Slam Dunk

## Slam Dunk *Slam Dunk* by Takehiko Inoue is the definitive sports manga — a 276-chapter masterwork serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1990 to 1996, credited with popularizing basketball across Japan and East Asia and still widely considered one of the greatest manga ever created. It has sold over 170 million copies worldwide. The first anime film adaptation, *The First Slam Dunk* (2022), directed by Inoue himself, became a massive theatrical success, grossing over $200 million globally and introducing a new generation to the manga. Hanamichi Sakuragi has been rejected by girls 50 times throughout middle school. When the beautiful Haruko Akagi asks if he likes basketball, he enthusiastically says yes — though he has never played — purely to impress her. Her brother Takenori is the captain of Shohoku High's basketball club, and Hanamichi soon finds himself on the team. What begins as a pure comedy of a talentless delinquent fumbling through a sport quickly becomes something much richer: Sakuragi discovers a genuine love for basketball, and Inoue follows his raw athletic development alongside the full team's journey toward the Inter-High championship. The manga is renowned for its comedy, its meticulous and exciting game sequences, its deeply individualized ensemble cast, and above all for making the reader feel every basket scored as a genuine triumph.