You may have caught the recent news that the past few days were not very good ones for the United States, so when I woke up this morning, I just wanted to hear one piece of good news. Something that would brighten my spirits just a bit… and the anime news gods delivered in a big, big way!
In an announcement made casually by the original manga author Takehiko Inoue on his Twitter feed, it was revealed that the much-beloved basketball manga that originally ran in Weekly Shonen Jump in the 90s, Slam Dunk, will get revived as a full-length movie!
【スラムダンク】
映画になります！#slamdunkmovie pic.twitter.com/jWqvCnASxj
— 井上雄彦 Inoue Takehiko (@inouetake) January 7, 2021
The initial announcement posted by Inoue didn’t specify what kind of movie (animated or live-action) it would be but shortly after his announcement hit the web, an official announcement went live which revealed that it would be an anime movie produced by studio Toei Animation (who produced the original 101-episode television series).
Originally a manga, Slam Dunk was serialized from 1990 to 1996 and was compiled into 31 volumes. In the middle of its run, it also received a television series which ran from 1993 to 1996. Crunchyroll currently has the series in their catalog.
The story for Slam Dunk follows a delinquent named Hanamichi Sakuragi who, because of his intimidating size, stature, and attitude, can’t find a girlfriend and gets rejected many, many times by girls he asks out. Once he enters Shohoku High School, he meets a girl named Haruko Akagi and instantly falls for her. Luckily for him, Haruko isn’t scared of him but rather has an interesting proposal for him; put his athleticism to good use and join the basketball team. While Hanamichi is initially reluctant to join the team as he has no prior experience with the sport, he eventually joins in an effort to impress the girl before coming to love the game and helping his team become all-star contenders for the national championship.
Source: Anime News Network
