General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Slam Dunk: The Movie

Slam Dunk: The Movie (スラムダンク) is a 1994 Japanese animated short film, the first theatrical adaptation of Takehiko Inoue's basketball manga Slam Dunk. Produced by Toei Animation, it was released in Japanese cinemas on March 12, 1994, with a runtime of 30 minutes, and was directed by Nobutaka Nishizawa from a screenplay by Yoshiyuki Suga.¹^•² It was the first of four theatrical films made during the run of the Slam Dunk television anime.³

Key fact	Detail
Japanese release	March 12, 1994, as part of the '94 Spring Toei Anime Fair²
Runtime and format	30 minutes; 35mm color film with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio¹
Director and writer	Nobutaka Nishizawa (director), Yoshiyuki Suga (screenplay), from the manga by Takehiko Inoue¹
Production	Toei, Shueisha, and Toei Animation; distributed by Toei¹
Story	A practice match between Shohoku High and the strong Takezono High team, built around Sakuragi's rivalry with Takezono's center, Oda Tatsunori²
Theme songs	Opening "Kimi ga Suki da to Sakebitai" by BAAD; ending "Anata Dake Mitsumeteru" by Maki Ohguro²
Sequels	Slam Dunk 2 (July 1994, 45 min), Slam Dunk 3 (March 1995, 40 min), Slam Dunk 4 (July 1995, 40 min)³

Spoilers

Story

The Shohoku High basketball club enters a practice match against Takezono High School, a strong program that regularly reaches the prefecture's best eight. Takezono, however, is a school in which about 70 percent of the students are girls, and their loud cheering becomes one more source of pressure for Shohoku.²

During the buildup, Hanamichi Sakuragi meets Yoko Shimamura, the girl who rejected him in junior high school as his fiftieth rejection. She came to Takezono to follow its ace, the center Oda Tatsunori. Oda insults Sakuragi, saying that someone who spent junior high fooling around has no right to play basketball, and once the game begins Sakuragi shows only a clumsy performance in front of him. Haruko Akagi's cheering changes that: at her shout of encouragement his movement sharpens, and Oda and the Takezono players, who had looked down on Sakuragi, respond with renewed intensity.²

The film is set early in the series' timeline, before Mitsui and Miyagi join the Shohoku team, and it reworks material connected to the manga's opening chapter, in which Yoko first appears.⁵

Sequels and place in the franchise

Three more theatrical films followed during the anime's broadcast: Slam Dunk 2: National Tournament (July 1994, 45 minutes), Slam Dunk 3: Crisis of Shohoku School (March 1995, 40 minutes), and Slam Dunk 4: Roar! Basketman Spirit (July 1995, 40 minutes).³ Like the first film, these are side stories set around matches not covered by the manga's main storyline.⁶

The 1994 film stands apart from the later franchise film, The First Slam Dunk (2022), which was written and directed by Takehiko Inoue himself and depicts the manga's final match between Shohoku and Sannoh, a game the 1990s anime never animated.⁷ The 1994 short remains the franchise's first cinema appearance and a compact example of the television series' cast, music, and comedic sports style carried onto the big screen.²

Background

The film adapts Slam Dunk, a shonen manga by Takehiko Inoue serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from 1990, issue No. 42, to 1996, issue No. 27, which has sold more than 120 million copies in Japan.⁴ The television anime adaptation, produced by Toei Animation, began broadcasting in October 1993, and the theatrical film followed within months as the franchise's first cinema release.⁴^•² Toei's own listing describes it as the first theatrical work based on the popular comic, screened as one title in the '94 Spring Toei Anime Fair program.²

Cast and staff

The film uses the television series' principal voice cast: Takeshi Kusao as Hanamichi Sakuragi, Akiko Hiramatsu as Haruko Akagi, Kiyoyuki Yanada as Takenori Akagi, Hikaru Midorikawa as Kaede Rukawa, and Hideyuki Tanaka as Kiminobu Kogure.⁶ New to the film are Yoku Shiozaki as Oda Tatsunori and Yuko Minaguchi as Yoko Shimamura.²

Behind the camera, Nobutaka Nishizawa directed from Yoshiyuki Suga's screenplay, with Tsutomu Tomari and Tomio Anzai producing, music by BMF, animation direction by Masaki Sato, and art supervision by Nobuto Sakamoto.¹^•² The opening theme, "Kimi ga Suki da to Sakebitai," was performed by BAAD, and the ending theme, "Anata Dake Mitsumeteru," by Maki Ohguro; both songs also served as the television series' first opening and ending themes.²

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026