The First Slam Dunk

The animation style is very unique, it may feel strange and even look bad at first sight, but you'll grow to appreciate it. It's been in the works for 13 years, unfortunately in 2022 I think it's a bit late to the trend compared to other works, with Arcane and especially Spiderverse out, but still it's a piece of art. The directing and timing and sound design of every scene is top notch. Every movement and every action is crystal clear. They also managed to minimize the usual 'endless talks' of animes, which don't make sense in a realistic time flow, but here it's acceptable and everything flows quite well. The balance between the match and the flashbacks is well tuned, maybe towards the end you'd want less flashbacks as you get more invested in the match, but still it's fine. The very ending of the match is amazing - sound, timing, and especially animation. It's so amazing that it makes you think why they didn't use that animation more throughout the movie. Maybe in the late stages they tried to experiment more, but it's so different in style that it almost makes the rest feel boring.

Pretty cool & distinct animation style, but I doubt I’ll remember much from this in the long term. As a story it’s simply way too formulaic, it uses every coming of age & sports movie trope in existence. On top of that I couldn’t get into the heavy-handed score and cheesy, overblown direction. It’s a game of basketball, we don’t need to pretend it’s the most epic thing ever with all the slo-mo, dramatic close-ups, inner monologues and J-rock. The interweaving flashbacks do a good job at fleshing out the characters, but again, it quickly becomes predictable and stale. The script reads like a draft a writer would come up with before they start experimenting with structure or arcs. I don’t know, maybe it hits harder for the intended teenager demographic, because I mostly see an empty film that tries way too hard to be cool and meaningful. 5/10