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Slam Dunk (スラムダンク suramudanku) is a 31 volume Japanese manga written by Takehiko Inoue about a basketball team from Shohoku (Shōhoku) High School. It has been sold over 100 million copies worldwide.

It was so popular that many Japanese teenagers began playing basketball after it was published. Inoue has also uses basketball as a central theme in two other manga series: Buzzer Beater and Real.

A 101-episode anime TV series was produced, as well as four animated movies. The anime follows the manga storyline, but leaves out the final games at the National Tournament. The animated movies are separate stand-alone stories.

In Japan, the series was published in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump. The series was published in English in North America by Gutsoon Entertainment's Raijin Comics until it went on hiatus in June 2004. In Singapore the manga is published in English by Chuang Yi. The Singaporean translation is imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment.

Plot

The main character of this manga is Hanamichi Sakuragi (桜木花道 Sakuragi Hanamichi) who started out as an outcast who fights as a method to gain power and publicity, becoming the leader of a gang. Hanamichi, being very unpopular with girls, has been rejected by them fifty times. Yet, he finds out that Haruko Akagi (赤木晴子 Akagi Haruko) is the girl of his dreams. Haruko, who recognizes Hanamichi's athleticism, introduces Hanamichi to the Shohoku basketball team. Hanamichi was reluctant to join the team at first because he had no previous background in any sports and thought that basketball was a game for losers (actually because the fiftieth girl rejected him for a basketball player). Sakuragi, despite his immaturity and hot temper, proves to be a natural athlete with potential and joins the team in order to impress Haruko to prove that he is worthy of her. Kaede Rukawa (流川楓 Rukawa Kaede), also Sakuragi's bitter rival (both on the basketball court and love), the star rookie and a "girl magnet", joins the team at the same time. Hisashi Mitsui (三井 寿 Mitsui Hisashi), an ex-junior high school MVP, and Ryota Miyagi (宮城リョータ Miyagi Ryōta), a short but fast player, both also rejoin the team and together these four struggle to complete team captain Takenori Akagi's (赤木剛憲 Akagi Takenori, who is Haruko's brother) dream of making Shohoku the national champion. Together, these misfits gain publicity and the once little known Shohoku basketball team becomes an all-star contender in Japan.

Flower of Eden plagiarism scandal

Posters on internet forums realized that the author of Flower of Eden was plagiarizing from Inoue's manga, including Slam Dunk [1]. As a result, Flower of Eden was no longer published by Kodansha and the series' U.S. release by TOKYOPOP was cancelled.

External links

• Slam Dunk Reviews (in English)

Related SlamDunk Blogs