Taking part in the Lengthy Recreation – The Story of Slam Dunk in North America

Simply earlier than I flew out to D.C. for Otakon final yr, I began listening to a low however persistent rumbling round slightly film about to hit theaters—The First Slam Dunk. Whereas I missed my likelihood to see the movie on the large display screen, the unique manga that spawned it piqued my curiosity. Six months later, I popped open the primary quantity and began to grasp why Takehiko Inoue‘s Slam Dunk is without doubt one of the biggest tales ever inked.

What began because the story of a punk who joined the basketball crew to impress a lady rapidly turned a worldwide phenomenon when it hit the pages of Weekly Shonen Bounce in October 1990. As beforehand reported by Yahoo Sports activities Canada’s Alex Wong and Crunchyroll’s Tim Lyu, Slam Dunk served as Asia’s grand introduction to the world of basketball. Whereas the sequence has continued to be a Japanese bestseller within the years following its preliminary run, The First Slam Dunk‘s runaway success cemented it because the sixth best-selling manga of 2023. To not point out that the sequence is the one full entry on that listing and fairly an outdated one.

Nevertheless, there is a cause I’ve referred solely to the sequence’ success in Japan and all throughout Asia—Slam Dunk has had a tricky time breaking by means of in North America. For the previous twenty years, the boys of Shohoku have been underdogs within the face of a market that is not notably taken with sports activities fiction.

As I completed studying Viz Media‘s launch of the sequence, various questions began swirling in my mind.

Why do Slam Dunk and different sports activities sequence wrestle a lot? What is the cope with these random Raijin Comics volumes I am seeing? And wait a second, is that the identical Kelly Sue DeConnick who wrote Captain Marvel?

In mild of The First Slam Dunk‘s North American Blu-ray launch, I’m hungry to reply these questions. To do exactly that, I set about reviewing the sequence’ highlights alongside among the professionals who introduced this traditional to stateside—Jonathan “Jake” Tarbox, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Mike Montesa, and Steven “Stan!” Brown.

Not content material to cease there, I spoke with MediaOCD‘s Justin Sevakis and Denpa‘s Ed Chavez. Each are intimately conversant in the hurdles confronted by sports activities anime and manga on this a part of the globe.

Full Disclosure: Coop often works with Sevakis and MediaOCD. His opinions given listed below are purely his personal and don’t mirror these of his employers.

That is how Takehiko Inoue‘s Slam Dunk performed the lengthy sport in North America.

The First Quarter – Raijin Comics and the Finest Beginning Lineup of Manga

Manner earlier than Viz Media had their shot at Slam Dunk, one other writer introduced the sequence stateside in essentially the most bold approach potential—the pages of a weekly journal. Raijin Comics was the North American sister journal to Japan’s Weekly Comics Bunch. Each publications had been run by COAMIX, a manga and anime manufacturing firm based in 2000 by former Shonen Bounce editor-in-chief Nobuhiko Horie, Metropolis Hunter creator Tsukasa Hōjō, and Fist of the North Star co-creator Tetsuo Hara. Within the case of Raijin Comics particularly, the founders handed the reins to Gutsoon! Leisure, a U.S. subsidiary of COAMIX on the time.

As they ready to start out up the Raijin Comics mission, COAMIX approached Jonathan “Jake” Tarbox to get the ball rolling. An American expat working in Japan’s media leisure trade since ’95, Tarbox was introduced on because the publication’s senior editor and mission supervisor. He was chargeable for making certain that Raijin’s titles had been correctly translated, lettered, proofread, and prepared for printing. Trying again at these early days, Tarbox kindly crammed me in available on the market situations that led to Raijin’s inception and preliminary publication in 2002.

“Within the ’80s and ’90s in America (and the remainder of the world), a fan base for anime and manga had quietly been constructing. Darkish Horse, Tokyopop, Viz Media, and Central Park Media have been publishing manga and rising the market. Within the yr 2002, a number of issues got here to a head. Darkish Horse determined to start out printing manga in English within the authentic right-to-left format. At virtually the identical time, COAMIX, the Japanese manga writer, had been contemplating a number of completely different ventures and determined to attempt to plunge into the English language market. Nobuhiko Horie, the president of COAMIX, thought that the way in which for American readers to get essentially the most genuine expertise was to learn it within the weekly journal format in right-to-left format, similar to Japanese readers. So, he determined to create a weekly manga journal Raijin Comics for the American market. As a direct response, Shueisha directed Viz Media to start out up the English-language version of Shonen Bounce journal.”

