The First Slam Dunk

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.

Why I said that? I watched the movie with my 15 years old son who knows nothing about this story.

Like others said, this movie is from Ryota Miyagi's perspective. That's why you won't see many Sakuragi's funny moments or know why he plays basketball as the base story of this title. But Inoue created too much drama and deep story about Miyagi's background and it makes the movie pace slow down drastically many times. Inoue also remove Miyagi's crush toward Ayako. My son got bored in this part. For children this story is too hard to understand. That can be seen from movie rating that <18 audiences gave the lowest score.

Other members don't get enough introduction. For first-timer audience, they won't know that Akagi is so dominant under the ring, Sakuragi has extraordinary body, Mitsui is a 3 pointer or Rukawa the ace of the team. The relation between characters also won't be explain here.

For die-hard fans, this "side story" and Miyagi's perspective is interesting. The animation also amazing. You will get the feel of the match. Every characters look alive. And it's a great nostalgia for us.

The conclusion.is, I still prefer original story as its title The First Slam Dunk, so it also should be for first-timer. My son doesn't attach to this story and still doesn't want to read my Slam Dunk manga collection.

I haven't watch this series just heard of it title and i don't understand specific rules so much but i enjoy it.

I felt Little bit longer but technical motion draws and expressions, story writing , characters, touch scene and also comically scenes are so great. Even if you never watched this series or comic books or you are young or elder im sure you will enjoy this movie.

About main role his background story is sad little a bit and depressed. But understandable situations and feelings.

No contains sexual scenes or brutal violence or grotesque scenes no need to worries for couples or family watching.

Right now in japan movie theater give you bonus paper card of coaster.

Lm japanese so sorry about bad english. I hope more good reviews coming.

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.