Slam Dunk is a copyrighted creation of Inoue Takehiko - 1990.
Oh and by the way, this is a summary...so I'm not gonna go through all the match statistics and who won what and all that... ^.^ You watch it or read it for yourself because it's definitely worth it!! haha..
If you're new here, don't think "Slam Dunk'? >_< It's just another boring basketball manga! Not worth my time..!" because even if you're anti-basketball, after seeing or reading Slam Dunk, you'll probably be inspired to take it up! ^_~ Haha..I mean it...Slam Dunk's addictive 'cause all the different personalities and pasts of the characters make the story really interesting and worth seeing...And there are ups and downs, just like real life...there are some pretty sad parts.. -_- ... so it's not just a boring, perfected, unrealisitic cinderella story about basketball...Definitely worth checking out! ^_^ And it's definitely worth it for the laughs..haha...there are some really funny parts ^.^
Creator: Inoue Takehiko
Series starts: 16/10/93
Series ends: 26/3/96
Episodes: 101
Manga starts: 1990
Sold: Over 100 million copies
Manga volumes: 31 (or 24 for the new resorted HK version)
More: 4 OVAs, 1 Movie
Sakuragi Hanamichi enters Shohoku, a school with one of the worst high school basketball teams in Japan, after being rejected for the 50th time, this time because the girl has her sights on a basketball player. Thus begins Sakuragi's intense hatred towards anything even remotely connected to basketball, or any phrases that sound even remotely like basketball. (Sakuragi ends up beating up innocent and oblivious victims who happen to set his alarm off... haha ^_^..erm, by headbutting them ^.^) In his deep despair, he is approached by Akagi Haruko, who asks him if he likes basketball. His original anger turns to admiration when he takes his first look at her and immediately falls in love with her. (^_^ how sweet..heh) Haruko observes Sakuragi's height and enthusiastically encourages Sakuragi to join the basketball team, and, realizing that the best way to get to Haruko's heart is through basketball, lovestruck Sakuragi dutifully obeys with exaggerated enthusiasm.
But it turns out that things aren't so simple after all. To put it briefly, Sakuragi discovers that Haruko's huge crush is in fact the talented, fellow first year basketball star and new hearthrob of anything female in school, Rukawa Kaede, who has no interest in anything except sleeping and basketball. To add to his problems, Sakuragi's delinquent cockiness has aroused the attention of a group of third year bad boys, who challenge Sakuragi and his gundan (consisting of his 4 friends - Youhei, Okusu, Chuiciro, and Takamiya) to a fight on the roof top.
Instead of finding Sakuragi and his gundan at the designated fighting ground, they stumble upon a sleeping Rukawa. One of the third year boys kicks Rukawa in an attempt to make him go away, but it turns out that one of Rukawa's biggest dislikes is people who wake him up, and Rukawa single-handedly fights all of them off. (*_* kakkoi! haha)
Sakuragi and his gundan arrive late, and are alarmed at the work of (bleeding) Rukawa. When Sakuragi learns that this is Rukawa Kaede, Haruko's crush, he tries to contain his jealous anger and begins his weird antics (^_^" I can't describe Sakuragi's actions...gomen..hehe). From a distance, Haruko catches sight of Sakuragi and Rukawa on the rooftop, and badly misunderstanding the situation, she runs and lashes out on Sakuragi for resorting to violence and tells him that she hates him. Later on the misunderstanding progresses to a point where Sakuragi actually hits Rukawa, but that's for you people to go and watch ^_~. So depressed is Sakuragi over his loss of Haruko that he actually tries to jump off the building (sounds dramatic but is actually pretty funny to watch ^.^) This is the beginning of the persisting rivalry between Sakuragi and Rukawa throughout the series.
Sakuragi, thinking that what has happened is irreversible (though his friends are now explaining the misunderstanding to Haruko), reverts to hating basketball, and through this hatred, he manages to offend the captain of the basketball team, gorilla-looking big guy Akagi Takenori, who, unknown to Sakuragi, is Haruko's brother (though they have absolutely no similarities in appearance -_-"). Akagi, angered by the fact that Sakuragi has offended basketball, challenges Sakuragi to a one-on-one match with very unique rules. Practically the whole school goes to watch this, (^_~ it's worth watching) and Sakuragi shocks everyone by winning. Haruko comes up to congratulate and apologize to Sakuragi for her misunderstandings, and Sakuragi almost has a heart attack when he learns that she is Akagi's sister. As you can imagine, it takes Sakuragi a lot of hard work and tolerance before he is allowed by Akagi into the basketball team. But tireless Sakuragi, who knows nothing about the sport, has set his sights on winning Haruko's heart by becoming a stunning basketball player and beating reknowned super rookie Rukawa.
The next addition to the Shohoku team is Miyagi Ryota, a second year point guard who has just gotten out of hospital. Miyagi proves to be trouble as well, the very reason of his prolonged hospital stay being his previously being beaten unconsious by third year gangsters (one of these being Mitsui Hisashi, former middle school MVP and 3 point shooter led astray). Miyagi and Sakuragi get off on bad terms when Miyagi sees Sakuragi walking to practice with Ayako, the manager of the basketball team, Miyagi's major love interest and motivation. But Sakuragi and Miyagi become good friends when they discover just how much they have in common - their motivation for playing basketball both being for a girl, and their amazing 'rejection records'. (^.^ haha..though Sakuragi's record beats Miyagi's by 5 times...LOL)
But things don't stop here. Having taken up a new hatred towards people from the basketball department, and harbouring old hatred for Miyagi inside them, Mitsui Hisashi and his gangsters decide to stir up a lot of trouble for the basketball team - and a pretty scary fight begins. (I don't want to go through all the details because that would be giving away all the action ^_~) The fight ends with the entrance of Anzai-sensei, coach of the Shohoku team, and Mitsui down on his knees with tears in his eyes, admitting that he wants to play basketball again. (-_- People make mistakes...) Mitsui cuts his hair, resolves his problems with Miyagi, throws away his gangster past, and is welcomed into the team once again.
And thus begins the jouney of Shohoku high, one of the worst teams in Japan, towards their dream of being the best and conquering the country. Along the way, they battle neighbouring teams in Kanagawa, including champions for something like 20 consecutive years - Kainan (sorry I've forgotten the exact number of years.. ^_^"...as you can see I'm not much of a Kainan fan..heh), the team with reknowned basketball genius, Sendoh Akira - Ryonan (*_* Sen-kun...), and the team coached by its captain, Fujima Kenji - Shoyo (^_^ Fujima-san..). You also see the transformation of Sakuragi from a beginner and basketball klutz, who is just in the game to get the girl, into one of the best high school rebounders in Japan, who is playing out of genuine love for basketball.
Though the main theme of Slam Dunk is obviously basketball, you can still learn lots of lessons about life through it. Slam Dunk teaches you how to accept failure, and how to have a 'never say die' attitude when striving for your dreams. It teaches you that life isn't a bed of roses, and that life is made up of tragedies as well...but that all that matters is whether or not we choose to face hardships with courage and determination. It also teaches you that after loss, it isn't the end of the world, however much it may feel that way.