The first footage from The First Slam Dunk has been released.
The brief teaser trailer shows several characters in the middle of a game and offers a first look at the CG animation that will be used throughout the film, which uses a flat-shaded style that attempts to recreate the look of hand-drawn art, similar to the upcoming Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie. The movie is scheduled to premiere on Japan on Dec. 3. Details about the film's international release have yet to be announced. The series' original creator, Takehiko Inoue, is both directing and writing the new movie, which will feature character designs by Yasuyuki Ebara, who previously worked on the anime adaptations of Attack on Titan and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
Slam Dunk tells the story of Hanamichi Sakuragi, a rebellious delinquent who agrees to join his high school's basketball team in an attempt to impress the girl he likes, Haruko Akagi. Sakuragi joins a team that is made up mostly of other misfits and outcasts, as well as his rival, Kaede Rukawa, a popular basketball prodigy who aspires to one day play in the NBA. The new team has to overcome their clashing personalities and personal rivalries in order to come together as a team and fulfill their coach's dream of winning a championship for their underdog team.
The series was created by Inoue and began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1990. Inoue's manga was a massive success, becoming one of the top 10 bestselling manga ever made with a worldwide circulation of over 170 million copies. The story of Hanamichi and his team of unlikely athletic superstars is still widely regarded as one of the best sports manga of all time and is credited with helping to popularize the sport of basketball in Japan. The series was previously adapted into a TV series in 1994 by Toei Animation, the same studio behind the Dragon Ball anime. The series ran for 101 episodes and received four tie-in movies.
The manga concluded its story in 1996, though Inoue continued to explore the sport of basketball with several of his subsequent manga series, including Buzzer Beater, which began publication just a few months after Slam Dunk's conclusion and blends sci-fi elements into its story, and 1999's still on-going Real, which tells the story of a group of teens who compete in a wheelchair basketball league. The manga has been praised for its realistic portrayal of the sport and its representation of people with disabilities.
The 1994 Slam Dunk anime is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.
Source: YouTube