Slam Dunk 5
June 29, 2009
I’m getting pretty caught up in this despite myself. I know it’s just a sports manga, and I know it features a plucky kid that is somehow gifted but still learning about the sport and battling against various prodigies. I know his underdog team will win in the end. But even knowing that it’s basically tracing a line from point A to point B, I can’t help but love this series a little.
Hanamichi is probably the biggest factor in my enjoyment. Most characters in his shoes (the main character learning the sport that will eventually gain game-breaking skills) would be humble and in awe of their superiors while carefully committing everything to memory. Hanamichi is loud and obnoxious, and does everything in his power to make sure that people think he is both cool and good at basketball. And when I say “people,” I mean the girl he likes. I know it sounds formulaic, but he’s pretty awesome. I also laugh at his antics, something that doesn’t normally happen with showboat gags like this.
As far as the story in volume 5 goes, the epic practice game is still going on, and will continue into the next volume. We learn a lot about rebounds and how to guard people in this volume, and we learn that perhaps Hanamichi really is some sort of goofy gifted idiot when it comes to basketball.
It’s a good, solid sitcom-type series. I’m not completely in love with it, but I’ll probably keep coming back at this point since I enjoy it and it’s fairly easy to follow along and keep up with. Hanamichi is worth coming back to, at least for the time being.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
June 30, 2009 at 6:54 am
[...] of Sarasah (Manga Maniac Cafe) Connie on vol. 3 of Silver Diamond (Slightly Biased Manga) Connie on vol. 5 of Slam Dunk (Slightly Biased Manga) Johanna Draper Carlson on Solanin (Comics Worth Reading) Shojo Flash on [...]