Slam Dunk 14
Posted: August 9, 2011 Filed under: Slam Dunk Leave a comment »Takehiko Inoue – Viz – 2010 – 31 volumes
It’s Takehiko Inoue catch-up day here, and I am tragically behind in Slam Dunk. It doesn’t really deserve it either, it’s enthusiastically addictive.
The Shohoku and Kainan game is still going on. You know, at this point, I’m pretty sure that the whole series is just going to be this one tournament. That’s pretty amazing. What’s even more amazing is that Inoue can make reading these interminable games so much fun. I really don’t want him to rush through it, because there’s so much utterly awesome stuff going on here. It’s genuinely exciting to read. I mean, I’m a little embarrassed to admit that every free throw, every basket, every fast break, and every foul is super-exciting, but it is. Inoue really knows how to pace and draw the action, and it doesn’t get bogged down with a lot of character drama unrelated to the game. It mimics the experience of watching your friends play high school basketball perfectly.
To that effect, I don’t have much to say about this volume, really. Gori plays through some pain as he goes back out on his injured ankle, and as the spotlight shines on more members of the Kainan team, we learn that they specialize in just about everything you can do on a basketball court. Strategies come into play that can block them, and Coach Anzai plays to Hanamichi’s ego to get him fired up. The teams trade the lead again and again, free throws are missed… you know. Pretty much everything happens that you would expect in a really excellent, close basketball game. And this volume simply does that very well.
That’s exactly why it’s worth reading. Though I hope next time I’ll have a little more to talk about. It… should be the last volume for this game, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ran into volume 16.
