The First Slam Dunk, the new anime film of the basketball manga Slam Dunk Of Takehiko Inoue, earned 14.33 billion yen (more than 95 million euros) in Sunday Japan, surpassing the film’s domestic earnings Weathering With You Of Makoto Shinkai. The movie is now the 15th highest earning film of all time in Japan and 9th highest earning anime film in Japan.
The film currently follows the film Suzume Of Shinkai, which ended its theatrical run on Saturday after selling 11.15 million tickets and earning 14.79 billion yen. The film took first place in its opening weekend. The film sold 847,000 tickets and grossed 1,295,808,780 yen (approximately €89 million) during its opening weekend. The film won Animation of the Year at the 46th Japan Academy Film Prizes. Toshiyuki Matsui, the producer of the film, received the this year’s overall award for the 42nd Fujimoto Awards di Eiga Engeki Bunka Kyōkai (Film Theater Culture Association).
Anime Factory will bring The First Slam Dunk to Italian cinemas and describes it as follows:
Lo “speedster” e playmaker Of Shohoku, Ryota Miyagi, he always plays with brains and lightning speed, running in circles around his opponents feigning composure. Born and raised in Okinawa, Ryota had a brother who was three years older. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, who was a famous local player from a young age, Ryota also became addicted to basketball.
In his second year of high school, Ryota plays with the Shohoku High School basketball team alongside Sakuragi, Rukawa, Akagi and Mitsui as they take the stage at the Inter-High School National Championship. And now they are on the verge of challenging the defending champions, Sannoh Kogyo High School.
Inoue he personally directed the film at Toei Animation and wrote the screenplay. Among the staff members listed are the character designer/animation director Yasuyuki Ebara (Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress) and technical director Katsuhiko Kitada (episode The Giant Attack, Major: Yūjō no Winning Shot), Naoki Miyahara (Digimon Adventure, Popin Q), Toshio Ōhashi (LayereD Stories 0) e Yū Kamatani (Finding Magical DoReMi, Precure Super Stars!). Daiki Nakazawa headed the CG and Yuta Ogura produced the CG. Yota Tsuruoka directed the sound with Koji Kasamatsu.
