Slam Dunk (1993–1996)

"Light Hearted, Hilarious, and Enjoyable

This anime and Hajime No Ippo I think laid the groundwork for most future sports anime similar in vibes, themes, and music. The sounds and the music was well done it was upbeat and had this happy sort of vibe coming out of it which really matched with the anime. The visuals were nice and not that bad considering that Slam Dunk first came out in 1993 and it got better as the series went on. The story was good it had it's hiccups and bumps here and there but they had pretty good consistency for most of the 101 episodes. It started off slow in the beginning but picked it's pace up later on. I just hated how some matches would be short and span maybe 1 or 2 episodes and then others would be crazy long 6 to 7 episodes. They did a good representation of how basketball is played in real life but had some missing pieces of what makes basketball, basketball but it was still nicely shown. It had some annoying some typical school clichés but most of it was easy to ignore. Most of the characters were alright I think Akagi, Mitsui , Anzai were the most flushed out and well written out of all them. The ending was kind of a cliff hanger and left some unanswered questions. Also it felt a bit too comical at times especially during the matches. And even at times I preferred what happened outside the basketball court such as their everyday life.

Overall I think it was a respectable anime, even though It was alright in terms of story I enjoyed it very much. The best thing about it was the comedy and the progress you make with with Sakuragi in the basics of basketball and you learn more as the story advances. I felt like it had much more untapped potential such as adding family into the mix which would have made character dynamics more interesting and realistic, their backstories or how they grew up, and their daily life other than school and basketball. All this would have made the anime more realistic and more believable and we could have been even more connected with the characters.