I’ve wanted to read Slam Dunk for a long time, partly because it’s one of the biggest manga titles ever, partly because Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond was such a banger, and partly because when I visited my cousin in Japan as a kid, he had the full 31 volume series and loved it so much, but I couldn’t read them as they were in Japanese.
So I finally remembered to pick up a copy recently and finally read it - pee-yew! Is the title meant to be ironic? This is the opposite of a slam dunk! And now I think about it, my cousin also loved One Piece, which is THE biggest manga of all time, and that series is also a stinker!
Slam Dunk is about the oldest teenagers you’ll ever see in gangs wandering a school where no teachers seem to be present and, the one time you do see one, they have no authority over the students for no reason! One thug - our protagonist, Hanamichi Sakuragi - headbutts his “friends” because he can’t get laid, so he joins the school basketball team to impress the girl he likes, who’s a basketball groupie. So sweet, isn’t it? Anyway, more heatbutting ensues with other thugs and even some basketball gets played.
The story is uninteresting, the jokes are unfunny, the characters are all unlikeable, shallow idiots - this first volume was a joyless slog to get through. Slam Dunk has sold over 170 million copies. I have no idea why. Then again, I don’t get why people like One Piece, Naruto, Attack on Titan, et al. either - my brain must be missing the wavelength so many people seem tuned into to “get” titles that are absurdly popular.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend this series which, judging by this first volume, looks to be just plain crap. I would recommend Inoue’s other, later series though, Vagabond, about the legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi - that manga is the real slam dunk.
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