The First Slam Dunk is the anime taken from the famous series directed by Takehiko Inoue, author of the original manga, Slam Dunk and will be released in Italy on May 10 in the original language and from May 11 to 17 in a subtitled version, distributed by Anime Factory : here our review after seeing it in preview
ORIGINAL TITLE: The First Slam Dunk. TYPE: Anime. NATION: Japan. REGIA: Takehiko Inoue. DURATION: 124 minutes DISTRIBUTOR: Anime Factory Italia. OUT TO THE CINEMA: from 10 May to 17 May 2023
The First Slam Dunk arrives at the cinema twenty-six years after the release of the animated series, based on the manga by Takehiko Inoue and is received in a great way. It is a major success in Asia which also led it to win the best animated film award in Japan. The flm is therefore preparing to be released throughout Europe with very high quality expectations, which we can say keeps them excellently: The First Slam Dunk is an anime that can be defined as splendid and suitable even for those who have never followed the series or read the manga.
Il trailer | Review The First Slam Dunk
If “beautiful” is a generic and emotional term, it is therefore necessary to go step by step, take a step back and analyze the film from a technical point of view because it is precisely what creates its very high quality structure. First of all, the director is Takehiko Inoue, Japanese cartoonist, father of the original manga Slam Dunk, here in his first direction of an animated film for which he worked for several years. His wish was to wait for a digital development such as to be able to give the film the best immersive experience. Here we see a hybrid animation, mixing cutting-edge CGI with traditional 2D, which is essential to make the movements fluid, but on the one hand it is also what since the trailer could make the audience of the animated series uncomfortable. Obviously we are in a very different type of animation, more avant-garde and immersive, than aThe inside of this type of screenplay does not disappoint, but in fact manages to fit perfectly in harmony.
The direction respects the style of the manga | The First Slam Dunk Review
If the animation technique is immersive, in Takehiko Inoue’s direction, his talent as a cartoonist is evident: this is because to the fluid images that focus on the playing field and in the fastest actions, some still images alternate, which refer precisely to the genre of the manga. And this choice of inserting still images lies precisely in the passages of greater emotion and also of greater delicacy of the plot. The great fluidity of the action is often blocked by these well-defined and poetic images, exactly as happens in manga, but also as happens in arthouse films where there is particular attention to the direction of photography.
The script has no flaws | The First Slam Dunk Review
These directorial choices are enhanced by a screenplay that has flaws: it is structured with such an attention to detail that it gives fullness to the film and its emotional load. It is a complex script, with many intertwining characters and subplots and a protagonist who guides their harmonious coexistence. In this movie Ryota Miyagi, the Shohoku point guard who we have the opportunity to get to know better through his past, has been chosen as the protagonist. Flashbacks start right from Miyagi that retrace some key points of his childhood and adolescence and some important moments with his teammates. And it is precisely these moments that then help to introduce the other companions and consequently make the film suitable even for those who have never followed the series or read the original manga. These flashbacks offer poetic, dramatic, highly emotional passages with truly splendid images. Each flashback has a very precise meaning with what is happening in the “present” of the film or the match of Shohoku against Sannoh, creating a puzzle of which you have the perfect vision at the end of the two-hour film.
Slow but with rhythm and emotional load | The First Slam Dunk Review
To render all these complex images and characters, the film takes its time, which is slow but has a rhythm. This rhythm causes us to be flooded with an emotional charge from the beginning of the film, both for the drama of the events that are told to us, and for the sporting adrenaline. Slam Dunk has always been an anime that portrayed sports in a different way than other anime of the time on the same subject. First of all, the pace of the game had a good speed, to keep glued to each episode and the representation of basketball was realistic: very technical, very faithful to that type of sport, in the explanation of the game schemes, the name of the shots, the passes and the positions. Another reason, perhaps the most important, is that in Slam Dunk, victory is not a given. Shohoku is not a team of superheroes who always complete the mission: it is a team of anti-aircraft, which certainly do not change when they are on the field and as in real life and in real leagues, games can be lost. Precisely for this reason, the clash between Shohoku and Sannoh is heart-pounding: because we don’t know how it could end and how many emotions it can give us anyway. And these emotions are many, thanks to the screenplay and the direction that supports changes of pace within the sporting clash that literally leave one’s mouth wide open.
An act of love that pervades the viewer
In conclusion, what appears, putting together the more technical elements, i.e. animation, screenplay and direction, is one thing: an act of love. The First Slam Dunk is a veritable labor of love from director Takehiko Inoue towards one of his works and his audience. Such a careful operation, to make this anime for everyone: for those who have never followed the series, those who have never read the manga and those who don’t follow basketball. We therefore only have to strongly advise you to go and see this film in the few days it is available in theaters and let us know what you think and if it has moved you as much as it did us.
An act of love that pervades
Plus points
- Masterful directing
- heart rhythm
- Very poetic images
Points against
- You have to get used to using the CGI technique
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