And so I ran.
I ran up and down every court
After every loose ball for you.
You asked for my hustle
I gave you my heart
Because it came with so much more.I played through the sweat and hurt
Not because challenge called me
But because YOU called me.
I did everything for YOU
Because that’s what you do
When someone makes you feel as
Alive as you’ve made me feel.
The First Slam Dunk has been a long time coming in more ways than one, certainly for fans of the Slam Dunk manga itself. The film somewhat picks up where its anime adaptation (which aired from 1993 to 1996) left off. For more than 20 years, the final climatic chapters of the manga have never been adapted. So, it came as a huge surprise when the manga author Takehiko Inoue announced in 2021 that a Slam Dunk anime film is in development. Even more surprising, he would serve as both director and screenwriter for the film. With that development, and given producer Toshiyuki Matsui‘s comments on how this film is already planned since 2009, how does the end result fare?
The end result is a crowd-roaring, massive slam dunk! The First Slam Dunk is an emotional and ecstatic ride through the hearts and minds of basketball players as they play, and what the game means to them. It’s both the excellent finale fans have been waiting for and a captivating sports film in its own right. Anyone should be able to enjoy the film with zero prior knowledge of the series, or even basketball itself.
Visually, the film feels like a technical achievement. The film is a mix of 3DCG and traditional 2D animation. But viewers will find that such details won’t matter as they engross themselves in the heat of the match. The amazing camerawork combined with 3DCG gives a sense of weight and texture that lend itself to the heightened sense of the film’s reality. It’s as exciting as the most exciting basketball game you’ve ever watched. Even better, you, as the viewer, get to be part of the action up close. Maybe waiting for 3D animation technology to catch up is part of why the film took a long time to get released. The result today speaks for itself.
Of note, the film’s strength feels like it comes from its mastery over time. Takehiko Inoue proves himself not only to be a master of the sequential arts but also of the silver screen. His directorial debut demonstrates his incredible pacing. The action on the court is laid out at a pace that keeps the audience on the edge of their seat, but still leaves breathing room for more emotional moments. How the film moves from scenes on the court to flashbacks of the characters and back, rocking between tension and release before it all comes down to the last few seconds of the game where it all crescendos into the inevitable climax… is expertly done and absolutely nail-biting. By the end, the film left the audience cheering and clapping as they would in a real-life basketball game.
But one thing that separates the movie and a real-life basketball game, and perhaps the best thing about it, is how it lets viewers take a closer look at the players in real-time. It isn’t only in a visual sense. The film’s extensive flashbacks and inner monologues let viewers into the headspace of these characters as they battle in the most important game in their lives thus far. It’s something that the viewers can’t explore in real-life basketball. You can only get a gist of it during interviews, but definitely not while they’re in a match.
It was surprising to see the movie centred around point guard Ryota Miyagi, not the series’ protagonist Hanamichi Sakuragi. But the story of how basketball enabled Miyagi to live on despite the great pain in his life serves as a fitting thematic lens to view the match from. Team Shohoku, on the verge of losing against team Sannoh, keeps pushing on through pain and injury. Each team member gets their own little moment. The film explores how they got here and why they continue to play, and it colours their actions on the court. You get to understand the full weight of the emotions behind each movement, each pass, and each shot. It’s the best kind of storytelling told through a physical performance you could hope for. The characters give their everything because that’s what one does when basketball means this much to them.
Takehiko Inoue, in a message to fans, has mentioned how he feels that creating this film was a challenge in making something completely new. The First Slam Dunk does in a way feel like a turning point for 3DCG in enabling a new kind of expression for sports anime. So while it’s definitely a first, I hope that it won’t be the last.
The First Slam Dunk arrives in select Indonesian theatres on February 22, 2023.
The Indonesian Anime Times | Review by Caesar E.S.
