Slam Dunk
No I didn’t but it would be nice to experience that. However I’ve been reading Inoue Takehiko’s SLAM DUNK. This was a manga done in what it would seem the early to mid 90s. The series ran 31 volumes in Japan (each volume having around 180 pages). It was originally published in the US and subsequently shipped to the rest of the Anglophone countries by Raijin Comics sometime in late 2003. The company stopped it’s publishing program about a year ago and with it Slam Dunk stopped being translated, at Volume 5. Needless to say by that stage I was COMPLETELY hooked on this series, which is one of the best selling manga’s in Japan.
With no translation around I just gave up on the series, not because of choice but what was I supposed to do, learn Japanese?
Little did I know that the internet and more specifically Bit Torrent would come to my rescue. I never ever download comics. I’m a book nut. I like the smell and feel of a book. I like picking it off the shelf and flicking through to have a look and be inspired. Never got into it, even though there seems to be masses of series available for illegal download on the net.
I was talking to James and he mentioned that the entire series was available in English online if I really wanted to read the series. I’m up to volume 14 and I can’t seem to get enough of this series.
The story centres around Hanamichi who’s been rejected 50 times, and then meets this girl who’s into basketball, in order to impress her he decides to join the bastketball team. Thing is though, he HATES basketball. And so it begins.
It’s easily one of the most addictive series I’ve ever read. The thing that really comes across fantastically is the humour which is absolutely brilliant. It’s been a while since I laughed out loud on my own reading something. The art is superb, but there is a bit of rawness in the work that Inoue’s later offering (the great Vagabond, which I’ll hopefully get round to reviewing properly in the near future). Having said that it’s still tighter than most manga on the stand, and he’s easily becoming one of my absolute favourite Japanese creators, and that’s saying a lot.
What makes me wonder however is which country translated the series and published it in english, and if so can I buy it online or not? That’s how much of a fan and idiot I am of this series. Also I’d really love to sit down and watch the anime series of this, except I don’t think it’s available in english. Again I could be wrong in this subject.
You might want to try amazon uk, or ebay to see if there’s a translated release of the manga. It’s only the extrememly popolar and well known manga’s that get translated into English. Akira took a bloody long time to come to the UK shores in any English form (I think it was about 10-15 years after the original Japanese release).
Bleach and Naruto are two manga’s which probably appeal more to the teens, since it is shounen (teen) based, but it does have the super hero style appeal to it. The art work varies, but it’s still an intriguing, if fantastical read.
12/5/2005
As far as I know Italy has completely published Slam Dunk and maybe France as well. I know Germany stopped. I don’t think the UK Tokyopop will pick it up if it didn’t do well in the States. However, do you realize that the 101 episodes anime of the book is right now being released on US DVD? Although the anime stops before the ending… not that the ending in the manga didn’t leave some posibilities for further books…
12/5/2005
Sekhu: No you see the problem is it never got officially translated. It seems this was an online effort or something so Slam Dunk doesn’t actually exisit on paper in the english language anywhere.
Naruto is brilliant. I can’t wait to see it to be honest. Currently on book 6 and it’s cominc out too slowly for me, same goes for One Piece.
Estara: Hmmm sounds pretty cool, I might have to look into the dvd release on Slam Dunk, since it’s sooo good.
13/5/2005