The author of the quintessential 90s sports manga announced a Slam Dunk Movie on Twitter today.
【スラムダンク】
映画になります!#slamdunkmovie pic.twitter.com/jWqvCnASxj
— 井上雄彦 Inoue Takehiko (@inouetake) January 7, 2021
Takehiko Inoue tweeted little else about the upcoming Slam Dunk Movie, only that the iconic series would be getting one at all.
Since then, GNN reports that Toei Animation has confirmed it would be an animated film, after some anxiety from fans that Slam Dunk would be yet another anime adapted for live-action.
Considering the lack of any information, it should come as no surprise that we have no confirmation on whether or not the film would get a theatrical release or be direct-to-Blu-Ray.
Slam Dunk is a manga that ran from 1990 to 1996, focusing on the exploits of Hanamichi Sakuragi after he joins his school’s Basketball team.
The series was originally published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump, and has since been collected via 31 volumes. The series also received an anime produced by Toei Animation, who are presumably also behind the upcoming movie. The anime ran from 1993 to 1996.
2020 marked the 30th anniversary of the Slam Dunk series, and its likely that this movie was meant to be released to celebrate that. We still have no word on a potential release date, but its nice to see one of the definitive sports anime being celebrated decades after its debut.