news culture After One Piece Red, this other film from a cult manga is a hit at the cinema!
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A few months after the One Piece Red wave, an equally iconic saga arrived in Japanese cinemas. It is the cult manga Slam Dunk which (finally) offers an animated adaptation of its ultimate arc.
Summary
- One Piece Red gives way to its challenger
- Slam Dunk: a timeless phenomenon in Japan
One Piece Red gives way to its challenger
Currently, One Piece Red went up in the Japanese box office. No, you’re not dreaming; the film released on August 6, 2022 is still available in cinemas in the archipelago. More than four months after its official release, it climbs back to third place in the weekly box office in the week of release prior to January 24 in Japan. There are no less than 155,000 tickets sold by the film over this period. However, it is no longer at the top of the ranking and has not dominated it for a few weeks. For good reason, another extremely popular license has just been brought to the big screen via an animated film. This is Slam Dunk, cult basketball manga.
With 847,000 spectators during the last week, the film The First Slam Dunk remains at the head of the Japanese box office. He has held this position for 8 weeks now. Despite its animation entirely in CGI and its overall artistic direction which had worried at first sight, the film concluding the adventures of the Dream Team of Shohoku is a real success. For the moment, it is the 18th highest-grossing animated film of all time in its home country. Internationally, the film is available in South Korea, Hong Kong, Macao and will soon be available in the Philippines. It’s already largely profitable and has grossed at least $78 million at the box office according to IMDbPro. No release in France is announced.
Slam Dunk: a timeless phenomenon in Japan
From France, it is difficult to realize how much Slam Dunk marked Japan in the 90s. Compiled in 31 volumes, published between October 1990 and June 1996, the manga signed Takehiko Inoue stood up to Dragon Ball when it was published. In fact, he was even the only direct competitor to Akira Toriyama’s work in terms of sales. For example, the volume sales of the latter are proportionally greater than those of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach. Still in 2021, a poll carried out by a Japanese channel placed it as the third most popular manga in the country, behind Demon Slayer and One Piece. It was also a springboard for the popularity of basketball in the East Asian country.
In France, the work remains popular, but more confidential. Its adaptation into an animated series, which does not cover the end of the work, did not cross our borders and did not enjoy the same popularity as other works. Nevertheless, the manga was recently re-released and the story of the red-haired giant Sakuragi is available from Kana. Here is the official synopsis of its anime adaptation available on DNA:
In middle school, Hanamichi Sakuragi got kicked out by 50 girls. He then entered high school, but was left in shock at the rejection of the 50th girl who replied, “I’m in love with Oda from the basketball club.” It was then that he met the beautiful Haruko Akagi who asked him directly: “Do you like basketball?”. And her heart is exploding! It’s decided: He must be part of the basketball team! – Anime Digital Network