Naturally, this sparked a tense rivalry between the Bounce and Raijin groups. Within the ninetieth installment of his Home of 1000 Manga column, Bounce launch editor Jason Thompson chronicled the rise and fall of Raijin Comics whereas offering insights into VIZ‘s facet of the rivalry. Within the column, Thompson famous that Metropolis Hunter, Fist of the North Star, and Slam Dunk had been Raijin’s “Huge Three” titles. Given Hojo and Hara’s respective roles inside COAMIX, their titles had been a pure selection for the publication. Nevertheless, the inclusion of Slam Dunk resulted from Horie’s days at Shueisha, the place he constructed a robust rapport with Inoue. In response to Tarbox, Horie solid many tight-knit relationships with creators throughout that point, and people bonds finally turned the engine behind most titles included in Bunch and Raijin. In Inoue’s case, it did not damage that he’d labored carefully with Hojo both.

“Takehiko Inoue was an assistant on Metropolis Hunter, and Horie gave him an opportunity to helm his personal title with Slam Dunk. When negotiating to get English reprint rights to Slam Dunk, Inoue instructed Horie that he would have given him Vagabond as nicely, however VIZ had taken it only a few weeks earlier.”

Similar to that, Slam Dunk joined the likes of Baki The Grappler and Fist of the Blue Sky within the weekly pages of Raijin Comics. With titles in place, Tarbox and the corporate wanted to place collectively a crew able to dealing with the extreme calls for that got here with working a weekly publication.

“In editorial, Sam Kondo and I had been the crew. Sam was wonderful. He labored as laborious as anyone on the crew and did a terrific job. If I had been engaged on a mission like this once more, he’s the primary particular person I might attempt to rent. The remainder of our crew had been freelancers, they usually had been nice, too. Tony Ogasawara was a profitable enterprise and promoting translator who we attached with. The enterprise world paid him 4 instances as a lot as we did; he simply translated for enjoyable. The actual star on our freelance crew was Sheldon Drzka. He was an incredible translator. He bought the voices, the tone, the nuances down. He has additionally labored with VIZ and Tokyopop.”

I would been conversant in Sheldon Drzka in passing, as now we have each labored for MediaOCD. After I reached out to him, Drzka talked about that he bought his begin within the trade at Raijin Comics. He primarily labored on Metropolis Hunter and Fist of the Blue Sky however often got here in as a pinch hitter for different initiatives. Whereas Drzka wasn’t utterly certain of his involvement, he recalled that he might need been known as in to wrap up a chapter or two of Slam Dunk throughout his tenure on the firm.

As soon as Raijin Comics began its publication on the finish of 2002, Tarbox mentioned that the crew often burnt the midnight oil to fulfill their brutal deadlines.

“Sam Kondo and I needed to get 200-300 pages prepared for print each week. We had been usually working 70-hour work weeks. In Tokyo, the commuter trains cease working slightly after midnight and begin working once more at about 5:30 am. There have been many instances after I labored all evening and took the first-morning practice dwelling. As soon as, I took the second practice dwelling as a result of I labored previous the primary practice. The journal enterprise’s essential constraint is that you could make the weekly deadline.”

Fortunately for Tarbox and the corporate, getting ready titles for collected volumes (or tankobon) tended to be rather less hectic.

“For our journal titles, we merely took the localized materials and repurposed it for the tankobons. We had so as to add a couple of further pages, akin to credit and content material however that wasn’t a lot. While you create tankobon alone, there may be a lot much less deadline strain. If a guide does not get launched on time and pushed again per week or two, it is not a lot of an issue. However with {a magazine}, the deadline is all the things.”

In June 2003, Raijin launched their first collected quantity of Slam Dunk in comedian outlets and bookstores throughout North America. The subsequent three volumes had been launched bimonthly—in August, October, and December. Nevertheless, the principle Raijin Comics journal had shifted to a month-to-month format by quantity 5’s launch in April 2004. It ended up being Raijin’s final quantity of Slam Dunk earlier than the journal’s abrupt finish in July 2004. Tarbox talked about that the crew had managed to work by means of a couple of extra chapters of Slam Dunk earlier than issues fell aside, however the state of affairs weighed extra closely on his thoughts on the time.

