments and scenes, the flow of the stories and excitement of the whole environment, and funny moments and scenes from the manga, EVEN I have read all these scenes 1000 times from the manga, I KNEW what will happen after one to another, I could still feel those humour, those excitement, that passion of youth, and intensity that takes you out of breathe, all these can still feel in the cinema. This is just unbelievable.

Even you are a long time fans, or you never read this manga, you will still have really good time in this movie. ( even though for audience who never read this manga, you may find little confusing plots on some of the scenes, I recommend you watch the whole manga after finish this film, you will have a completely wide open perspective of this basketball story and why it becomes one of the classic in the Asia area for 20+ years even now )

I'm not giving it ten points because the 3D crowd was pretty bad in some scenes. Other than that, it's a perfect movie! The pacing, emotion and tension are set up impeccably, and there are several seconds of silence towards the end of the movie where the whole theater was dead silent, some probably holding their breath.

Fans of the manga will recognize iconic scenes that last just long enough. With the same rhythm and comedic timing, you can tell that the manga's author is the director of the film.

It captures the charms of the manga beautifully, while also using the resources of animation to great effect, making it a masterpiece in its own right.

This is a message to the creator of Slam Dunk and director of this movie (they happen to be one and the same).

Please let there be a second Slam Dunk. There can even be a third, fourth and fifth. I see so much potential in stories and events that haven't been told yet.

In my younger days I have binged a lot of anime. I've seen a lot, but Slam Dunk is my number 1 for all the right reasons. The drama, comedy and action is amazing even if you don't like sports. It was the series that inspired a nation. Often I wished the series could be recreated with better animation and graphics. This movie shows how great that could be, but I'm glad this movie tells part of the story that could have only been read from the manga as the anime series stops where the manga doesn't.

It was the only manga I ever read since I loved the series so much that I wanted to see more of it. The team of Shohoku is the fictional high school version of Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. This movie has saved the last dance for a very long time. But in my opinion it doesn't need to stop here. There is room to extend this to a series of movies that can even go beyond what has been given in the manga.

Takehiko Inoue, you have given us so much already. It would be selfish to ask for more, but it could keep the spirit of Slam Dunk alive for many more generations. If I was allowed, I would love to help with storylines and ideas :)