‘The First Slam Dunk’ Director Takehiko Inoue Found a Fresh Way Into His Beloved Manga
There was no guarantee that there would be an anime feature film adaptation of Takehiko Inoue’s hugely popular basketball manga series “Slam Dunk,” especially after its successful anime TV series. But not only did Toei Animation bring the beloved ’90s manga — about basketball as a psychological rite of passage through the overcoming of pain and hardship — to the big screen, but “The First Slam Dunk” (playing theatrically from GKids) is now the fifth highest-grossing anime of all time and the winner of the Japan Academy Prize for Best Animated Film.
But it took five years of 2D and CG prototyping by Toei Animation (led by producer Toshiyuki Matsui) to perfect the visual look before getting the greenlight from Inoue. But he didn’t consider himself the director until later in production, after participating in the writing, mo-cap basketball action, voice acting, and score (Satoshi Takebe and Takuma Mitamura of the rock band 10-Feet).
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“There were two main challenges,” Inoue told IndieWire via email through an interpreter. “It had to be the same ‘Slam Dunk,’ and it had to be a completely new ‘Slam Dunk,’ at the same time [hence the change in title]. The cast of characters in the movie are mainly the ones who appear in the original manga, and the game also was the same one that appeared in the original manga, but they are depicted from a completely different angle. I was hoping that would make watching this movie an exciting and surprising first encounter for those who already know the original manga very well. At the same time, I aspired for it to be also understood and enjoyed as a single movie by those who have no previous knowledge of ‘Slam Dunk.'”
While the premise remained the same — the high school championship game between underdog Shohoku and perennial champs Sannoh — Inoue was unsure of the focus until he came across the title of a Japanese book about inner leadership potential. That led him to ponder basketball as a means of overcoming inner turmoil.
“What kind of pains and struggles do the players who appear calm and strong on the court have within?” Inoue continued. “What path have they taken? I am much older than at the time of serialization and I have started to imagine that sort of thing more. I feel pain more, too. I think this perspective is reflected in this film.”
But whereas the protagonist of the manga is the red-headed power forward Hanamichi Sakuragi (Subaru Kimura), a delinquent known for his fighting who joins the basketball team to impress girls, Inoue switched the film’s focus to point guard Ryota Miyagi (Shugo Nakamura). He has a more complex and compelling story, struggling with the tragic death of his older brother, a basketball legend and his hero.
“When it comes to Miyagi, I didn’t think that I depicted his character enough at the time of the serialization of the manga, and he was someone who remained somewhat mysterious,” said Inoue. “Therefore, as an author, it was a natural desire to focus on what was still left to depict and that was how another new angle and theme came about. His being the smallest of the team was also symbolic of the theme.”
While focusing on the championship game, Inoue effectively intercuts exquisite hand-drawn flashbacks to explore the pain and hardship of Miyagi, Sakuragi, and the rest of their starters, along with the rivalry between the two coaches. This provides crucial context for Shohoku’s struggles and how they eventually overcome their weaknesses to fight back through an ingenious form of controlled chaos.
“CG or 2D, either way, I wanted the artwork to be raw and tactile,” he said. “That was the pillar of my approach for this movie. Texture over smoothness. Calm colors rather than sparkly colors.”
But it’s the authentic depiction of the game through exciting choreography and precise rendering where the movie excels as an animated event. This was through mostly CG animation that looked hand-crafted. But first, it required extensive mo-cap sessions as a starting point after studying high school games in consultation with basketball veterans.
“Re-depicting the same game from the manga from a new angle was also one of the challenges I wanted to take on,” Inoue said. “I wanted to approach this game and this one movie from the viewpoint of the point guard who is the control tower of the team. I thought Sakuragi would be even more attractive when he’s put as a supporting character. Losing the premise of him being at the center of attention as the protagonist, I thought his unusualness stood out more and made the unpredictable game play convincing.”
But what Inoue prioritized the most when pursuing the reality of the movements was the feeling of physical weight. “The character’s center of gravity, the relation between the ball and the hands, the timing that the body starts moving, and so on,” he added. “I think I reflected my own sense and body feeling onto the CG so that the viewers could feel as if they’re experiencing.”
While Inoue frequently retouched the game play animation himself, it was only to give the characters more life. “Everything I’ve done in the process of making this film was in order to ‘communicate’ with the audience. Before that, it was to ‘communicate’ with the staff. I think my communication skills and articulation levels went up. And my drawing got a little better.”
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