Shohoku High freshman Hanamichi Sakuragi, the hero of the long-running broadcast series Slam Dunk (1993) does not play well with others. He hates team sports, and if anyone disagrees with him, he bangs them with his cement-like forehead. When Hanamichi meets Haruko Akagi, he immediately falls for her. Haruko loves basketball more than anything, so he decides to join the team--even though he's never played the game. Before the first practice even begins, Hanamichi manages to offend both the team captain, who's also Haruko's older brother, and up-and-coming superstar Kaede Rukawa. Chaos predictably ensues as the hot-tempered Hanamichi applies himself to something for the first time in his life. Slam Dunk ran for more than 100 episodes, plus theatrical and TV movies in Japan; American viewers will enjoy Hanamichi's antics, although the outcome of the series is a foregone conclusion. (Rated 13 and older: comic violence, profanity) --Charles Solomon
Product details
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
MPAA rating : Unrated (Not Rated)
Product Dimensions : 7.75 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 3.84 ounces
Media Format : DVD, Subtitled, Animated, Dolby, Color, NTSC, Full Screen
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Slam Dunk tells the story of Hanamichi Sakuragi, a hot-blooded young man who was famous in Junior High for being rejected by 50 girls and for his dyed red hair. Things are looking grim as he enters Shohoku High School, since a girl rejects him of his very first day, preferring instead to hang out with a basketball player. Instantly, Sakuragi develops a hatred for basketball and anything or anyone that has something to do with it. That is until he meets Haruko Akagi, a sweet pretty girl who happens to be a huge basketball fan and from whom Sakuragi ends up falling madly in love with. Thus starts the adventures of Hanamichi Sakuragi, basketball genius, as he fights his way through the very best of their region's basketball teams, learning every nuance of the sport and maybe something about himself, and his relationship to others along the way. In my opinion, this is one of the very best sports anime ever, especially because one can immediately tell that the author Takehiko Inohue really loves the sport, and tells the story of the Shohoku Basketball Team in an interesting, and above all, hilarious way.
Even if you only have a passing interest in basketball, the characters in Slam Dunk will have you eagerly waiting to see whats next. It has a wonderful balance of comedy, fights, romance (usually failed) and of course basketball (although there's not much of that in this first volume there is a LOT to come). Basing a manga and then anime on basketball was a brilliant idea and Sakaragi may only be a self proclaimed basketball genius but this show really is genius.
In fact the only bad thing I can say about this series is nothing to do with the series itself but the lacklustre release of it. If this DVD release had proper subtitles and not subtitles for the hard of hearing it would be my favourite release of all time (The Japanese voices are far superior in range of expressions) but there is nothing more annoying than seeing the word panting appear on screen every time someone runs or growls whenever they growl.
So i'm not necessarily sure why these 4 volumes to Slam Dunk's anime have such great reviews on here, because if you've actually watched these dvd's then you can agree they are quite the trainwreck.
And the trainwreck of a release is quite potentially why the series probably didn't sell well in the states which is a shame because Slam Dunk is one of the best Sports series ever conceived (by the legendary manga artist Takehiko Inoue who is also known for Vagabond & Real).
I barely could even get past the first 2 episodes it was that unbearable.
First the menu's are extremely barebones more-so then any other anime i've seen, probably on par with the earliest DVD releases back in the late 90s, there's not even any music in the background & this first volume was released in 2005.
After you finish an episode it sends you right back to the main menu as opposed to letting you watch all the epsiodes in their entirety.
The quality of the visuals are also partially outdated, making it look like these episodes were recorded off a VHS somewhat.
Lastly both the dub AND sub were intolerable, the dub features some of THE worst acting that has ever graced my ears, there was not even one good performance & one of the actors also over-acted which didn't fit even remotely, the walla/background voices were THE worst of it all & I found it VERY peculiar that the english actors even said the Japanese honorifics aloud like -kun, -san, -chan, etc. This came out in 2005 when they were vastly superior dubs of the same time like FullMetal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex, Samurai 7, Gunslinger Girl, Samurai Champloo, Etc.
As for the subtitles what made them unreadable was that they translated the sound effects or grunts characters would make, similar to the subtitled release of the Ghost in the Shell 2 Movie from Dreamworks from 2004.
So if you're looking to collect the Slam Dunk series then I advise you pick up the manga volumes over these 4 anime dvd volumes, especially because Viz Media is still currently releasing the manga with 21 of the 31 books now available in a PROPER translation & Geneon never released the anime to dvd in its entirety, these 4 dvd volumes only contain 20 of the 100+ episodes of the anime. But hopefully some group like Nozomi or Discotek rescue the anime property & give it the release it deserves one of these days.
![Slam Dunk, Vol. 1 [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/218o2+26LiL.jpg)
![Slam Dunk, Vol. 2 [DVD]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/21Uw97CTuBL._AC_UL160_SR160,160_.jpg)
