And indeed, it was my FIRST movie (in the cinema) since the pandemic started.

I grew up watching Slam Dunk. It was one of those iconic anime that was shown on Philippine television back in the late 90’s. Yes, it was Tagalized, of course. Who doesn’t know Hanamichi Sakuragi and the Shohoku basketball crew?

Personally, I believe Slam Dunk paved the way for the many many sports anime we have now. It has perfected the formula of sports anime – the back stories, the teamwork, the thrilling matches. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it was a goddamn good movie. I wanted to deduct points because the presentation of the story in this movie is non-linear, but I can’t because it was just too good! The last two minutes of the match between Shohoku and Sannoh was intense, and how it was delivered was nothing short of artistic. 10 out of 10 points for me!

I watched it with friends who also grew up watching the anime, and we were all at the edge of our seats, holding our breath, praying Shohoku wins.

A bit of a spoiler – the movie’s backbone is Ryota Miyagi’s story and I loved how it carried the movie from start to finish. It added a lot of emotional substance to the movie that I actually *almost* cried towards the end. You can check out the trailer below!

I will not spoil it further, so if Slam Dunk happens to be showing in your country, please watch it! I can’t recommend it enough. If not, I hope that someday it becomes available on streaming platforms for everyone to see. Thank you Inoue-san for this! I hope we also get more Slam Dunk content (an anime continuation perhaps?) in the future.