Slam Dunk

Last updated: 10 November 2026

About Slam Dunk

Hanamichi Sakuragi, a hot headed first year with a record of romantic failure, joins Shohoku High's basketball team to impress Haruko Akagi. He cannot dribble, shoot or stay out of foul trouble, but he can jump, run and grab rebounds like nobody else in the prefecture. With captain Akagi, star rookie Rukawa, point guard Miyagi and returning shooter Mitsui, Shohoku grows from a one man team into a genuine challenger. The TV run covers their rise, and the 2022 film completes the story.

Slam Dunk is a TV anime from 1993, first released in Fall 1993. It belongs to the Sports and Comedy and Drama genres and is listed as a completed series. The summary above is written by the AnimeYug team in our own words.

Story & Plot

Hanamichi Sakuragi has been rejected by 50 girls, and the last one liked a basketball player, so basketball is officially his least favourite thing in the world. Then he meets Haruko Akagi at Shohoku High, she asks if he likes basketball, and suddenly he is on the team. The joke is that Sakuragi is a complete beginner: tall, strong, fast and athletic, with no skills, no stamina for practice, and a habit of fouling out. Captain Takenori Akagi, Haruko's older brother, has no patience for him at all.

What saves Sakuragi is pride and freakish natural talent. He learns to rebound before he learns to shoot, and rebounding turns out to matter enormously. Around him a real team takes shape: Rukawa, the silent rookie star Sakuragi cannot stand; Miyagi, the quick little point guard; Mitsui, a former star fighting his way back after two lost years; and Akagi himself, a centre who has carried a weak team on his own for too long. Coach Anzai, calm and round and almost impossible to rattle, holds them together.

The matches are the heart of the show. Slam Dunk plays basketball honestly. There are no glowing special moves, just screens, rebounds, fast breaks and nerves, and a single important game can run for several episodes because the series lets every run of points breathe. Shohoku is an underdog team in a strong prefecture, so every win has to be scraped for against Shoyo, Kainan and Ryonan.

The TV series stops before the national tournament's biggest test. That match, against the champion school Sannoh, finally reached the screen in 2022 in The First Slam Dunk, with Inoue himself writing and directing, and point guard Ryota Miyagi at the centre of the story. Watching the series first makes the film land much harder.

Story Arcs & Episode Guide

The Slam Dunk anime is split into story sagas. Here is every saga in order, with its episodes and years.

Why Watch Slam Dunk

• Matches played at a realistic pace, easy to follow even if you do not know basketball
• Sakuragi's growth from joke player to genuine rebounder is earned, step by step
• A starting five where every player has a clear role and a real weakness
• Inoue's own film, The First Slam Dunk, finally animates the last big match
• Credited with sparking a basketball boom in Japan in the 90s

Who Is It For?

Fine for most ages. There is schoolyard fighting and bickering played for comedy, and emotional storylines in the film. A good pick for families with older children and teens.

Voice Actors

The Japanese voices behind the main characters of Slam Dunk.

• Hanamichi SakuragiMain character, power forward
  Japanese voiceTakeshi Kusao
• Kaede RukawaMain character, small forward
  Japanese voiceHikaru Midorikawa
• Takenori AkagiCaptain, centre
  Japanese voiceKiyoyuki Yanada
• Hisashi MitsuiShooting guard
  Japanese voiceRyotaro Okiayu
• Ryota MiyagiPoint guard
  Japanese voiceYoku Shioya

Staff & Production

Original Creator

Takehiko Inoue

Animation Studio

Toei Animation

Director

Nobutaka Nishizawa

Manga & Source Material

Takehiko Inoue's manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1990 to 1996, 31 volumes in total. Inoue later created Vagabond and Real, but Slam Dunk remains the work that made basketball a schoolyard craze across Japan.

• The manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1990 to 1996 and fills 31 volumes.
• Inoue was a keen basketball player himself, and the manga is full of real plays and real rules.
• The series is credited with driving a major rise in basketball participation in Japan during the 90s.
• The TV anime ends before the manga's final match against Sannoh, which stayed unanimated for 26 years.
• Inoue returned to write and direct The First Slam Dunk himself, telling that final match through Ryota Miyagi.

Music

The TV series uses two openings and a run of endings led by Maki Ohguro's first ending, a chart hit in Japan at the time. The First Slam Dunk uses The Birthday for its opening theme and 10-FEET for its ending theme.

Opening Themes

• “Kimi ga Suki da to Sakebitai”by BAADThe first opening, episodes 1-61, and the sound most fans hear in their heads.
• “Sekai ga Owaru Made wa...”by WANDSThe second opening, used from episode 62 to the end of the TV series.

Ending Themes

• “Anata Dake Mitsumeteru”by Maki OhguroThe first ending theme, a huge hit in Japan in its own right.

Series Timeline

1. 1990-1996

   Takehiko Inoue's manga runs in Weekly Shonen Jump, 31 volumes.

2. 1993-1996

   Toei Animation's TV series airs 101 episodes on TV Asahi.

3. 1994-1995

   Four short films are released alongside the series.

4. 2022

   The First Slam Dunk opens in Japan on 3 December, written and directed by Inoue, by Toei Animation and DandeLion Animation Studio.

5. 2023

   The First Slam Dunk releases internationally with GKIDS, in subtitled and English dubbed versions.

Release Schedule

Premiere

16 October 1993 on TV Asahi

Broadcast

TV Asahi in Japan

Streaming

Crunchyroll for the TV series; Netflix carries The First Slam Dunk in many regions

Episodes

101 episodes, plus four 90s films and The First Slam Dunk (2022)

The TV series is complete. The First Slam Dunk is the latest and final screen entry so far. Details as of 10 November 2026.

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