“Pulling the plug got here as a complete shock to me. I had no thought it was coming. We had been in the course of a bunch of initiatives. Afterward, I used to be in a daze, as I wasn’t certain what the longer term held.”

Not lengthy after, Tarbox took a job with DC Comics‘ CMX imprint and freelanced within the following years. Regardless of the tough waters he needed to navigate because the Raijin ship sank, Tarbox mentioned he is nonetheless immensely pleased with his time there.

“I’m very pleased with the work I did with Sam Kondo, Shel Drzka, and the opposite members of the Raijin crew. I feel we did our greatest on Slam Dunk. Engaged on Slam Dunk, Metropolis Hunter, Fist of the North Star, and Baki The Grappler had been among the highlights of my life. I want Raijin Comics had labored out higher on the enterprise facet, and that we might have saved doing it for a lot of extra years.”

The Second Quarter – Overpriced DVDs and the Sports activities Downside

Simply as Raijin’s volumes began settling into the cabinets of comedian outlets and used bookstores, Toei Animation set its sights on bringing the Slam Dunk anime to North America. On November eleventh 2004, Toei inked a distribution cope with Geneon Leisure to launch titles akin to Slam Dunk, Air Grasp, and Interlude on dwelling video. With a launch date of March fifteenth 2005 set for Slam Dunk‘s preliminary pair of DVDs, Toronto-based Kaleidoscope Leisure set about dubbing the sequence into English. Nevertheless, solely twenty episodes of this dub noticed the sunshine of day.

Volumes 5 and 6 of Slam Dunk had been solicited to hit shops following quantity 4’s June 14th, 2005 launch, however really abysmal gross sales ended these plans. Over a yr later, Geneon formally introduced the cancellation of these volumes alongside a lot of the titles they’d agreed to distribute for Toei. In response to particulars assembled by the Misplaced Media Wiki, it’s rumored that Kaleidoscope had dubbed most of Slam Dunk earlier than the DVDs had been canceled. However exterior of listings on the resumes of a casting director and a supposed forged member, no additional particulars have ever been confirmed.

Curious to determine why Toei‘s Slam Dunk DVDs bought within the double digits, I reached out to a colleague who’s all too conversant in what it takes to promote a disc or two—MediaOCD CEO and Anime Information Community founder, Justin Sevakis.

On a product degree, Sevakis mentioned that Slam Dunk‘s English subtitles weren’t solely terrible however ran off the display screen in lots of situations—a problem that additionally plagued Air Grasp‘s DVDs. It did not assist both that the worth proposition for every disc broke right down to $25 for 4 episodes. Within the case of a 101-episode sequence like Slam Dunk, that gross sales technique led Sevakis to say, “What are you doing, buddy?” Nevertheless, he appeared most satisfied that Toei and Geneon pushed the product by means of with no clear image of the U.S. anime market.

Having beforehand addressed the subject in a 2018 Answerman article, Sevakis mentioned that sports activities titles are likely to bomb except one thing is spicing it up a bit—be it hunky boys, horny women, or a contact of the fantastical. It’s because most Westerners (primarily People) want to look at precise video games over sports activities fiction. Lately, Sevakis has seen that sports activities titles akin to Hajime no Ippo (A Discotek Media title) and Kuroko’s Basketball have discovered their area of interest audiences, however loads of sequence nonetheless bomb. When the subject of BLUE LOCK‘s success got here up, he asserted that the title remains to be in its early days. He believes sports activities titles nonetheless want further spice to be pushed over the sting. Nevertheless, Sevakis famous a key issue has modified because of the expansion of anime within the mainstream—the divide between nerds and jocks is nowhere close to as deep because it was once.

When Slam Dunk by means of this market lens, Sevakis famous an absence of that particular spice. He particularly talked about the sequence’ life like and sometimes mundane tone, together with the dearth of any actual lookers amongst Shohoku’s roster. On prime of that, Sevakis continued to level out that the Yanki vibes of the sequence lead, Hanamichi Sakuragi, do not precisely attraction to Western viewers. He chalked that individual commentary as much as the advertising and marketing challenges confronted by delinquent-focused titles—challenges not dissimilar from those confronted by sports activities titles. After our dialog, I spotted that Yanki-adjacent sequence like JoJo’s Weird Journey and Tokyo Revengers managed to keep away from the cut price bin because of that very same “spice” he spoke of.

