Slam Dunk 4

It’s a little hard for me to get into this series after recently catching myself up on Real and Vagabond, Inoue’s other series.  They are all three very, very different, and Slam Dunk is the least ambitious of the three thematically, but it’s still hard to read this without thinking about how absolutely awesome the other two series are.  It does accomplish exactly what it sets out to do though, which is tell an entertaining story about a kid in high school that really wants to play basketball.  And I’m sure it only gets better from here on out.

What impressed me most about this volume is how contemporary the art looked despite being almost 20 years old.  Really, the only characteristics that date it are things that the target audience (presumably teens) aren’t going to pick up on: the character designs are manlier, the panel layouts aren’t quite as dynamic as you’d see in a modern sports series, and Hanamichi’s haircut screams early 90s (or 50s, depending on your perspective, I suppose).  Of course, I’m only looking at a basketball game here, so there’s not a lot of contextual clues to date it, but it’s still pretty impressive.

This volume consists entirely of the exhibition game with Ryonan.  It plays out about how you would expect it to, with Ryonan having the upper hand and some show-off players at first, which inevitably leads to Shohoku’s team getting fired up and playing a good game despite their underdog status.  Most of the match is played out between Akagi and Rukawa on the Shohoku side and Sendoh and Uozumi on Ryonan’s side.  The four boys are pretty evenly matched in their respective pairs (Uozumi/Akagi and Rukawa/Sendoh)  Hanamichi stays on the bench and riles everybody up in his own way.  As silly as his antics are, I would have enjoyed the volume much less without him.

Actually, my interest in the game was mostly dependent on what twist of fate would allow Hanamichi to play.  While it is just an exhibition game, both sides take it pretty seriously, so it seems like it would be a bad idea to put someone as inexperienced as Hanamichi in.  But you know that’s not how manga works.  He finds himself participating in the last couple chapters of the volume, and I loved the way his style is shaking everyone on both sides of the court up.

I don’t have much interest in basketball, and this series lacks the charm of something like Eyeshield 21, but even I found myself drawn into the game and entertained by Uozumi.  I’m even a little curious to see how the game turns out now that Uozumi is playing, but unfortunately the next volume won’t be out until August.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.