Slam Dunk

Slam Dunk is a show full of colorful and memorable characters that is, ironically, slowed down by the basketball games they play in.

The main character, the genius himself, Sakuragi Hanamachi rides the fine line between lovable and insufferable. For 95% of the time, he is a loud and obnoxious goofball, always spouting about being a self-proclaimed basketball genius despite being a total beginner at the sport. However, because we see his constant failures and his relentless drive for improvement, Sakuragi manages to avoid being an arrogant and unlikable main character. Sakuragi's development as a basketball player is also impressive. Sakuragi's skillset is slowly built throughout the series and he doesn't magically become a highly skilled and well-rounded character like his rival/teammate Rukawa; his initial skill in jumping high for rebounds and endurance is realistically due to his naturally insane athleticism. These aspects of Sakuragi's character make him a character you want to root for. Despite his bravado, you want to see him overcome his obstacles and become a better player. His usual goofiness makes the short moments where he is serious and shows flashes of true brilliance that much more impactful and are the most anticipated moments of each basketball game.

The rough and tumble Shohoku High starting line up conists Akagi Takenori, Mitsui Hisashi, Miyagi Ryota, Rukawa Kaede, and of course Sakuragi. Each of them have unique personalities that entertainingly clash with each other. Their motivations and aspirations are interestingly explored, particularly Mitsui's story. Rukawa is an interesting foil to Sakuragi. The former is quiet and already an elite high school basketball player while the latter is bombastic and is just learning the game. Their rivalry is a source of lots of funny moments, but also a source of frustratingly drawn-out knuckleheaded plays by Sakuragi. The rest of the cast are entertaining as well, including Sakuragi's boisterous but loyal group of friends, Haruko, the object of Sakuragi's unnoticed love, and the opponents from other schools. The cast plays off each other very well and there is a very real sense of camaraderie built throughout the show.

Unfortunately for how much fun the episodes about training or exploring the various characters can be, the basketball games themselves tend to be not fun because of how long they are drawn out. So much time is taken up by the players on the court talking to each other, coach monologues, or a sequence where every single character in attendance react to something that happened. A large chunk of time is also taken up by Sakuragi daydreaming about how he'll embarrass Rukawa with his genius performance. These are the only times I am annoyed with how boastful Sakuragi is. The moments where the game isn't moving at a snail's pace, where something really cool happens, are teetering on few and far between. But the climaxes of each game are still satisfactory to even awe-inspiring. The highest highs of Slam Dunk are definitely found in the games, but not only after slogging through padded episodes with cool moments peppered throughout it.

If the amount of episodes for each game were at least cut down by a third, I would have enjoyed this anime a little bit more. Despite my complaints, there is still a lot to like about Slam Dunk. Slam Dunk is still a piece of anime history I don't regret watching all 101 episodes of because after watching it, it is clear that the genius basket-man Sakuragi Hanamichi's journey into falling in love with basketball set the standard that almost all sports anime afterwards go by.