Nevertheless, these market hurdles should not restricted to sports activities anime alone; issues have been traditionally dicey on the manga facet of issues. For extra context on the state of affairs, I reached out to Ed Chavez, writer at Denpa. Chavez is not certain why sports activities manga is such a tough promote in North America, however his trade expertise has led him to some conclusions.
“To be utterly sincere, I’ve no clue (why sports activities titles wrestle stateside). I don’t consider anybody has made a correct survey as to why this has been the case. Nevertheless, there have been exceptions. Briefly, titles like Prince of Tennis and Crimson Hero did fairly nicely (again within the mid-00s). Extra not too long ago, Kuroko’s Basketball and Haikyu!! appeared to do properly. And I’ve learn that BLUE LOCK was a really sturdy vendor for Kodansha USA.

However traditionally, the style has not hit the heights it skilled in Japan. Artists like Mitsuru Adachi (we’ll (Denpa) be publishing his baseball anthology Quick Recreation later this yr) haven’t been the award winners or main sellers that they’re in Japan. We don’t see many sports activities titles localized exterior of some Bounce titles. Nonetheless, that’s not to say publishers should not attempting. We do see a couple of yearly.

My tackle this subject has modified over time. For a few years, I felt that the market as a complete was simply not mature sufficient. Sports activities followers for the longest time weren’t particularly comics readers, not to mention manga readers. So the Venn diagram was very slim between these two audiences. Within the 00s and 10s, most sports activities manga titles had been additionally too improbable which took readers away from the game itself. Sports activities are nice dramas on their very own, so there was no actual want for characters with superhuman talents or personalities.

In the meantime, a title like Slam Dunk which is a really refined sports activities romance-comedy set in highschool, was a bit too far faraway from the drama of the NBA and even March Insanity.

As manga turned extra mainstream, sports activities titles additionally started to get extra recognition, however usually talking, the elevated consideration primarily targeted on present titles and fairly often works that attraction to a broader viewers. Not the very nichey readerships/fandoms of very inside baseball works, pardon the pun, like Large Killing (J-League soccer), Gurazeni (Japanese baseball) or Capeta (kart racing and Method 3 racing).”

Trying again on the earliest days of manga in North America, Chavez mentioned that sportsbooks have all the time confronted these hurdles. Even with a handful of vocal followers round to champion their favorites.

“They (sports activities titles) hardly ever existed within the 80’s and 90’s and lots of struggled to complete till the launch of Viz‘s Shonen Bounce imprint. Different publishers would persistently get requests for sports activities titles, however regardless of the vocal outpour many sports activities titles would have a tough time discovering viable buyer bases.”

With Denpa‘s launch of Mitsuru Adachi‘s Quick Recreation on the way in which, I questioned how Chavez approaches sports activities titles from a writer’s perspective.

“I take them on with a practical angle. My expectations are comparatively low. I additionally attempt to concentrate on quick titles, if not one-shots. Many sports activities works additionally occur to be lengthy, which doesn’t assist both. Longer works are tougher to shelve within the West the place manga cabinets till not too long ago had been at a premium in brick-and-mortar shops.
I have not labored on a sports activities title in years. So the outcomes weren’t nice. However we might be engaged on one other one later this yr.
It is a one-volume anthology. We picked one of many legends within the discipline. We’ll give it higher than regular manufacturing values to see if collectors will give it a shot. And if it really works out, we hope to dig deeper into that writer’s catalog as he has a couple of extra quick works.
I hope that it does nicely as he deserves the popularity.”

And whereas extra individuals are studying manga because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chavez is not satisfied that the temperature round sports activities titles has modified a lot prior to now 5 years.

“I do not assume the pandemic did something for the style. Manga usually bought a pleasant bump for a few years, however these numbers have pulled again and stabilized. The market is greater than earlier than the pandemic which is a constructive however the modifications began to occur earlier than that. Slowly however absolutely as manga is simply turning into extra mainstream sports activities manga are accepted increasingly.

That mentioned, it’s a sluggish course of. I can not see each sports activities title immediately clicking. Most manga titles do not (most gross sales nonetheless have a tendency to come back from Bounce). And with out lots of advertising and marketing, media combine assist and phrase of mouth sports activities manga, like josei manga, like classical manga, like indie manga, like… could proceed to confound followers and publishers alike.”

As firmly established in my conversations with Chavez and Sevakis, Slam Dunk faces the identical challenges any sports activities title does in North America. However that does not imply the traditional misplaced its likelihood to shine—particularly again in 2008.

