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TAKEHIKO INOUE was born
on January 12, 1967 in Kagoshima Prefecture. His first major success—the
hugely popular 31-volume long basketball manga Slam Dunk—sold over 100
million copies worldwide and catapulted him into the top ranks of Japanese
manga artists. He won the 2002 Media Arts for manga from the Japanese
Ministry of Culture and the 24th Kodansha award for best manga for his
depiction of Miyamoto Musashi as a wander in VAGABOND. Inoue added
another trophy to his collection, winning the prestigious Tezuka Award his
works KAEDE PURPLE and VAGABOND. With such achievements, there are high
expectations for Inoue’s work for years to come. Besides manga,
Inoue also worked on character design for the Playstation basketball game
One on One.
DID U KNOW
THAT...?
Takehiko Inoue draws himself as a Slam Dunk character called Dr. T who
appears throughout the series introducing new technical terms in
Basketball. You can usually see Dr. T's appearance from the official games
Shohoku engages in. (www.animeslamdunk.com)
OFFICIAL
WEBSITE
Visit Takehiko Inoue's website at
http://www.itplanning.co.jp/
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DOES HE PLAY FOR
THE LOVE OF THE GAME OR THE GIRL?
AGENT RINOA REPORTS
WARNING!!! CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!
Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
“Do you like basketball?” Sakuragi Hanamichi hated basketball until he
met, a girl, Haruko in Shohoku High. A freshman and “turned down” by (say)
50 girls in his former school, Sakuragi instantly “fell in love” with
Haruko. He wanted to impress her by telling her he was a sportsman. Not
knowing who Sakuragi was, Haruko befriended him and soon after decided to
enlist him for the basketball team (after seeing his high jump despite the
lousy dunk ^^;) Yet, little did Sakuragi know that Haruko liked somebody
else – Rukawa Kaede.
Before entering Shohoku, Sakuragi Hanamichi despised basketball because a
girl, Yuko, dumped him for a basketball player, Oda. Sakuragi’s Guntai
(bad boy gang) composed of Nozomi Takamiya, Mito Yohei, Chuichiro Noma,
and Yuji Ohkusu teased him for being dumped. Consequently, Sakuragi gives
his Guntai “head-splitting and lump-aching” headbutts for their teasing
and to keep them quiet (even for a while, so Sakuragi can emote again,
whehehehe). So, when Sakuragi met Haruko, the tables have turned. He now
has to like the game in order to get the girl.
Haruko is an avid basketball fan. She supports the basketball team at her
school (Shohoku). Her brother, Akagi, is the team captain of the
basketball team. She loves the game and she can play the game well too. In
addition to her passion for the sport, she has a crush on Rukawa Kaede
(which makes watching any basketball game more fun, considering its her
crush playing on the court, neh?)
Rukawa Kaede is your freshman “crush-ng-bayan”/”MVP”/”silent guy” (next to
Anzai Sensei, whehehehehe). He doesn’t say much, nor does he show any
powerful emotion, except when he’s in an argument with Sakuragi. He is an
excellent basketball player and he dreams to become the best basketball
player in Japan. (spoiler)
Slam Dunk is about basketball. It’s basketball set in high school, where
inter-school rivalry, idealism, friendship, sportsmanship, teamwork and
practice matter (to students only?). It’s a drama-comedy-action anime that
will keep you tuned-in and craving for more. It’s one anime any otaku
should not miss.
As Sakuragi enters Shohoku, he meets new people, finds a girl and learns
to love the sport he “used to” hate.
**** Sorry about the commentaries, I couldn’t help myself. (hehehe)
P.S.
The anime has 101 episodes and it does not include the ending. There are
about 50+ more episodes before the ending. There are about 30-31 mangas/books,
so I guess if you liked the anime you could purchase the books so that you
could get to the ending. It’s probably one of Mr. Takehiko marvelous plans
to earn more money (hahahahaha!) And yet again, they could just have been
running low on budget.
There are other cute boys in Slam Dunk too you know!!!
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