Film, watched on March 27, 2026

Rating: ★★★★★

Thoughts: I first watched this film during its theatrical run. Slam Dunk has been one of my favourite manga for ages, so when the movie came out, I was eager to see it, especially knowing that Inoue Takehiko both directed and wrote it. The only source of apprehension for me was that it was a 3D animated movie, which anime studios don't have the best reputation for making. I'll just get my bias out of the way rn: as a Slam Dunk fan since middle school and a big fan of Inoue Takehiko's post-Slam Dunk work, I loved it, hence the rewatch!

The movie is about the last match in the series and stays close to the source material. Despite following the same major story beats, it changes the protagonist of the original series, Sakuragi, to Ryota, one of the supporting leads. Through this shift in POV, we get a tonally different story than the one in the manga. While Slam Dunk is about the transformative power of sports, The First Slam Dunk adds an additional layer focused on the transformative power of grief. This is done through the usage of flashback scenes. We learn about Ryota's older brother, who introduced him to basketball but met an untimely end during a fishing trip. Parts of the backstory originate from Piercing, a parallel universe one-shot that Inoue did after Slam Dunk's completion (it's a quick read with nice art, I recommend it even if you never read Slam Dunk).

I think it would have been easy for TFSD to be a straightforward adaptation, banking on audience nostalgia. The adaptation straddles the line between being true to the source comic, a sports manga with comedic elements published in Shounen Jump, while simultaneously creating something new that more closely resembles Inoue's present seinen work such as Real and Vagabond. As a fan of his current work, I loved the change in tone. Slam Dunk can be a weird manga to recommend because you can tell Inoue Takehiko wrote it when he was new to writing. It's all over the place until it eventually hits it's stride. With TFSD, he was able to bring the universe of Slam Dunk up to par with his current output, which veers more thoughtful and contemplative rather than fun. However, I could sense that maybe not everyone in the theater enjoyed it the same...I saw many parents in the theatre with their children and could tell while exiting that some people were a bit taken aback with how the movie had a more adult audience in mind...

A large part of the flashback scenes centre around how Ryota's brother's death drove a wedge between him and his mother. There are parts that hit close to home if you've ever dealt with a death in the family, and it doesn't hold back on how ugly it can be emotionally. Thankfully, the strong pacing allowed the film to avoid lingering excessively on somber parts. The film strikes a great balance between drama, humour, excitement, and contemplation. I thought that the movie also broached its heavy topics with a lot of empathy for the characters, despite how difficult they could sometimes be to watch.

As mentioned previously, the thing I was most worried about going into the film was the 3D animation. I initially had to calibrate my eyes to the style, but I got used to it. There are some moments where it looks a bit herky jerky, some moments where it looks really cool and the animators take advantage of the 3D/2D mix, but for the most part, it's fine. The animation style allowed for both realistic movements (which helped in keeping the basketball game portions engaging) and exagerration (used mostly for the more comedic scenes).

Overall, I really enjoyed it, even on rewatch! It's such an enthralling movie from start to finish, and as a Slam Dunk fan, it was so fun to see my favourite characters again, with new sides and dimensions to them (Mitsuiiiii, who I was happy to get back story on as well ♡). While I do think it could work as a standalone film, I think it's best enjoyed if you're invested in the characters and world that Slam Dunk presents.