The Third Quarter – Viz Media Picks Up the Ball

Simply as Toei and Geneon‘s final DVDs hit retailers, Viz Media made a small passing remark within the first situation of Shojo Beat—the Slam Dunk manga is coming quickly. Roughly two years later, VIZ confirmed at SDCC 2007 that the enduring sequence would make a (later revealed to be full-color) debut within the pages of Shonen Bounce‘s December situation. Moreover, they introduced that collected volumes had been heading to shops in 2008.

With Slam Dunk‘s North American return forward of them, Viz Media bought busy assembling a brand new beginning lineup to hit the localization courtroom—Joe Yamazaki on translation, James Gaubatz on touch-ups and lettering, Sean Lee with the traditional Shonen Bounce cowl design, Equipment Fox on modifying (with Urian Brown working alongside him on quantity one), and Kelly Sue DeConnick handing the English adaptation.

There is a good handful of names on that listing, however DeConnick’s identify ought to ring a bell instantly for people who know a factor or two about American comics. Earlier than she turned identified for redefining Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel in 2012, DeConnick wrote comics and tailored manga from her dwelling workplace in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri. A number of the titles she labored on embrace Fruits Basket for Tokyopop and Black Cat for Viz Media, the latter of which Jonathan Tarbox served as an editor.

By the point Slam Dunk rolled round, DeConnick had already constructed a robust working relationship with Yamazaki and Fox. Their rapport allowed her to easily and swiftly transfer into the mission, undaunted by the title’s standing as a worldwide phenomenon.

“I wasn’t notably shaken by the significance of the work—I took the job very significantly, no matter how well-known the guide was. The one factor I keep in mind scaring me was that I knew subsequent to nothing about basketball! I did a little bit of cramming and bought pals—I keep in mind hitting up Han Q. Duong particularly—to clarify issues and coach me a bit.”
When requested if she or any of her colleagues perused Raijin’s volumes because the mission spun up, DeConnick made it clear that the crew targeted on their work and their work alone. With the highlight firmly on her crew’s work, DeConnick detailed her method to adaptation.

“My adaptation course of is to learn by means of the interpretation, ask the translator any questions I feel they could have the ability to assist me with, analysis any cultural references that I think I am lacking context for, after which revise the interpretation simply sufficient to make the dialogue really feel pure and character-specific in English. The aim is to make the reader neglect you are studying in translation however to remain true to what you intuit because the writer’s intent. I do not owe any allegiance to anybody however the writer and my editor.”

Following Slam Dunk‘s aforementioned debut and a Comedian-Con announcement that it could be finally leaving the Shonen Bounce journal, Viz Media‘s first quantity of the sequence hit bookstores in September 2008. As a part of the launch, the corporate partnered with the NBA and Greg Oden of the Portland Path Blazers (and later, the Miami Warmth) in a marketing campaign to advertise childhood literacy. Moreover, Slam Dunk‘s preliminary volumes featured full-color spreads that includes NBA superstars akin to LeBron James and Steve Nash alongside a handful of basketball information. Regardless of nonetheless being listed within the desk of contents, the NBA content material has been faraway from current reprints.

As issues across the preliminary launch winded down, the crew continued to dribble away on the sequence. A couple of yr and a half later, Equipment Fox left Viz Media and handed the editor baton to Mike Montesa in July 2010. Nevertheless, Montesa mentioned he’d been concerned with the mission a superb whereas earlier than he acquired his first modifying credit score—on quantity 13 in December 2010.

“The way in which our workflows had been arrange again then, I had most likely been engaged on it (Slam Dunk) from across the finish of 2009. I took over from Equipment Fox after he left VIZ that yr, so I might need shepherded Vol. 12 and even Vol. 11 out the door although I did not edit these volumes. I might have had my fingers on the sequence already, earlier than 2010.

Regardless of having been at VIZ for 3 years at that time, I used to be nonetheless new-ish. 2006-2010 had been growth and bust years for us, and the Editorial division had grown and shrunk. I feel I knew what I used to be doing sufficient to do the job. In fact, 14 years later I look again and consider issues I might have finished in another way, by way of modifying, however that is the advantage of hindsight.”

A senior editor at VIZ at present, Montesa mentioned that leaping in to work on an ongoing sequence is tough regardless of being a commonplace trade observe. When introduced in to work on Slam Dunk, Montesa admitted that he solely had a passing familiarity with the sequence. However as he continued to work away, it turned greater than an project.

