The First Slam Dunk

The animation style is very unique, it may feel strange and even look bad at first sight, but you'll grow to appreciate it. It's been in the works for 13 years, unfortunately in 2022 I think it's a bit late to the trend compared to other works, with Arcane and especially Spiderverse out, but still it's a piece of art. The directing and timing and sound design of every scene is top notch. Every movement and every action is crystal clear. They also managed to minimize the usual 'endless talks' of animes, which don't make sense in a realistic time flow, but here it's acceptable and everything flows quite well. The balance between the match and the flashbacks is well tuned, maybe towards the end you'd want less flashbacks as you get more invested in the match, but still it's fine. The very ending of the match is amazing - sound, timing, and especially animation. It's so amazing that it makes you think why they didn't use that animation more throughout the movie. Maybe in the late stages they tried to experiment more, but it's so different in style that it almost makes the rest feel boring.

As a long time Slam Dunk fan I had high expectations and this movie didn't let me down. The CGI is good, the plot expands on the original story and focuses on what I consider the best match in the whole manga. I had to lower the score to 9 because of a simple reason: this type of CGI is unable to convey some facial expressions (like Sakuragi and Miyagi's expression before his first slam dunk or when Hanamichi was in pain). The OG anime was better at conveying comedy, which is a core aspect of Slam Dunk. Also, some very important parts of the match were rushed but I can understand this choice since they took for granted that most viewers were already familiar with the story.