“I lived in Japan all through the 90s and into the early aughts, and particularly throughout the time of its (Slam Dunk) preliminary run, its affect was in all places. Basketball and the NBA turned a phenomenon in Japan, and Slam Dunk‘s large recognition sparked lots of curiosity. However, I’m not a basketball fan so I did not take note of it. The truth that individuals like me nonetheless knew of it exhibits how a lot affect it had.

So after I got here to the sequence, in all honesty, it was simply one other sequence I had been assigned to edit. In fact, I might apply myself as a lot as on another sequence I labored on, however I had no particular attraction to Slam Dunk. That may most undoubtedly change.

It was tough to simply soar in midway. I needed to learn by means of the present volumes, which I did rapidly to get the story and characters in my head. However as soon as I began modifying the scripts and getting deeper into it, I got here to adore it. Takehiko Inoue‘s writing was unbelievable. The pacing, plot, characters, all the things was simply actually, actually good.”

After I requested Montesa about his additional experiences working on this transitional interval, I used to be shocked to study that he did not work alongside DeConnick.

“Since I took over the sequence from Equipment Fox, he had already edited the scripts that Kelly did the rewrite on, so I by no means truly labored along with her.”

Viz Media launched DeConnick’s final quantity on the sequence, quantity sixteen, in June 2011. She could not recall precisely why she left the mission however suspected that the event of her preliminary Captain Marvel run to be the trigger. Though she stepped away from manga, DeConnick mentioned she got here away with a confidence that pushed her increased, additional, and sooner into the remainder of her profession.

“Engaged on greater than 11k pages of manga variations was an unbelievable training and boot camp. I realized the self-discipline of attempting to speak character, tone, and intention as merely as potential; I developed a choice for a couple of of the hallmarks of manga which can be much less widespread in OEL (authentic English-language) comics—for example, I hate off-panel balloon tails. I feel I developed that distaste from working with manga as a result of Japanese comics proved that tailless balloons had been simply as efficient. I additionally love and often use balloons that solely comprise punctuation—once more one thing far more widespread in manga than in American comics.”

Whereas reflecting on her time with the sequence, DeConnick rapidly pointed again to Inoue himself. These emotions have solely turn out to be stronger for her now that she’s shared the expertise of getting her work introduced in new languages.

“I hope I used to be useful to English-speaking audiences and did Inoue justice…

However it’s the traditional it’s as a result of Takehiko Inoue made a traditional.

As somebody who additionally sits on the opposite facet of the desk—Fairly Lethal and Bitch Planet have each been printed in translation all around the world, as has my DC and Marvel work—I principally simply really feel honored to have been trusted with this chance.”

With DeConnick’s departure, the Slam Dunk crew wanted a brand new adaptive author. This modification-up allowed Montesa to convey on an outdated buddy he’d made whereas taking part in tabletop video games in Japan—Steven “Stan!” Brown. Brown instructed me in regards to the membership that introduced them collectively in 1992.

“I co-founded and was working a company for English-speaking tabletop sport gamers known as JIGG. I co-founded it with a few other people who’re sport gamers and one among them is Mike Montesa. We had been board and tabletop role-playing players in Japan who could not discover anybody else to sport with. The principle factor I needed was a listing of individuals I might name. And that was an precise group, which continues to serve that objective to at the present time.”

After some time instructing English, Brown returned to the States to professionally pursue his ardour for tabletop gaming.

“I went to work for an organization known as West Finish Video games, doing Star Wars role-playing video games and different video games like that. I bought Mike to perform a little freelance for me there. I wound up working for TSR, the corporate that created Dungeons and Dragons.”

As Brown turned extra tenured within the trade, he introduced Montesa in to perform a little freelance work infrequently. As soon as he’d returned to the States himself, Montesa noticed match to return the favor, beginning with one thing of a “grasp quest.”
“The Legend of Zelda (Ocarina of Time) was the primary sequence I did with him (Brown), beginning round 2008. He is finished rewrites for dozens of sequence we have (Viz Media) printed since then.”

At first, Brown did this further bit of labor on the facet whereas working as a supervisor at Higher Deck Leisure. Across the time he was introduced on to adapt Slam Dunk, Brown talked about that issues had been beginning to look dicey at his day job—naturally 1 dicey.

“I do not keep in mind whether or not I used to be nonetheless at Higher Deck, however they began going by means of layoffs. So I went again into the freelance pool full time. At which level, I mentioned, ‘Mike, something you bought for me, I am going to do.’ So I could have been already on it. Or which may have occurred shortly after I went again to freelance.”

From there, it was off to the races as Brown rapidly began work on Slam Dunk‘s seventeenth quantity forward of its August 2011 launch. The state of affairs did not present him sufficient time to evaluate the earlier volumes, however Brown felt assured that Yamazaki and Montesa might reply his questions. With Yamazaki’s continued presence because the sequence’ translator, Brown mentioned he wasn’t involved with any noticeable fashion variations which may have arrived when he joined the mission.

“I feel that might be a much bigger fear if the translator had switched on the similar time. You get considerably completely different kinds out of various translators. They’re all good and what they’re saying is appropriate, however there may be fashion concerned. I do not know if it is true, however it’s definitely potential which you can inform that I made some stylistic modifications after studying the books I wrote. However they had been lessened by the truth that I used to be working with an excellent translator.”

It tremendously helped that Brown and Yamazaki labored alongside an editor who fell in love together with his work. As Montesa instructed me,
“As soon as I had a agency grasp on the story and characters, I beloved it. While you’re modifying, it is completely different from studying for enjoyment. It takes quite a bit longer. You are trying laborious on the textual content, the FX, the structure, and a bunch of various, very granular issues. Generally you’ll be able to’t see the forest for the timber. However Slam Dunk all the time managed to carry my view sufficient in order that I used to be each modifying it and studying it for enjoyment.”

With a protracted and hard-fought set of ball video games wrapped up within the sequence’ conclusion, Yamazaki, Montesa, Brown and the remainder of the VIZ crew mentioned goodbye to Slam Dunk when its thirty-first (and remaining) quantity hit shops in December 2013.

Over a decade following the sequence’ North American conclusion, Brown talked about that he is usually blindsided when requested about his manga work.

“It is bizarre once you do the type of work I do. On lots of issues, you are not the upfront face, you are not the creator. On this case, I am not the inventive of concepts, I am serving to to interpret another person’s work. I’ve finished over 200 volumes of manga at this level, and that is the third interview I’ve ever finished about it within the final 18 years. And it’ll shock me when somebody will say, ‘Hey, are you the Stan! that did this’ and I am like ‘somebody learn the credit?!’”

Equally to DeConnick, Brown reiterated that he was a vessel to get Inoue’s traditional on the market, not the main focus. On the similar time, Brown is proud to have been a small a part of the chain of oldsters chargeable for the sequence’ North American legacy. As for Montesa, Slam Dunk will eternally be an all-time favourite.

“I feel it is the most effective manga sequence ever written. I like to recommend it with out reservation when individuals ask me what my favorites are. I feel Slam Dunk drove the purpose dwelling for me that when the story is nice, the characters really feel like actual individuals, the artwork connects to and compliments that story, it does not matter that it was about basketball. It was simply plain good.”

And whereas she’s been away from the basketball courtroom for a very long time, DeConnick often reunites with the Shohoku boys.

“There is a crepe kiosk at a shopping center close to us that my daughter likes. They’ve statues of all the principle Slam Dunk characters behind the counter. Strolling by all the time makes me smile.”

The Fourth Quarter – The First Slam Dunk and the Recreation in Progress

Regardless of turning into one among his all-time favorites, Montesa admitted to Yahoo Sports activities Canada in 2019 that Slam Dunk hadn’t precisely been a bestseller for Viz Media—referring again to the aforementioned sports activities hurdle established earlier. With that, the sequence remained on the cabinets of bookstores for brand spanking new readers to find and fall in love with. Cabinets particularly, as Inoue is understood for not being the largest fan of digital manga. In a 2014 interview with Akira creator Katsuhiro Ōtomo, Inoue elaborated on his stance.

“Manga has all the time been drawn beneath the idea that they’d be made into printed books, so you’ll be able to’t flip them into e-books similar to that. The state of affairs in Europe is such that it is laborious for manga to catch on except it is in e-book type, so I really feel that it is an issue I could have to cope with. I would like to consider what issues e-books might permit me to do.”

Whereas Slam Dunk and Vagabond stay print-only titles, plainly Inoue had thought by means of that e-book conundrum by the point Viz Media digitally launched REAL (his different basketball sequence) in April 2021.

In the meantime, the unique English-subtitled Slam Dunk anime sequence has been kicking round on Crunchyroll since October 2008. In Could 2015, an organization by the identify of Flatiron Movies launched a bare-bones DVD set that includes the primary 14 episodes of Kaleidoscope Leisure’s English dub of the sequence. Not a lot is understood about Flatiron Movies exterior of their possession beneath Cinedigm, which morphed into Cineverse since then. Very similar to Toei‘s earlier DVDs, Flatiron’s Slam Dunk: Season 1 Vol 1 got here and went with out actual fanfare.

For the following seven years, not a lot chatter surrounded the sequence. However that every one modified when a deafening roar of enthusiasm got here out of Japan within the wake of The First Slam Dunk‘s theatrical launch on December third, 2022. The movie was a smash hit on the Japanese field workplace, incomes 15.73 billion yen (roughly 106 million USD) all through an prolonged nine-month run that ended on August thirty first, 2023. Directed by Takehiko Inoue himself, The First Slam Dunk usually garnered excessive reward from critics and quite a few accolades from movie festivals around the globe.

Capitalizing on that world pleasure, GKIDS launched the movie in North American theaters on July twenty eighth, 2023. Moreover, the corporate partnered with NYAV Publish to supply an English dub for the movie. Main as much as the movie’s launch, Viz Media spun up a sequence of manga reprints, and Toei began importing a brand-new HD switch of the anime to their YouTube channel. As soon as the movie was out, constructive phrase of mouth continued to unfold by means of American movie and anime circles. Round this time, a handful of individuals began to note the manga steadily working its approach onto Proper Stuf Anime’s bestseller’s listing.

However regardless of the sturdy buzz round it, The First Slam Dunk sadly failed to fulfill gross sales expectations. In response to Field Workplace Mojo, the movie made simply shy of 1.3 million {dollars} all through a roughly two-month run.

In his examination of the movie’s run, Justin Sevakis mentioned that it suffered from not simply the sports activities drawback, however an absence of identify recognition with Western audiences. He additionally talked about that Hollywood is pretty uninterested in sports activities fiction nowadays. Talking earlier than the discharge of Challengers, Sevakis mentioned that 2011’s Moneyball was the final large sports activities movie he might consider. When the wild success and memeability of 2020’s The Final Dance entered the dialog, Sevakis identified that it’s a documentary sequence, not a fictional work.

Except for a torrent of cute commercials selling The First Slam Dunk‘s Japanese Blu-ray launch earlier in 2024, phrase remained mum on the movie. That was till April 1st, 2024, when GKIDS introduced that they’d be bringing the movie to North American dwelling video on June twenty fifth. Following the announcement, the movie climbed Amazon‘s gross sales charts. Earlier than launch, The First Slam Dunk stood at a excessive of #5 within the Anime rankings, behind Berserk 1997 and The Boy and the Heron. As soon as orders began delivery, the movie reached highs of #3 in Anime and #1 in Youngsters & Household. As of this writing, it at present stands at #55 in Motion pictures & TV total. It is nonetheless too early to inform if these sturdy gross sales will have an effect on the manga, however I hope it does.

It is solely a hunch, however I consider the Blu-ray’s preliminary success comes down to 1 issue: that “low however persisting rumbling” I discussed. It hasn’t stopped because the movie hit theaters a yr in the past and solely saved rattling round within the minds of those that noticed it. Moreover, many (myself included) could not discover a screening of their neck of the woods. The dearth of entry to such a extremely praised work created an actual groundswell resulting in the movie’s North American dwelling video debut. And for all that anticipation, the movie exceeded all of my expectations. The First Slam Dunk works so nicely as an introduction to the sequence and an incredible movie in its personal proper. If it was my first encounter with Slam Dunk, I might’ve jumped into the manga instantly. It is virtually as if the movie is telling its viewers “In case you beloved that, there’s far more the place that got here from.” Hopefully, VIZ‘s current reprints of the manga (alongside Vagabond and REAL) could have individuals serious about studying the traditional for themselves. Then perhaps, simply perhaps, extra individuals see what I meant after I mentioned that Slam Dunk is without doubt one of the biggest tales ever inked; sports activities hurdle or not.

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Particular Because of Milkfed Prison Masterminds, Viz Media‘s PR, Sullivan Wallace of Third Affect Anime, and the interviewees.
Coop Bicknell is a author, editor, occasional podcaster, and copywriter. You could find him @RiderStrike on Twitter & Bluesky.